Therapist support company to expand into Iowa

Grow Therapy, a New York City-based company that helps therapists with the paperwork involved in running a private practice, will be expanding to 22 new states in 2023, including Iowa.

In exchange for a share of revenue, the company works with insurance companies, and helps providers with marketing, intakes and other work involved in running a private practice, CEO and co-Founder Jake Cooper said.

The provider also gets added to Grow Therapy’s online database that helps patients get connected with therapists.

“Our purpose is really twofold — one, to enable providers to have the meaningful careers they deserve, and secondarily, to ensure patients receive high quality, affordable mental health,” Cooper said.

“As we deepen our presence in Iowa, we feel that we can really fill a gap that has existed not just in Iowa but really countrywide in the U.S., that being the lack of affordable mental health care.”

There currently are only about 20 therapists in Iowa who have signed on with the company, which soft-launched in the state a couple weeks ago to test that all the infrastructure needed. These providers, most of whom offer remote services in Iowa, can be found on Grow Therapy’s website.

The company will fully debut in Iowa in mid-January, when it will start actively recruiting new therapists. Cooper said he hopes to grow to a few hundred therapists in Iowa in the coming years.

Cooper said the company, which previously operated in 14 states, decided to expand because it had secured contracts with several more national insurance agencies, including Optima and United Healthcare, which have significant coverage in Iowa and other states.

Grow Therapy is partnered with more than 50 insurance companies and is working on expanding into Medicaid and Medicare.

Obtaining contracts with Medicaid and Medicare can be a tedious, county-by-county process, so it’s currently only offered on Grow Therapy in certain centralized areas, according to Cooper.

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