TheraNest vs DrChrono

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Our analysts compared TheraNest vs DrChrono based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Mental Health Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

TheraNest is a practice management solution for psychologists, counselors, therapists and social workers. It is suitable for solo, medium and group practices, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. It helps users streamline their practice with features like scheduling and calendar, billing workflows that include invoices, payments, statements and unlimited file storage. It provides tools like a client portal, telehealth, practice planners, appointment reminders and credit card processing. It helps practices go paperless and save time. It is HIPAA compliant and secure.
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DrChrono is a cloud-based EHR and medical billing solution that replaces the chaos of paper charts and separate systems with a single, easy-to-use platform for managing all aspects of a medical practice.

For doctors, this means:

  • Effortless Access to Patient Information: Imagine having a patient's medical history — allergies, medications, past visits — at your fingertips.
  • Simplified Appointments and Prescriptions: Schedule appointments and send prescriptions electronically in just a few clicks.

For patients, it means:

  • Taking Control of Their Health: Book appointments, communicate with their doctor and access their own records through the patient portal.
  • Staying on Track: Receive automated reminders for appointments and medication refills.

And for the practice as a whole, the system helps:

  • Get Paid Faster: Automate billing and insurance claims to reduce errors and speed up payments.
  • Improve Financial Health: Track outstanding payments and identify potential billing issues.
  • Negotiate Better Rates: Gain insights to negotiate more effectively with insurance companies.

We tested the system to see how it works in real-world scenarios. Here’s what we think: while mastering the billing module may require some effort and billing data import has limitations, the system’s intuitive interface and accessibility from any device make it a user-friendly option.

A free trial and flexible pricing plans allow you to explore its potential and determine the right fit for your practice.

