Michigan's Mental Health Framework standardizes LOCUS and MichiCANS assessments, changes CHAMPS enrollment for limited-license providers, and plans a BH-COVER payer flag for FY2027. Here is what is live now and what is still coming.
Michigan is standardizing how behavioral health is assessed, routed, and paid — and the rollout is happening in stages through 2026 and 2027. If you serve Medicaid enrollees in Michigan, the Mental Health Framework is already changing your assessment and billing obligations, with more coming. Here is what is live and what is planned. For the market context, see the Michigan PIHP and CHAMPS guide.
The Mental Health Framework is MDHHS's two-year initiative, spanning state fiscal years 2026 and 2027, to standardize assessments, referrals, and payer accountability across the Medicaid Health Plan and PIHP systems. The goal is a clearer, more coordinated path for an enrollee's mental health care across the two tracks Michigan runs. See the MDHHS Mental Health Framework page.
For dates of service on and after October 1, 2025, providers serving Medicaid Health Plan enrollees must incorporate the state-designated LOCUS (for adults) and MichiCANS Screener (for youth birth through 18). Bulletin MMP 26-01 sets the billing: the MichiCANS Screener bills as HCPCS H0002 with modifier 7Y, and LOCUS as H0031 with modifier WX. These are not optional add-ons; they are the standardized assessments the Framework is built on, and they feed the payer-routing logic to come.
The Framework's FY2027 phase, which begins October 1, 2026, introduces a benefit-plan flag called BH-COVER, intended to assign each enrollee's mental health coverage to either the Medicaid Health Plan or the PIHP based on the assessment results. The honest status: BH-COVER is planned, not live, and depends on FY2027 data readiness. There are also CHAMPS enrollment changes for limited-license providers moving through the same period. Because this rollout continues to shift, confirm the current status with MDHHS rather than treating any single date as settled.
Navix is the operating record designed to structure documentation to support the standardized LOCUS and MichiCANS assessments and produce clean CHAMPS claims across the dual-track system — and CollaborateMD, our RCM partner, processes the claims across the PIHP, the Medicaid Health Plan, and other payers. With the Framework and CHAMPS rules still moving, keeping your own operating record means you adapt to routing and code changes without waiting on a plan or county system. Confirm current MDHHS requirements against the state's own materials.
See how one record feeds the assessments and CHAMPS cleanly — schedule a demo, or read about running a CCBHC on PPS-1.
