CMS proposes finishing psychotherapy pay raise, delaying telehealth cliff to 2028
Plus: Ten states join CCBHC Medicaid demonstration as H.R. 1 threatens the funding base. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
Plus: Ten states join CCBHC Medicaid demonstration as H.R. 1 threatens the funding base. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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American Health Intel
Rules · Money · Medicine · Decoded daily
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| The Service Line |
Thursday, July 23, 2026 |
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CMS proposes finishing psychotherapy pay raise, delaying telehealth cliff to 2028
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Plus: Ten states join CCBHC Medicaid demonstration as H.R. 1 threatens the funding base. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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Rule Confidence: High
The Medicare agency CMS proposed locking Medicare's behavioral telehealth in-person visit delay in place through the end of 2027, pushing psychiatry and therapy groups' dreaded "telehealth cliff" back to 2028.
CMS's CY2027 proposed pay rule also finishes a 4-year, 19.1% pay bump for timed psychotherapy-family codes, extending it to tobacco cessation and SBIRT screening codes. Comments due Sept 14, 2026.
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Why it matters
This determines whether your therapist keeps getting paid more for certain services and whether you can keep seeing a psychiatrist by video without an extra in-person visit through 2027.
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Funding Confidence: Medium
Ten states just got the best-funded deal in behavioral health, Medicaid clinics called CCBHCs that get paid cost-based rates instead of standard fee schedules, but the patient base funding it may be about to shrink.
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia join the CCBHC demonstration through mid-2027. H.R. 1's Medicaid work-reporting rule starts Jan 1, 2027.
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Why it matters
More states now offer a Medicaid payment model built to sustain community mental health clinics, but a new work reporting rule could shrink the patient base that funds it starting in 2027.
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