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$39 Monthly
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$250/Provider, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Mobile
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Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Videos
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Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Accept Payments: Accept credit card payments via the client portal. Save cards and have them on file for improved cash flow. Set up easily with no merchant account fee, gateway fee or additional fee with a standard rate for all cards.  
  • Monitor Treatment Plans: Update and monitor treatment plans with objectives and goals. Gives users access to more than 1,000 treatment objectives, goals, progress notes and space to enter their notes.  
  • Manage Client Charts: Manage and store client charts electronically, including information like diagnosis, contact information, client and treatment history. Provides unlimited storage to upload client files like an insurance card, driver’s license and more.  
  • Track Insurance Claims: Track and file insurance claims, use batch submission to submit multiple claims and use the client ledger to keep track of client credits, write-offs and balances.  
  • Outsource Claims: Lets users outsource their claims and maximize reimbursements with claim validation, submission and rejection, denial follow-up and payments reconciliation. Use clearinghouse and software claim scrubbing to ensure claims are error-free.  
  • Reduce Medication Errors: Gives users access to point-of-care modules for physicians, including drug-allergy, contraindication checks, dosing and drug-drug. Lets them review the client’s medication history for up to 12 months.  
  • Integrations: Integrates with Wiley Practice Planners that helps users record their notes within the module.  
  • Templates: Supports templates for initial assessments, discharge summaries, progress notes and treatment plans.  
  • Create Custom Forms: Helps users create custom forms to fit their practice’s needs. Download and print CMS-1500 forms.  
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  • Avoid Claim Denials: In our analysis, the product excelled with a perfect score of 100 for claims management capabilities, outshining competitors like athenahealth (89). It helps you:
    • Fill out CMS-1500 forms.
    • Create and send many claims at once.
    • Look through past claims by date or type.
    • Check all the claim details — like patient info and procedure codes — before sending it to payers.
    • Match payments to bills.
  • Automate Billing, Insurance Checks and Patient Workflow Management: The product achieved a perfect score of 100 for these capabilities:
    • Capturing records of medical services and charges.
    • Keeping a detailed list of charges for exams, procedures and supplies.
    • Helping doctors create and update patient visit records.
    • Checking if a patient’s insurance is valid before their appointment.
    • Automatically checking what medical benefits a patient has, like maternity or cosmetic surgery coverage.
    • Letting patients access health info and advice through the patient portal.
    • Allowing specialists to see patients referred by other doctors and send reports back.
    • Helping doctors refer patients to other specialists.
  • Reduce Medical Coding Errors: In our analysis, the platform scored 98 for assigning the right billing codes like ICD, CPT, HCPCS, NDC and taxonomy codes.
  • Make Data-Driven Decisions: The product scored 88 for features that help you generate aging, billing transactions, revenue, write-off and adjustment reports. You can also access pre-built reports like payment trends and insurance analysis to save time creating them from scratch.
  • Access Data Remotely: The product scored 94 for mobile capabilities, more than its competitors like Oracle Ambulatory EHR (79) and athenahealth (71). It truly stands out for:
    • Tracking claims from submission to payment directly from a phone.
    • Sending messages easily to billers, patients and staff.
    • Offering seamless access to the system on iPhone and Android devices with native apps.
    • Delivering timely alerts for payment reminders, appointments and more through push notifications.
    • Adapting to any device with a responsive web portal for a smooth user experience.
    • Helping practitioners dictate medical notes directly into the app for easy note-taking.
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  • Therapy Notes: Create therapy notes like progress notes, treatment plans, initial assessments and more. Lets users co-sign, approve and sign notes. Print or download therapy notes with the users’ logo as a PDF for clients. Supports supervisory review, notifications about notes requiring approval and accepting staff and client signatures from the application.  
  • Billing Tools: Streamlines payments and claims processes to help users get paid faster. Create, email and print superbills and invoices to claims submission with batch statements and invoicing. Charge credit cards to apply and process payments with batch statements. Generate staff billing reports for payroll.  
  • Managed Billing: Get paid faster with claims scrubbing, appointment recording, denial follow-up, insurance remittance tracking and payment posting to client accounts. Provides a dedicated billing specialist to ensure billing success.  
  • E-Prescribe: Maintains data and medication access histories, controlled substance e-prescribing (EPCS), drug legends and medication adherence support. Lets users manage medications, handle refills and write prescriptions.  
  • Scheduling: Create group, individual, multi-staff and telehealth appointments. Filter calendar by staff member, service type and location. Set up recurring appointments.  
  • Client Portal: Syncs client records automatically. Sign, fill out and submit intake forms online. Customize client invitation emails. Access the client portal from any device.  
  • Practice Management: Add as many staff, billers and therapists as needed without any additional charges. Multiple permission levels ensure that staff can only view what they need to see. Brings all the clients, invoices and appointments to one place.  
