Title Image SimplePractice & Evernorth BHC Invitation

What the SimplePractice and Evernorth partnership means for therapists

industry trends insurance private practice Jul 08, 2026

Another day, another social media post that sparked my curiosity and led me down a rabbit hole.

In short: SimplePractice has begun inviting a select group of therapists to join Evernorth Behavioral Health Care's insurance network, with Octave handling credentialing and payments.

Here's how it all started. It was a post that asked if anyone else had received an invitation through SimplePractice to join Evernorth Behavioral Health Care's network.

After speaking with some colleagues, I received confirmation that yes, SimplePractice (the EHR system many therapists use), had offered "a select group of therapists" to join Evernorth Behavioral Health Care's network of providers offering them "premium rates."

If you read my last blog post (https://www.curioustraumatherapist.com/blog/insurance-referrals-headway-alma), I talked about developing a hypothesis about our industry and where it is headed.

As a reminder, my initial hypothesis is that insurers are moving toward platform-based credentialing and will eventually discontinue credentialing for independent providers.

This week's exploration will expand my hypothesis into new and frankly uncertain territory.

A Note

As far as I could find there has been no announcement from SimplePractice or Evernorth Behavioral Health Care about this partnership. I'm going to refer to it as a strategic partnership in this post, but, as there has been no public announcement as of yet, this is my definition and not theirs.

Brief Overview of the Players

At first glance, you'd assume there are two players...SimplePractice and Evernorth Behavioral Health Care (EBHC). Further research conducted from SimplePractice's FAQs revealed another player, Octave. I'll briefly overview all three here.

SimplePractice

SimplePractice is a practice management tool and EHR (Electronic Health Records) company who, according to their website, is utilized by over 250,000 health and wellness professionals.

Evernorth Behavioral Health Care

Evernorth Behavioral Health Care is part of The Cigna Group and according to their website they are "a community of committed behavioral health clinicians, grounded in the core belief that high quality behavioral health care is critical to whole person health." They state they are contracted with Cigna Healthcare and other health plans.

Octave

Octave's website states it "offers evidence-based therapy with expert therapists, backed by outcome tracking and personalized care." They state therapists can partner with them as a 1099 contractor, a W-2 employee or a Group Practice. They are in a limited number of states at this time.

How is Octave connected?

Octave is listed as the administrative and operational liaison between SimplePractice users and Evernorth Behavioral Health Care. It seems like they take care of the credentialing and payment processing aspect of the partnership.

A recent blog post from March 4, 2026 is entitled: "Octave Debuts WiseMatch Platform to Improve Behavioral Health Access Through Payor Directories". The technology is boasted to modernize insurance directories and makes it easier for patients to find and book in-network appointments for behavioral health. From the article:

"Behavioral health networks are fragmented across independent providers, group practices, and disconnected EHR systems. Provider information often varies widely and becomes outdated quickly, making it difficult for patients to find and access timely care. WiseMatch integrates across these sources — including EHRs — to deliver a modern therapy booking experience with real-time availability and regularly updated provider data."

If you are one of the selected behavioral health clinicians who choose to accept the offer, you would work with Octave to credential with EBHC and they would take care of payment and other administrative details.

What does all of this mean?

On one hand, I can see they are trying to fix a system that we can all agree was broken. It has always been incredibly hard for clients to find therapists that take their insurance.

We've all experienced it either personally, or when talking to potential clients.

They go through the insurance company directory, then email or call therapists on the list only to find out the therapist is no longer accepting their insurance, have no openings or worse, they never respond.

The attempt to solve this problem is valid and quite honestly necessary.

The collaboration between SimplePractice, EBHC and Octave is designed to address this issue. With SimplePractice connected to EBHC, a potential client can view profiles of therapists, see their insurance status and their availability for appointments and even book the appointment.

The result? The client is able to get an appointment with relatively little friction and within a reasonable amount of time.

But they will only see clinicians who are on SimplePractice. And in a broader sense, this is how the other platforms (such as Headway and Alma) work as well.

Benefits to Therapists

The ease of connection to potential clients and their ability to book appointments directly with you, when you are available, is a plus. It allows you to spend more time on client care and less on marketing and administrative tasks with clients.

Connecting through the EHR you already pay for reduces duplicative expenses like having to pay Headway or Alma and pay for an EHR.

Risks for Therapists

Let's face it, whether you credential directly or through a platform, you are at the whim of the insurance company.

Will these rates last?

These businesses are in a growth phase and are offering attractive reimbursement rates. Once they move out of the growth phase and into a more established business, they will focus on profitability. And this is when they will start to squeeze the dollars out of therapists.

But there is one important part of this partnership that deserves further examination.

Measurement Based Care

SimplePractice's FAQs state the expectations of participating clinicians: the clinician will "practice measurement-based care by reviewing outcome measures your clients complete during treatment."

This aligns with Octave's mission of offering "therapy services that are evidence-based and outcome-driven-ensuring you feel better, faster."

Additionally, their website states, "That means Octave therapists can measure a client's improvement as they progress to therapy graduation, while also being equipped to change to a new care approach if the patient isn't seeing results."

There is consolidation in the industry around the idea of measurement-based care and evidence-based treatment as being the most effective path to healing.

And I know that will ruffle a lot of therapist feathers and I'm not here to debate the issue. My focus is solely on sharing what's happening in the industry so you can make wise decisions about your business.

This month, July 2026, Medicare rolled out the ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model which includes depression and anxiety as a chronic health conditions. This is important and deserves its own post (which I am already working on) but below are some brief details.

On the website it states: "Original Medicare will have a way to pay care organizations developing technology-supported services."

I think that means the entryway into behavioral health services will be through technology enabled solutions that they deem "effective" and "scalable".

The bottom line is our industry is changing quickly and it's important for all therapists in private practice to stay informed. I'm certain it will impact your business whether you are in-network with insurance or not.

I have to admit, there are times I feel like panicking but I re-center myself, commit to staying aware of what's changing and continue to focus on my business and my clients.

I encourage you to do the same.

I'll try to keep up with everything and post information as long as it's helping therapists.

Refining My Hypothesis

My original hypothesis was that insurance companies are going to move from independently credentialing clinicians to only credentialing providers through one of these platforms.

I stand by that original hypothesis but add that it may not just include platforms but now we are seeing EHR companies move into the space.

I'm adding one more piece to that hypothesis: measurement-based care and technology solutions will begin to reshape insurance-based care. More on that next time.