Get the day’s best TPR stories and the start of your weekend delivered straight to your inbox every day with the 321 Newsletter.Please register here.
The network of mental health providers willing to accept Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) insurance will increase in 2021, according to a study conducted by Headway, a venture capital-backed company that connects mental health care providers with insurance. It has increased by 18% since 2017. companies.
forward is a New York City-based technology company that works with mental health providers to make insurance easier to accept. According to the company, 70% of therapists do not accept insurance at all, and the administrative burden associated with enrolling in insurance is a major reason.
Headway co-founder and CEO Andrew Adams said that’s because the health insurance system was not designed for mental health providers.
“The health insurance world is built around the medical world,” Adams said. “And the medical world is consolidated into large hospital groups, where one doctor has three billers manually filing claims. The therapy world is completely different.”
Headway was founded in Texas in 2021 with hundreds of mental health providers (the label includes therapists, psychiatrists, and nurses) and currently has a network of 4,500 people.
Adams said the therapists working with Headway want to see more patients, and Headway’s services allow them to do that. Headway therapists saw 50,000 patients over the two years covered in the study, and therapists are now able to see patients even faster, according to a Headway press release.
Headway’s research also found that the Headway network in Texas that accepts BCBSTX insurance includes 12 new languages and 141 new local zip codes. Adams said mental health workers who speak these languages and work in rural areas did not accept insurance before Headway entered the market.
At Headway, therapists can also accept other insurances such as Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare, but this study focused on BCBSTX.
Adams said he is pleased to help more patients access treatment and provide opportunities for healthcare providers.
“I definitely have anecdotes and anecdotes and names of individual therapists off the top of my head. Not only have we helped some of their business growth, but in some ways, we’ve helped entrepreneurs grow and launch; “We’ve really helped plant the seeds,” he said. He said.
Headway’s platform also allows users to search for therapists in their area, learn about a therapist’s specialties and accepted insurance, and even schedule an appointment.
