01/24/2026
Understanding My Professional Value in Healthcare Billing
While I hold a concurrent license as a Licensed Independent Addiction Counselor (LIAC) as well as a Doctor of Behavioral Health Professional (DBH) license, I am positioned well within the State of Arizona, certified to treat AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) Medicaid clients under the umbrella of a Medicaid program within the state. However, as a behavioral healthcare professional, while well-versed in my value within the healthcare system, I, like many others, find that I really don't fully fathom just exactly what my work or services are worth until I plunge headfirst into the reimbursement process, codes, and what-is-paid versus what-is-allowed dilemmas.
Arizona's BH service delivery model has dramatically transformed over the last few years. AHCCCS's FFS system uses standardized CPT and HCPCS codes for service reimbursement. Most AHCCCS services can be reimbursed by the 15-minute increment model. Understanding the rates paid by the FFS system for services is important for being sustainable but equally important for justifying organizational value and the need for salary and benefit investments for licensed providers.
What This Data Reveals About Professional Value
The rates also shed a great amount of light upon a series of significant truths pertaining specifically to behavioral health provider value:
• Substantial Organizational Revenue Generation: A single figure may not appear impressive, but a full-time DBH/LIAC billing multiple codes daily translates into substantial revenue generation for each employing organization. This indicates providing six hours of billable services through multiple codes daily translates into hundreds of dollars earned daily per organization and demonstrates BH professionals as a vital part of revenue generation.
• Limited Direct Provider Compensation: While an organization charges between $15-$50+ per service unit, the amount received by the service providers themselves for each service unit typically ranges between 40-60%. Here, bills charged by the organization include the costs of the whole billing operation, as well as the costs of the electronic health records system itself and the administrative staff.
• High-Value Service Combinations: Crisis intervention services, intensive out-patient services, and group therapy services are represented with the highest revenue-generating codes. These services, if delivered accordingly, are likely to produce the highest outcomes for an individual with an addiction or any other behavior health issue.
Strategic Opportunities: Adding Value and Revenue
With this information on what is reimbursable, I see an array of possibilities to improve patient services and increase our revenue and cost-effectiveness as an organization. Group therapy is proven to have the same result as individual therapy while allowing 8-12 patients to be serviced simultaneously for the same period, thus multiplying our revenue and simultaneously boosting our cost-effectiveness factor. Using "H0001" and "H0002," screening and assessment codes give us access to our patients and help us document our necessity for treatment.
Organizations further could provide other value-added services such as structured relapse prevention groups, peer support facilitation sessions, family therapy sessions, and crisis intervention services. Crisis and mobile services attract premium fees and fill gaps that do not have sufficient emergency behavioral health resources. In addition, with suitable place of service modifiers, behavioral health care services can be provided through telehealth platforms, increasing access while keeping billing rates unchanged.
Proof of Professional Value: Why DBHs and LIACs Matter
Such financial analysis ultimately reveals what is far more important than rates of pay and proves that DBHs and LIACs are far more important to modern health care systems than most realize. The dual license I hold is a result of my extensive educational background in all facets of addiction therapy, behavior health care management, therapy methods, and crisis response intervention therapy. The billing coding I have proficiency in represents specific expertise in all facets of crisis response therapy, intensive therapy, and even family intervention therapy.
Furthermore, the patient base treated by DBH health centers and LIAC has the highest burden of healthcare costs imposed upon them before entering a healthcare setting without treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues. Every dollar invested in care from a certified health care giver in an LIAC or a certified DBH has multiple-fold savings to be gained for our emergency facilities, hospitals, pain management centers, as well as our criminal facilities.
As a result, in a time of values-based care and integrative health systems, the work of DBH and LIAC entities in no way represents a "peripheral" part of any mission statement; it represents a “central” role in helping improve health care, create efficiency, and eliminate health inequities. The various billing codes, percentages, and payments reflected in this discussion are really no more than a deciphering of that created ‘value’ in terms of monetary compensation.
Key CPT and HCPCS Codes Qualified LIACs and DBHs Can Bill
CPT/HCPCS Service Description Billing Unit Rate
90791 Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation P $175.00
90832 Psychotherapy, 30 minutes $80.50
90834 Psychotherapy, 45 minutes $113.90
90837 Psychotherapy, 60 minutes $167.00
H0004 Behavioral health counseling, per 15 min $45.52
H0001 Init comprehensive behavioral assessment $65.95
H0002 Behavioral health screening Per screening $29.33
H0015 Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), per day $157.86
96153 Health/behavior intervention, group $22.00
T1016 Case management, per 15 min $42.50
T1017 Structured psychosocial rehabilitation $26.10
H2011 Crisis intervention, per 15 min $71.88
Note: Current rates require accessing AHCCCS FFS Fee Schedule. Rates are updated effective October 1 annually.
