ABA Medicaid rates in New Mexico stand out for one code above all. New Mexico Medicaid pays $450.60 an hour for code 97151, the behavior analyst's assessment, which ranks 1st of 41 states and is 286.6% above the national median of $116.56. No other state comes close: Vermont is second at $263.20 and Minnesota third at $200.44.
New Mexico's schedule is also different in structure. It pays analyst treatment time under code T1026 rather than 97155, and this page does not rank the state on 97153, the technician hour, because no comparable hourly rate is available. Every rate here is compiled from official New Mexico Medicaid publications and links to its source document on the New Mexico Medicaid rates hub. Current ABA rates carry a January 1, 2025 effective date.
New Mexico publishes 97151 at $112.65 per 15-minute unit with modifier U3, which converts to $450.60 an hour. For an agency, the assessment is the gateway to every case: it produces the treatment plan and the hours request. In New Mexico it is also, by a wide margin, the best-paid hour of ABA work on the schedule.
The economics make that plain. Federal data for May 2025 puts New Mexico's median wage for the closest comparable analyst occupation at $35.63 an hour, well above the national $28.53. Even so, that wage is only 11.2% of the 97151 rate, leaving a margin of $399.96 an hour after a loaded wage.
The practical lesson is to make assessments and reassessments complete, timely and well documented. In New Mexico, they are not a cost of starting a case; they are a meaningful revenue line in their own right.
A rate this far above every other state changes how an agency should think about intake. In most states, assessment capacity is a bottleneck that agencies tolerate; in New Mexico it is worth investing in. Families waiting for an initial assessment represent both unmet clinical need and the highest-paying analyst work on the schedule.
It also changes how reassessments are planned. Each reassessment updates the treatment plan and supports the next authorization request, so on-time reassessments protect the treatment hours that follow. An agency that lets reassessments slip loses both the assessment revenue and, potentially, the continuity of treatment.
Documentation matters more at this rate
A premium rate brings scrutiny. Assessment time should be documented with the same rigor as any audit-ready service: start and end times, the instruments used, who was present, and how the findings feed the treatment plan. The single prior authorization rule on 97151 is a reminder that even the assessment needs approval in place before it is delivered.
| Code | Service | NM per hour | Rank | vs national median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97151 (U3) | Assessment by an analyst | $450.60 | 1 of 41 | +286.6% |
| T1026 (UC, U3) | Treatment with plan changes by an analyst | $142.84 | 10 of 41 | +41.4% |
| 97156 (U3) | Parent and caregiver training | $103.12 | 18 of 43 | +8.8% |
| 97158 (UA, U3) | Group ABA led by an analyst | $50.76 | 8 of 30 | +36.1% |
Analyst treatment with protocol changes is billed under T1026 with modifiers UC and U3, at a published hourly rate of $142.84. That ranks 10th of 41 states on the national comparison for this service, which otherwise uses 97155. The comparison is close but not exact, because the code differs; agencies moving into New Mexico should check the state's billing guidance before mapping their own 97155 workflows.
Caregiver training (97156) pays $25.78 per unit, modestly above the national median. Analyst-led groups (97158) pay $12.69 per unit with modifiers UA and U3, or $50.76 an hour, 8th of 30 states and well above the national median of $37.30.
T1026 is priced per hour rather than per 15-minute unit, which is the first thing billing teams from other states need to adjust. A claim built for 97155 units will not translate directly. Time has to be recorded and billed in the unit the state uses, and rounding rules should be confirmed before the first claim.
Modifiers carry meaning on every ranked New Mexico ABA rate. U3 appears on all of them; T1026 also carries UC, and analyst-led groups carry UA. Billing systems should attach the full modifier set automatically by code, because a claim missing one modifier can deny or price incorrectly.
New Mexico is not ranked on 97153, technician assessment support (97152) or technician-led groups (97154), because no comparable rate for those codes is available. That does not mean the services are missing from the program. The coverage data shows how closely the state manages technician time:
- 97153 carries seven prior authorization rules on the New Mexico schedule, the most of any ABA code.
