Why I chose Alma for my private practice

My name is Meagan Faraone, and I became a clinical social worker because I wanted to help people.

I see the pain and the difficulty and the hurt that so many of us carry in our lives and felt that being a therapist was the best way that I could be able to support people through those journeys that they were on.

Have you always worked in private practice?

I have not always worked in private practice, and my big motivations and draw to go into private practice was to be able to earn the income that I felt I needed for my life while also being able to have the flexibility and the openness in my schedule to be able to be present for my family in the ways that I wanted to and needed to while still holding space for myself.

How did you start with Alma?

My first experience with Alma was being the client who's being provided care, and it seemed very streamlined. And, you know, when I was looking to go into private practice myself.

I had already been paneled with a couple of other companies, but thought about Alma and explored their options and offerings and what really had them shine over the other agencies that I was with. Was how they handled multi state providers.

What made you choose Alma?

So I currently hold six clinical licenses in different states. So the fact that Alma was able to provide me with a network, credentialing in all of my states, rather than other companies that I was using that maybe coverage two of my six states or was only in one of my state. That piece of being able to provide broad range in network coverage to all clients that I was potentially able to serve was incredibly appealing.

How does Alma help you deal with insurance companies?

The main way that Alma has saved me time is when it comes to, managing interface with insurance companies.

So being able to just input a client's insurance information, generally get an automatic response about the initial verification check.

To kind of know what that client's benefits are. It has really streamlined the process.

How has Alma helped you meet your practice goals?

Alma and the ability to accept in network insurance benefits has grown my practice exponentially.

I was initially credentialed on May first of twenty twenty two. And probably by the middle of that month, I had a full caseload.

What are some other benefits you receive as an Alma provider?

For me, the biggest way that Alma has contributed on my practice is by connecting it with clinical community. When you're in private practice, especially, you know, I do sessions primarily actually from a twenty square foot office under my stairs. So being able to feel connected to others and having some of those Alma providers who I have, you know, been in meetups with or who I've seen comment on things in the community hub become real friends, friends that I text with friends that I Zoom with friends that are colleagues and that help to, insulate from the isolation that we can often feel as clinicians to have this network in this national group practice, essentially, where we are fully autonomous in how we run our practice, but we are not in any way, shape, or form alone if we choose to engage in that community in an active way.