Anthem is the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 14 states: CA, CO, CT, GA, IN, KY, ME, MO, NV, NH, NY, OH, VA, and WI. If you practice there, you credential with Anthem through the Availity portal on a CAQH-backed application, typically 90–120 days. In any other state, you credential with that state's own Blue instead.
Every week, therapists in Texas and Florida start "Anthem applications" for a payer that does not operate in their state. Anthem is one licensee in the Blue Cross Blue Shield federation, the biggest one but still just one, and whether this guide even applies to you depends entirely on your state. So start there.
Is Anthem your Blue?
BCBS is not a company but a federation of 33 independent, locally operated licensees sharing a brand. Anthem, the for-profit arm of Elevance Health, holds the license in 14 states (in New York it operated as Empire BlueCross BlueShield until the 2024 rename to Anthem). In the other 36 states, "Blue Cross" on an insurance card means a company with no corporate relationship to Anthem at all.
| If you practice in… | You credential with… |
|---|---|
| CA, CO, CT, GA, IN, KY, ME, MO, NV, NH, NY, OH, VA, WI | Anthem (this guide) |
| Texas, Illinois, and 3 other HCSC states | Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas / Illinois… |
| Florida | Florida Blue |
| North Carolina | Blue Cross NC |
| Michigan | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan |
| Washington | Premera or Regence, by region |
Texas is where this goes wrong most often: Texas is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, an HCSC plan, and a fully assembled Anthem application (CAQH authorized to Anthem, Availity registration, the works) transfers nothing there. Weeks of preparation aimed at the wrong licensee simply start over. If your state is in the second column, stop here and read the Blue Cross Blue Shield credentialing guide instead; the federation logic, and how to find your Blue, is covered there.
How do you apply to Anthem?
Through Availity. Anthem retired its paper applications; you register your practice at availity.com, open Anthem's payer space, and file the digital Provider Enrollment application. The application itself is thin because the substance comes from CAQH ProView: Anthem pulls your license, work history, malpractice coverage, and references from there, which means CAQH must be complete, attested within 120 days, and show Anthem as an authorized organization before you submit anything in Availity.
In several Anthem states, behavioral health enrollment does not go through Anthem's own payer space at all; it routes through the Carelon Behavioral Health payer space in Availity (Carelon is Elevance's behavioral health company). Virginia is the clearest example. Filing through the standard Anthem enrollment path in those states gets you processed as a medical provider, which is the wrong queue. Check your state plan's "join our network" page before submitting.
One more trap: name mismatches. Anthem's verification runs your NPPES record, your license, and your CAQH profile against each other, and a middle initial present on one and absent on another is enough to bounce the file. That is the most common return, ahead of expired documents and missing references.
Run this the day before you submit. Every line must be true.
State
- My state is one of: CA CO CT GA IN KY ME MO NV NH NY OH VA WI. If not, stop and find your state's own Blue plan.
- I checked my state Anthem plan's join-our-network page for whether behavioral health enrolls via the Carelon Behavioral Health payer space instead of Anthem's.
Identity match (all three must be character-identical)
- Name on NPPES record: [NAME AS PRINTED]
- Name on state license: [NAME AS PRINTED]
- Name on CAQH profile: [NAME AS PRINTED]
- Practice address identical in NPPES and CAQH.
CAQH ProView
- All sections complete, no work-history gaps over 6 months without an explanation entry.
- Attestation date within the last 120 days; re-attested today: [DATE]
- Anthem listed under authorized organizations.
- Current malpractice face sheet uploaded; dates show no coverage gap.
Availity
- Availity account active; my NPI and tax ID registered under my organization.
- Submitting through: [ANTHEM PAYER SPACE / CARELON BH PAYER SPACE]
- Saved copy of the confirmation/tracking number: [NUMBER]
- Calendar reminder set for [DATE +30 DAYS] to check status, and [DATE +100 DAYS] to escalate if no committee decision.
How do you check status once it's in?
