Insurance Paneling for Therapists: What to Know Before Using Panels
And What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
About VC-Backed Therapy Platforms
Why Insurance Paneling for Therapists Feels So Overwhelming
Let me be upfront: I have used therapy platforms. Not as the foundation of my practice, but in specific situations where it made sense for a particular insurance panel, payer relationship, or season of growth.
I want to be honest about that because I am not here to pretend the answer is simple. It is not.
Insurance paneling for therapists can be slow, confusing, and deeply frustrating. Getting independently credentialed with insurance panels for therapists often takes months. The process is different for every payer. The same information gets requested multiple ways. You can do everything right and still be stuck watching a portal say “in process” with no clear timeline and no actual person to call.
So when therapist credentialing platforms promise faster access, clean onboarding, built-in billing, and a quicker path to seeing insured clients, I understand why so many clinicians try them.
I have tried them too.
What I am here to tell you is what I wish someone had told me going in: these platforms may solve one problem while quietly creating another. They can help you bypass some of the chaos of insurance credentialing therapy, but they can also put your income, your billing options, your client access, and your long-term practice stability in someone else’s hands.
And after the changes recently, I think more therapists need to understand what is really at stake.
The Week That Should Have Been a Wake-Up Call
A major therapy billing platform used by thousands of clinicians quietly removed the option to bill 90837 recently for providers.
You know these platforms. The ones with the clean app. The fast onboarding. The promise that you can skip the credentialing chaos and see clients next week. The ones that show up in every therapist Facebook group when someone asks how to get paneled fast. The ones backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital and pitched to you as the future of private practice.
One of them made a unilateral operational decision and clinicians absorbed the consequences. No warning. No clinical consultation. No acknowledgment that 90837 is not just a billing code but a protection of the therapy hour for clients who need longer sessions to do real work.
The 90837 code pays more than 90834 or 90832. That gap matters, especially for clinicians working with complex presentations already carrying heavy caseloads at negotiated rates they did not set. Losing access to it is a financial hit and a clinical one.
This is not an isolated incident. This is the business model showing its face.
Why So Many Therapists Turn to Credentialing Platforms
Because insurance credentialing for therapists is a nightmare, and nobody warned us about that either.
Getting paneled with insurance independently takes months. The process is different for every payer. The same information gets requested seventeen different ways. You can do everything right and still be staring at a portal that says "in process" six months later with no human to call.
If you are a newly licensed therapist, you cannot even start until your license is active, which means you hit your most financially vulnerable moment with no income infrastructure in place.
If you are credentialing in a new state, add an entirely different set of payer relationships and panel requirements on top of everything you are already managing.
These platforms offered a shortcut through all of that. The pitch is real. The problem is what comes with it.
The Rate Myth Behind Therapy Platforms
Here is something repeated as fact but is not always true: that therapy platforms negotiate higher insurance rates than you could access on your own.
Sometimes that is accurate. But depending on your state, your practice structure, and what you can offer payers, you may be able to negotiate better rates independently than what the platform secured on your behalf. Often, without knowing what they actually negotiated or what margin they kept in the process.
I have done exactly that with my own practice in certain states and with certain payers. That is part of why I have used these platforms selectively and temporarily rather than as a primary infrastructure. When the math made sense, I used it temporarily. I have negotiated better rates and made sure we had a way to exit.
The point is not that platforms always shortchange you on rates. The point is that you often cannot see clearly what was negotiated, why, or how it compares to what you might access on your own. That opacity works in their favor. It is a disadvantage for you.
You Are Not the Customer. You Are the Product.
The insurance company is the customer. The platform's job is to deliver a large, credentialed, compliant network of therapists to insurers at negotiated rates. You are how they fulfill that contract.
When something changes in that relationship, you are the last to know and the least protected.
The support infrastructure reflects this. When something goes wrong, you are routed toward ticket systems, chatbots, help articles that do not address your situation, and emails that go unanswered for days. Not because nobody cares. Because human support is expensive, and you are a line item, not a person in a professional relationship.
This is the part that hits clinicians the hardest. You went into this field to help people. You are already carrying your clients' pain, documentation demands, ethics requirements, and the relentless pressure to keep your caseload full. You did not sign up to also fight a faceless platform over why your 90837 option disappeared or why a clean claim did not pay.
And yet here we are.
The Risk of Building Your Practice on a Therapy Billing Platform
The dependency is the point.
The harder independent credentialing is, the more you need the platform. The more clients you have through the platform, the harder it is to leave. The more of your income runs through their system, the more you quietly absorb when the terms shift.
And the shifts are accelerating.
I was recently told by my insurance representative that a major state insurer is now closed to new providers because one of these platforms is in the process of acquiring their network. I cannot verify every detail of that arrangement, and I want to be clear about that. But the direction it points is unmistakable.
When a VC-backed behavioral health platform controls who gets in-network with a major payer, therapists in that state who want those clients have to go through that platform. On their terms. At their rates. With no alternative.
That is not a marketplace. That is a toll booth on the road between you and your clients.
When the Platform Deals Fall Apart
Platforms make arrangements with insurers, and those arrangements change. Insurance panels get dropped from therapy platforms with little notice. Rates get cut. Clinicians find out through an automated notification.
