Kedge · Know your next move.

The board · what moved

EVERY ENTRY FROM THE PAYER’S OR THE STATE’S OWN DOCUMENT · REVIEWED AUG 4 2026

AUG 12 2026 COLORADO HB26-1002 takes effect: carriers must reimburse candidates under supervision. Six carrier policies on the DOI’s own record answer “No.” · Colorado Division of Insurance CONFLICT ON RECORD

SEP 1 2026 MICHIGAN BCBSM begins requiring the SA modifier on supervised claims. · BCBSM provider FAQ, revised Jun 12 2026 REQUIRED

MAR 1 2027 MICHIGAN Incident-to billing ends for limited-license clinicians in office settings. Facility settings continue. · BCBSM, same FAQ ENDS

JAN 1 2026 CMS G0568–G0570 finalized: behavioral health integration services payable under general supervision. · CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule, final rule PAYABLE

The full registry of moved rules is below, with sources. The Reference Shelf holds every instrument built on it.

01 · The evidence

Michigan told us something.

This summer, 2,729 clinicians, supervisors, practice owners, and clients answered three statewide surveys about a single payer change. Underneath every response sat the same question: what happens when uncertainty comes between a clinician and the person in their care?

A small-town counseling practice at dusk, lamp lit in the window — 2,729 ANSWERED · PRACTICES LIKE THIS ONE

73%

of client respondents would go without mental health care if their provider could no longer bill their insurance.

68%

of limited-licensed respondents do not anticipate full licensure by March 1, 2027.

92%

of supervisors say the change makes required licensure hours harder to obtain.

89%

of fully licensed respondents are already at or near caseload capacity.

41%

of practice owners have already paused hiring limited-licensed clinicians.

RESPONDENT-REPORTED · MMHCA · NASW-MI · MPA STATEWIDE IMPACT ASSESSMENT · JULY 2026 · N = 2,729

THE FOUNDER SERVES ON THE MMHCA BOARD AND WORKED ON THE STATEWIDE RESPONSE TO THIS CHANGE.

JUL 2026STATEWIDE SURVEY · N = 2,729

AUG 12 2026COLORADO MANDATE EFFECTIVE

SEP 1 2026BCBSM CHANGE · TRUST MONTH

FEB 28 2027FACILITY DEADLINE

MAR 1 2027FULL-LICENSURE DEADLINE

THE DATES ARE NOT OURS · THEY ARRIVE WHETHER ANYONE IS READY

The difference, in one table

Others summarizeKedge verifies

Others blogKedge archives

AI answersSigned determinations

Generic guidanceYour state, your payer, your license

Published onceDated, reviewed, corrected in public

02 · The registry

A year of moved rules. Nothing here is dramatized.

Every entry below is the payer’s, the state’s, or the Congressional Budget Office’s own word. This is the water every license is sailing in.

NATIONAL

JULY 2025

Federal Medicaid funding cut by roughly $1 trillion, 15 percent, over ten years. CBO projects 11.8 million people lose coverage. Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health care in the country, and every behavioral service in it is an optional benefit.

EVERY LICENSE · EVERY STATE · CBO, KFF, APA

NATIONAL

MAY 2025

Enforcement of the 2024 mental health parity regulations suspended. Coverage standards went uncertain in the same year demand kept rising, while parity audits of prior authorization and network adequacy are signaled for 2026.

PANEL CLINICIANS · GROUP PRACTICES · APA

NATIONAL

JANUARY 2026

SAMHSA terminated roughly $2 billion in mental health and substance-use grants on January 13. Reinstated January 14 after bipartisan pushback. Programs lived a full funding cycle in thirty-six hours.

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS · CCBHCs · APA

MICHIGAN

FY 2026

The Mental Health Framework rewires who pays for what: standardized assessments (MichiCANS, LOCUS) required since October 2025, training phasing in through FY 2026, and the FY 2027 phase ahead, with coverage-responsibility clarification and MHP service expansion. Every Medicaid clinician in the state retrains.

