Leaving Headway, Alma or Grow: The Step-by-Step Checklist

Does your in-network status come with you when you leave?

No. On all three platforms you bill under the platform's contracts with insurers, not your own, so leaving takes you out of network with every one of those insurers at once.

Grow is the most direct. Asked whether you keep your enrollment status if you leave, its help center answers: "No, your enrollment status won't transfer outside of Grow." [4]

Headway says it "credentials providers directly through its own payer agreements, which are separate from any carrier relationships you may have independently." Its DataSpring guide lists Headway's own group tax ID for your practice location. [2][3]

Alma says its credentialing puts members in network under Alma's tax ID. [5]

Your clients' insurance keeps working, just not with you, until your own contracts start.

In what order should you leave a platform?

Credential first, leave second. Apply to your insurers while you are still on the platform, and close your account only once each contract has an effective date.

Insurers set their own timelines. Evernorth, for example, says joining its behavioral health network can take up to 90 calendar days. [11]

Not sure leaving pays? Our comparison of Headway, Alma, Grow and Rula with your own contracts works through the math with an example; it is linked at the end of this page.

How do you leave Headway?

Ask Headway to deactivate your account through its Virtual Assistant. Headway schedules the deactivation within 30 to 60 days, depending on whether you are credentialed with Medicare Advantage.

Headway's help center describes the deactivation request, its timing and what it expects for clients. [1]

One therapist reports that a Headway profile a former group practice set up for them was still public almost a year after they left, and that they struggled to reach anyone at Headway to remove it. Single source[14]

Leaving because of the $9.99 marketplace fee? It applies only to marketplace clients, so see our guide to the fee first. Signed the new provider agreement? Our guide to it covers the client terms providers report. Both are linked at the end of this page.

How do you cancel Alma?

Send a support request through the Alma portal, not the membership change form, by the 20th of the month before your renewal date. Alma does not refund the unused part of your term.

• Alma's membership renews automatically: $1,140 a year ($95 a month) billed annually, or $125 a month billed monthly. If you cancel, you keep access until the end of the term you paid for. [6][7]
• Export your clinical notes first. Alma lets you download them as PDFs, and its terms say your account content is deleted when the account ends. [7][8]
• Payouts can still change after you go. Alma's terms let it recoup payments made in error, and client invoices unpaid after 60 days come off your payouts. [7][9]
• In its group practice policy, Alma says "all consultation requests and referrals sourced through Alma should stay in the Alma network." It does not say how that applies after you leave, so read your own agreement. [9]
• Insurer directories show Alma's information for you by default, including the phone number, and Alma handles your CAQH re-attestation. After you leave, both are your job: update your listings once your own contracts are live. [5]

What about leaving Grow or Rula?

The same order applies: your own contracts first. Grow says your enrollment does not transfer, and Rula limits which clients can follow you.

• Grow: "No, your enrollment status won't transfer outside of Grow." [4]
• Rula says therapists "may not transfer Rula-referred clients" to their own practice. A client may follow you only if the decision is the client's own, the move benefits the client, and you did not solicit it. [10]

Can your clients come with you?

It depends on how each client found you and what your platform agreement says. Clients you brought yourself are the clearest case; clients the platform sent you are the most restricted.

Each row comes from that platform's own help center; "check your agreement" means we found no public statement. [1][9][10]

Your own platform agreement may say more than its help center does. We have not seen the full agreement. If yours differs, the signed copy controls.

A client can move to your practice only once you are contracted with their insurer, or if they choose to pay you directly. If a term is unclear, ask a healthcare attorney before you contact clients.

What does a 90-day plan for leaving look like?

Week 1, set up your practice basics and pick your insurers. Weeks 1 to 2, apply to all of them at once. Weeks 2 to 8, set up billing. Days 30 to 90, follow up weekly until each contract has an effective date.

CMS says an incorporated provider can hold an individual NPI and a separate NPI for the corporation or LLC. DataSpring says its portal is offered at no cost to clinicians, with profiles kept on a 120-day attestation cycle. [13][12]

What changes when you bill on your own?

On a platform, claims are handled for you. On your own contracts, you or a billing service you choose take over that work.

• Checking each client's coverage before sessions
• Sending claims and fixing rejected ones
• Working denials and appealing underpayments
• Posting payments and following up on unpaid claims
• Collecting copays and client balances

What is on the leave-a-platform checklist?

Twelve steps, in order, from listing your insurers to telling clients what changes. Save this page and work down the list.