Clients mid-treatment. Income disrupted. Timeline not yours to choose.
I have watched this happen to clinicians who did everything right. Who built something real. Who trusted that the arrangement was more stable than it turned out to be.
What struck me was not that it happened. It was how unsurprising it was to anyone who understood the therapy platform business model. Because when you understand it, this is not a surprise. It is an inevitability. The only question is when.
Therapy Platforms vs a Professional Credentialer
If you are using one of these platforms right now, I am not telling you to walk away tomorrow. That is not always realistic or right.
What I am telling you is: do not build anything on it that you are not willing to lose.
Use platforms selectively and temporarily if the math makes sense. For a specific payer, where it works. While you wait for independent credentialing. As a bridge, not a foundation. And know going in that the terms, the rates, the codes available to you, and the payers in the system are not yours to control.
Invest in a professional credentialer from the start. It costs money up front. It is worth every dollar. What you get on the other side is insurance panels you own, rates you negotiated, and practice infrastructure that answers to you.
If you are in or considering a group practice, ask hard questions about what the split actually funds. Credentialing. Billing. Denial management. Admin support. Clinical consultation. A referral pipeline. A human being who picks up when something goes wrong. That is not overhead. That is the thing you are missing when you are alone on a platform that will not take your call.
Final Thoughts on Insurance Panels for Therapists
The behavioral health insurance landscape is consolidating faster than most clinicians realize. The platforms that seemed like shortcuts are revealing themselves as toll roads with variable pricing you did not get to set.
The clinicians who come out okay are the ones who own something, or who choose carefully what to be part of.
You deserve to make that choice with the full picture in front of you.
I hope this helps.
Kelsey Blahnik, LCSW-S
Founder, The And Way Therapy
OCD and Trauma Specialists | Austin and Dripping Springs, TX | Virtual Across Texas and Florida
If you are a clinician thinking through what sustainable practice looks like and want to explore whether The And Way Therapy might be a fit, reach out to The And Way Therapy
Learn more about LCSW supervision with us
If you enjoyed this article, check out Private Practice Therapist Salary: The Costs Behind Solo vs. Group Practice.
FAQs About Insurance Panels for Therapists
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Insurance paneling for therapists is the process of becoming approved to accept insurance from a specific payer. This usually involves submitting licensure information, education, professional experience, liability insurance, NPI numbers, CAQH information, and other documentation required by the insurance company.
For many clinicians, insurance paneling can take months and may involve confusing portals, repeated documentation requests, and limited communication from payers. This is one reason some therapists turn to credentialing platforms or therapy billing platforms for support. However, therapists should understand what they are giving up in exchange for convenience, especially when it comes to rates, billing control, and long-term practice ownership.
But the bigger question is not just what a therapist earns.
It is what they actually keep after business expenses, taxes, marketing, billing, consultation, legal support, technology, and unpaid time are accounted for.
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No. Being independently credentialed means the therapist or practice has a direct relationship with the insurance payer. The insurance panel belongs to the therapist or practice, and the clinician has more control over payer contracts, reimbursement rates, billing systems, and long-term practice decisions.
A therapy platform may give therapists access to insurance clients through the platform’s payer relationships, but that access is usually tied to the platform’s terms. If the platform changes rates, removes billing options, drops a payer, or changes how certain session codes can be used, the therapist may have limited control. That does not mean platforms are always bad, but they should be viewed carefully and strategically.
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It depends on the therapist’s goals, financial situation, state, payer options, and stage of practice. A credentialing platform may make sense as a temporary bridge, especially while a therapist is waiting for independent insurance paneling to be completed. It may also make sense for a specific payer if the platform’s rate and administrative support are worth the tradeoff.
However, therapists should be cautious about building their entire private practice income around a platform they do not control. Independent insurance panels, professional credentialing support, strong billing systems, and thoughtful practice infrastructure can create more long-term stability. The goal is not to avoid every platform, but to make sure the platform is not the foundation of a practice you cannot afford to lose.
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VC-backed therapy platforms are therapy companies or technology platforms funded by venture capital investors. In simple terms, investors put money into the company with the expectation that it will grow quickly and become highly profitable.
In the therapy world, these platforms may offer services like faster credentialing, access to insurance panels, client referrals, billing support, scheduling tools, or documentation systems. For therapists, that can sound appealing, especially when insurance paneling feels slow and overwhelming.
The concern is that VC-backed therapy platforms are often built to scale. That means their business decisions may be shaped by growth goals, payer relationships, investor expectations, and profit margins. Those priorities do not always align with what therapists need for clinical autonomy, sustainable income, human support, and long-term practice stability.
This does not mean every platform is bad or that therapists should never use them. It means therapists should understand the business model before relying on one as the foundation of their practice.
Written by Kelsey Blahnik, LCSW-S
Kelsey Blahnik, LCSW-S, is an author, clinician, and creator of The And Way model. She is an advocate committed to bringing peace and justice into our politically divided world. With extensive experience in behavioral health, including work with substance abuse, unhoused individuals, and veterans, Kelsey has witnessed the impact of division on communities. She is the owner of a thriving online group therapy practice, The And Way Therapy, and author of the book The And Way: Assertive Peacemaking in a Divided World.
Outside the therapy room, you’ll usually find her reading, hiking, or enjoying matcha.
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