Decision tool · Fit quiz
Six questions, about 90 seconds. No email required to see your recommendation. We'll tell you which credentialing route makes sense given your specialty, state, timeline, and what's already in place — and we'll say it plainly, not as a vendor pitch.
We'll email you a one-page summary of your recommendation plus the sequencing checklist for the route you picked. No spam; unsubscribe anytime.
It depends on how long you plan to practice and whether you want to own your panels. Headway gets you seeing insurance clients in weeks instead of months, but you don't own the contracts — if you leave, you re-credential from scratch. Direct credentialing is slower (90–180 days is the floor) but the panels travel with you. The tool weighs urgency, specialty, and existing credentialing to tell you which tradeoff fits your situation.
Direct with a commercial payer typically runs 90–180 days per panel, often longer for Medicare and Medicaid. Headway onboarding is usually 2–4 weeks once your NPI, licensure, and CAQH profile are clean. If you're leaving a group practice and need income fast, that's why Headway looks attractive — but you're trading speed for portability.
Alma charges a flat monthly membership instead of a rev-share cut, which looks cheaper until you model sessions per week. At high volume Alma wins on per-session economics; at lower volume the monthly fee gets expensive relative to revenue. And like Headway, the panels belong to Alma — leaving means starting your direct credentialing from zero.
Prioritize the two or three payers your referral sources actually use. For mental health, that's usually one regional Blues plan plus one or two of Aetna/Cigna/United depending on your metro. Medicaid belongs on the list only if your caseload plan includes it — it takes longer and reimburses less, but it widens the referral pool. Don't try to panel with everyone at once; the application load breaks people.
Good — use that one as your income floor while you work through the rest. If your first panel is through a group practice, the credentialing is usually tied to the group's tax ID, not yours; leaving means re-applying. If it's under your own NPI, it transfers. The tool asks this question because the answer changes the sequencing recommendation.
Yes, and it's the hybrid route most people don't hear about until later. A credentialing service files the direct applications on your behalf for a per-payer fee (typically $200–$600). You end up with panels under your own NPI — same portability as DIY — but without losing 20+ hours per application to CAQH, rosters, and phone trees. Worth it when your time is more valuable than the fee.