Behavioral health Medicaid rates in Indiana rest on community rates that have not moved in well over a decade. Indiana Medicaid pays $18.37 per 15 minutes for code H2019 therapeutic behavioral services, or $73.48 an hour. That ranks 18th of 28 states and is 16.3% below the $87.82 national median, and it has been in effect since July 1, 2010.
Several other Indiana community mental health rates share that 2010 date, while psychotherapy and residential rates have been updated more recently. The result is a two-speed schedule: clinical and facility rates that track current costs, and community rehabilitation rates that do not.
Indiana bills H2019 with modifiers HW and UA. At $73.48 an hour, it sits in the lower middle of the national range. Maine pays $449.72, Wyoming $149.80 and Washington $145.40 at the top; Wisconsin ($21.44), Arizona ($19.52) and Alabama ($16.80) are lowest.
Indiana wages keep the rate workable. The Indiana median psychiatric technician wage is $19.67 an hour, below the $21.70 national median. Against the H2019 hourly rate, that wage is 38.1% of the rate, leaving a margin of $45.52 an hour after a loaded wage.
That margin has to cover more than the technician. Supervision by a licensed clinician, travel between community settings, documentation time and no-shows all draw on it. In practice, an Indiana program billing H2019 has room for a normal supervision ratio, but little room for long travel or high cancellation rates.
Indiana organizes community behavioral health into named programs, each with its own rate set:
- Medicaid Rehabilitation Option (MRO), the core community mental health service package delivered by community mental health centers.
- Adult Mental Health Habilitation (AMHH), home and community services for adults with serious mental illness.
- Child Mental Health Wraparound (CMHW), intensive family-centered services for children and youth.
- PRTF Transition Waiver, for young people leaving psychiatric residential treatment.
The modifiers matter because the same base code can be priced differently depending on the program. A provider enrolled in more than one program should match each service to the program and modifier set on the rate line before relying on a figure.
| Service | Code | Indiana rate | Effective since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Therapeutic behavioral services | H2019 (HW, UA) | $18.37 per 15 min | July 1, 2010 |
| Skills training and development | H2017 (HW) | $7.92 per 15 min | July 1, 2010 |
| Mental health assessment | H0031 (HW) | $77.72 per unit | July 1, 2010 |
| Mental health counseling | H0004 (U3, U5, U7) | $15.45 per 15 min | January 1, 2013 |
A rate that has not changed in more than a decade loses value every year as wages rise. For Indiana community mental health providers, these rates set a price that has been fixed since 2010, so any wage growth since then has come out of margin.
The squeeze is clearest on skills training. Indiana pays $31.68 an hour on H2017, ranking 24th of 33 states and 38.1% below the $51.20 median. The technician wage takes 88.3% of that rate, leaving a margin of only $3.72 an hour after a loaded wage. Counseling on H0004 pays $61.80 an hour; with the Indiana counselor median of $25.85, the wage share is 59.4% and the margin $25.06 an hour.
Ranking the three services by margin gives a clear order. H2019 leaves $45.52 an hour, counseling $25.06 and skills training $3.72. A community program's financial health in Indiana depends heavily on its mix of these services.
Skills training is the service most at risk. With a margin that small, any unbilled time turns the hour into a loss. Programs that rely on skills groups often make the numbers work only by running groups, where one staff hour can generate several billable client hours, and by keeping individual skills work to clients for whom it is clinically essential.
Counseling sits in the middle. Its margin is real but narrower than H2019's, because licensed counselors cost more than technicians. The H0031 assessment rate of $77.72 per unit, also dated 2010, is a fixed payment per assessment, so its value depends on how long a thorough assessment takes.
The rates Indiana has updated recently are its clinical and facility rates.
- Psychotherapy. Indiana pays $97.94 per unit on code 90870, effective January 1, 2026. The national median for outpatient psychotherapy and diagnostic evaluation is $83.33. The hour-long session, code 90837, carries the same January 2026 date.
- Psychiatric residential treatment. Indiana pays $478.50 a day, effective January 1, 2024. That ranks 12th of 15 states, 8.9% below the $525.10 median. Minnesota leads at $1,244.07; Nebraska is lowest at $283.19.
- Wraparound. Indiana pays $1,074.69 a month on T2022 with modifier HA, effective December 7, 2023. Because it is a monthly rate, it is not directly comparable with the $90.48 national hourly median.
