Whether you’re just building your practice or looking to expand to accept insurance, using insurance credentialing services for your therapy practice can be a huge time-saver. Cut down on administrative burden with our picks for the best insurance credentialing services and billing platforms for therapists.
Best Insurance Credentialing Services for Therapists
Best Overall Standalone Insurance Credentialing Service
National Credentialing Solutions
Visit National Credentialing SolutionsWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
"Credentialing through a company like National Credentialing will net you the best reimbursement rates possible. "
Best for Standalone Insurance Credentialing with Full Practice Management
Sosa Practice Partners
Visit Sosa Practice PartnersWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
" If you’re looking to run a private practice without partnering with a platform, Sosa has just about everything covered. "
Best Overall In-Network Billing and Credentialing Platform
Headway
Visit HeadwayWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
"Headway offers an excellent selection of features but is light on EHR options, so you’ll need an external app for that. "
Runner-Up In-Network Billing and Credentialing Platform
Alma
Visit AlmaWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
"Alma is a good choice for those who are looking for alternatives to other platforms to use in addition to Headway. "
Runner-Up In-Network Billing and Credentialing Platform
Grow Therapy
Visit Grow TherapyWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
"Grow Therapy offers a great client experience, but its selection of payors is more limited than others. "
Best All-In-One Billing, EHR, and Credentialing Platform
SonderMind
Visit SonderMindWhy We Chose Them
Personal Experience
"It intends to be a one-stop shop for practitioners, and while it’s great, SonderMind lacks the geographic footprint for most practitioners. "
Why Trust Us
250+
Companies reviewed
1,050+
Hours of first-hand experience
825+
Data points analyzedChoosing Therapy’s reviews are fair, honest, and thorough. To date, we’ve reviewed mental health products and services offered by more than 250 companies. That has involved more than 1,050 hours of firsthand use of those products and consideration of over 825 data points. Our editorial policies outline a rigorous review process, but they all boil down to this: produce a review that your own friends and family could rely on. Learn more here.
Our Picks for Best Insurance Credentialing & Billing Platforms for Therapists
- Best Overall Standalone Insurance Credentialing Service – National Credentialing Solutions
- Runner-Up Standalone Insurance Credentialing – Intelix Credentialing & Billing Solutions
- Best for Standalone Insurance Credentialing with Full Practice Management – Sosa Practice Partners
- Best Overall In-Network Billing and Credentialing Platform – Grow Therapy
- Runner-Up In-Network Billing and Credentialing Platform – Alma
- Best Platform to Use Alongside Others – Headway
- Best All-In-One Billing and Credentialing Platform – SonderMind
Detailed Reviews of the Best Insurance Credentialing Services
Mental health billing and credentialing services are numerous, and deciding what solution to use for your practice can be a challenge. Below, we will cover our picks for the best insurance credentialing services for mental health providers.
Best Insurance Credentialing & In-Network Billing Platforms
If you’re looking to get credentialed with insurance and start billing in-network quickly and easily, then working with an in-network billing platform might be a good option for you. With these platforms, you join their network as an independent contractor – you provide therapy services for pre-negotiated rates and the platform handles all the administrative challenges. When it comes to insurance credentialing for therapists, it’s a great way to get started quickly and easily. In addition to traditional insurance credentialing services, we will also be exploring some of these in-network billing platforms below.
Cost: Varies
Features Offered: Fully managed insurance provider credentialing
Why We Chose It
If you’re looking to panel with multiple insurance payors at once with minimum effort, National Credentialing Solutions is a great choice. The company boasts a full team of credentialing specialists to help you get credentialed as quickly and easily as possible.
Pros & Cons
Pros - Offers fully-managed credentialing for physicians and therapists
- Works with commercial plans and Medicare
- Credential with multiple payors simultaneously
- Negotiate better rates than you would by credentialing on your own
- Easily monitor the credentialing process from start to finish
Cons - Credentialing services can be expensive
- No publicly available pricing information
Cost
National Credentialing Solutions tailors its services to you, so they do not provide general pricing guidelines. Pricing is conducted on a case-by-case basis, so you’ll have to send in a few details and discuss what options are available for you.
Overview
National Credentialing Solutions is a credentialing consulting company that helps physicians, medical providers, and therapists get credentialed with the most important insurance payors in their area. Rather than handle the process independently, or partner with a billing platform, practitioners are able to outsource the credentialing legwork entirely.
