Headway vs. SimplePractice: Which is best for your practice?

To decide between Headway and SimplePractice, you’ll need to understand what each one offers. Here’s what to know.

A look into Headway

Headway was founded with a big goal: improving equitable access to mental health care across the U.S. The company aims to connect the roughly 25 percent of Americans who have a treatable mental health condition with specialists who can help — all through the power of software.

On the front end, clients can search Headway’s directory of nearly 50,000 providers to find one who is in their area, accepts their insurance, and is equipped to treat their specific mental health concerns through talk therapy and/or medication management. Once they find a good match, clients can easily schedule appointments through Headway’s platform.

On the back end, Headway gives providers all the tools they need to grow and manage their practices. One-on-one onboarding support means providers can get credentialed and start seeing patients through Headway in as little as two to four weeks — and by joining Headway’s vast provider directory, clinicians automatically enhance their marketing through free exposure to prospective clients in the states where they’re licensed.. Once they’re up and running, Headway providers can take advantage of the platform’s wide range of tools and templates, including a suite of EHR features, so they can focus on providing great patient care instead of dealing with headaches like scheduling, documentation, and billing.

Providers can join Headway’s network for free, and there is no ongoing membership fee. That’s because Headway, which boasts the nation’s largest network of insurance-accepting mental health providers, negotiates enhanced rates with insurance plans, allowing the company to collect a small portion of session fees while still ensuring that providers receive clear and competitive compensation bi-weekly. 

A look into SimplePractice

SimplePractice offers practice-management software to mental health providers in solo or group practices, as well as speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other types of healthcare providers. More than 225,000 practitioners use SimplePractice.

The company is best known for its comprehensive EHR features, which provide clinicians with handy tools for managing administrative tasks such as documentation, scheduling, and billing. SimplePractice’s software also allows providers to automate some time-consuming tasks, like sending out appointment reminders, creating super bills for clients, and managing calendars. By using SimplePractice, providers can also list themselves on and accept appointments through the company’s provider directory, manage patient prescriptions, meet with clients through SimplePractice’s HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform, and more. Depending on how many of its features a provider would like to use, SimplePractice’s monthly membership fees range from $49 to more than $100. 

Although providers can process insurance claims using SimplePractice’s software, the company does not assist providers with credentialing. That means providers who wish to accept insurance must navigate the often confusing and labor-intensive process of joining insurance panels on their own.

Are the benefits the same for therapists and prescribers?

Talk therapists and prescribers who join Headway enjoy the same access to tools that enhance marketing, credentialing, scheduling, billing, continuing education, and more. The company is built to work with many different types of behavioral health providers.

With SimplePractice, practitioners who wish to prescribe medication must pay an extra fee for access to the company’s prescription-management features. The platform’s “ePrescribe” suite costs $49 per month, on top of whatever the provider is paying for SimplePractice’s other features. Headway, on the other hand, does not charge membership fees.