Getting credentialed with insurance - Starting a new mental health practice

Getting credentialed with insurance companies is a pain in the neck, to put it politely. So far as I can tell, there are four options for working with insurance:

1. Work for someone else who has a billing department
2. Sign up for a company like Alma or Headway and be dependently credentialed
3. Do everything yourself, get independently credentialed, and work on your own
4. Hire an outside billing company to do insurance credentialing for you

I suppose the 5th option would be to not take insurance, but I do. The advantages are obvious. So let's explore the four ways to accomplish this.

First, we could just work for someone else. This does not necessarily mean being an employee, but that is an option. There are many businesses out there who would gladly hire an independently licensed counselor. We are in high demand. We can bill at a high rate than entry level clinicians in many cases. Clinics like that. The other option is that I could join a group practice. This would eat into my bottom line, as I would have to share a cut of my billing with the group. But in exchange for this, I would have office space, an address to use for business purposes other than my residence. The split is usually 50/50 or 60/40.

The second option is to remain independent, but join a therapy network. Let's be clear, I know this means working for them, just as a contract employee would. They credential people, but under their company name. As a result, a counselor may be able to get a higher rate per session. The downside is that many of these companies see the clients as belonging to them, not me. If I decide to leave, it is expected that the client remains with them, the same as when I left any other employer.

Lots of people land on option number three. Do all the paperwork themselves. This is not an option for me. I know I would mess something up, or go in circles and waste time. It has already happened, and I am running out of time. This option also means doing your own billing, claims, handling rejections, all that stuff. I know my limits, and feel this is the wrong option.

So here I am sitting at the bottom of the list at option number four. I interviewed two small companies, and decided to hire one. I actually tried to contact a third company, initially. But they never replied to my messages, or online inquiries. I would have preferred them, as they are local, but not responding to online messages is a bad thing. The second person I contacted was through Facebook. This person posted in the comments section of a group I am a member of. They were very helpful, helped me get started, then ghosted me. I contacted them again, seeing if I could get more help, and they seemed unable to handle more business at this time.

That's seems to be the issue here. The need out weighs available help. Insurance is getting so complex that there are not enough billers out there to do the work. I finally got someone who at least is communicating with me. They came highly recommended by another person on the same Facebook group. This small company is also backed up, though. I am worried about timely processing of claims, and other issues. I hope I chose well.