The contrast with the 2010 community rates is the core of Indiana's behavioral health picture. A licensed clinician billing office therapy works on a 2026 schedule; a community worker billing rehabilitation services works on a 2010 one.
Federal occupational wage data for May 2025:
- Mental health counselor: $25.85 in Indiana, $28.53 nationally
- Mental health social worker: $23.22 in Indiana, $28.98 nationally
- Clinical psychologist: $40.86 in Indiana, $48.36 nationally
- Psychiatrist: $136.59 in Indiana, $135.51 nationally
- Nurse practitioner: $61.94 in Indiana, $63.61 nationally
- Psychiatric technician: $19.67 in Indiana, $21.70 nationally
Every role except psychiatrist earns less in Indiana than nationally. Low wages are the main reason Indiana's long-frozen community rates still produce a positive margin. If Indiana wages move toward national levels, the 2010 rates will cover less of each hour.
Indiana's Medicaid plans include Anthem, CareSource, Managed Health Services (MHS), Humana and UnitedHealthcare. For the behavioral health service line, however, Indiana pays directly, outside managed care. The published Indiana Health Coverage Programs rate is the rate a behavioral health provider receives. We track 16 plans and programs in Indiana; see the Indiana managed care page.
For physician and practitioner services, the rule is different: plans must pay at least the published rate. A clinic that bills both community behavioral health and medical services will therefore deal with the state for one and with plans, at a floor of the IHCP rate, for the other.
Most psychotherapy codes we track in Indiana carry no prior-authorization rule and no published unit limit, including the diagnostic evaluation 90791 and the individual session codes. The exceptions are family therapy code 90846 and group therapy code 90853, with five prior-authorization rules each.
For a practice, that means individual therapy can start without approval delays, while family and group therapy need authorization planning. A program built around group work should build authorization tracking into its intake process.
- Adult mental health habilitation. LSA #26-257 on adult mental health habilitation reached a final rule notice on July 29, 2026.
- 1115 waivers. A post-award forum notice for the Healthy Indiana Plan, Substance Use Disorder and Severe Mental Illness 1115 waiver demonstrations was published July 29, 2026.
- Residential settings. The Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning opened public comment on a residential setting requiring heightened scrutiny on June 24, 2026, followed by a further comment period on July 8, 2026.
- ABA therapy. IHCP bulletin BT202627 cut applied behavior analysis rates by 6.0% from April 1, 2026 and announces a further 4.0% reduction from April 1, 2027, relevant to providers that deliver both ABA and mental health services.
None of these notices updates the 2010 community mental health rates. The AMHH final rule is the one to read closely, since it governs one of the programs whose services carry those long-standing rates.
Indiana sits in the lower middle on H2019, skills training and residential care. Compare with Maine, the top H2019 payer, Minnesota, the top residential payer, and Wisconsin, near the bottom on H2019. Neighboring Illinois rebuilt its community schedule in 2024, a useful contrast with Indiana's 2010 rates.
The residential comparison is different again. Indiana's daily rate was reset in 2024, so its position near the bottom of the residential ranking reflects a deliberate price rather than an old one. Providers weighing a residential program in Indiana against one in a neighboring state should compare the daily rate with the staffing ratios each state requires, since a lower daily rate paired with lighter staffing rules can produce a similar margin. For community services, the age of the rate is the bigger factor than its rank.
- Budget each program separately. MRO, AMHH and CMHW services carry different rates and modifiers.
- Model margin by service. Use the H2019, counseling and skills training margins to set the service mix a program can sustain.
- Bill groups where clinically appropriate. Group delivery is the main way to make low hourly rates work.
- Watch the AMHH rule and 1115 forum. These are the most likely routes to changes in community rates.
Rates on this page are compiled from official Indiana Medicaid publications, and each rate on our site links to its source document. Indiana sources include the IHCP Professional Fee Schedule (last updated September 8, 2026), the IHCP PRTF Payment Rates effective January 1, 2024 and the IHCP Outpatient Fee Schedule. Our methodology explains how hourly rates and ranks are calculated.
All 28,364 current Indiana Medicaid rates, across 119 service categories and history back to 1994, are on the Indiana Medicaid rates page. National medians are on the behavioral health Medicaid rates by state hub.