MEDICAID NETWORK ADEQUACY · AUDIT & VERIFICATION

Provider networks decay.
Directories don't.

Chronos measures the temporal integrity of Medicaid provider directories — auditing the gap between what plans claim and what patients can actually reach. We don't issue confidence scores. We produce names.

[01]FIELD AUDITWASHINGTON APPLE HEALTH · BEHAVIORAL HEALTH · 2024 · n=679

679 listed in directory.
149 actually treating Medicaid patients.

A cross-reference of one Washington Apple Health plan's behavioral-health directory against federal claims and state licensure. Public data. Reproducible. Provider-level.

STATUS · 01ACTIVE
22%
Verifiably active for Medicaid. Claims and license confirmed.
STATUS · 02PHANTOM
59%
Phantom access — licensed but not treating Medicaid patients. Directory inflation.
STATUS · 03GHOST
19%
True ghost — no claims, no active license. Unreachable entirely.
RATIO · 04PARITY
2.6×
Behavioral-health to primary-care directory disparity. MHPAEA parity evidence.
[02]METHODOLOGYTHREE SIGNALS · ONE OUTPUT

Three sources.
One definitive answer.

Chronos cross-references every provider against federal claims and state license registries, and dispatches surgical live verification for the survivors. The output isn't a probability — it's a list of names with dispositions.

LAYER 01CLAIMS

Claims-validated activity

Cross-reference every directory listing against federal Medicaid claims. Providers with no billing activity in the audit year are flagged inactive.

LAYER 02DIRECTORY × LICENSE

License crosswalk

Verify flagged providers against state license registries. Separates licensed-but-not-billing (phantom) from unverifiable (true ghost).

LAYER 03TELEPHONIC

Live verification

Automated voice agents call surviving providers to confirm appointment availability, panel status, and wait times. Surgical — not mass outreach. Layer in active build-out; first deployment in our next state engagement.

[03]WHY NOWENFORCEMENT DOCKET 2023 → 2027

After July 2027,
the directory you publish
is the one that gets tested.

The 2025 Medicaid Managed Care Access Final Rule mandates independent state directory-accuracy testing of every MCO. 90% compliance required on directory accuracy and wait-time standards. Behavioral health faces a 10-business-day max wait.

DateActionExposure
JUL 2027Final Rule deadline · MCO directory-accuracy testing90% threshold · per state · per MCODEADLINE
OCT 2025HHS OIG: 55% of MA BH directory inactiveNational federal benchmarkPUBLIC
2025California — Health Net directory settlementDirectory inaccuracy enforcement$40.0M
2026Carelon / Elevance — SDNY class actionActive ghost network litigationACTIVE
POST-2024EBSA parity enforcement letters (MHPAEA)120+ letters dispatched$550K / VIOL
2023NY AG — EmblemHealth BH ghost network86% BH ghost rate · precedent$2.5M
[04]WHO WE SERVE2 BUYERS · 1 DIRECTORY TRUTH
● BUYER 01

Health Plans

~300MCOs

Medicaid MCOs across 42 states face directory-accuracy testing under the 2027 Final Rule. Chronos gives compliance and network teams provider-level ghost and phantom flags — plus the recruitment list of licensed-but-inactive providers in their service area.

● BUYER 02

State Agencies

50STATES

Every state administering Medicaid managed care must independently verify its MCOs. Chronos gives agencies a cross-MCO oversight view: which plans have the worst phantom access, where behavioral-health parity gaps are widest, which networks need intervention first.

[05]DIFFERENTIATIONWE DON'T COMPETE · WE COMPLETE

Adequacy testing
measures geometry.
We measure truth.

A directory can pass time-and-distance adequacy and still be 78% inaccurate at the member level. Chronos measures the thing regulators are about to start measuring.

CHRONOS // NETWORKS  ·  WA APPLE HEALTH BH · FIELD AUDIT 001NPI masked · synthetic sample · n=679
DIRECTORY says  ·  per plan listing
+ CLAIMS show  ·  T-MSIS verified
NPIProviderCityNetwork statusLast paid claimDisposition
175*****42Doe, A. — MDSeattle● In-Network · Accepting10/2024Verified Active
149*****92Doe, B. — PsyDSeattle● In-Network · AcceptingInactive — No Claims 24mo
168*****11Doe, C. — LMHCTacoma● In-Network · AcceptingUnreachable — Disconnected
152*****91Doe, D. — LCSWSpokane● In-Network · Accepting09/2024Verified Active
139*****40Doe, E. — LMFTYakima● In-Network · AcceptingInactive — Panel Closed
166*****75Doe, F. — MDOlympia● In-Network · AcceptingInactive — No Claims 24mo
124*****63Doe, G. — PMHNPBellingham● In-Network · AcceptingAddress Mismatch
184*****72Doe, H. — PsyDSeattle● In-Network · Accepting11/2024Verified Active
159*****42Doe, I. — LICSWTacoma● In-Network · AcceptingInactive — No Claims 24mo
170*****74Doe, J. — LMHCVancouver● In-Network · AcceptingInactive — Panel Closed
Method · T-MSIS × WA-DOH × Plan DirectoryNPI masked · synthetic sample · public-data reproducible
[06]PARITYSECOND FINDING · MHPAEA EXPOSURE

The behavioral-health directory
is 2.6× worse
than Primary Care.

In the Washington Apple Health audit: 57% of Primary Care providers were verifiably active for Medicaid. In Behavioral Health, only 22%. A 35-percentage-point gap.

Under the 2024 MHPAEA final rule, network composition is a non-quantitative treatment limitation. A measurable disparity between behavioral health and medical/surgical directory accuracy is parity evidence on its face — exposure of $550K per violation under active federal enforcement.

FIG. 01 — PARITY DISPARITYAPPLE HEALTH · % VERIFIABLY ACTIVE
PRIMARY CARE57%
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH22%
Δ DISPARITY35 PP · 2.6× RATIO · MHPAEA-REPORTABLE
[07]ENGAGEMENTDEFINED-SCOPE · WEEKS NOT QUARTERS

We don't produce
confidence scores.
We produce names.

Chronos runs on any Medicaid directory. First engagement is a defined-scope audit — findings delivered in weeks, not quarters.