In an effort to support our providers with keeping their practice in one place, Headway is excited to share that you are now able to see private pay clients through our calendar and billing system! Our hope is that this helps you centralize your admin and create an easy, clear experience for your clients while saving yourself time and stress.
With private pay, you can:
- Set your own private pay rate for clients you’re seeing out-of-network. You can use your existing cancellation policy, too.
- Schedule and confirm these sessions directly in your Headway calendar.
- Receive payment with the rest of your bi-weekly Headway payouts.*
How private pay works on Headway
When you add a client to Headway, you’ll see the option to bill them via insurance or private pay. If you select private pay, you can set your own session rate for each individual, or use a default private pay rate.
Private pay is only available for clients that have insurance Headway is not in-network with, or cannot support, including referrals that you receive through Headway whose coverage has ended, was terminated, or no longer includes mental health benefits.
Client eligibility
Clients can be seen via private pay private pay if Headway doesn't accept their insurance plan. This includes situations where Headway previously accepted their plan, but where coverage ended, the plan was terminated, or the plan was updated to no longer include mental health benefits.
Clients with Medicare or Medicaid policies are not eligible for private pay through Headway at this time.
Please note: If you are not credentialed with the insurance carrier your client has, but other Headway providers are, you will not be able to see the client via private pay, since Headway can support their insurance. You'll need to refer them to another Headway provider who is credentialed with and able to accept their insurance carrier.
Enabling private pay
To enable private pay on Headway for your practice:
- Visit your Settings in the provider portal
- Click on the Billing tab
- Next to Private pay rate, click Enable private pay
- Check the box to agree to private pay terms and conditions
- Click the Next button to proceed
- Enter your session rate
- Note: You can always change this at a later time.
- Click Save
Confirming private pay sessions on Headway
Session details for private pay sessions need to be confirmed in your Headway calendar the same way as any other insurance session.
During the session confirmation process, you won't be required to submit CPT and diagnosis codes, but you have the option to. Note: CPT and diagnosis code details must be submitted for any clients who would like to submit their invoices to their insurance to utilize out-of-network benefits.
Billing and payments
You’ll be paid for your private pay sessions in your bi-weekly Headway payouts, and be able to keep track of everything in your Payments tab.
Payouts for private pay sessions will account for the cost of using Stripe, our payment processor, plus a flat rate to cover Headway’s cost of supporting the session (0.8% + $3.30 or 2.3% + $3.30, depending on payment method.)
Seeing private pay and insurance clients on Headway
You can see both insurance clients and private pay clients on Headway. In fact, we encourage you to continue to take as many in-network insurance clients as possible.
If a client you see through private pay has an insurance plan you're credentialed with, they won't be eligible for private pay on Headway. Additionally, they won't be able to submit superbills for out-of-network reimbursement through their insurance carrier.
Client experience
Clients will be billed when you confirm a session, just like your in-network insurance clients are. They’ll receive invoices and reminders from Headway and be able to keep track of their appointments in their account.
You can message and schedule them from Sigmund, and they’ll be held to your Headway cancellation policy.
* Headway is not responsible for payments that private pay clients do not complete.