Thriveworks

I’m pretty good with change and I consider myself to be quite flexible, but they take advantage of their clinicians.
 
First, I want to say, there’s a toxic positivity to the culture. At first, everyone seems happy and enthusiastic, but the communications and interactions feel disingenuous, after a while.
 
Be sure to read the contract well, because they push you to sign it quickly, so that they can start the credentialing process.  Note that you  are agreeing to work for them for 18 months to cover the cost of credentialing, and if you leave before then, you’ll have to pay out the $1800 to them ($100 for each month that you are short). You'll also notice that you are signing a no-compete agreement, and cannot work for any other Telehealth company “anywhere,” unless it’s a government job.  The language is quite dramatic and entitled.  You also need to give a 6 month notice, if you resign.
 
You're agreeing to be paid a flat-rate fee for clinical hours worked.  They say that they pay a "competitive rate," but they don't. You actually get paid the least for intakes, which we all know is the most time consuming in documentation. 
 Family counseling and couples counseling sessions are paid less than individual sessions, and that’s why I refuse to do them.  Keep in mind, you’re only getting paid for clinical hours worked.  You don’t get paid for training or case management, or office hours.  You won’t have time to research or get your CEU's, if you're trying to also keep the benefits.  
 
Yes, you can get bonuses and incentives, but the pay ends up being what you should’ve been making anyway, so it's not really a bonus.  Also, they seem to always find a reason to not give you a bonus (a session wasn’t cancelled appropriately, you didn’t collect credit card info, you didn’t sign off on consent forms, or you didn’t turn in notes on time). These are not hard requirements to meet, but it sucks when it’s not always your mistake, like when the EHR system is randomly deleting notes you know you wrote and signed. Yes! This happened to me 3 times!
 
They have a benefits system that makes it so that you’re constantly working in order to keep the benefits, leading to burnout quickly. You won’t realize it until you’re three or four months into your employment.  Then you'll realize you don't get paid enough for the time and stress.

There’s too much calculating on the providers end, to make sure you’re meeting expectations to keep the benefits. For example, full-time employees have to work 25 clinic hours per week. However, to keep the benefits, you have to provide 108 clinic hours per month, so you need to meet 27 clients in a week, which means you'll need to schedule about 30 to 35 clients a week, to accommodate for possible cancellations/no-shows. Yet, the 108 clinic hours a month isn’t calculated by a calendar month (don’t ask me what month system they go by), so you'll need to keep track of all of your sessions on a separate calendar.
 
A major perk being sold to you is that you can control your schedule.  Unfortunately, you can't really take time off because you won't meet the expectations to keep your benefits.  It would be nice if you could use PTO, but you only earn 1 hour of PTO for every 30 clinic hours worked. 
 Since you’re earning it as you go, you won’t properly accumulate enough time to make up one day off, until about three months in.  You can't save PTO because it is paid out to you at the end of the year, and so you have to start all over. 
 Thus the endless cycle of burnout I mentioned earlier.
 
They changed their EHR system back in November, and the transition was a total disaster. The system is not a better system, and it makes things more complicated than necessary.
 
They charge clients $39.99 a month for portal access that is barely used, and that’s on top of their copays. There have been so many billing issues, that I had clients drop off of my caseload, due to their credit cards being charged incorrectly.
 
If you just want to make a few extra bucks on the side, then sure, this company can help you with that. If you’re wanting a full-time job with benefits, you’ll have that, but you’re going to find yourself working just to keep the benefits.
 
Bottom line? There are better companies. Therapists, don’t let these for profit companies take advantage of you!

I sought out a Therapist position with Thriveworks as a [very] part-time position in addition to my full-time position.  The position sounded amazing at first, however, I quickly figured out that this is not a company I would not recommend others work at for a number of reasons.  

First, the "autonomy" that they offer has its flaws.  Thriveworks has a scheduling team (which is nice 85% of the time), however, because of this, will schedule anyone to your appointment book without giving the therapist an opportunity to identify whether or not this would be a client they would want to take on, or, if your schedule can truly accommodate the frequency at which they want to be seen.  Essentially, the scheduling team is helpful... until it's not. 

Second, the "higher ups" seem to be fairly un-empathetic to those who are doing this IN ADDITION to a full-time position.  I started out with 8 hours/weekly and was pressured, multiple times, to at least work 12.  This was incredibly frustrating as it appeared that they were not considering how challenging it can be to work a 40+ hour work week.  

Third, Thriveworks has a credentialing team to get therapists credentialed with a number of insurance companies, which, at first, is WONDERFUL.  However, the log-in information for accounts is not shared, so when a therapist begins receiving notifications about updating any information, it again becomes a process, requiring more people than necessary, to obtain the log-in information, much less actually update anything. 

Finally, while it's a neat idea to not have any managerial staff on-site, it has its downfalls.  Anytime I have a financial concern, I either have to email or call the financial team, which typically adds to the client's frustration, and I don't always get an immediate response to share with the client.  This is similar to other support-related topics and I feel like I can't be AS effective with my clients when I can't give them a response right away.  Similarly, there's very little supervision on-site, so if I have basic questions, feel like I STILL have to email someone to get an answer.  Only having therapists on-site isn't always efficient, to say the least.

