Headway, a mental health company, has launched an expanded electronic health record (EHR) system that includes an AI-assisted notes feature, the company announced on Tuesday.
New York City-based Headway makes it easier for mental health clinicians to accept patients through insurance by helping them with credentialing, onboarding, clinical training, scheduling, billing and other services. The company has a network of over 60,000 providers. Through Headway’s platform, patients are able to search for mental health providers by location, concern and insurance carrier and schedule an appointment.
With the expanded EHR, providers receive an AI-assisted tool that allows them to drop in a patient session summary that is turned into an insurance-ready progress note. They can then review the note for accuracy and make adjustments if necessary.
In addition, providers are able to schedule and hold telehealth sessions on the same platform, as well as document and bill for the sessions.
“We launched these capabilities because providers told us they needed them. Mental health clinicians often juggle four to five disconnected tools just to run their practice,” a Headway spokesperson told MedCity News. “By expanding our EHR, we’re making it simple, intuitive, and rewarding for providers to run an insurance-based practice — which ultimately means more patients get timely, affordable care.”
This EHR is free for providers to use, whereas traditional EHRs typically charge monthly subscription fees, according to Headway. In addition, providers can choose how much support they want from the EHR. Some may only use the EHR for billing, and others may use the full EHR suite.
While physical health providers were incentivized to transition to EHRs in the 2010s, mental health providers were not. Still, insurers are applying the same EHR standards to mental health providers as they do with other specialties, even though they often lack the integrated systems needed to comply.
“As a practicing psychiatrist, I know how hard it is for mental health clinicians to deliver high-quality care while buried in administrative work. We evolved our EHR to change that,” said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, chief medical officer at Headway, in a statement. “By equipping clinicians with intuitive tools they’ve been missing, from AI-assisted notes to integrated telehealth functionality, we’re easing their administrative load and giving them back time to focus on what matters most: their patients.”
Headway has already experienced strong adoption since launching its expanded EHR, according to the spokesperson. In the first weeks since rolling it out, clinicians have generated more than 200,000 AI-powered notes. In addition, overall notes usage on the platform rose by 40%.
Other digital health companies that connect patients to mental health providers include Alma and Grow Therapy.
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