A practice document · National model, Michigan notes · CMS MLN909432 · BCBSM/BCN BHI guidance · sources checked August 2026
The CoCM Startup Brief
A plain-language introduction to Collaborative Care for Michigan practices considering whether to bring more mental health care inside the medical team. Who does the work, who bills, what Medicare requires, and how BCBSM and BCN recognize the model. It also states what a practice still has to work out before it begins.
No form between you and the document. It is yours either way.
Written from the primary sources and the Behavioral Health Workforce Observatory’s records.
Inside
The model
what Collaborative Care actually is, in plain words
The team
medical provider, care manager, psychiatric consultant
The codes
99492, 99493, 99494, G2214, 99484, and how they differ
The Michigan payer layer
what BCBSM and BCN recognize, and where PGIP fits
The care-manager question
when a limited-license clinician may be part of the model
The month
what work is tracked, and how the monthly service is organized
The registry
what has to be tracked, and why
The economics
what to calculate before assuming the model pays for itself
The open licensure question
whether care-manager work counts toward supervised experience
Sources
CMS MLN909432 and public payer sources, dated
A Michigan note · BCBSM + BCN
What BCBSM and BCN recognize in Michigan.
BCBSM and BCN recognize the Collaborative Care and general behavioral health integration codes, and BCBSM follows the Collaborative Care model described in CMS booklet MLN909432.
Under the model those services are billed by the treating medical provider rather than by the clinician furnishing the care-management work, which is why the question of who may serve as the behavioral health care manager is answered by the model requirements and the payer’s own published rules rather than by the clinician’s billing status alone.
Recognizing a code is one question. Whether a particular staffing arrangement satisfies the model is another. The clinician’s role, scope, supervision, documentation, employment or contracting arrangement, and the applicable payer requirements all still have to fit.
Code recognition and PGIP participation are separate.
Blue Cross’s Collaborative Care PGIP support is limited to primary care and OB/GYN providers, and is implemented with practices through participating Physician Organizations. Detailed program materials are distributed through those organizations, so a practice asks its own PO about participation requirements.
Two kinds of oversight. Do not confuse them.
Psychiatric consultant
Part of the Collaborative Care model. Reviews the caseload and makes treatment recommendations to the medical team.
Licensure supervisor
Supervises a limited-license clinician’s professional practice under Michigan licensing requirements.
They solve different problems. One does not replace the other.
Open question
Whether qualifying care-manager work can count toward Michigan’s required supervised experience remains unresolved. The supervision study asks the question directly. Michigan separately regulates who may supervise, and the training that role requires; the Supervisor Eligibility Checker walks through those requirements and names what the state has not resolved.
Related research · The integration study
Could Michigan’s mental health workforce help medical practices build more mental health capacity?
The Observatory is studying what happens after referral, psychiatric access, staffing, and what would make a medical and mental health partnership workable.
About seven minutes · findings go to respondents first