LLPC · LMSW · LPC · MFT · MDHHS MHF FAQ, 06 2026

MICHIGAN

OCTOBER 2025

Non-physician behavioral health payments decoupled onto their own fee schedule, in a state that ranks seventh lowest in the nation for behavioral reimbursement. New HCPCS codes in January; claims on old codes reject.

NON-PHYSICIAN PROVIDERS · MDHHS MMP 26-03

MICHIGAN

2026

More than 200,000 residents at risk of losing coverage as the federal law lands on a $1 billion state budget shortfall, with six-month eligibility redeterminations and community-engagement requirements ahead.

EVERY PANEL IN THE STATE · STATE OF REFORM, HFA

IDAHO

DECEMBER 2025

A Medicaid contractor cut mobile crisis and peer-support services on state budget orders. Visits to eastern Idaho crisis centers rose 43 percent within two months.

WHAT A CUT LOOKS LIKE, DOWNSTREAM · IDAHO CAPITAL SUN

MINNESOTA

FEBRUARY 2026

Washington withheld roughly a quarter-billion dollars of the state’s Medicaid funding, with a sixty-day compliance clock.

WHEN FUNDING BECOMES LEVERAGE · MPR NEWS

Kedge watches all of it. The day a rule moves, the signed brief follows within 24 hours, free and public.

The briefs → Join the waitlist →

“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life.”

DAME CICELY SAUNDERS · FOUNDER OF THE MODERN HOSPICE MOVEMENT

Kedge is built in her tradition. Suffering is not a billing category, and a person is not a diagnosis code.

And on this point the payer agrees. Medicare pays for integrated care by name: permanent Collaborative Care codes since 2017, behavioral health integration billing, and counselors admitted as independent Part B providers in 2024. Whole-person care is not a philosophy Kedge smuggles past the rules. It is what the rules are trying to buy. Our work is to keep them from interrupting it.

03 · The answer

Ask like a clinician. Get an answer that holds.

Five quick questions in, one verdict out: dated, cited, and designed to be texted to a colleague, a biller, a supervisor.

EXHIBIT A · RENDERED VERDICT · 07 2026

VERDICT · CITED LPC × BCBSM × OFFICE

Kedge

Yes — your associate can bill incident-to under Dr. Patel today. That changes on September 1.

BCBSM incident-to claims keep full value through Aug 31. From Sept 1 they lose value-based eligibility, and office incident-to for limited licenses ends Mar 1, 2027.

TODAY

Eligible, full value

SEPT 1

Value-based eligibility ends

DEC

Re-verify payer terms

MAR 1, 2027

Office incident-to ends

✓ Reviewed by Dr. Elizabeth M. Teklinski

07 · 2026

            ¹ BCBSM Bulletin 2026-14 ↗  ² CMS 100-02 Ch.15 §60 ↗  ³ MCL 333.18501 ↗
          

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE · THE SCREENSHOT IS THE REFERRAL ENGINE

EXHIBIT B · RENDERED VERDICT · 07 2026

VERDICT · CITED LPC × MEDICARE × ALL 50 STATES

Kedge

Yes — you can bill Medicare directly as an LPC, in every state. Your enrollment is what decides how fast.

Licensed counselors became independent Medicare Part B providers on January 1, 2024, paid at 75 percent of the clinical psychologist rate. Enrollment runs through PECOS, and claims can begin the day your enrollment is effective. The Navigator walks the application with you, state by state.

✓ Reviewed by Dr. Elizabeth M. Teklinski

07 · 2026

            ¹ CAA 2023 §4121 ↗  ² CMS CY2024 PFS Final Rule ↗  ³ CMS MLN: MFT & MHC Enrollment ↗
          

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE · THE MANDATE HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE

THE DECISION BEHIND EXHIBIT B

Opt in. Non-participating. Opt out. Every newly eligible clinician decides once.

ROUTE I

Participating: enroll, accept assignment, bill directly.

ROUTE II

Non-participating: unassigned claims, the limiting charge in play.

ROUTE III

Opt out: private contracts, two-year terms, strict notice rules.

