Mental Health Billing Video Tutorials

These 18 short tutorials from ePsych Billing explain the basics of mental health insurance billing: checking benefits, plan types, submitting claims, avoiding and appealing denials, recoupments, patient cost-share math and contracted rates. Each video is under two minutes. Need help with your own claims? See our services, read ePsych Billing reviews, or learn about ePsych Billing.

1. Mental Health Billing - Minute Mental Health Billing Tips, Beginner's Guide (Part 1) (1:18)
   Covers collecting complete client intake and insurance details up front, keeping copies of every submitted claim, checking claims for spelling and coding errors, confirming each payer's current submission method, and documenting every payer call with the representative's name and a reference number.
2. Mental Health Billing for Dummies - Minute Mental Health Billing Tips, Beginner's Guide (Part 5) (1:27)
3. Guide to Mental Health Billing - Minute Mental Health Billing Tips, Beginner's Guide (Part 3) (1:29)
   Covers navigating billing software without losing entered data, verifying benefits and pre-authorization requirements before accepting a client, collecting deductibles, copays and coinsurance, rebilling when a client's policy changes or lapses, and organizing accounts receivable files.
4. Billing for Mental Health - Minute Mental Health Billing Tips, Beginner's Guide (Part 4) (1:24)
   Covers asking payer representatives for help, looking up diagnosis codes, tracking payer mailing addresses and mental health carve-outs, submitting claims electronically, and treating claims unpaid after about a month as a follow-up problem.
5. Beginners Guide to Mental Health Insurance - Billing for Mental Health Insurance Tips (1:20)
   Covers following up on and appealing underpaid contracted claims, payer-specific pre-authorization rules, sending client information only through HIPAA-compliant channels instead of regular email, keeping payer and clearinghouse contact details organized, and completing the CMS-1500 claim form.
6. Behavioral Health Billing - Quick Tips Beginner's Guide to Behavioral Health Billing (Part 6) (1:34)
   Covers keeping aging reports current, attaching the supporting documentation each payer requires, budgeting time for claim follow-up and appeals, in-network balance-billing limits, and why codes must be supported by documented medical necessity rather than unbundled or upcoded.
7. Mental Health Claims for Providers - When Providers Have to Pay Back Mental Health Claims (1:46)
   Covers why payers recoup money for client-related reasons: fee schedule changes, an undisclosed secondary or new primary insurance plan, and a terminated policy, plus how to rebill the correct plan or collect from the client.
8. Mental Health Insurance Claims - Avoiding Denied Claims in Mental Health Insurance, Beginner's Guide (1:18)
   Covers common reasons mental health claims are denied, including out-of-network services, diagnosis and procedure codes that are not linked correctly, missing pre-authorization and non-covered benefits, and when to call the payer or file a documented appeal.
9. How to Bill for Mental Health Services - Checking Benefits Before You Bill for Mental Health (1:20)
   Covers verifying benefits before a client's first session by calling the provider services number on the insurance card: behavioral health coverage, copay or coinsurance, deductible and amount met, policy effective and end dates, and authorization and session limits.
10. How to Bill Insurance Claims for Mental Health Providers - Facing Denied Mental Health Insurance (1:46)
    Covers five more denial reasons: filing after the payer's timely filing limit, procedure codes that should have been billed as a bundled service, medical necessity determinations, coverage not active on the date of service, and incorrect or incomplete client, diagnosis or procedure information.
11. Billing for Mental Health Providers - Minute Mental Health Billing Tips, Beginner's Guide (Part 2) (1:25)
12. Mental Health Provider Billing - Beginners Guide to Billing for Mental Health Providers (Part 9) (1:31)
    Covers following up on unpaid claims promptly, handling rejections and payer system problems courteously, checking each payer's rules for more than one session per day, confirming required claim fields before submission, and billing secondary insurance only after the primary claim is processed.
13. Mental Health Billing - Beginners Guide to Mental Health Billing for Mental Health Providers (Pt 10) (1:25)
    Covers knowing payer contracts in detail, finding current CPT codes, tracking authorized session limits and requesting more visits in time, batching aging-report inquiries into one payer call, and how session time beyond the billed CPT code affects reimbursement.
14. Mental Health Practice Management - Beginners Tips for Managing Your Mental Health Practice (1:36)
    Covers the four common plan types on a client's insurance card (PPO, HMO, EPO and POS) and how each affects out-of-network access and primary care referral requirements.
15. Insurance Billing for Mental Health - Paying Back Insurance Companies Billing for Mental Health (P1) (1:46)
    Covers why payers recoup money for payer-side reasons: audits, duplicate payments for the same claim, and payments sent to the wrong clinician or account, and what to do in each case.
16. How to Bill Insurance for Mental Health - Calculating Insurance for Mental Heath Billing (1:58)
    Covers calculating client responsibility when both a copay and coinsurance apply: subtract the copay from the contracted rate, then apply coinsurance to the remainder. Worked example: a $115 contracted rate with a $30 copay and 20% coinsurance gives $30 + $17 = $47 owed by the client.
17. Billing for Mental Health Providers - Beginner's Billing Guide for Mental Health Providers (1:49)
    Covers how out-of-network reimbursement compares with in-network, confirming COBRA coverage is still active, following up on claims older than 60 days, asking payers about employee assistance program (EAP) benefits, and auto-posting electronic remittance (ERA) files.
18. How to Bill for Behavioral Health - Negotiating Contracted Rates When Billing for Behavioral Health (1:29)
    Covers negotiating contracted rates during credentialing and the practice factors payers may weigh, such as education, location, years in practice, specialties like substance use, eating disorder, veteran or child services, bilingual care and extended hours.