- 97151, 97152, 97154, 97155, 97156 and 97158 each carry one prior authorization rule.
- T1026 carries no prior authorization rule on the schedule itself.
- None of these codes has a published unit limit.
Seven separate rules on the technician code mean the authorization process for direct therapy hours deserves the most attention in a New Mexico intake workflow. Build a checklist for each rule, track authorized units and expiry dates, and start renewals early. For the national technician picture, see the 97153 rate by state, where Alaska leads at $127.80 and New York is lowest on that code at $38.52.
New Mexico's wages run above the national figures for both roles. The technician proxy wage is $22.28 an hour in New Mexico, against $22.08 nationally. The analyst proxy is $35.63, against $28.53. Both are proxy occupations and should be read as floors rather than market pay for credentialed RBTs and BCBAs.
On the analyst codes:
- T1026 analyst treatment: the wage is 35.5% of the $142.84 rate, leaving $92.20 an hour after a loaded wage.
- 97156 caregiver training: 49.1% of $103.12, leaving $52.48 an hour.
- 97151 assessment: 11.2% of $450.60, leaving $399.96 an hour.
Higher analyst wages are easier to absorb in New Mexico because every ranked analyst code pays above the national median. The real constraint is supply: recruiting and keeping BCBAs is the limiting factor for most programs, and the rate structure gives agencies room to pay competitively for them.
New Mexico runs Medicaid through fee-for-service and through Turquoise Care, the state's risk-based managed-care program. For ABA, the state's rule is that plans must pay at least the published rate; behavioral health follows the same rule. A Turquoise Care plan may pay more, but not less, than the rates on this page. Five plans are on file. See New Mexico managed care rules.
The floor has legislative backing. The General Appropriation Act of 2026 (FY2027), effective July 1, 2026, re-enacted the MCO floor at the Medicaid fee-for-service rate. For agencies, that means the published schedule is protected as a minimum through the current fiscal year, and plan negotiations start from it rather than below it.
The rate change behind the current schedule is the HB2 2024 Fee Schedule Updates for Specialized Pricing, a revised proposed special rates table published December 11, 2024, with a 17.07% change effective January 1, 2025. That date matches the effective date on every current New Mexico ABA rate, and the current rates sit in the Fee Schedule for Behavioral Health Providers effective January 1, 2025.
For planning, the useful point is that New Mexico has used legislation to lift specialized rates. Future changes are most likely to arrive the same way, through appropriations and the fee schedule updates that follow them, so agencies should watch each legislative session as well as the state's fee schedule releases.
On the assessment, New Mexico leads every state, ahead of Vermont and Minnesota. On analyst treatment it ranks 10th of 41, below Vermont at $197.40 and Alaska at $167.88 but far above Louisiana at $27.00. On analyst-led groups it ranks 8th, and on caregiver training 18th.
For a Mountain-region operator, New Mexico is the analyst market: every ranked analyst code pays above the national median, and the assessment pays more than anywhere else.
Start with the analyst side. Model assessment, T1026 treatment, caregiver training and analyst-led groups as separate lines, since their rates differ widely. Then add technician hours based on the authorization volumes you expect, given the seven rules on 97153.
Model delivered hours rather than authorized hours, and price BCBA wages at what you will actually pay. For Turquoise Care contracts, treat the published schedule as the minimum. The national ABA rates hub compares every state, and the New Mexico hub covers all 31,727 current New Mexico Medicaid rates.
Rates on this page are compiled from official New Mexico Medicaid publications, chiefly the Fee Schedule for Behavioral Health Providers effective January 1, 2025. Each rate in the full dataset links to its source document and effective date. Our methodology explains how units are converted and ranked.
The full New Mexico dataset carries history back to 2005, so agencies can see each earlier edition of a rate alongside the one in force today and the publication that set it. That record helps when a claim must be priced at the rate in effect on its date of service, or when a Turquoise Care contract refers to an older schedule. Pricing covers access to the complete dataset.