Behind the Claims: Nancy Le @ Headspace
Published:
November 4, 2025
Published:
November 4, 2025
Behind the Claims is a series celebrating the partners who power healthcare operations behind the scenes. Nirvana’s technology is built by billers, for billers – and we understand how essential it is to have systems that truly work for the people and organizations using them. Healthcare is ultimately powered by people. Through this series, we’re highlighting standout individuals at our partner organizations who embody that mission and make a real difference every day.
Headspace is best known for bringing meditation and mindfulness to millions. But today, the company’s mission goes far beyond meditation – expanding access to mental health care through coaching, therapy, psychiatry, and employer-sponsored EAP programs. By offering both direct-to-consumer and B2B options, Headspace is making emotional well-being accessible for everyone, whether they have insurance coverage or not.
For Nancy Le, Team Lead for the Pre-Access and Member Billing pods at Headspace, mental health has always been the focus. After earning a degree in psychology, she started her career on the front lines of care — helping patients schedule therapy sessions, completing intake, and working closely with clinicians.
“I’ve been in the mental health industry for almost seven years now,” she says. “I started on the intake side, helping members get scheduled and connected to therapy, and now I’m on the backend working with insurance, claims, and eligibility. It’s been great to see the full picture of how care actually happens.”
Her long-term goal? Becoming a therapist herself. “That’s the one piece I’m still missing,” she laughs. “But learning the operational side has given me such a better understanding of how care gets delivered.”
Nancy recently celebrated her three-year anniversary at Headspace – and the evolution she’s seen in that time has been remarkable.
“When I started, I was focused on the pre-access pod – verifying eligibility, getting authorizations, clearing financials,” she recalls. “Now, I lead two teams, and our work has become much more tech-enabled. Headspace has evolved with automation, AI, and better workflows. We’re always asking: how do we make things smoother for members?”
That constant improvement mindset means no two days look the same. “It’s like opening a new can of worms every day – but in a good way,” Nancy jokes. “Each ‘can’ is a chance to fix something, to make it better for members and for our team.”
Technology, Nancy says, has transformed how her teams operate. “Before, we’d manually outreach every member – opening an email, typing it up, sending it one by one,” she explains. “Now, AI helps automate that. If a Nirvana eligibility result comes back with a certain status code, the system knows to trigger an email automatically.”
That change has freed up her team’s time to focus on what matters most: solving real problems. “It’s made us more proactive instead of reactive,” she says. “As soon as Nirvana identifies an issue, we can reach out to the members or fix their information right away.”
With hundreds – sometimes thousands – of real-time checks happening daily, automation and accuracy aren’t just convenient; they’re essential to keeping the entire revenue cycle running smoothly. “It means fewer claim denials, fewer rejections, fewer back-and-forths with patients. It’s had a ripple effect across every part of the process.”
Nancy’s teams rely on Nirvana to power several critical worklists – including Medicare/Medicaid identification, third-party payer detection, and coordination of benefits. “We even have a daily worklist for failed real-time checks – when a member can’t be found or demographics don’t match. Nirvana flags those for us automatically, and that’s huge.”
The impact is clear: “It’s changed how we work day to day. We’re faster, more accurate, and members feel that difference.”
When asked what her favorite kind of day looks like, Nancy doesn’t hesitate. “The best days are when we solve problems,” she says. “When someone spots an issue in a process that I never would’ve seen because I’m not in that field every day – and we get to fix it together. That’s the most satisfying part.” She describes herself as a “problem solver at heart.” Even when new issues arise, she sees them as opportunities to improve. “I like hearing the problems because it means there’s something we can make better.”
For Nancy, the biggest systemic issue isn’t the complexity – it’s the barrier insurance creates for people seeking care. “I would love for insurance not to be a barrier to mental health care,” she says. “Whether it’s confusion or lack of coverage, that should never stop someone from getting help.” That’s why she’s proud of Headspace’s growing direct-to-consumer offerings. “It means anyone can reach out to us and get care, even if they don’t have insurance. That’s what I want to see more of across the industry.”
Nancy credits much of her success to the people around her. “I want to shout out my entire Revenue Cycle Management team,” she says. “They’ve made the last three years such a joy. And especially Sophie Xu, our Senior Director of RCM – she’s an incredible role model who’s taught me so much.”
At Nirvana, we’re constantly inspired by the operators who bring healthcare to life every day. People like Nancy – curious, thoughtful, and deeply committed to solving problems that make care more accessible – embody what healthcare operations should be. Technology matters most when it empowers people like her.
Navigating healthcare coverage and costs doesn't have to feel like wandering in the dark.
We're here to light the way.
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