Reminder of Valid Electronic Signature Criteria Kept in the Client Record
Date: June 22,2026
Attention: Providers
Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) would like to share an important reminder from The Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership (TMHP) regarding the signature and date requirements for prior authorization and other required forms that are kept in the client record. Other required forms may include the following.
- Plans of care
- Physician orders
- Evaluations
- Letters of medical necessity
How this impact providers: The following are acceptable types of signatures:
- Electronic or digital signatures that are created by software, which produces a digital system-generated date and time stamp or include the logo or seal of the digital software that is used
- An electronic signature audit trail
- For more information about electronic signatures, see subsection 5.5.2, “Prior Authorization Requests to TMHP by Fax, Telephone, or Mail”, in the Texas Medicaid Provider Procedures Manual: Vol. 1, “Section 5: Fee-For-Service Prior Authorizations.”
TMHP will not accept the following types of signatures:
- A photocopy or ink stamp of a handwritten (wet) signature
- Typed signatures
- Stamped images of handwritten (wet) signatures
Next step for Providers: Providers should share this communication with their staff. Texas Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) like Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) must provide all medically necessary, Medicaid-covered services to Medicaid members who are enrolled in their MCO/TCHP. Administrative procedures, such as prior authorization, precertification, referrals, claims and encounter data filing, may differ from traditional Medicaid (fee-for-service) and from MCO to MCO. Providers should reference a member’s specific MCO/TCHP for information on these items. For TCHP, this information can be found on the provider page available at https://www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/providers.
If you have any questions, please email Provider Relations at providerrelations@texaschildrens.org.
For access to all provider alerts www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/provideralerts.