In Availity, against the tracking number from your submission confirmation, which is why the checklist above tells you to save it. Anthem's enrollment statuses move from received to in-credentialing to committee review, and a file that sits in one status past 30 days is worth a call to your state plan's provider enrollment line, with the tracking number and your CAQH ID ready.
The status worth understanding is committee review: Anthem's credentialing committees meet monthly, and approval is not a rolling decision. Your verified file waits for the next meeting. That's also why the approval letter, the countersigned participation agreement, and your load into the claims system arrive as three separate events. You can't bill until the last one, and it can trail the approval letter by weeks. When the agreement arrives, confirm your effective date in writing before you book Anthem clients.
What does Anthem pay?
| CPT code | Session type | Rate range |
|---|---|---|
| 90837 | 60-min therapymost common | $101–$172 |
| 90834 | 45-min therapy | $73–$120 |
| 90791 | Initial evaluation | $117–$189 |
| 90847 | Family therapy | $83–$124 |
| 90785 | Interactive add-on | $10–$16 |
Ranges are P20–P80 from CMS Transparency in Coverage data. Rates vary by state, locality, and contract negotiation. Look up rates by state, payer, and CPT code
For state-by-state medians across every CPT code, see the full Anthem BCBS reimbursement rates page.
The spread here is the widest of the four majors, and that's structural: each Anthem state plan negotiates its own fee schedules, so a 90837 in Manhattan and a 90837 in rural Missouri live at opposite ends of the same filing. Anthem's upper percentiles beat the other three networks in several states, which is why it's worth checking your own market rather than the national midpoint. The rate comparison guide shows all four payers side by side.
The quiet upside of an Anthem contract is BlueCard: members of any Blue plan can see you in-network once you're credentialed with your Blue. For practices near state lines, or with clients who travel for work, that's real volume the raw membership numbers don't show.
How long does it take?
Plan on 90–120 days from a complete Availity submission to an effective billing date; if you're past 150, call your state plan's provider enrollment line rather than waiting. Anthem's credentialing committees meet monthly, so a bounced file (that middle-initial mismatch) waits for the next cycle: 30 days minimum, often more.
The timeline is the argument for filing Anthem early and concurrently with the other majors, not after a faster payer like Aetna clears. Which payers deserve a slot in that first wave is its own decision; the which-panels guide covers it. If you'd rather not babysit four applications through four portals, paneled.ai files all four networks concurrently for $300, one-time.
We can't promise Anthem says yes; panel capacity is their call, made state by state. What's controllable is the application: the right state, the right payer space, and three records that match to the character.
Common questions
- Is Anthem the same as Blue Cross Blue Shield?
- Only in 14 states. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a federation of 33 independent licensees, and Anthem (owned by Elevance Health) is the licensee in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Everywhere else, your Blue is a different company and Anthem cannot credential you.
- How long does Anthem credentialing take for therapists?
- Plan on 90 to 120 days from a complete application to an effective billing date, and longer in high-volume state plans. Anthem is among the slower of the four major commercial networks, so file it in your first wave of applications rather than after faster payers come through.
- How do therapists apply to Anthem?
- Through Availity, Anthem's provider portal. You register with Availity, open Anthem's payer space, and submit the digital Provider Enrollment application backed by a complete, attested CAQH ProView profile with Anthem authorized. In some states behavioral health enrollment routes through the Carelon Behavioral Health payer space instead; check your state plan first.
- How much does Anthem pay therapists per session?
- CMS Transparency in Coverage filings show Anthem paying roughly $101 to $172 for CPT 90837 (60-minute individual psychotherapy) across the middle of its national distribution, the widest spread of the four majors, because each state plan negotiates its own fee schedules.
- What is BlueCard and why does it matter for therapists?
- BlueCard lets a member of any Blue plan use in-network benefits with providers credentialed by another Blue. Once you're in Anthem's network, clients who carry BCBS coverage from other states can generally see you in-network, which extends your reach well beyond Anthem's own membership.
The paneled.ai team · Credentialing specialists. We file and track insurance credentialing applications for behavioral health providers every day — these guides come from what we see go wrong (and right) in real applications.