Why is Headway’s $9.99 fee causing a blowup?

While I get it that these platform fees feel extractive (and clinicians need alternatives), this level of fee is nothing new.

Look at Grow Therapy vs Headway 99214 in Tennessee. My estimated platform take per appointment is:

• Headway before the fee: $31 or 24% take rate
• Headway with the fee: $41 or 32% take rate
• Grow: $58 or 41% take rate
  

Even after the fee, Headway pays clinicians more on average.

Grow is actually growing faster with clinicians than Headway. Its higher cut hasn’t prevented adoption, instead I suspect it has enabled it because Grow is known for driving many more referrals than Headway.

My read: Headway has done very well recruiting clinicians, maybe too well. Now it wants to focus on the other side of the business, which is bringing on more patients. Marketing costs money, and they think they need more money to compete with Grow on this.

This fee looks like Headway is moving closer to Grow’s model.

The important piece here is visibility. Grow has bundled this "marketing fee" into their take rate. Headway is charging $9.99 transparently. A larger fee that’s built in is harder to see. Personally, I prefer the transparency, but it does bring up issues surrounding "referral fees".

The fee is a real increase. But the total amount clinicians are paying, and how much business they receive in return, is the more useful comparison.

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