Why you should consider accepting insurance

Accepting insurance can make your work, and your clients’ lives, easier in a few important ways. 

You can build your client base more easily. 

People often search through their insurance provider’s network to find a therapist. Being credentialed through an insurance plan makes it easier for people to find you, which is a great way to start building your caseload if you’re a new therapist. Plus, after becoming a Headway provider, you can get credentialed and start seeing patients, typically within a matter of weeks.

Similarly, clients searching through therapist directories may also filter out potential clinicians who don’t work with their insurance plan, so if you’re not in network, you may never get to connect with people you could help. 

Insurance makes therapy more affordable.

One major reason to take the steps toward becoming credentialed with insurance providers is the ability to help more people, including those who may not be able to afford your self-pay rates. 

Wondering whether the process of working with insurance is a good idea for you? If you would like to grow your caseload or expand your practice to a wider range of clients, then accepting insurance could be a great avenue to make that happen.

Michael Heckendorn, Headway’s clinical lead of clinician education and a licensed therapist in private practice, recently used Headway to be credentialed with several insurance networks after several years of running a cash-pay practice.

“By only accepting out-of-network pay, I had to turn away a lot of people who couldn’t afford my rates,” Heckendorn says. “Therapy shouldn’t be a burden, but for those people, the financial burden of seeing a therapist would be more stressful than not having a therapist.”

You can cultivate more community partnerships.

As an in-network provider, you’ll also have more opportunities to build relationships with community partners who can refer potential clients to your practice. Medical clinics, schools, and even in-patient mental health facilities may be more likely to refer people to you if they know you accept insurance.

“It makes you look like a more well-rounded professional when you can work with these partners to help the people they’re working with,” says Heckendorn.