Mental Health Practice Management Software - a Review

A review of mental health practice management software for Macintosh computers.

Running a private practice as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker is more than just seeing clients and helping them find the solutions to their emotional problems. The office must be managed, appointments made and clients reminded of those appointments, case notes have to be written, treatment plans written and revised as needed. Insurance has to be verified and companies have to be billed, but even before that, the insurance company has to say OK to paying for the visits and how many they will pay for. So much of the clinician's practice is not dealing with clients, but dealing with running the office. Much of this work, especially the insurance billing can be done electronically. Seems easy, right? Not if you have a Macintosh computer.

Most mental health practitioners or any service providers often use some sort of software to manage their practices. The software keeps track of appointments, treatments, case notes, electronic billing and accounting. A very few of those are available for Macintosh computers, but I have tried 4 of them in the past 4 months. Each failed. I have a Mac 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of memory running Mac OSX version 10.5.6, more than what is needed for any of the available programs

The first one I tried was Shrinkrapt from Shrinkrapt.com. I downloaded a free demo, but it would not open. I tried to call the company, left message after message with the customer service/tech support people and got only e-mail responses, none of which addressed my problem. After several days of this frustration, I was told that they NEVER answered their phone and never gave tech support (advertised as free and all encompassing) unless it was via e-mail. Since I was not getting my questions answered via e-mail, I begged for a person to talk to. I was told, and I quote, "If you can't read our e-mail, you cannot use Shrinkrapt." Okay, I believed them and went on to the next one. At least they refunded the money I paid them.

Notes444.com touts itself as the Mac answer to mental health practice management. I spent a month entering patient data and was ready to start billing. I was told that Notes444 does not support electronic billing and probably never would. What's the point of having software to manage a practice and still have to send in bills to insurance companies by mail. Most insurance companies will no longer accept paper. They want electronic filing. Good-bye to Notes444.

Delphipbs.com promises it will work on a Mac, but is not native to Macs. You must install a translator in your Mac, so it emulates Windows. It's a clumsy workaround and certainly not worth the money.

Dsoftsystems.com was next. It looks and sounds great, but oops, does not support electronic billing until late June 09. And we all know how well programmers meet deadlines even if they are the ones who make them.

MacPractice sounded great until I had a hard look at them. My Mac does not have enough storage space or RAM to run this program and with the start up costs and monthly fees, this one is more expensive than a private billing company that does all the work. Oh and they do not answer their phones. Not even the first time you call. So get your info online for this one.

But I have saved the real monster until last. Psychreport.com by Mdansby.com says it can do everything I want. I download a free demo and once again enter all client data. They needed to show that they could link to a claims clearing house. They promised me they could do it. But they didn't or couldn't. Finally I paid the full price of $199.00 for the program cost and another $150.00 for the set up cost. A month later they had not yet made the linkup. They tell me they have it, but I cannot even download it. I have tried to call, but they do not answer the phone. I leave messages, but they are not returned. E-mails are not answered, nor is my request to have my money returned honored. DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE!

The private billing companies' jobs are safe if you have a Macintosh computer and are trying to manage your practice. At least for now.