Can Associates or Interns Bill CareFirst Maryland?

Can an associate or student intern see these clients?

Licensed associate: CareFirst offers supervisory credentialing for listed graduate/associate categories after completion of master’s requirements, with an appropriate independently licensed, actively credentialed/contracted supervisor. Application is not approval.

Unlicensed graduate: A completed graduate degree alone is insufficient; match a listed license/registration category and complete supervisory credentialing.

Student intern: Ordinary students still completing the required graduate education are not established by this supervised-credentialing section.

CareFirst Medical Provider Manual

Before assigning insured clients

Match category and supervisor pairing in the profession table.

Complete CAQH, authorize CareFirst access and submit its online questionnaire.

Confirm approval, group affiliation, geography/product and effective participation date before assigning in-network visits.

Scope: Manual section concerns listed categories and jurisdictional credentials; do not generalize across Maryland, Virginia, DC or every CareFirst product.

Policy research reviewed October 17, 2026. Use the policy version and participation terms applicable to the date of service.

A credentialing pathway for supervised professionals

CareFirst’s Medical Provider Manual, printed page 3.3, allows listed supervised professional categories to submit credentialing applications with a supervisor identified. Applicants have completed master’s-level requirements and receive supervision appropriate to their caseload. The supervisor must be independently licensed and actively credentialed and contracted with CareFirst individually or through a contracted group/facility.

The listed categories include LMSW, LGMFT, LGPC, registered psychology associate, and graduate art therapist. Use the manual’s profession-by-profession supervisor table; do not assume a person qualified to supervise one discipline is accepted for every discipline.

What the application workflow changes

The manual directs practitioners to complete CAQH, authorize CareFirst access, and submit its online questionnaire so CareFirst receives the application. A completed CAQH profile by itself is not evidence that the payer has approved participation.

A practical enrollment tracker should separately capture the applicant’s license category, proposed supervisor, supervisor participation, CAQH access, questionnaire submission, requested group affiliation, and payer decision/effective date. These are suggested tracking fields to avoid confusing preparation with enrollment.

Example: the supervisor is contracted, the new clinician is not loaded

A group adds an LGPC and points to its owner’s CareFirst contract. The manual’s supervised credentialing section gives the group an application route to investigate. It does not establish that the owner’s contract alone enrolls the LGPC, or that a claim should identify the owner as rendering.

Before scheduling on an in-network assumption, ask whether the clinician’s category, supervisor pairing, location, and product are accepted and which effective date applies. Preserve the written response with the clinician’s enrollment record.

Resolve claim identity after participation

This credentialing section does not provide a complete supervised-service CMS-1500 or 837P recipe. Obtain the applicable billing instructions after confirming the pathway. Ask explicitly whether the enrolled supervised clinician is rendering, whether supervisor information is additionally required, and which identifiers belong to the group.

Keep Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, product, and license distinctions explicit when reading the full manual. Do not use a general CareFirst EDI address as proof that every graduate license is eligible everywhere.

Primary sources

CareFirst Medical Provider Manual, page 3.3: Behavioral Health Supervisory Credentialing

Compare payer rules and find other EDI destinations

Frequently Asked Questions

Does listing a supervisor complete CareFirst credentialing?

No. It is a condition of the described application route, alongside the remaining credentialing and participation requirements.

Does the credentialing table tell me whose NPI to place on every claim?

No. Obtain the applicable claim instructions; do not infer a supervisor-as-rendering rule from an application requirement.