Headway Raises $100 Million in Series D Funding, Plans Expansion to Serve People with Medicare Advantage and Medicaid Insurance Coverage

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Jul 23, 2024, 09:00 ET

Investment will accelerate product development to empower clinicians to scale their practice and provide care to more diverse patient populations

The company's valuation has more than doubled to $2.3 billion

NEW YORK, July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Headway, the company building a new mental healthcare system, today announced a $100 million Series D funding round and its planned expansion to Medicare Advantage and Medicaid. These developments will further enable clinicians on the platform to scale their practices and provide affordable, effective mental health care to a broader and more diverse community of patients, including seniors, low-income Americans and individuals living with disabilities.

The recent funding values the company at $2.3 billion, a 130% increase from its previous valuation. Led by Spark Capital, with participation from existing investors Thrive Capital, Accel and a16z, and new investor Forerunner Ventures, this round will accelerate platform development to simplify private practice operations so providers can focus on delivering excellent clinical care.

Headway streamlines credentialing, onboarding, clinical training, scheduling, billing and more, making it easy for mental health clinicians to accept patients through insurance. Since launching in 2019, the company has scaled its platform with commercial insurance, and is in-network today with more than 40 commercial health plans across 50 states and the District of Columbia. With 34,000 clinicians leveraging Headway's platform to run their private practice, Headway will now expand its services to allow providers to serve patients through Medicare Advantage and Medicaid. The company and its affiliates have begun working with Medicare Advantage plans in certain states, with thousands of clinicians already participating. Headway expects to be live with Medicare Advantage in 51 markets by the end of the year, and plans to launch with Medicaid in 2025.

"Headway believes that every person across this country deserves access to not just any care, but great and affordable care. Headway's community of clinicians are well-equipped to deliver great mental health care services to those in need," said Andrew Adams, Founder & CEO of Headway. "This funding positions Headway to accelerate our expansion into Medicare Advantage and Medicaid to meaningfully improve the lives of millions of people, which we know is important to the providers who use our platform."

Medicare Advantage and Medicaid cover more than 100 million people — nearly one-third of Americans — who often experience higher rates of need, yet face additional barriers to care. A March 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that despite the fact that one in three Medicaid beneficiaries and one in four Medicare beneficiaries live with a mental illness, access remains elusive due to a dire shortage of mental health providers. Headway's community of providers are eager to fill these gaps; in a survey of more than 1,000 clinicians conducted by the company last year, a majority reported that the top reason they took insurance was to "provide access to care for those that may not be able to afford private pay services."

"Headway has made working with Medicare easier for me through enrollment, onboarding and navigating compliance expectations. I can truly say that I would not be accepting Medicare clients without Headway," said Andre Maxie, LMFT, an early adopter of Headway's Medicare Advantage expansion. "Accepting Medicare is important to me because it allows me to reach a population that has been historically underserved."

As a direct result of the company's most recent funding, Headway will make further investments in clinicians by:

Helping licensed clinicians grow their practices by serving more clients through new partnerships with Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and additional commercial plans.
Building new tools and products that expedite Medicare and Medicaid credentialing timelines and compliance requirements, while empowering clinicians to practice at the top of their license.

"Headway is quickly becoming the centralized platform for mental health care access and delivery," said Will Reed, General Partner at Spark Capital and Headway Board Member. "The company is uniquely positioned to bring together providers, patients and payers and unite a fragmented system, and Spark Capital is excited to further support its mission and growth."

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 34,000 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