When credentialing through a consultant like National Credentialing Solutions, you’ll provide a great deal of documentation and they’ll handle the administrative burden and negotiations on your behalf.
As well, you will need to join the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH), as most payors use this database for credentialing purposes.
Some documentation you’ll need to gather for working with a credentialing consultant includes:
- State license
- Current CV
- Malpractice insurance
- Diploma showing your highest education level
- Board certifications (if applicable)
- Current driver’s license
- NPI
- CAQH ID, with login credentials
Visit National Credentialing Solutions for details on how to get started with your credentialing journey.
In Our Experience
National Credentialing Solutions is a large credentialing consultation company that has many years of experience in the field. Despite primarily offering credentialing solutions for physicians, National Credentialing also has a strong history of providing credentialing services for therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and behavioral health practitioners. They will secure the best possible rates for in-network clients outside of using a billing platform like Headway or Alma.
Cost: Varies
Features Offered: Fully managed insurance provider credentialing, fully managed insurance billing, custom EHR services
Why We Chose It
If you want to operate a fully independent private practice and outsource almost all administrative burden to the professionals, then Sosa Practice Partners has you covered. They offer solutions for every step of the process from booking to billing, and in-between.
Pros & Cons
Pros - Offers fully-managed credentialing for physicians and therapists
- Customizable EHR/EMR services for many specialties
- Offers start-to-end insurance billing management
- Custom patient assessment measures and services available
- Highly customizable, hands-off design
Cons - No publicly available pricing information
- Custom, bespoke service means pricing is difficult to determine and stacks up quickly
- Costs will be restrictive for some practices and may not always be cost-effective.
Cost
Since Sosa Practice Partners offers custom-tailored services for your specific practice, prices will vary significantly. Reach out to see if Sosa’s services will be cost-effective for your practice. It’s of utmost importance to know your practice’s needs and budget before pursuing help from a company like Sosa Practice Partners.
Overview
Sosa Practice Partners offers a huge selection of features and services to help your practice thrive. Primarily, Sosa Practice Partners helps to credential you with insurance groups and fully manage your billing processes, however, they have many services including custom-tailored EHR suites and help with billing codes.
A few services that Sosa Practice Partners offers include:
- Hands-off practice management and billing
- Custom EHR solutions
- Billing electronic funds transfer
- Client relations and PR services
- Billing audit protection
- Provider credentialing
- Interactive patient wellness programs
- Medical transcription and data entry services
- Document storage with remote backup and recovery
To learn more about how it can help your practice, visit the Sosa Practice Partners website.
In Our Experience
Sosa Practice Partners offers the widest range of services for private practice’s that we’ve ever seen. The company is pretty tight-lipped about pricing, so you’ll have to reach out to see what pricing is like for your specific situation, but their hands-off provider credentialing and fully managed billing could be a game-changer if you’ve been dealing with a lot of administrative frustrations.
Price: Free
Services Offered: Credentialing with major payors, marketing, full billing management
Why We Chose It
Headway is a major in-network billing platform that offers exposure to many potential clients and manages all aspects of in-network billing. According to Headway, the service works with more insurance payors and offers better reimbursement rates than any other platform, but with the variable nature of these services, your mileage may vary.
Pros & Cons
Pros - Headway is free to use for therapists
- Additional features for insurance and out-of-pocket billing
- Existing clients can be imported into Headway for easy management
- Most-used in-network billing platform available
- Billing features for insurance and private pay clients
- Both talk therapists and medication practitioners are able to join
Cons - You must be fully licensed to use Headway
- No features for practice management or documentation
- Some users reported lower reimbursement rates than competitors
Cost
There is no cost for joining Headway as a therapist. The service can be offered for free to practitioners upfront, as Headway negotiates all billing rates with insurance payors and will receive a portion of that payout. If you choose to work with Headway, you will sign on as an independent (1099) contractor who handles all aspects of client care, while Headway handles client billing and marketing.
Overview
Headway is a service for therapists and mental health practitioners to manage insurance billing and marketing. Headway’s directory allows clients to view therapists that are in-network with their insurance. There is no cost for joining Headway as a therapist.
There are no features for EHR or practice management, as some other options offer. To learn more about how Headway differs from the competition, take a look at our full Headway for therapists review.
In Our Experience
Headway offers excellent in-network billing services. It’s one of the most popular and heavily used options available today, so they may be able to offer better reimbursement rates. However, the more practitioners that are on a platform, the more competition you’ll be faced with.
