Headway Launches Nationwide Solution to Bridge the Primary Care-Mental Health Divide Through Insurance

By connecting primary care doctors directly with its network of 50,000 insurance-accepting providers, Headway ensures patients receive timely mental health care

NEW YORK, May 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Headway, the company building a new mental healthcare system that everyone can access, today announced the nationwide launch of its approach to integrated care, which creates seamless pathways between primary and mental health care, all covered by insurance. As the nation's largest network of insurance-accepting mental health providers, Headway is uniquely positioned to execute a collaborative approach that gets high-need patients to the right care at the right time.

Headway's research found that nearly half of patients seek out mental health care from their primary care provider (PCP) or their insurance network. Yet according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, approximately 66% of PCPs were unable to secure outpatient mental health services for their patients, largely due to insurance barriers and fragmented systems.

"The fragmentation between physical and mental healthcare isn't just an inconvenience, it's failing patients and their health," said Andrew Adams, Founder & CEO of Headway. "Primary care doctors are often the first to identify mental health concerns, but they're left without a reliable way to get patients the care they need. By integrating directly into doctors' referral workflows, we're building the infrastructure to ensure no patient slips through the cracks."

Decades of research have shown that integrated care leads to better outcomes and treatment adherence, and the American Psychiatric Association reports that effective integration can lower overall healthcare costs by 10-15% through reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

Through their existing electronic health record (EHR) system, physicians can refer patients to Headway in less than two minutes. Headway will then get in touch with referred patients within one day, offering patients the option to self-book or work directly with Headway's clinically-led care advocacy team to find their right provider. Headway's model creates a "closed-loop" communication system between physical and mental health providers; referring physicians receive secure updates on their patients' care status, ensuring they are never left wondering if their patients received care.

Dr. Sally H. Kwa, Internist at NYU Langone ACWS and an early adopter of the Headway partnership, describes the impact: "Before partnering with Headway, I felt helpless in trying to find therapists for my patients, often without knowing if they ever received care. Now I can refer a patient during their appointment in under two minutes, and I get updates on their progress. This has transformed how we deliver integrated care."

Headway has established partnerships with medical organizations representing over 15,000 clinicians (across specialties like primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, and emergency medicine), who have made more than 10,000 referrals. Unlike past integration efforts that have struggled due to insufficient provider networks or siloed care models, Headway has built both the infrastructure and quality assurance systems needed for collaboration.

Dr. Jeff Gould, MD, Senior Medical Director and Head of Clinical Team at Headway, emphasizes the clinical importance of this approach: "Our approach goes beyond simply connecting patients to providers. We provide white-glove matching support, carefully navigating patients to the right provider based on their diagnosis, specialty needs, and personal preferences to create the optimal therapeutic match. Our robust clinical oversight protocols, provider quality monitoring and outcome measurement systems maintain the highest standards across our network, delivering effective care that's truly tailored to each patient."

Headway's scale and quality uniquely position the company to solve the core connection problem in care integration:

• Speed to care: Headway offers appointments within 48 hours, with patients attending their first session in an average of 4.9 days for talk therapy and 3.8 days for medication management — dramatically faster than the industry average of 15+ days for talk therapy and 43-67 days for psychiatric care.
• Network diversity: 40% of Headway's provider network identifies as BIPOC. The network also represents over 57 languages.
• Network availability: 86% of Headway providers report wanting more patients, compared to fewer than 20% of providers industry-wide.
• Clinical specialization: 73% of providers specialize in high-need areas such as substance use disorders (SUD), PTSD, and child/adolescent care.
• Symptom reduction: 71% of Headway patients show measurable improvement within 30 days.
• Treatment adherence: 86% of patients attend at least three sessions, a strong indicator of early engagement and sustained care.

"Historically, widespread adoption of integrated care has been stymied by the lack of infrastructure and incentives among providers," commented Dr. Dena Bravata, MD, MS, Headway Advisor. "Headway has built the necessary infrastructure to facilitate high quality collaborations among clinicians, each bringing their specialized skills to bear on the care of complex patients. It's exciting to consider how patients and providers will benefit from integrated care."

About Headway
Headway is building the modern mental healthcare system where everyone can get the right care from the right therapist, covered by insurance. Today, we're the largest mental health provider network in the country, with 50,000 providers across race, gender, ethnicity and specialty working with Headway to run their private practice. Patients can schedule care within 48 hours via one-click booking at headway.co, or can get care through a referral. The company operates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and has funding from a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, Forerunner Ventures, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Spark Capital, Thrive Capital, and Health Care Service Corporation.

Contact
Gabriella Lourie
[email protected]

SOURCE Headway