Starting a practice

What insurance companies look for in group practices (and how Headway helps)

Headway’s features support clinical excellence and compliance at scale.

November 21, 2025

6 min read

Running a group practice means delivering excellent care — and proving it to insurance companies. Payers expect consistency, detailed documentation, clean claims, and strong operational systems before they’ll partner with a practice. For many leaders, navigating those requirements can feel overwhelming, especially while managing clinicians, supporting clients, and growing a business.

This guide breaks down what insurance companies look for when contracting with group practices, and how you can meet those expectations without adding hours of administrative work to your week. Along the way, we’ll show how Headway streamlines in-network compliance, simplifies billing and credentialing, and gives group practices the structure and confidence to scale — without the paperwork stress.

Understanding insurance compliance requirements

While scaling your practice is a great way to expand mental health care, group practices inherently have more responsibility than as a solo provider. That responsibility increases with the number of providers who work in your practice — and especially when your practice works with insurance payers.

All mental health care providers are familiar with compliance standards, but payers have unique requirements for group practices that can be difficult to juggle. From credentialing each clinician to ensuring consistent documentation and accurate coding, compliance touches nearly every aspect of your operations.

Meeting these requirements can be complex, but it’s crucial for successful insurance partnerships. Establishing clear systems and workflows from the start not only builds payer trust but also helps prevent costly errors and audit risks down the line.

What payers look for specifically in a group practice

Every insurance company is different in their unique expectations for group practices. While exact criteria vary, insurers consistently want to see strong processes, accountability, and alignment with clinical and billing standards. Some common payer requirements for group practices include:

Credentialing: If your practice accepts insurance, you’ll go through the credentialing process for each provider and payer, which can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Payers expect accurate, timely submission and visibility into provider status to prevent claim issues.
Licensing: As a group practice owner, you are responsible for ensuring your therapists are adequately licensed and that their credentials are up to date in all the states they’re providing care. This includes tracking renewals, state board requirements, and any changes in provider status.
Documentation: Payers’ scrutiny of billing is higher than ever, which means documentation is, too. As a group practice owner, you’ll need to ensure your providers’ notes support the care they deliver, from diagnosis codes to treatment approaches used in therapy sessions. Insurance companies look for consistent, clinically appropriate documentation that demonstrates medical necessity and aligns with insurance billing rules.
Billing and coding accuracy: Beyond charting, insurers expect clean claims submitted with proper CPT codes, modifiers, and diagnosis codes. Group leaders must establish guardrails to reduce denials and ensure ethical, compliant billing across a practice.

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Common challenges for group practices

Even the most organized, efficient group practices can feel stretched while juggling payer rules, administrative tasks, and growth. Below are some of the most common challenges group practices face when managing insurance workflows.

Keeping up with multiple payers’ rules and evolving reimbursement policies
Manual billing errors and delayed reimbursements that disrupt cash flow
Ensuring consistent and compliant documentation and coding
Credentialing new providers efficiently while juggling renewals, payer timelines, and onboarding logistics
Tracking and managing provider licenses across multiple states or payers
Ensuring data security and HIPAA compliance across telehealth, billing, and documentation systems

How Headway simplifies compliance & insurance workflows

Whether you’re thinking of starting a group practice or yours is already established, Headway can support you by simplifying compliance and payer workflows — making it easier for you and providers in your practice to focus on providing the best possible care to clients.

Our end-to-end platform handles the details that typically slow practice growth, ensuring your team stays compliant, efficient, and paid on time.

Automated insurance verification: Eliminate manual eligibility checks with real-time verification that ensures every session is covered before it happens.
Streamlined claims submission and follow-up: Reduce denials and speed up reimbursement with automated claim submission, tracking, and resubmission tools — no spreadsheets or portals required.
Credentialing support for new providers: Start seeing clients in as few as 30 days, without the time-consuming back-and-forth that comes with credentialing across payers.
Assessments to track client progress: Ensure all therapeutic care aligns with treatment goals for prompt reimbursement and stronger clinical outcomes.
Documentation templates: Built-in notes templates within our EHR help you make sure your documentation is accurate and meets payer requirements, every time.
Automatic re-credentialing: Headway automatically re-credentials its providers every three years to maintain active, compliant status with all payers.
Partnership in payer audits: We help with audits for Headway providers and will continue paying you through them, so your income and operations remain uninterrupted.

Actionable tips for group practice leaders

With a bit of strategy, you can create and maintain an efficient and effective workflow that adheres to payers’ compliance standards. No matter the size of your group, these priorities are a great place to start as you expand your practice and build sustainable, scalable systems.

Maintain organized provider credentials with clear tracking for licenses, renewals, and payer enrollment status.
Standardize billing and documentation practices across all clinicians, including templates, coding expectations, and supervision protocols.
Monitor documentation compliance proactively through routine audits, feedback loops, and training to prevent issues before they impact claims.
Consider leveraging technology like Headway to save time and minimize risk by automating admin tasks, supporting claims, and keeping documentation aligned with payer requirements.

Headway supports group practice compliance

Headway takes the guesswork out of compliance so group practices can focus on care. By submitting claims under Headway’s NPI, we share billing responsibility for every session, reducing administrative burden. Our built-in documentation templates and coding guidance align with insurance requirements, so your team can chart confidently and consistently. With Headway, you get the systems, safeguards, and support you need to expand your practice — so you can spend more time leading, supervising, and helping your clinicians flourish.

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This content is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute clinical, legal, financial, or professional advice. All decisions should be made at the discretion of the individual or organization, in consultation with qualified clinical, legal, or other appropriate professionals.

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