The Navigator walks all three routes against your state, your payer mix, and your numbers. Stuck in PECOS, billing, or credentialing along the way? Members bring the screen; we walk it to done. And when your state’s Medicaid rules move, the brief and the training arrive in the same cycle, all fifty states watched.

The member’s guide →

04 · The Signed Brief

Every payer shock becomes a public document.

When CMS, a state Medicaid agency, or a Blues plan changes a rule, Kedge publishes a one-page brief within 24 hours. Signed, cited, dated. Free, public, no login.

The Signed Brief is how most people will meet Kedge. The app is what they do about it.

And when ICD-11 arrives, the largest coding transition in a generation, the brief will be waiting. The reviewing clinician wrote the book on it.

THE SIGNED BRIEF NO. 014

BCBSM ends value-based eligibility for incident-to claims on September 1. Here is what that changes, and what it does not.

Who is affected, by license and setting. The three moves to make before the effective date. What stays exactly the same.

✓ Reviewed and signed, Dr. Elizabeth M. Teklinski PUBLISHED WITHIN 24 HOURS · 3 CITATIONS

05 · The four doors

Four doors. One engine.

The counselor's problem and the health system's problem were always the same problem, seen from two sides. Every Kedge verdict is written for both readers: the clinician navigating the rule, and the practice, physician, or hospital that could integrate that clinician.

DOOR I

The Clinician

“What just changed with my payer, in my state?”

Navigator verdicts, the Timeline, enrollment guides, both calculators, for LPCs, MHCs, and MFTs in all 50 states.

Join the waitlist →

DOOR II

The Practice

“How do we add mental health capacity, compliantly?”

Incident-to structures by payer, supervision rules, compliance checklists, audit-readiness job aids.

Run the payer math →

DOOR III

The Physician

“Could a counselor extend my practice, and what does integration pay?”

Extender role designs, incident-to economics, CoCM and BHI structures, the outcome evidence.

Get the incident-to answer →

DOOR IV

The Institution

“How do we integrate counselors into oncology, the ED, the NICU?”

Setting-specific integration models across the thirteen settings of Medicare Post 2025, from primary care to hospice.

The Institution tier opens November 2026 — founding conversations are under way.

Start the conversation →

One engine under all four. One citation standard. One signature.

THE SPINE · MEDICARE POST 2025

Medicare Post 2025 and ICD-11 in America on a library table

THE SPINE

Every door opens onto the same book. Kedge runs on Medicare Post 2025, the founder’s field guide to reimbursement after the 2025 rules, and the teaching practice behind it.

Get the book →

A counselor and a physician reviewing the Kedge app together in a plant-filled office (illustrative mockup) — DOOR I MEETS DOOR III · ONE ANSWER, BOTH READERS

THE EVIDENCE, CITED · NOTHING HERE IS ESTIMATED BY US

56.5%¹

of total healthcare costs come from the 27.3% of insured patients with behavioral health conditions.

$95¹

median annual behavioral treatment spend for the very patients driving the majority of cost.

6:1²

long-term return of Collaborative Care: $3,365 saved per patient, with permanent Medicare billing codes.

        ¹ Milliman (2020), behavioral health cost analysis, 21M commercial lives  ² IMPACT trial, University of Washington AIMS Center
      

06 · In your pocket

Made to be pulled out at the front desk.

Kedge lives where the questions happen: between sessions, in the billing huddle, on the walk to the waiting room. Ask, get the verdict, hand the phone across the desk.

Every verdict is dated, cited, and screenshot-ready, built to be texted to a colleague and still hold up.

Saved history keeps the answers your practice relies on one tap away, with the sources attached.

No PHI, ever. Nothing about a patient enters Kedge, so nothing about a patient can leave it.

Mockup of the Kedge app sign-in screen on an iPhone, lakeside light behind it

A therapist showing a Kedge verdict on her phone to the practice administrator

07 · The Academy

Learning that counts.

Kedge teaches the way it answers: signed, cited micro-units shaped like voyages: chart, lesson, scenario, assessment, certificate. Built to continuing-education standards from day one, so every unit you finish is filed against your license’s CE cycle automatically.

