A Headway alternative for clinicians who hold their own contracts
AgenciesForge is a $99/month practice platform for solo licensed clinicians and agencies that bill their own payer contracts: EHR, ambient AI scribe, Stedi clearinghouse for eligibility, claims and ERA, unlimited telehealth, patient portal and outcome forms, with 30 active clients and 130 claims a month included on the solo plan. It is not a referral marketplace: we send you no clients and take no percentage of your insurance reimbursement. Headway's marketplace service fee is $9.99 per appointment on clients who found you through its marketplace, and it recurs for as long as you see that client — one such client seen weekly for a year is $519.48. Our only percentage is 1% on patient card payments we process.
Setting up is free. You pay when you go live. Unlimited clinicians on every agency plan.
What is the fee costing you?
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no email box.
What this does not include, in both directions. Headway rents you its payer contracts, bills on your behalf and pays every two weeks whether or not it has been reimbursed, and it sends you clients. We do none of those things: the contracts are yours, which also means the denials are yours. Set against that, the fee applies only to marketplace-sourced clients — your own referrals, direct-link bookings, pre-change clients and no-shows are exempt, which is why they are not an input above.
What a flat price actually buys
Nothing per session, nothing that follows a client
One monthly price for a stated capacity. Two metered items, both published before you sign: voice minutes past 500, and claims past 130 at $0.50. No charge is attached to a particular client, so keeping a client for three years costs the same as keeping them for three weeks.
Your contracts, your whole rate
You bill your own payer contracts through the built-in Stedi clearinghouse — eligibility, 837P claims, ERA posting. We take no cut of the reimbursement, so the rate you negotiated is the rate you receive. The trade is that the denials are yours; the pre-submit claim audit and the appeal drafting exist to make that survivable.
Credentialing readiness in the product
A per-payer readiness check reads your real profile and tells you what each payer needs, what you have, and what is missing or expiring, with an application tracker and AI-drafted enrollment steps. Platforms that monetise doing your credentialing have a reason to keep it opaque. We would rather you be panelled directly and stay for the software.
The AI is the backbone, not a $35 add-on
Ambient scribe turns a dictated session into a SOAP draft. A 15-point audit checks every claim before it reaches the clearinghouse and fails closed. Outcome scores are interpreted inline. All of it is included at every tier, because an EHR that charges separately for the part that saves you time has the incentive backwards.
Telehealth and fax bundled
Unlimited HIPAA-compliant video under our existing BAA — no separate Doxy or Zoom Health subscription, no second BAA to sign. AI-routed inbound and outbound fax is included and activates at onboarding.
Published, not quoted on a call
Every allowance, overage rate and percentage on this page is on this page. You can read what we charge without talking to anyone, and compare it to what you pay now before you move.
What to check before you pick anything, including us
Most of the anger about Headway's fee is really about structure rather than the amount. These are the four questions that decide what a platform costs you over years, and they are worth asking of every option on your list.
- Does the charge end? A fee tied to acquiring a client is a different thing from a fee tied to keeping one. Headway's recurs: "The fee applies for as long as you see that client, not just their first session." One weekly client for a year is $519.48; over three years, $1558.44. Compare that to a one-time charge per new client, which is how marketplace fees in the rest of healthcare generally work.
- Does it touch your private pay? Headway deducts "Headway's cost of supporting the session, 2.95% of your session rate" on private-pay sessions, plus processing — and the $9.99 also applies to private-pay sessions with a marketplace client. Grow Therapy takes 5% of cash-pay sessions, which is higher. Alma states the opposite: "The income from your cash-pay clients stays with you." This varies more between platforms than anything else, so read the specific page rather than assuming.
- Is the fee fixed or variable? A flat monthly membership — Alma publishes $125/month, Psychology Today $29.95/month — costs the same whether you see five clients or fifty, so its cost per session falls as you grow. A per-session fee has the same marginal cost forever and never amortises. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your volume, and the crossover is lower than most people assume.
- Can you still get panelled directly where you practise? This is the question that decides whether leaving is even available to you, and it is specific to your state and your payers. Ask each payer directly whether they are accepting individual applications before you give up a platform that already has you on their panel.
