Headway, a platform connecting patients with mental health providers covered by insurance, announced expanded EHR features for providers.
As of today, the EHR combines embedded telehealth functionality, scheduling, documentation, billing and patient communication in one system. The goal is to save providers time on administrative tasks and allow them to spend more time on care.
The expansion includes AI-assisted notes, added calendar features and an expanded practice forms library. The AI notes are not an ambient scribe; rather, they are based on provider inputs and help format notes for insurers. Providers can edit before submitting and get nudges pointing out errors. The EHR has already offered automatic benefits verification and simplified claims submission to support this area.
Mental health has long been behind in the EHR race. But insurers often apply the same EHR standards and requirements to therapists as other specialties, Headway executives argue. The gap leads to inefficiency, burnout and longer patient wait times. This drives mental health providers away from accepting insurance in the first place.
Headway’s platform is completely free to use for all providers, whether they take cash pay or insurance. With the latest expansion, clinicians can choose how much support they want and what features they’d like to engage with.
“Clinician response has been really strong—and that’s because we built this with them, not just for them,” Neha Chaudhary, M.D., chief medical officer at Headway, told Fierce Healthcare. Headway gathered feedback throughout the product development process to shape the end result, she added: “I’m a practicing psychiatrist myself, and I know how rare it is to find tools that are designed specifically around how mental health clinicians actually work, especially those who take insurance.”
Some of the new tools have already been adopted. In less than two months, clinicians have generated more than 200,000 AI-powered notes on Headway. In all, Headway has seen a 40% increase in the number of notes written on the platform since the expansion.
“It means their clinician can focus on [patients], not paperwork. The hope is that this translates to higher quality care and better clinical outcomes for patients across the country,” Chaudhary said.
Headway operates in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It has received funding from a16z, Accel, Thrive Capital and others. More than 60,000 providers use the platform.