Disclosure
CureCloudMed is a credentialing and billing company. We are one of the options below, and we have an obvious interest in you picking us. We have tried to describe the alternatives as we would want them described if the positions were reversed, and there are cases below where we say plainly that you should not hire us.
There are four ways to get on panels
Most comparison articles list companies. That is the wrong first question. The first question is which kind of solution fits your practice, because the four categories suit very different situations.
| Option | How it works | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Do it yourself | You build CAQH and file each application | One clinician, two or three panels, time available | Free in money, expensive in hours and delay if a form is wrong |
| 2. Insurance-panel networks (Headway, Alma, Grow Therapy and similar) |
You join their group contracts; you are in network through them, and they handle claims and pay you a set rate | Solo therapists who want speed and no admin | You do not hold your own contracts, the rate is theirs not yours, and leaving means starting credentialing from scratch |
| 3. Credentialing-only firms (CredEx, Medwave and similar) |
Paid per provider per payer to file and follow up; you hold the contracts | Practices that already have a biller they like | Credentialing and billing sit with different companies, so nobody owns the gap between them |
| 4. Credentialing + billing partners (CureMD, CureCloudMed and similar) |
One team enrolls you and then bills the claims | Group practices, and anyone who has been burned by that gap | More commitment than credentialing alone; worth less if you only need one panel |
When you should not hire anyone
If you are a solo therapist, licensed in one state, joining two or three panels, and you have a few free hours a week, do it yourself. CAQH is tedious rather than difficult. The applications are forms. The real skill in credentialing is knowing where the traps are and chasing weekly, and for a small number of panels you can do both.
Read our insurance credentialing for therapists page first: the behavioral carve-out map, the closed-panel section and the document checklist on it are the parts people get wrong, and they are free to read.
When a panel network is the better answer
If your priority is seeing clients next month rather than building a practice asset, an insurance-panel network is genuinely faster. You are on their contracts, so you skip most of the wait.
Understand what you are trading. You do not own the payer relationship, the reimbursement rate is set by the network rather than negotiated by you, and if you leave you begin your own credentialing from zero, typically 90 to 120 days later. That is a reasonable deal for some practices and a poor one for a group planning to grow.
What to ask any company you are considering
- Do I hold the contracts, or do you? The single most important question, and the one that decides what happens if you leave.
- How is it priced? Per provider per payer is normal. Be careful with open-ended monthly retainers with no defined scope.
- Who follows up, and how often? Credentialing is 10% filing and 90% chasing. "We submitted it" is not a service.
- Do you know the behavioral carve-outs? Ask who credentials therapists for UnitedHealthcare and for Cigna. If they cannot answer "Optum" and "Evernorth" immediately, they do not do this often.
- Do you handle CAQH re-attestation? Every 120 days, and a lapse stalls everything silently.
- What happens at re-credentialing? Three years passes quickly and falling off a panel is worse than never joining it.
- Will you tell me not to join a panel? A company paid per application has an incentive to file more of them.
Where we fit
We are option four. We are a good fit if you are a group practice, if you want to hold your own contracts, or if you have already had the experience of being credentialed by one company and billed by another and discovering that neither owned the month in between.
We are the wrong choice if you are a solo therapist who wants to be seeing clients in three weeks, a panel network will beat us on speed, and we will tell you so on the call. We are also the wrong choice if you only need one panel; that is not worth anybody's engagement fee.
What we do well: the behavioral carve-outs, closed-panel arguments, Medicare enrollment for counselors and MFTs since the 2024 change, group rosters, and not losing the handoff between an effective date and the first clean claim. See insurance credentialing for therapists and mental health providers and mental health billing services.
FAQs
How much should credentialing cost?
The common structure is a fee per provider per payer, with a lower rate for linking a clinician to contracts a group already holds. What matters more than the number is what is included: CAQH build and re-attestation, weekly follow-up, contract review and re-credentialing tracking, or just the initial submission.
Can I use a panel network and also hold my own contracts?
Often yes, and it is a reasonable transition strategy: start on a network for cash flow while your own credentialing runs in the background, then move clients across as your contracts go live. Check your network agreement for any restriction first.
How long does therapist credentialing take?
90 to 120 days for commercial panels and 45 to 90 for Medicare, whoever files it. No company can shorten a credentialing committee's meeting calendar. What a good one prevents is the avoidable delay, a lapsed attestation, an unexplained gap, or an application sent to the plan when a carve-out owned the network.
Is it worth joining Medicare as a therapist?
Increasingly, yes. Counselors and MFTs became eligible to enroll on 1 January 2024, and in most markets the panel is still wide open because much of the profession has not revisited the decision. Rates are lower than commercial, but the referral volume is real.
Free credentialing check
Tell us your license type, state and the panels you want. We will tell you which are open, which are worth it, and whether you need us at all.
Free credentialing check Talk to a credentialing specialist