Your experience with this company will depend solely on your job title. It appears that people at HQ have an actual culture: they post pictures, cheer one another on, have all sorts of company swag, etc. But that is solely the corporate side experience.

The clinical side is quite different. You either work from home or in a *mostly* empty office. You are only contacted by your supervisor if your notes are overdue and, when they do contact you, it’s the same copy and pasted email from the last, which is completely disingenuous. 

Before accepting a position, make sure you have a comfortable amount of savings, or have another plan to supplement your income for your first 90 days of employment. Despite being a “W2 employee”, you are not paid for ANYTHING other than sessions.

You will not be compensated for onboarding, orientation, or any time spent learning their complex EHR. You will not compensated for completing treatment plans ($16 per intake, $0 for complete write up) or progress notes. You will not be compensated for mandatory trainings, making referrals, coordination with other providers, parents, schools, etc. All of those things must be done, but you will not be paid for that time.

I was unable to pay my rent for the first 3 months I worked here, despite being hired as a full-time employee, and completing dozens of intakes and sessions per week.

This job starts out as a really positive environment during the first interviews, but it levels out from there. 
My "training" consisted of an overpopulated Google Meet call and a presenter that flew through the slides. After the presentation, myself and the attendees were given another Google Doc to read through and told "good luck!" 
Luckily, I was able to create my own schedule which is good, but if you have a no show, you get only paid HALF of the session fee. There is a huge discrepancy with the pay from resident to fully licensed - many residents I work with can't even afford rent with their paycheck and have to DoorDash to even TRY to afford groceries.
The benefits are difficult and hard to understand, unless you have time to make an appointment with an HR person (but that means maybe taking an hour out of your session time!), and good luck hitting the 25 hours a week required to hit those benefits. The RCDs are overworked and so busy that it's difficult to get a timely email from them. They did fix the counselors having to ask for payment from clients (clients instead set that up during their sign up phase), which helps, but it still creates an awkward atmosphere when clients are behind on billing and blaming their counselor for those issues. 

As a clinician, you'll have great flexibility and autonomy:  to choose your work hours/days/holidays, as you wish.  You also choose types of clients (ages, gender, couples/groups if desired, mental health needs, specialties, preferences, etc.).  You are encouraged to be creative in developing your own therapeutic style & interventions, drawing from your own preferred modalities.  Clients tend to be high-functioning, middle-class people.  (Most seek treatment for depression, anxiety, anger, relationship issues, stress, self-esteem, SUD, etc.)  Helping people heal, cope, grow, and evolve emotionally is the most gratifying part of the career.  Our clinic director is lovely and encouraging --  one of the best supervisors I've had in 25 years.  Lots of support & camaradarie among colleagues; staff meetings are optional.  Can work from home during pandemic & beyond.  There's an in-house psychiatrist for clients.  You need never worry about credentialing, billing, marketing, scheduling intakes, fielding inquiries, etc. -- our Support Teams handle all those admin tasks.  Hardest part is keeping up with chart notes, as in any counseling job.  

You have input on what your day to day schedule will look like.
You have virtual support, not on-site support.
You work with professionals in the field.
You work under a basic structure: it is assumed that you know what you are doing clinically because you are a licensed provider; if you are an on-site clinician, you share office space with a number of colleagues; the office is one of several in a region supported by a Regional Clinical Director; that RCD is part of the larger Clinic Director group responsible for all things clinical work-related. All other business related functions of the company have their own departments.
It is up to you how much you choose to interact with others. Thriveworks relies heavily on using workspace, like facebook, to encourage social interaction and sharing of information; this can be fun to see what others are posting, but also can cause you to miss important messages because there are so many postings. 
Thriveworks also offers clinical consultation on a regular basis so any clinician can come online and gain some clinical insight into a particular case.


As a clinician you are the backbone of this company but you are undervalued in pay and work expectations. The support people are not there to help you even though it is presented as though they function as secretarial staff. The billing team is unable to provide direct answers for clients. You have to be the middle man for clients when that wouldn't be your job if you had a secretary in any other practice setting. The clinic director people appear to have no backbone or ability to create or enforce anything. The pay is a joke! Do yourself a favor and go into private practice. 

 Extremely disorganized and terrible communication between management and clinical staff. The upper management continues to say whatever they need to say to keep their nice base salaries, while clinical staff is left with almost no support, struggling to build a caseload and managing disasters alone with clients because the administration and technical support is non existent. DO NOT waste your time. Salary they have down is not real.. its a scam

The pay is very poor compared to other locations/jobs. You will definitely have a full caseload if you want. Most difficult part is if a client no-show's and their credit card on file is declined or doesn't have funds, you can wait for months to receive reimbursement. The company has to get paid first before you are.

Benefits are okay-health insurance is very expensive but it is offered. They also offer dental, vision, short-term disability and retirement. You receive PTO but you have to work more than 40 hours a week to receive 3.5 hours every two weeks. 

I started off as a full time clinician with Thriveworks in 2019.  My case load filled up quickly which was a relief.  As the company is experiencing a great deal of growth, I was offered a position on the directors team.  Throughout my tenure here, I've experienced a positive work environment and supportive team, work life balance, ability to do the work I love to do with other people who feel similarly.

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