Austin
Home turf. Travis service area Medicaid, the three Austin hospital systems, and the commercial panels that actually matter in Central Texas.
Austin credentialing →Texas
Credentialing services in Texas.
Getting paid in Texas takes three separate approvals: a Texas Medical Board licence, a Texas Medicaid enrolment through TMHP's PEMS portal, and a contract with each managed-care plan and commercial payer you want to bill. They run on different clocks, and most Texas practices lose months discovering the third one exists.
The three approvals, in order
Texas is not a hard state to get credentialed in. It is a state where the steps are easy to mistake for each other, and each mistake costs weeks.
1. Texas Medical Board licensure
The TMB is legislatively required to process physician applications within an average of 51 days — but that clock starts when your file reaches the licensing stage, not when you hit submit. Counting primary-source verification and fingerprinting, plan on 8–12 weeks from first upload to licence in hand. Answering yes to a professionalism question, or sending documents that don't match the instructions, is what turns 12 weeks into 20.
2. Texas Medicaid through TMHP
Texas Medicaid enrolment runs through TMHP's PEMS portal, and providers must be enrolled in Texas Medicaid before a managed-care plan can enrol them. This is the step out-of-state practices routinely skip, because in many states the plan contract is the enrolment.
3. Managed-care and commercial contracting
PEMS approval makes you a Texas Medicaid provider. It does not put you in any plan's network. Each MCO you want to bill is its own contract and its own credentialing application after PEMS closes — and which MCOs exist depends entirely on which service area you practise in. That is why the metro pages below are not the same page with the city name changed.
Medicare, and the Texas-specific part of it
Medicare enrolment goes through PECOS, with Novitas Solutions as the Medicare Administrative Contractor for Texas. The application itself is federal; what varies is the revalidation cycle you inherit and whether your group's existing PTAN structure supports the provider you're adding.
Telehealth into Texas
There is no separate Texas telemedicine licence. If the patient is physically in Texas when the visit happens, you need a full Texas licence — the same one an in-person practice holds. For multistate groups that makes Texas a licensure problem first and a credentialing problem second.
Texas metros we publish for
Payer mix, Medicaid service area, and hospital privileging expectations change from metro to metro. These pages are written per market.
Houston
The Texas Medical Center metro. Harris service area Medicaid, two locally run plans national checklists never list, and five systems with five committee calendars.
Houston credentialing →Dallas
Half a Metroplex. The Dallas service area stops at the Tarrant line, so a DFW practice with two locations usually needs two Medicaid strategies, not one.
Dallas credentialing →Fort Worth
Its own service area, not Dallas's. A short Tarrant Medicaid roster, a locally run plan at the centre of a statewide contract fight, and counties reaching to Weatherford.
Fort Worth credentialing →San Antonio
The deepest Medicaid roster in Texas and a military health market on top of it. Five Bexar STAR plans, plus TRICARE, which most credentialing checklists forget entirely.
San Antonio credentialing →We work statewide, not only in the metros above — El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, the Panhandle, and the rural counties where panel access is the whole problem. Metro pages are published as each market's payer landscape is researched properly.
Common questions
Do I need a Texas license before I can enroll with Texas Medicaid?
Yes. Licensure comes first, then enrollment. The Texas Medical Board is required to process physician applications within an average of 51 days once your file reaches the licensing stage, though the practical wall-clock from submission to licence is closer to 8–12 weeks once primary-source verification and fingerprinting are counted.
Is enrolling with TMHP the same as being in-network with a Medicaid plan?
No, and this is the single most common Texas mistake. TMHP enrollment through PEMS makes you a Texas Medicaid provider. Every managed-care plan you want to bill — Superior, Aetna Better Health, BCBSTX, Dell Children's Health Plan and the rest — is a separate contract and a separate credentialing application after that.
Do I need a special Texas telemedicine licence?
There is no separate telemedicine licence in Texas. If the patient is physically located in Texas at the time of the visit, you need a full Texas licence — which is why multistate telehealth groups end up managing Texas like any other state on their licensure map.
Which Texas metros do you cover?
All of them, plus the rural counties in between. We publish dedicated pages for the metros where the payer landscape differs enough to matter — Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio — because a Travis County Medicaid panel is not the same panel as a Harris County one.
Pricing is quoted per practice — payers, providers, and states drive it — and your exact number goes in writing before you commit.How pricing works →
Practising in Texas? Start with the licence.
Free 20-minute consult — your payers, your timeline, and what it'll cost.