Mental health practitioners possess the strong empathy required to establish rapport with their clients. But that same empathy can act as a detractor when it comes to billing for behavioral health services provided.
Talking about fees, insurance, and payment policies can feel transactional when you work hard to build strong therapeutic relationships based on trust and mutual respect.
On the other hand, you’re a trained professional providing valuable services, so it’s important to get compensated for your time and expertise.
Having the right behavioral health billing software makes the process of getting paid simple and easy, whether you’re billing insurance, operating a cash-based practice, or taking a hybrid approach.
Wondering how to choose the right solution? Reading this blog is a great start. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Whether you’re researching your first behavioral health billing software purchase, or looking to make a software switch, here are some must-haves to check off your list (using a permanent marker).
Make sure the behavioral health billing software you choose is compatible with your existing software systems. This will save you time toggling between different applications and re-entering the same information.
Pro tip: Be aware of which integrations you’re promised at the different plan levels a company offers.
For example, you’ll want to ensure that key integrations aren’t only available at a premium level.
Pro tip: By having everything you need to accept, manage and track payments in a single place you save the hassle of comparing multiple dashboards.
For example, Practice Better Payments allows you to accept online and in-person payments. It’s also still powered by Stripe, making it fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) Level 1, the payment industry’s highest level of protection.
Having access to features that fit with your preferred business model is key when you’re billing for behavioral health services. Remember: even if you only bill through insurance today, you might want to move to a cash-based practice (or a hybrid of both) in the future.
Seek out behavioral health billing software that allows you to unlock what you need to grow, when you need it, without restrictions or high costs.
Pro tip: Cash-based programs can offer an avenue to grow your practice and reach additional clients with your expertise and offerings.
Standalone software will likely offer specialized features tailored specifically to billing for behavioral health services. However, it’s worth exploring solutions that can improve your efficiency elsewhere, too, like note-taking.
Pro tip: Dig beyond the marketing claims of journaling functionality to ensure it offers the full capabilities you need.
For example, a practitioner treating a client for depression might want to prescribe daily moderate-intensity exercise, due to its effectiveness in reducing depressive symptoms. Journaling that integrates with Apple Health or Fitbit will simplify tracking for the client and the practitioner.
Pro tip: With Practice Better, you have the option to go beyond offering live Group programs.
For example, you can build automated programs to help support clients in forming healthy mental health habits and getting their “homework” done between appointments. You can also sell programs as self-serve or hybrid to help clients stretch their therapy dollars and get lasting accountability.
Any behavioral health billing software you choose must be fully compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in order to protect your client’s personal health information (PHI).
Pro tip: Insist on features that safeguard data, like end-to-end encryption and access controls around who can see PHI. You’ll also want a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and proof that your vendor is regularly performing risk assessments and security audits.
Mental health professionals in the United States must also comply with state-specific regulations governing billing practices and electronic health records (EHR) systems. This extends to delivering care by telehealth, as each state licensing board has unique regulations and guidelines to follow.
Finally, don’t forget to take platform stability into account. Today’s cloud-based Software as a Service, or SaaS, solutions are delivered to users over the internet. This means downtime can creep in unexpectedly. Imagine the impact on your business if you suddenly can’t access client notes during an appointment.
Pro tip: Make sure your contract with a tech vendor includes a service-level agreement (SLA). This not only defines the uptime you can expect from a vendor, but outlines penalties associated with not meeting the SLA.
It’s natural to expect a learning curve with any new software. It’s up to the software provider to make sure your curve is smooth, not spiky. Here are some must-haves to add to your list:
Practice Better is a proven behavioral health billing software, but it brings so much more to the table.
It’s an all-in-one mental health practice management solution that seamlessly integrates everything you need to run your practice into a single solution. The result? You enjoy more organized management of your clients and your business.
There are too many time-saving features in Practice Better to cover in one article. You can dig deeper into all of them by watching our 15-minute walkthrough video, but here are a few honorable mentions:
Robust billing capabilities. Practice Better Payments integrates billings and payments into your account. It’s easy to accept, manage, and track your payments in one place. You can also accept all major payment methods, including Apple and Google Pay. Robust encryption and PCI compliance keeps credit card data secure.
Practice Better provides lots of options to keep things flexible for you and your clients:
Practice Better also offers features to speed up reimbursements when billing through insurance:
Simplified charting and note-taking. Practice Better accelerates the charting process with templates, placeholders, and snippets.
During telehealth sessions, you can easily reference past notes. And here’s the best part: an AI charting assistant automatically generates word-perfect transcriptions, summaries, and action items during your calls, so you can focus 100% of your attention on the conversation.
Smoother scheduling. Practice Better makes it easy for clients to book and confirm appointments through your website or client portal.
Secure messaging. Message clients directly from the portal or app. Secure chat and read receipts make it clear when messages are received. Bonus: you can extend your reach with the option to chat 1:1 or in a group.
Supporting clients on the go. Use the app to support clients from anywhere. It provides full access to the desktop experience you know and love. Clients can also use the app to journal on the go, message you, and even join sessions from their phone.
Using multiple standalone systems to run your practice can create information silos that make it hard to get a big-picture view of the health of your business and clients.
Even worse, switching between different software platforms can lead to costly errors and inefficiencies that impact your overall client experience.
Practice Better brings everything you need for practice success into one system:
Have you ever added up all of the monthly subscription costs associated with the software you use to run your business? The cumulative cost can be significant when you’re paying separately for things like billing, scheduling, and charting software.
Practice Better bundles all the capabilities you need into one, predictable monthly price. Bonus: the platform scales with you as your needs evolve, with affordable upgrades between plan levels to unlock additional functionality.
As a mental health practitioner, chances are you find deep fulfillment in helping people through challenging times and supporting their mental and emotional well-being. But you also need to support your financial health if you want to run a thriving business.
Having robust behavioral health billing capabilities in place is non-negotiable. Having those capabilities bundled into an all-in-one practice management solution is transformative. It’s a practice hack that therapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other behavioral health professionals everywhere use to save time and resources.
Ultimately, selecting the right software for your practice means making an informed choice. This article offers a great starting point, but trying Practice Better for yourself is the next logical step. You can access your free trial here.
Practice Better is the complete practice management platform for nutritionists, dietitians, and wellness professionals. Streamline your practice and begin your free trial today.
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