HIPAA compliant, BAA available

Measurement-Based Care for Tennessee Mental Health Teams

For community mental health centres, Tennessee Health Link organizations, group practices and solo clinicians from Memphis to the Tri-Cities. Send a PHQ-9 or another validated scale by email or QR code, have it scored on submission, and keep the follow-up scores TennCare now tracks on one chart per client. US customer data stays in Google Cloud US regions.

Schedule a WalkthroughBrowse assessments
HIPAA compliant, BAA available
US data in Google Cloud US regions
SOC 2 Type II
Scored when the client submits
100+
validated assessments
BAA
for HIPAA covered entities
US
hosting regions for US customers
$25
per month

TennCare Is Tracking Depression Outcomes

  • Tennessee Health Link is TennCare's care coordination program for members with the highest behavioural health needs. It began statewide in December 2016, and participating providers receive activity payments plus a chance at an annual outcome payment based on quality and efficiency. The 2026 provider operating manual adds a set of reporting-only metrics built on the PHQ-9: whether a member with an elevated score has a follow-up PHQ-9 within four to eight months, and whether their depression reaches remission or response. A second metric looks at depression screening with a standardized instrument for members aged 12 and older, and follow-up within 30 days of a positive screen.

    The manual is careful about what these metrics are. They are tracked for information and are not tied to targets, incentives or performance evaluations. The 2026 metrics that do carry thresholds, such as follow-up within seven days after a psychiatric hospitalization and 30-day readmission, measure service use rather than symptoms. Still, a repeated PHQ-9 cannot be counted later if nobody recorded it at the time.

    That is the part HiBoop covers. Clients answer the PHQ-9 on their own phone, the score is calculated on submission, and each repeat lands on the same chart, so the four-to-eight-month follow-up is easy to see and to export. HiBoop does not send data to TennCare, to an MCO or to your Health Link reporting on your behalf.

  • A Follow-Up PHQ-9 in Four to Eight Months

    Reporting-only in Tennessee Health Link for 2026, alongside depression remission and response

  • Screening From Age 12

    Depression screening with a standardized tool, and follow-up within 30 days of a positive result

  • Seven-Day Follow-Up After Hospitalization

    One of the 2026 Health Link metrics that carries a threshold and counts toward the outcome payment

All regions

How HiBoop Fits Tennessee Practice

  • TennCare folds mental health and substance use care into its managed care plans, and Tennessee keeps its own rules on mental health records and on young people's rights. HiBoop takes care of sending, scoring and charting the scales; clinical decisions stay with your team.

  • The Baseline and the Repeat

    Send the PHQ-9 at intake, then schedule the same scale for the months that follow. Every score is dated and charted, so a team can see at a glance which clients are due for a follow-up measure.

  • Remission and Response at a Glance

    Each client's PHQ-9 history sits on one line, so a drop below the remission threshold or a halving of the first score is visible in supervision. The numbers inform clinical judgement; they do not make the call.

  • Records You Can Hand Over

    Export one client's score history, or your whole account, as CSV or PDF for a care plan review, an MCO audit or your organization's own quality work.

  • Suicide Risk Screening Beside Depression

    The C-SSRS Screener is in the same library as the PHQ-9, so a team that screens for depression can add a structured suicide risk screen without a second system.

  • Built for Multi-Site Organizations

    Team and Network plans bring every clinician's caseload into one account across clinics and counties, with role-based access so each person sees only what their role allows.

  • Scales for Teenagers

    Tennessee law gives a young person aged 16 or older with a mental illness or serious emotional disturbance adult rights in outpatient mental health care, alongside a 2024 parental consent law your counsel can help you read. For adolescent caseloads, HiBoop includes the PHQ-A, the SCARED and the CRAFFT-2.1.

Mental health in Tennessee

Research data

  • Each figure below links to the source it comes from.

  • 27.0%

    of Tennessee adults had any mental illness in the past year (model-based annual average, 2023-2024)

    SAMHSA NSDUH, 2023-2024

  • 17.8%

    of Tennesseans aged 12 to 17 had a major depressive episode in the past year (annual average, 2023-2024)

    SAMHSA NSDUH, 2023-2024

  • 25.7%

    of Tennessee adults received mental health treatment in the past year (2024)

    SAMHSA NSDUH, 2024

  • 5.5%

    of Tennessee adults had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year (annual average, 2023-2024)

    SAMHSA NSDUH, 2023-2024

Research from Tennessee

  • Health Link in a Nashville provider

    Mental Health Cooperative, a Nashville-based integrated system for people with severe mental illness, reports compliant HEDIS events rising from 55.4% in 2018 to 65.9% in 2024, and attributes 44.3% of its fiscal 2025 margin to the Tennessee Health Link incentive payment.

