“How much?”
It’s the first question a lot of people think about when making a new purchase. Whether it’s shoes on display, a street vendor approaching us in an outdoor market, or an offer for a new gadget appearing in our inbox, the desire to know just how many simoleons we’ll have to part with to get it is a strong one.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to mental health software for your practice, getting that question answered can be an exercise in obfuscation, runarounds, and dead ends.
That’s why I put together this rough guide to get you started with what you can expect to pay for software to manage your behavioral health practice. You should note; there’s no one answer to “how much” when it comes to mental health software. In addition to there being quite a few different pricing models, with different cost factors, the actual, final price will vary based on your specific requirements, practice size, and other factors.
However, understanding the various pricing models will give you a good baseline to predict what you may have to pay for your practice, and will allow you to compare apples to apples when you actually start talking to different vendors and getting price quotes.
There are three main pricing models for mental health software.
1. Pay-Per-Practitioner/Clinician
This is the most common model you will encounter, and is often used as a core cost factor in combination with some of the other models discussed below (for example you may find this paired with a fee per-electronic claim you make). This is most likely going to be a monthly fee (especially with web-based and hosted solutions) but on occasion could be offered as a lump, one-time fee if you decide to purchase an installed solution. Some solutions will offer stepped pricing so that, for instance, the first clinician costs $60 a month, but each additional one you add to the system will only cost $30 a month (sometimes non-prescribing clinicians also cost less).
Price Range: $30-$150 per clinician per month. One time fees range from $500-$2,500 per practitioner.
Examples of mental health software with this model include:
2. Pay-Per-Electronic Claim/Pay-Per-Practice Collections
A distant second in terms of popularity of pricing models, this cost driver uses number of electronic claims you file, or amount of practice collections you take to determine what you pay. You’ll rarely find this as a standalone pricing model, however, and it is most often paired with a per-user or per-practitioner model. This model is almost always a monthly fee, and will most often manifest as a small fee per individual claim, or a percentage each month of your total practice collections.
Price Range: $0.20-$1.50 per claim, or 3%-7% of practice collections.
Examples of mental health software with this model inlcude:
- CareCloud
- TherapyNotes (in conjunction with a pay-per-clinician model)
- Carepaths (pay-per-billing record)
3. Pay-Per-Appointment Reminder/Pay-Per-Appointment
Lastly, a model you may encounter is one based on number of appointments in some fashion. Like the pay-per-claim model above, you will most often find this model used in conjunction with a pay-per-clinician or pay-per-user model, though some specific mental health scheduling software (that often won’t include EMR functionality) will use this model exclusively. This is typically charged on a monthly basis.
Price Range: $0.13-$1.50 per appointment per month.
Examples of mental health software with this model include:
- TherapyNotes (in conjunction with a pay-per-clinician model)
- TherapyAppointment
Bonus: Other Pricing Models
You may encounter some additional pricing models for mental health software. Often these will be used in conjunction with one of the cost structures detailed above but every so often you may find one of these on its own. They include everything from free but ad-supported (PracticeFusion), to pay-per-active client (TheraNest), and pay-per-user (typically non-clinician). Another common pricing add-on to consider is setup fees, which can range anywhere from $1,000-$5,000 depending on clinic size.
Others?
What else have you found out there in terms of pricing for behavioral health software? Does this cover the basics or did I miss something big?
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