Alma and Headway have recently gained significant attention as two prominent players in the mental health tech industry. While these companies offer appealing features – especially for new therapists aiming to build their caseloads quickly – there are concerns about their influence on the profession and the mental health industry as a whole. Let’s examine some of the challenges associated with these platforms.

Data Sharing Considerations

Alma and Headway offer a higher reimbursement rate for therapists, but this increased reimbursement rate comes with some trade-offs. These companies profit by taking a substantial percentage of the provider’s pay, but they also have access to a wealth of data generated by you and your clients. Partnered with major insurance companies and tech giants, Alma and Headway may be able to negotiate higher rates with insurers in exchange for sharing this data. These privacy concerns are not unfounded. Recently, Headway has been slammed with a class action suit for sharing private information with Google. Interestingly enough, Google Ventures is one of their biggest investors. The sharing of data comes with its own set of pros and cons that should not be ignored and needs careful consideration. While the inevitability of AI in various professions is apparent, platforms like Alma and Headway can accelerate this trend, potentially leading to a future where AI plays a more dominant role in mental health, which could impact therapists’ practices significantly.

The Influence of Investors

Alma and Headway have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and these investors include insurance companies and tech giants such as United Healthcare-Optum, Cigna, Google, and Andreessen Horowitz. While the exact implications of these partnerships remain unclear, it’s important to recognize the potential for conflicts of interest. Historically, such alliances have resulted in the providers facing increased fees and decreased reimbursement rates, with profits prioritized over therapist and client well-being.

Financial Considerations: Given that both companies are billion-dollar tech giants with around 30,000 therapists in their networks, potential control over rates and data and monopolization of the market is concerning. Therapists are encouraged to conduct thorough research before making decisions about their involvement with these platforms.

Transparency Concerns

One critical issue is the lack of transparency regarding payment rates. Both Alma and Headway have been criticized for not disclosing how much they receive from insurance companies for each therapy session. This information has been gathered through research on various message boards/forums/social media groups, and input from therapists using these platforms.

For example, here are some approximate percentages for service fees (Alma has a monthly fee of $125 on top of these service fees) —

Cigna Evernorth: 40%-50% service fee

Aetna: 25%-35% service fee

United Healthcare Optum: 25%-35% service fee

In contrast, Ethera’s approach is transparent with straightforward rates and an 8.75% service fee to cover administrative expenses for credentialing, billing, and customer support. Ethera also has significantly higher reimbursement rates for Cigna.

How Ethera is Different

Supporting Local Providers

Ethera is a local business dedicated to supporting local providers; we are not a billion-dollar company driven by investors with a profit-first mindset. Our main goal is to support therapists. We offer therapists the option to accept insurance clients for a higher reimbursement rate, while also providing a more personal and responsive experience compared to large corporations. We are accessible by phone or in person, ensuring that therapists have real people to connect with, rather than automated emails and AI bots.

Empowering Supervisory Billing

One crucial distinction that sets our contract apart from Alma and Headway is our support for supervisory billing. Our contract enables therapists to have associates working under their supervision and submit claims for the services provided by these associates. The process for supervisory billing is straightforward, mirroring the standard claims submission process.

It’s worth noting that Alma and Headway do not offer the option for supervisory billing, which can be a significant limitation for therapists who wish to oversee and bill for services provided by associates under their guidance. This flexibility in our contract aims to empower therapists and provide them with a valuable tool for managing their practice and expanding their services.