  • Telehealth: Gives physicians control over video and audio during sessions. Conduct video sessions for up to six participants. Lets clients and physicians share their screens and resources.
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  • EHR: Provide better care with features like free draw for visual explanations, custom vitals tracking and access to immunization registries
    • Custom Templates: Tailor forms with specific fields, drop-down menus, checkboxes and even add your practice's logo. This ensures your documentation is consistent, efficient and specialized for your needs (e.g., cardiology forms with specific heart diagrams).
    • Electronic Prescriptions: Send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies directly from the patient chart. Access the drug's formulary tier, prior authorization requirements and alternative medications if the prescribed drug isn’t covered. Access patient PDMP data directly within the EHR to identify potential abuse, misuse or doctor shopping.
    • Free Draw: Upload images (x-rays, scans, photos) or use pre-loaded anatomical diagrams within the patient chart and draw directly on them.
    • Custom Vitals: Create vitals specific to your needs including things like blood glucose and oxygen saturation levels. Capture data in various formats: text, numbers or predefined options using dropdown lists. Access the flowsheet to visualize trends in custom vitals over time.
    • Prior Authorizations: Initiate the ePA request directly from the prescribing workflow. Automatically populate the prior authorization request form with relevant patient information (demographics, insurance details, medication prescribed) pulled from the patient's chart.
    • Lab Orders: Integrate with national, regional and specialty labs like Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp. Create predefined lab panels for common tests or specific conditions. For example, you could create a "lipid panel" or a "prenatal panel" with a single click. View lab results within the patient's chart, organized by date, test type and ordering provider.
    • Medical Speech-to-Text: Use voice to input clinical notes, patient histories and other information. See your spoken words appear as text in real time within the EHR to review and edit the transcription as you go.
    • Immunization Registries: Automatically send your patients' vaccination details to the state IIS, ensuring that records are up-to-date and complete. Retrieve immunization records from the IIS, even if your patient received vaccinations elsewhere to avoid unnecessary duplicate vaccinations and identify potential gaps in their immunization schedule.
  • Practice Management: Save time and reduce errors with appointment management tools, including appointment profiles, insurance eligibility checks, online scheduling and automated reminders.
    • Appointment Profiles: Instead of manually entering the same details (length, reason, etc.) for every appointment of the same type, you create a profile once and it auto-fills the details (duration, reason for visit, exam room and billing codes).
    • Eligibility Checks: Verify your patients’ insurance eligibility in real time — check what services are covered under the plan (e.g., office visits, labs, specialists) and any limitations or exclusions.
    • Online Scheduling: Set specific days and times when each provider is available for appointments. Offer different appointment types online (e.g., new patient, follow-up, consultation) with varying durations. Add buffer time between appointments to prevent scheduling conflicts and allow for patient check-in/check-out.
    • Patient Reminders: Send automated appointment reminders via email, text or SMS. Configure reminders to be sent at various intervals before the appointment like — a few days before, the day before or a few hours before.
  • Medical Billing: Improve your revenue cycle management with tools like billing profiles, medical coding and automated claims submission.
    • Billing Profiles: Combine frequently used CPT, HCPCS, custom codes and ICD-10 codes into a single profile. Attach common modifiers to the codes within the profile (e.g., modifier 25 for a significant, separately identifiable E/M service).
    • Medical Coding: Easily search and select the appropriate codes within the EHR using keywords, code numbers or descriptions. Perform basic code checking to identify potential errors such as invalid codes or missing modifiers.
    • Good Faith Estimates: Generate good faith estimates to help patients understand costs upfront and avoid surprise bills.
    • Claims Submission: Submit electronic claims to insurance companies within the system. Track claim statuses in real time. Scrub claims for errors like missing information or formatting mistakes before submitting them to payers to avoid denials and claim rejections.
    • Denial Resolution: Generate denial analysis reports to identify denial patterns. Edit and submit corrected claims directly within the system. If you disagree with a denial, generate appeal letters and track their statuses.
    • Patient Statements: Generate statements for individual patients or groups of patients based on various criteria (e.g., date range, insurance status, outstanding balance).
  • BI Tools: Get a visual summary of key metrics and performance indicators. Generate customizable reports to:
    • Track revenue, expenses and profitability
    • Analyze claim submission, acceptance, denial and reimbursement rates.
    • Track patient demographics, appointment history and billing information.
    • Analyze appointment scheduling and no-show rates.
  • Mobile Capabilities: Schedule appointments, send patient statements, bill insurance, document patient encounters, access lab results and more from iOS devices like iPad, iPhone and Mac.
  • Telehealth: Patients can join the telehealth visit from their computer, tablet or smartphone using the link provided in their email reminder. Providers can share their screens with patients to review medical records, lab results, X-rays or educational materials.
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Product Ranking