Pricing
| Plan | Per month | Active patients | Clinicians |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo Starter | $99 | 30 active clients · 130 claims/mo | Unlimited |
| EHR Starter | $199 | 50 active patients · unlimited clinicians | Unlimited |
| EHR Professional | $499 | 200 active patients · unlimited clinicians | Unlimited |
Setting up is free; you pay when you go live. Metered and published: voice minutes past the plan's allowance, and claims past it at $0.50 each. Patient card payments carry Stripe's processing fee plus our 1% — card payments only, never insurance reimbursement. No per-seat fees on any agency plan.
Is it the right fit?
A good fit
- You already hold your own payer contracts, or you can get panelled where you practise
- You want one published price instead of a percentage of every session
- You are tired of a referral fee that recurs for the life of the client
- You want the scribe, the claim audit, telehealth and the clearinghouse in the base price
- You are starting an agency and want certification and Medicaid enrollment handled as a product
Probably not a fit
- You need someone to send you clients. We have no marketplace and no referral network at all — if your caseload depends on Headway's marketplace, leaving costs you that pipeline and we do not replace it
- You want someone else to carry the claim risk. Headway pays every two weeks whether or not it has been reimbursed; billing your own contracts means a denial is your problem, not a platform's
- You cannot get panelled directly with the payers you need, and a platform is currently your only route onto them
- You want your credentialing done for you as a service rather than guided in software
- You bill under 30 clients and want the absolute cheapest line item — a directory listing is cheaper than any EHR, including this one
Questions owners ask
What exactly does Headway's $9.99 fee apply to?
Clients who found you through Headway's marketplace and booked from your Headway profile. Headway's help centre exempts clients you bring yourself, clients who book through your own direct link (including from a Psychology Today profile or your website), clients who found you on Headway before the change, and health-system referrals. There is no fee on cancellations or no-shows. So it is not $9.99 on every session — but on the sessions it covers, it applies to both insurance and private pay, and it recurs: "The fee applies for as long as you see that client, not just their first session."
Can I just turn off my marketplace listing?
You can, and your direct booking link keeps working. It stops new marketplace clients, but it does not release the ones you already have. Headway's words: "Clients who booked through the Headway marketplace on or after your start date stay marketplace clients, and their sessions still include the fee." A client's source is set at first booking and "stays the same for all your sessions with them after that."
When does the fee start?
Headway's help centre, as of 9 October 2026, says it is introduced state by state "starting November 2026, and reach every state by the end of 2026," and names no states. Trade coverage on 1–2 October reported an 8 October start in five named states; that help article was edited on 8 October and the state list is no longer on it. Headway published no notice of the change, so check your own portal for your start date rather than any article, including this one.
Is AgenciesForge a replacement for Headway?
Not directly, and it would be dishonest to say otherwise. Headway holds the payer contracts, bills on your behalf, and pays you every two weeks whether or not it has been reimbursed. We sell the software to run contracts you hold yourself — so you keep the whole contracted rate, and you also carry the denials. If your caseload currently depends on Headway's marketplace for new clients, we do not replace that: we have no marketplace and send you no referrals.
What does AgenciesForge charge, exactly?
$99/month for a solo clinician: 30 active clients, 130 claims a month — a full caseload seen weekly — the EHR, ambient AI scribe, Stedi clearinghouse for eligibility and claims and ERA, unlimited telehealth, patient portal and outcome forms, and 500 voice dictation minutes. Two things are metered and both are published: voice minutes past 500 at $0.10/min, and claims past 130 at $0.50 each, which is what the clearinghouse charges us. If you take card payments through the patient portal, Stripe's processing fee applies and we add 1% — card payments only, never your insurance reimbursement. Nothing is charged per session, and nothing follows a client.
Do you help with credentialing, or do I have to do that myself?
The platform includes a payer-enrollment readiness check that reads your own profile and tells you, per payer, what is required, what you already have, and what is missing or expiring — plus an application tracker and an AI mode that drafts the enrollment steps and cover letter. That is the part that actually keeps people on a platform, so it is in the product rather than sold as a service. On the certification plans, getting a new agency certified and Medicaid-enrolled is the product; those are paid plans and certification is never free.
Will my clients come with me if I leave Headway?
Headway's own position is that they can: "Clients you bring to Headway are yours — should you choose to leave the platform, you are welcome to take them with you." The same page adds an expectation that clients who found you through the marketplace continue to be seen on Headway. Read it yourself before you act on it, and get your own advice — we are not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
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Related: Solo therapist plan in full · The included clearinghouse · Starting your own agency · Every plan and price