Meridian Medicaid Plan Behavioral Health Prior Authorization Codes Update effective July 1, 2026

Date: 04/13/26

Effective July 1, 2026, Meridian is updating its Behavioral Health (BH) PA requirements to reduce administrative burden, simplify submission and approval processes, and facilitate timely access to high-quality care, with the aim to improve the prior authorization (PA) processes for providers and members.

BH PA Code changes are noted below and include:

• Removing PA requirements based on criticality of review and clinical need
• Creating a more uniform set of PA requirements across our lines of businesses, including adding and changing some PA requirements, simplify processes, reduce confusion, and support future efforts to expand real-time responses to requests

For questions about specific prior authorization codes or how these changes may affect your practice, please contact your Provider Engagement representative.

Service Category	PA Rule	Services	Procedure codes
Behavioral Health	Revert to PA required with manual review	Psychological & Neuropsychological Testing	97157
	PA Required after 8 hours per calendar year limit across codes 96130, 96131, 96132, 96133, 96136, 96137, 96138, 96139, and 96146		96138, 96139, 96146