#4

among all
Mental Health Software

#6

among all
Mental Health Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Electronic Prescribing
Mental Health Billing
Mental Health Coding
Online and Telepsychiatry
Patient Engagement
Compliance and Security
Integrations and Extensibility
Mental Health Billing
Mental Health Coding
Mobile Capabilities

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

TheraNest
DrChrono
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Compliance And Security Dashboards And Reports Electronic Prescribing Mental Health Billing Mental Health Coding Mental Health EHR Mobile Capabilities Notes And Templates Online And Telepsychiatry Patient Engagement Platform Capabilities 50 60 100 100 100 43 32 67 100 92 100 80 95 100 100 64 100 83 81 96 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1634 reviews
Great User Sentiment 529 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

TheraNest has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 1634 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

80%
of users recommend this product

DrChrono has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 80% when considering 529 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.4 (14)
1.5 (3)
4.0 (35)
4.2 (39)
4.41 (880)
n/a
4.5 (705)
4.0 (487)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated TheraNest and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Electronic Prescribing.

Electronic Prescribing Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated DrChrono and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Compliance and Security, Mobile Capabilities and Integrations and Extensibility.

Compliance and Security Award
Mobile Capabilities Award
Integrations and Extensibility Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User Friendly: The system is easy-to-use and intuitive, as noted by approximately 85% of users who referred to the system’s usability.
Interface: Nearly 76% of the users who mention its interface find it intuitive and easy to navigate.
Tutorials: Almost 100% of the users who mention its tutorials, articles and webinars find them useful and said they helped them learn how to use the software.
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Ease of Use: Navigate patient charts, create shortcuts and access billing info without a steep learning curve.
Customization: Tailor the system to your specific needs and preferences like customizing templates, workflows and reports.
Easy Medical Coding: Find and assign ICD, CPT and HCPCS codes to patients' bills to save time and reduce coding errors.
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Functionality: TheraNest offers a robust suite of powerful tools, as reported by 52% of the users who mention the product’s functionality.
Support: Support for the system can be very slow, with most users noting that getting a response from the support team can be very time-consuming, as reported by 51% of users who referred to support.
User Permissions: User permissions are not seamless as the administrator and supervisor were able to view completed and pending tasks for all employees, as said by 100% of the users that talked about user permissions.
Billing: Nearly 66% of the users who referred to the billing feature found it lacking. Also, its credit card charges are high.
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Contractual Obligations: Canceling subscriptions can be challenging, potentially leading to early termination fees. Automatic renewals may also catch you off guard.
Subpar Customer Support: Long wait times, unhelpful responses and unresolved issues from customer representatives might disrupt your processes.
Occasional Glitches: System crashes, slow navigation and difficulties with scheduling and other functionalities can cause frustration.
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TheraNest provides an intuitive and user-friendly system for mental health providers. Users are happy with its telehealth feature as it helps them connect with clients virtually, even though it can have glitches sometimes. Most users who mentioned support found it frustrating that they were unable to speak to a customer service executive, and even when they did, the support team was unresponsive. While it offers Excel integration, the process is time-consuming. Credit card processing and billing are complex. Users say that it is not suitable for larger practices. A post-Covid increase in prices has not gone over well with some of its users.

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So, I got the chance to get a free trial access to DrChrono, and here are the key highlights: The platform stands out for its intuitive design, extensive features and customization capabilities. The software is accessible on any device with internet connectivity. Data import from other EHR systems is supported but with certain limitations. It offers four pricing plans and a free trial is available for potential users.It's a cloud-based system, which means you can access it from anywhere — your laptop, tablet, even your phone! And it covers everything from electronic health records and patient scheduling to billing and telehealth.One of the things that really impressed us was how customizable it was. You can create your own templates for notes, forms and even entire workflows. This means you can really tailor it to fit your specific needs and preferences, which can save a ton of time.And speaking of saving time, they've put a lot of thought into their billing features. They have tools to help you code things correctly, submit claims electronically and even track your payments. Anything that helps you get paid faster and with less hassle is a win, right?However, learning to navigate the billing and insurance modules could take time. It’s a bit confusing to understand how the billing workflow works and how to set one up. Also, you can’t import billing data from your old EHR system.If you're looking for a comprehensive, user-friendly system that can be customized to your practice, we'd definitely recommend taking a closer look.They offer four different pricing plans, so you can find one that fits your budget, and they have a free trial so you can test it out and see if it's a good fit for you. It's always good to try before you buy, right?We’ve discussed more about the features in the See It in Action section. Do check it out to know how the system works in different scenarios.

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