If you’re looking for a very high-volume billing platform to partner with, and don’t need any built-in EHR features, then Headway is a great option.
Price: $125 monthly; $1,140 annually
Services Offered: Credentialing with major payors, marketing, full billing management
Why We Chose It
Alma offers a solid set of features with a bundled EHR suite and built-in telehealth platform. While it does cost a monthly or annual fee, the features it unlocks are great if you don’t already have an EHR platform.
Pros & Cons
Pros - More comprehensive system of features than other directory and insurance billing platforms
- EHR features, such as treatment plan templates, telehealth, and others
- Higher reimbursement rates than competitors, according to some members
- Discounts on annual memberships
- Comprehensive community and continuing education content
Cons - One of the only directory and insurance billing platforms that require a monthly fee
- No publicly available information about reimbursement rates – however, this is usually the case with this type of platform
- To use Alma, you must be fully, independently licensed
- No free trial period
Cost
Alma costs $125 monthly or $1,140 annually. This cost includes all of the features of Alma. There is no free trial or demo period offered. Reimbursement rates will vary significantly depending on your location, credentials, and other variables, however, Alma’s contracted rates are usually higher than a therapist could obtain through credentialing on their own.
Overview
Alma is a comprehensive billing and directory platform for therapists and psychologists. Features include billing support, insurance credentialing, and a provider directory. Alma costs $125 monthly or $1,140 annually; there is no free trial available.
Features included in Alma’s cost include:
- A simple insurance credentialing and billing solution
- Insurance-first directory profile listing and client-matching service
- Scheduling and appointment reminder features
- HIPAA-compliant Zoom-based telehealth platform
- Treatment plan templates and clinical tools like PHQ-9 and GAD-7
To learn more about how Alma stacks up with the competition, read our full review of Alma for Therapists for more details.
In Our Experience
I was very impressed with Alma. It offers a large pool of potential clients, a wide variety of insurance payors and also includes EHR features. It’s an ideal platform for those who would prefer to stick to just one platform at a time because it’s an all-in-one system. Alma’s EHR shares a lot in common with the best mental health EHRs on the market today.
As with any of these platforms, whether or not it’s a good fit for you will depend on what sort of reimbursement rate is offered and how many potential clients are in your service area.
Price: Free
Features Offered: Credentialing with major payors, marketing, full billing management
Why We Chose It
Grow Therapy is a great option for handling both in-network and cash-pay clients. However, you’ll need an external app for EHR or telehealth features.
Pros & Cons
Pros - Free to join with no ongoing costs
- Handles all aspects of in-network billing
- Features for billing cash-pay clients
- Therapists and medication providers alike can join
- In-network with Medicare and Medicaid
- Grow Therapy covers costs for Psychology Today and Zocdoc listings
Cons - Users report that customer support is not well-implemented
- Reports of client confusion over billing issues
- Subpar EHR features, according to users
- Telehealth requires an external subscription to Doxy.me
Cost
Grow Therapy is completely free for practitioners to join. Instead of taking fees from clients or practitioners, Grow Therapy has contracts with the insurance payors it works with and earns fees through them. This model is common among services like Grow Therapy and allows therapists to get started with minimal barriers.
Overview
Grow Therapy is a comprehensive billing and directory platform for therapists and psychologists. Features include insurance credentialing, premium in-network reimbursement rates, and a provider directory. Grow Therapy has no costs to join as a provider.
Grow Therapy states that it takes 1-4 months, on average, to get fully credentialed and ready-to-bill sessions for any given payor.
For more details on how Grow Therapy stacks up with the competition, visit our full Grow Therapy employee review.
In Our Experience
Grow Therapy is a good option for therapists seeking to begin billing for in-network services. The platform offers a lot of value and is a much faster and more lucrative route to in-network billing than contracting independently. The lack of upfront or ongoing fees means most practices will find it worthwhile to at least find out what reimbursement rates are for your practice.
However, it’s somewhat smaller than other competitors, so, depending on your particular situation, you may need to partner with multiple platforms in order to reach a full caseload.
Cost: Free
Features Offered: Credentialing with major payors, marketing, full billing management, EHR features
Why We Chose It
SonderMind occupies a unique space that attempts to solve every administrative problem a mental health practitioner may run across. It offers solutions for credentialing, in-network billing, and cashpay billing, and also offers deep EHR features and integration. According to SonderMind, the company intends to be a one-stop shop for practitioners who want to focus on their clients without administrative burden.
