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Getting started with in-network referrals

Eligible clinicians can receive in-network referrals from participating health plans and employee assistance program (EAP) partners directly through SimplePractice. Once referrals are activated, members and care coordinators can view your availability through the referral partner’s provider directory and request appointments based on the availability you share. 

Depending on the referral partner, you may need to complete additional activation or setup steps before referrals become available in your account.

In this guide, we’ll cover:


Eligibility requirements for in-network referrals

To receive in-network referrals, clinicians must typically:

  • Be fully licensed
  • Be actively credentialed with the referral partner
  • Have up-to-date license and NPI information in their SimplePractice account

To update your license or NPI information:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Profile > Clinical info
  2. Select Edit next to Clinician details
  3. Update your NPI number
  1. Click Save

Your information in SimplePractice should match the information on file with the referral partner.

Additionally, only clinicians of certain specialties are eligible for in-network referrals through SimplePractice. Eligible specialties include: 

  • Behavioral health therapy
  • Counseling
  • Marriage and family therapy
  • Psychology
  • Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing
  • Psychiatry
  • Social work
  • Substance use counseling

To view or update your specialty, you can navigate to Settings > Profile > Clinical info.


Participating referral partners

SimplePractice has partnered with the following health plans and EAPs to offer in-network client referrals:

  • Optum/UnitedHealthcare
  • Lucet
  • ComPsych EAP
  • Uprise Health, including:
    • Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH)
    • American Behavioral (AB)
    • EAP Preferred
    • Reliant Behavioral Health (RBH)
    • Quality Health Solutions (QHS)
    • HMC Health Works

Partner-specific activation and setup requirements

The steps to activate in-network referrals can vary by health plan or EAP partner.

Depending on the partner, you may need to contact our Support team to activate in-network referrals. In other cases, you may need to complete additional steps before contacting the referral partner directly. To find the steps for a referral partner, see the table below:

Referral partner Steps to activate referrals Resources
Optum Contact SimplePractice Support to request activation
ComPsych Contact ComPsych directly to request activation
Lucet Contact SimplePractice Support to request activation
Uprise Health

If you’re contracted with any of the EAPs listed under Uprise Health, you may see Uprise Health listed in Marketing > In-Network Referrals:

  • Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH)
  • American Behavioral (AB)
  • EAP Preferred
  • Reliant Behavioral Health (RBH)
  • Quality Health Solutions (QHS)
  • HMC Health Works

Contact Uprise Health directly for questions on eligibility or if you don’t see the setting in your In-Network Referrals page

Important: Make sure to complete any necessary activation steps before contacting a payer to activate referrals.


Managing referrals after setup

Once you’re enabled for in-network referrals, you can manage the availability shown to referral partners and respond to appointment requests directly in SimplePractice.

For more information, see Managing in-network referral availability and requests.


Resources