A counselor completing an Academy unit by lamplight — ONE UNIT, ONE EVENING · FILED AUTOMATICALLY

CORE

The Documentation Track

The Note That Survives an Audit: the writing skills reimbursement actually tests, taught from real audit outcomes.

THE STANDARD

CE-shaped from day one

Doctoral-authored assessments, compliant certificates, five-year records, built to national CE standards. Credit details publish when granted.

THE DEEP WATER

Integration & spiritual care

Care-model training in the tradition of Dame Cicely Saunders: collaborative care, Total Pain, and the book’s thirteen settings, from primary care to hospice.

A spiritual care advisor holding the hand of an elderly person at their bedside, lamplight — THE DEEP WATER · CARE THE RULES EXIST TO PROTECT

FIRST UNIT FREE · CERTIFICATES AUTO-FILED TO YOUR DEADLINE RADAR

08 · The name

When the wind fails, you kedge.

kedge/kɛdʒ/

noun · verb · nautical

A small anchor carried out ahead of a ship and set firm, so the crew can haul the vessel toward it, used when there is no wind, or no room to sail.
To move forward by fixing a point ahead and pulling toward it.
Software that does the same for a mental health practice.

Bonus reading: K + edge, the knowledge edge.

Before any of this was software, its founder practiced in northern Michigan’s hospice houses and palliative care programs. Kedge is built in that tradition: fix a point ahead, set it firm, and pull the practice toward it, especially when the wind fails.

Fix a point ahead. The verdict names the date and the rule.

Set it firm. Signed, cited, dated: it holds when pulled against.

Pull toward it. The what-to-do list, in order, until the practice is through.

Commissioned study after William Brady’s 1852 Kedge-Anchor: engravings of a kedge anchor and a kedge anchor set firm in the ground, beside the title page — A STUDY AFTER WILLIAM BRADY’S KEDGE-ANCHOR; OR, YOUNG SAILORS’ ASSISTANT
NEW YORK, 1852 · THE KEDGE, IN POSITION

Dr. Elizabeth M. Teklinski reading a source text by lamplight — THE REVIEW · EVERY ANSWER, AGAINST ITS SOURCES

09 · The signature

Every answer carries a name.

Everything Kedge does serves one purpose: know whether you’re okay — and if not, know your next move.

Every verdict, brief, and course unit is reviewed and signed by Dr. Elizabeth M. Teklinski, PhD, LPC, NCC, NPT-C, against the primary sources it cites.

Author of Medicare Post 2025, the spine of Kedge, and lead author of ICD-11 in America, a #1 Amazon New Release. Member at Large on the board of the Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association. Host of the free monthly Medicare Q&A for MMHCA members. Before any of this was software: years of clinical practice in northern Michigan’s hospice houses and palliative care programs, inpatient and outpatient.

Medicare Post 2025 and ICD-11 in America, both covers

MEDICARE POST 2025 ↗
ICD-11 IN AMERICA ↗

If an answer cannot carry her signature, it does not ship.

10 · Pricing

Less than the cost of one billing mistake.

One incident-to error costs more than a decade of Kedge. Priced so the answer is never the thing a clinician has to go without.

Alerts

Free

The deadline radar and the morning brief. Know the moment a rule moves, in your state, for your license. Free — forever, for everyone.

Limited license

$12 / month

The full app, priced for the years before full licensure: Navigator, Timeline, Hours Calculator, transition plans.

Professional

$29 / month · $299 / year

Everything, for the licensed clinician and the practice: verdicts, playbooks, the Academy (included when it opens), My Practice.

Founding member

$179 / year · rate locked for life

Founding members only. Every tier, every future edition, every course. Your founding rate never rises — ever.

ALWAYS FREEThe public layer: signed briefs, answer pages, calculators, deadline alerts, and the morning brief. The Student Edition, for enrolled counseling students.

SEPTEMBERThe trust month: every tier free for everyone, the month the Michigan change lands.

IF YOU LEAVEYour alerts keep running. They were never the paid part; a missed deadline helps no one.

No spam, no sharing. Just the launch invitation and notes. Unsubscribe anytime.