Pros & Cons
Pros - Completely free to join
- Option for same-day reimbursement
- Includes good EHR features that all integrate with one another well
- Clinical outcome measures and custom form templates included
- Smart, intuitive, well-implemented design
Cons - Only available in 15 US states
- Included forms and clinical measures are limited compared to top EHRs
Cost
SonderMind is completely free for practitioners to join. Rather than taking fees from clients or practitioners, SonderMind has contracts with the insurance payors and earns commissions through them. This model is common among services such as SonderMind and allows therapists to get started with minimal barriers.
Overview
SonderMind is a comprehensive billing and directory platform for therapists and psychologists. Features of SonderMind include insurance credentialing, premium in-network reimbursement rates, and a built-in provider directory. SonderMind has no costs to join as a provider.
Through SonderMind, you’ll be able to manage both in-network and out-of-network client billing. Upon your acceptance into the platform, you’ll be able to start seeing clients that are billing out-of-network or cash-pay. Then, after you’ve been credentialed with insurance payors (1-4 months), SonderMind will handle all of your in-network billing.
By default, providers on SonderMind’s platform are paid every two weeks for sessions they’ve completed. SonderMind also offers the option for providers to be paid immediately for sessions they submit; however, this will incur a charge of 2% of the total payout.
To learn more about SonderMind, visit our full SonderMind for therapists review.
In Our Experience
SonderMind is a small operation, presently, but if you are able to provide services within its geographic footprint, it has some great and well-implemented features worth checking out. Despite SonderMind’s ambition to be a one-stop shop for practitioners, its current size may mean that isn’t possible for every practitioner.
Final Verdict
“When it comes to the best insurance credentialing services for therapists, there are a few clear winners. If you’re looking for an independent credentialing consultant to work with without joining a billing network, then National Credentialing Solutions is a great choice. For more robust services, Sosa Practice Partners offers a huge selection of services.
If you’re looking, instead, for an in-network billing and credentialing platform to partner with, Headway is our top choice because of the number of payors it works with and the quality of reported reimbursement rates. However, platforms like Alma or Grow Therapy are solid choices, and would be good to use in conjunction with Headway if you need more clients.
Ultimately, which solution is best will be determined by your individual needs. With the help of this guide, you’ll be able to identify the service that best suits your needs.”
Standalone Insurance Credentialing Vs. Insurance-Based Therapist Directory Platforms
Standard insurance credentialing consultants and insurance-based therapist credentialing and directory platforms are both methods for seeing and billing clients in-network but handle the process in different ways. With the former, you’ll be operating as an entirely independent business entity at every step of the way. With the latter, you’ll be an independent contractor that handles clinical aspects of client management, while the platform handles administrative burdens.
Another point worth considering is the level of administrative work you wish to take on. With insurance-based therapist directory platforms like Headway or Alma, the platform takes care of all eligibility checks, billing and claims, and more. Whereas, traditional insurance credentialing consultants only handle the credentialing aspect.
Both methods are valid and have their own advantages and disadvantages. You should take time to consider what setup will work best for your practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Insurance Credentialing?
Insurance credentialing for mental health providers is the process by which individual practitioners or doctors affiliate with insurance payors to ensure reimbursement for care provided to that insurance payor’s network of clients. In the credentialing process, insurance payors conduct a deep review of a given practitioner’s qualifications to ensure quality and to determine the rate of reimbursement.
After a practitioner has become “in-network” with an insurance payor, clients that have a covered insurance plan will be able to use this practitioner for services with the knowledge that they will be covered.
Is Credentialing With Insurance Payors Worth It for Therapists?
Whether or not credentialing with insurance payors is worth it for any given therapist is a very complex question. It depends on a number of factors including the major payors in your area, your caseload, your expertise and credentials, and many others.
It’s worth noting that managing the credentialing process independently can be time-consuming, and providers who partner with in-network billing providers like Headway or Alma are more likely to achieve better reimbursement rates than they would if they’d contracted independently.
What Does It Mean for a Therapist to be Paneled?
Insurance paneling and credentialing are interchangeable terms. Both words refer to the process of a medical provider or therapist becoming “in-network” with a given insurance payor.
What Is The Difference Between Insurance Credentialing and Paneling?
There is no difference between insurance credentialing and paneling. Both terms refer to the process of a provider becoming in-network with a given insurance payor’s network of clients.