    Cronrath et al., NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 2026 PMID 42454890

  • C-SSRS in routine hospital care

    Across 120,398 visits by 83,394 adults at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, combining the C-SSRS with a machine learning model predicted 30-day suicide attempt better than the C-SSRS alone (AUROC 0.874 to 0.887 versus 0.823).

    Wilimitis et al., JAMA Network Open, 2022 PMID 35560048

  • School-based health centres

    Linking Tennessee Medicaid and public school records from 2006 to 2021, the study found outpatient mental health visits rose and emergency visits for mental health conditions fell after districts adopted school-based health centres.

    Fry et al., Health Services Research, 2026 PMID 40936096

  • School mental health grants

    Using linked health and education data for Medicaid-enrolled school-aged children in Tennessee from 2012 to 2023, the authors report that Project AWARE grants increased diagnoses of student mental health conditions and decreased exclusionary discipline actions.

    Heinrich and Enriquez, Journal of Adolescent Health, 2026 PMID 41823928

Tennessee's Public Behavioural Health System

  • HiBoop is independent of every program and body below and does not link to state or MCO systems. This is the landscape your MCO, Health Link team and licensing board work in.

  • Tennessee Health Link

    TennCare, since 2016

    Health Link organizations coordinate care for TennCare members with the greatest behavioural health needs and must contract with at least one TennCare MCO. TennCare lists 18 participating organizations, including Centerstone, Cherokee Health Systems, Frontier Health, Helen Ross McNabb Center and Mental Health Cooperative. Payments combine activity payments with an annual outcome payment tied to quality and efficiency metrics.

    Care coordinationOutcome paymentPHQ-9 metrics

  • TennCare Managed Care

    Medicaid

    TennCare runs Medicaid through managed care organizations: Wellpoint, BlueCare and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, with TennCare Select also listed. Behavioural health is part of those plans rather than a separate carve-out; the Behavioral Health Services division of TennCare oversees mental health and substance use services, and members find providers through their MCO's directory.

    Three MCOsIntegrated benefitsWest, Middle and East

  • Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

    TDMHSAS

    TDMHSAS runs four Regional Mental Health Institutes, in Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Bolivar, funds 12 crisis service providers for the 24/7 crisis line, mobile crisis and walk-in centres, and supports seven regional planning councils. Tennessee's 988 network has eight call centres and took more than 93,000 calls between July 2025 and June 2026.

    Crisis services988Regional councils

  • Licensing and Practice Across State Lines

    Department of Health

    Counsellors, marital and family therapists and clinical pastoral therapists share one board; social workers and psychologists each have their own. Tennessee enacted the Counseling Compact in May 2022. For psychology, the board lists PSYPACT among the routes to authorized interjurisdictional telepsychology; otherwise the psychologist must be licensed in Tennessee and the client must be in Tennessee.

    LPC and LMFTSocial workersCounseling Compact

Care Teams Across the Three Grand Divisions

  • TennCare groups its counties into West, Middle and East Tennessee, and members in each choose among the same three MCOs. HiBoop runs in a browser, so a Memphis clinic and a telehealth caseload in the Cumberland Plateau use it the same way.

  • Memphis and Shelby County

    Part of TennCare's West Tennessee county list, and home to one of the four state Regional Mental Health Institutes.

  • Nashville and Middle Tennessee

    Davidson County is in TennCare's Middle Tennessee list; the Middle Tennessee Regional Mental Health Institute is in Nashville.

  • Chattanooga

    In September 2026 TDMHSAS announced a site in Chattanooga for a new state psychiatric hospital of up to 200 beds to replace Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute.

  • Knoxville and East Tennessee

    For involuntary admissions in East Tennessee, TDMHSAS contracts with three privately run psychiatric hospitals rather than running its own institute.

