Since launching four years ago, mental health startup Headway has built out its provider network and payer partnerships and now has expanded to all 50 states and Washington D.C.
The New York City-based startup built a platform to make it both easier for patients to find a therapist and easier for therapists to accept insurance. Headway developed a full-stack therapy marketplace that deals with the messiness of insurance, building out a first-of-its-kind behavioral health network of therapists who accept insurance.
An estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 4 adults—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The main barrier to affordable care is that the majority of therapists do not accept insurance because of the administrative burden and the time commitment required, especially for the 85% of therapists who are solo practitioners.
Most therapists are individual practitioners who don’t have the administrative bandwidth to support taking insurance.
Headway says it has the nation’s largest network of independent therapists and psychiatrists who actively accept insurance with more than 27,000 mental health clinicians partnering with Headway to run a private practice.
And Headway now partners with more than 25 health insurance plans. Evernorth Health Services, Cigna Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts are among the plans that aim to go live with Headway in all 50 states and DC.
The startup supports both in-person and virtual mental health care appointments. In scaling nationally, Headway has built dense, local networks of providers in markets across the country and plans to continue to expand its footprint in the coming months.
Healthcare is local and patients need access to providers throughout the country, Olivia Davis, Headway's chief commercial officer said in an interview.
"For patients, it's important to be able to receive care and have continuity of care. When patients move from one city to another, they might want to stay with the same provider. Enabling choice in markets that haven't had access to great care and also enabling continuity of care is a big thing," Davis said.
Along with its nationwide expansion, Headway also is using its tech platform to make it easier for mental health providers to provide care across state lines with the ongoing demand for virtual care.
In a company survey in August 2023, Headway found that 27% of providers prefer telehealth because it is more convenient for their patients. They also believe they are able to treat more clients and can see a more diverse client population.
"Over 25% of our providers are licensed in multiple states. We're also going live with multi-state credentialing for our providers. For our plans, especially our national plans, this is important because they have national membership, but also for our Blues plans, it's increasingly important to have nationwide support," Davis said.
In the first half of 2024, Headway will launch technology that allows providers who hold multiple licenses to deliver care across state lines through the Headway platform.
The startup picked up $125 million in fresh funding in October to help fuel its expansion and new tech capabilities. The series C round boosted Headway’s valuation to more than $1 billion, catapulting the startup to “unicorn” status, according to the company. Headway raised a $70 million series B round in May 2021 and picked up $26 million in series A funding in late 2020.
There is growing demand for mental health care in the U.S., but many people fail to find care because they can't afford to pay for services out-of-pocket.
Adams faced these barriers five years ago after he moved to New York City and tried to find a therapist, he told Fierce Healthcare in 2020.
"I couldn’t find a therapist that I could afford because 70% of therapists don’t accept insurance," Adams said in a previous interview. "The reality is that therapists would accept insurance if it weren’t so hard."
Adams co-founded New York City-based Headway to address accessibility and affordability issues for mental health care services.
Headway's nationwide expansion comes as the demand for mental health services continues to grow and payers are investing in virtual care services to meet members' needs.
"Evernorth aims to personalize behavioral healthcare for all customers, delivering the right care in the right setting at the right time,” said Melissa Reilly, chief strategy officer, Evernorth Behavioral Health. “By allowing providers to focus on delivering quality care, rather than administrative work, our collaboration with Headway is one way we can grow our network of mental health clinicians. This directly empowers our customers to find a provider—in-person or virtual —who meets their needs and preferences. We look forward to expanding our impact together across the nation so that more people can get the personalized behavioral health care they need.”
Headway also supports and encourages the use of measurement-based care, which in and of itself improves outcomes in the treatment of behavioral health conditions, according to Monica Berner, M.D., HCSC's chief medical officer.
Headway says its approach helps to open up access to care for outpatient behavioral health services.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBS TX) reported a 5% reduction in inpatient acute behavioral health admissions since 2021, which it correlates with Headway’s ability to connect outpatient members to behavioral health care within 48 hours, according to the company.
In just two years, more than 50,000 BCBS TX members received mental health care from a provider on Headway; 30,000 members—or 60%—saw a provider who two years ago didn’t accept insurance but today do because of the Headway and BCBS TX partnership.