logo
logo
Sign in

5 Things You Need to Know about Behavioral Health EHR Software

avatar
Kaiden Hale
5 Things You Need to Know about Behavioral Health EHR Software

What is a Behavioral Health EMR Software?

 

Like most specialty practices, behavioral health EMRs depend on additional features, usually unavailable in general EMRs, to perform day to day tasks. For example, such practices need:

  • Enhanced security features due to the sensitivity of patient information
  • Improved care coordination to deal with the underlying physical symptoms associated with mental illnesses
  • Additional compliance requirements
  • Clinical management for Inpatient, outpatient, or partial inpatient structures

It means it is often hard to find an electronic medical record system specifically designed for mental health practice. It is due to this reason that most mental health practitioners are slow adopters of such technology. Till 2015, only 61% of behavioral health practitioners had deployed an EMR system. Even now, though the numbers have improved, most practices prefer a standalone e-prescribing module over an EMR.

Behavioral Health EMR Software Features:

 

Medical Billing Software

Medical Billing Software makes collecting payments and coding much more straightforward with tools such as coding assistance, patient statement generators, eligibility inquiry, scrubbing, and reporting. Behavioral health EHR Software often specialize in ICD-10 coding and billing.

EMR/EHR

The primary function of mental health software is to create, access, and securely store patient records.

Patient Scheduling

Patient Scheduling automates the tasks related to scheduling, such as sending out email/text messages/phone reminders of upcoming events, appointments, and follow-up surveys or inquiries.

Scheduling Calendar is integral for any healthcare practice, may it be small or large. It helps practitioners to cater to booked appointments at a specific time, and it helps them in catering to patients in a timely manner. The staff could schedule tasks for everyone working so that the time management is on point.  The appointment scheduling allows users to reduce no shows and late arrivals as the software send automatic reminders for all booked appointments on a daily basis. The software also allows patients to cancel appointments easily beforehand via phones and other mobile devices. 

ePrescribing

E-prescribing helps doctors and physicians to create digital medical prescriptions and sends them to approved pharmacies. This allows users to save time and improve prescription accuracy as well. Practices could offer special discounts for patients on medication allowing them to avail the best prices for the prescribed medicine.

Patient Portal

Patient portal helps patients in staying connected to their doctors for any type of queries. The portal also allows patients to share documents easily with doctors. The patient portal makes communication easier and helps patients by not coming to practice for every small thing; they could easily share documents like pictures or receive test results and electronic prescriptions. The portal also helps doctors in saving time and using the same time to catering to more patients.

 

Top Behavioral Health Software 

 

ICANotes EHR

ICANotes EHR is a web-based EHR system for psychiatry practices. It caters to a wide range of mental health professionals. This specialty-specific software allows users to take mental health progress reports and notes without typing or worrying about transcription expenses – only by using a range of pre-formatted buttons.

Valant EHR

Valant EHR is a cloud-based EHR system designed for both mental and behavioral health private practices. It offers mobile device support with smartphones and tablets, and the UX is based on mobile app design for ease of use.

The platform allows patients to complete assessments from the ease of their homes in session with the clinician or using the patient portal. Either way, their results are securely stored in patient records. Valant offers an extensible and scalable data model of the system to help users visualize, extract, and report data in real-time. Their documentation templates come with click-to-narrative technology to simplify the process of creating structured notes and reduce typing.

Carelogic EHR

Carelogic EHR is designed to be used in behavioral and mental health settings, including therapy, substance abuse, psychiatry, and more. Deployments are in practice with 20 clinicians or more.

Users belonging to numerous organizations across behavioral and mental health fields such as therapy, substance abuse, psychology, counseling, psychiatry, etc. can streamline their tasks by implementing CareLogic into their workflows. The platform helps system administrators to track their existing workflows, and with its rules-driven validation engine, users can also spot errors in real-time. CareLogic also allows clinical managers to promote collaboration among various healthcare agencies for well- coordinated care.

 

The Cost of Behavioral Health Software

 

Behavioral Health EHR Software is priced lower as compared to other specialty EMRs.  Usually, they range anywhere between $25 to $150. Several factors can impact this price, which includes:

  • Deployment model ( Cloudbased vs. server-based)
  • Number of providers
  • Pricing models ( Monthly subscription vs. encounter-based pricing)
  • Implementation and support packages
  • Level of customization

You can find detailed pricing for top behavioral health EMRs by downloading our EMR pricing guide for behavioral health practices.

 

 

  • Behavioral Health EHR Benefits

 

  • Information sharing between providers is easier which is a necessary part of mental health workflow.
  • Mental health practices can qualify for incentives under MIPS and other government programs by deploying a certified EMR in their practice
  • Patient record keeping is more streamlined electronically vs. paper records. Multiple data entry methods such as text boxes, speech recognition shorten documenting time.
  • Decision support systems inbuilt within EMRs help providers make more informed choices related to medication, and treatment plans.
collect
0
avatar
Kaiden Hale
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more