  • Jackson, Bolivar and Rural West Tennessee

    TDMHSAS runs one of its four Regional Mental Health Institutes, Western Mental Health Institute, in Bolivar.

  • Upper Cumberland and the Plateau

    Putnam and its neighbouring counties fall in TennCare's Middle Tennessee list. Check-ins by email or QR code between visits spare clients a long drive.

Data sovereignty

Why Tennessee clinics choose HiBoop

  • Why Tennessee Teams Choose HiBoop

    • Customer data for US clinics is kept in Google Cloud US regions and encrypted in transit and at rest
    • SOC 2 Type II certified and HIPAA compliant, with a BAA for covered entities
    • Role-based access, and a log entry each time client data is viewed or exported
    • The Care plan is $25/month for one clinician, with no contract and no credit card to begin
    • No app to install: clients open an email link or scan a QR code at the front desk

  • USD pricing & support

    Transparent pricing in USD with flexible payment options for clinics of every size.

    Care
    One clinician, billed monthly
    $25
    USD/month
    Team
    From this price, any number of clinicians
    $200
    USD/month
    Network
    For multi-site organizations
    Custom
    Enterprise pricing

100+ validated scales for Tennessee clinics

  • Validated scales grouped by what they measure, each with its scoring and source. Public programmes often call this routine outcome monitoring (ROM), or patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs): the same practice of giving a validated scale at regular points and reading the scores over time.

  • Depression and Suicide Risk

    • PHQ-9 (Depression)
    • C-SSRS Screener (Suicide Risk)
    • PHQ-8 (Depression, without item 9)

  • Substance Use, Anxiety and Trauma

    • TAPS (Tobacco, Alcohol and Other Substances)
    • GAD-7 (Anxiety)
    • PCL-5 (PTSD)

  • Adolescents

    • PHQ-A (Adolescent Depression)
    • SCARED (Child Anxiety)
    • CRAFFT-2.1 (Youth Substance Use)
Browse all assessments

Tennessee Mental Health Records and Young People's Consent

  • HIPAA is the federal floor. Title 33 of the Tennessee Code adds its own confidentiality rule for mental health records and gives older minors adult rights in outpatient care. None of these laws certifies software; the obligations belong to your organization, and HiBoop supplies the safeguards you need to meet them.

  • What Tennessee law asks

    • Keep records and information that identify a current or former recipient of mental health services confidential, disclosing them only as the law authorizes (Tenn. Code Ann. s.33-3-103)
    • Give a minor aged 16 or older with a mental illness or serious emotional disturbance the same rights as an adult over outpatient mental health treatment and confidential information, while telling a parent or guardian when the minor is judged likely to attempt suicide unless prevented (s.33-8-202)
    • Read the 2024 Families' Rights and Responsibilities Act, which requires parental consent for counselling and psychological services to minors except as other law provides, together with s.33-8-202 and with your counsel
    • Maintain HIPAA safeguards and breach notification, with a business associate agreement for every vendor that handles protected health information

  • What HiBoop provides

    • A signed business associate agreement for HIPAA covered entities
    • Hosting in Google Cloud US regions for US customers, with encryption in transit and at rest
    • Role-based access and an audit log of each view and export of client data
    • SOC 2 Type II certification, with the controls described on our trust page

  • Running a vendor review for your centre?

    The trust page sets out hosting, encryption, access controls and our SOC 2 Type II report. Ask us for a BAA or for help with a security questionnaire.

    Open the trust centre

Grants & funding for Tennessee mental health clinics

Funding Guide

  • Public and private funding programs that support measurement-based care implementation.

  • SAMHSA — Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

    Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Expansion Grants

    Tech eligible

    SAMHSA’s CCBHC grants fund detailed behavioral health services including the infrastructure, staffing, and technology required to meet CCBHC standards. Outcome measurement and digital assessment platforms are explicitly eligible as required infrastructure for CCBHC certification.

    $1M–$5M/yearLearn more

  • SAMHSA

    Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG)

    Tech eligible

    States receive federal MHBG funds and redistribute them to community mental health organizations. Technology, quality improvement, and workforce development are eligible uses. Contact your state mental health authority to understand how MHBG flows in your state.

    State-distributedLearn more

  • SAMHSA

    Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration (PIPBHC)

    Tech eligible

    SAMHSA’s PIPBHC program funds integration of primary and behavioral health care, including the technology infrastructure needed to coordinate care across disciplines. Outcome measurement platforms and digital assessment tools are eligible as integration infrastructure.

    $500K–$900K/yearLearn more

  • HRSA — Health Resources and Services Administration

    Rural Health Network Development Program

    Tech eligible

    HRSA funds rural health networks to develop shared infrastructure including technology platforms, telehealth systems, and outcome measurement tools. Mental health-focused networks in rural areas can use this to fund shared digital assessment and measurement platforms.

    $250K–$500K/yearLearn more

  • HRSA

    Behavioral Health Workforce Development Program

    Tech eligible

    Supports expanding the behavioral health workforce through training, clinical placements, and technology-supported care delivery. Technology platforms that support supervision, measurement, and case management are eligible uses.

    $250K–$1MLearn more

  • CMS Innovation Center (CMMI)

    ACCESS Model — Behavioral Health Track

    Tech eligible

    The Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) model includes a Behavioral Health Track for practices treating depression and anxiety. It shifts from fee-for-service to monthly payments tied to outcomes — explicitly requiring technology-enabled care and outcome measurement.

    Enhanced per-patient paymentsLearn more
View all grants & funding

Resources for Tennessee practitioners

  • Billing guides, compliance documentation, and clinical practice resources.

  • DepressionThe PHQ-9, Item by Item

    Scoring, severity bands, and what remission and response mean on this scale

  • Suicide riskUsing the C-SSRS Screener

    The screener's questions and how teams pair it with a depression measure

  • AdolescentsPHQ-A for Ages 11 to 17

    The adolescent version of the PHQ-9 and how it is scored

  • LibraryAll Assessments

    Every scale HiBoop describes, with its validation references

Tennessee Policy, Privacy and Licensing Sources

Latest in mental health in California

Crisis and urgent help lines

More crisis lines

Measurement-based care

…starts with what we measure, and how long.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Does TennCare require measurement-based care?

    Not across the board. We found no Tennessee statute or regulation requiring outpatient providers to use standardized symptom scales. Tennessee Health Link does track PHQ-9 follow-up, depression remission and response, and depression screening for 2026, but as reporting-only metrics with no target or incentive attached. Your MCO contract may say more, so check it first.

  • Does HiBoop send our PHQ-9 results to TennCare or our MCO?

    No. HiBoop is not connected to TennCare, MCO or Health Link systems. It sends and scores the scales, charts each client's results over time, and exports score histories as CSV or PDF, so your team can supply what TennCare or the MCO asks for.

  • Can a 16-year-old in Tennessee agree to therapy without a parent?

    Under Tenn. Code Ann. s.33-8-202, a minor aged 16 or older with a mental illness or serious emotional disturbance has the same rights as an adult over outpatient mental health treatment and confidential information, with a duty to tell a parent or guardian if the minor is judged likely to attempt suicide. A 2024 law requires parental consent for counselling minors except as other law provides, and how the two fit together is a question for your counsel. HiBoop's role-based access lets you limit who on your team sees a young client's scores.

  • Is HiBoop HIPAA compliant for Tennessee providers?

    Yes. HiBoop is HIPAA compliant, and we sign a business associate agreement with covered entities. Tennessee's own mental health records rule in Title 33 still applies to your disclosures, so whether a particular release is allowed is a question for your policies and counsel, not the software.

Official sources for Tennessee

  • Billing and payment routes

    1. 1.CMS MLN909432: Behavioral Health Integration Services · public program · codes 99484, 99492, 99493, 99494, G2214, G0323 (read in the document on 2026-11-01)
    2. 2.CMS Physician Fee Schedule look-up · fee schedule
    3. 3.SAMHSA: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) · public program

    Fee codes and amounts are set by each payer and change; check the linked schedule before you bill. HiBoop does not submit claims.

    Regulators and licensing

    1. 1.ASPPB: psychology licensing boards · psychologists
    2. 2.ASWB: social work regulatory boards · social workers
    3. 3.Counseling Compact · counsellors
    4. 4.Social Work Licensure Compact · social workers

    Data and statistics

    1. 1.SAMHSA: NSDUH state reports
    2. 2.HRSA: HPSA Find (mental health shortage areas)
    3. 3.NIMH: mental illness statistics

    Listed for reference so you can find the official source. HiBoop is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, any of these organizations.