Owl Practice Vs SimplePractice

Owl Practice and SimplePractice are useful for mental health professionals in running a successful practice. They are electronic health record systems with features to help you provide excellent client services. Are you concerned about choosing the right EHR system for your mental health practice? Finding the best one can be challenging, but understanding your options can make the decision easier.

In this article, the comparison between Owl Practice and SimplePractice will be explained. This includes the benefits, drawbacks, as well as their features. It will help you select the best option for your practice based on your preference, goals and budget.

What is SimplePractice?

SimplePractice is an EHR system designed to help therapists provide top-notch care to their clients and run a profitable practice. It also offers features that enable mental health professionals to manage their administrative tasks well.

Features of SimplePractice

1. Audience

This EHR system has users who are solopreneurs and group private practitioners in the mental health and wellness industry.

2. Telehealth

Its feature allows video conferences between the therapists and their clients for remote therapy sessions.

3. Client Portal

SimplePractice has a client portal feature where clients can schedule online appointments with the therapist. This feature is easy to use for both therapists and clients.

4. Secure Messaging

The EHR platform provides a secure messaging feature that follows HIPAA-compliant regulations.

Other features include: Calendar sync, SMS and Email reminders of appointment schedules, progress notes and E-Prescribe.

Advantages of SimplePractice For Mental Health Practitioners

• SimplePractice is a HIPAA-Compliant, EHR platform with an easy-to-use interface. Users find its interface user-friendly.

• It provides an array of editable note templates for seamless documentations. It also ensures your documents are well secured.

• SimplePractice offers E-Prescribe for easy management of clients' medications.
• It offers automated client appointment reminders.

• Its customer support provides prompt responses to user queries.

• This platform helps therapists in private practice simplify their finances. It is easy to manage your client's billings, and insurance claims filing with the use of SimplePractice.

• SimplePractice provides a 30-day free trial for its users. It also allows therapists to focus on giving excellent care to their clients.

Disadvantages of SimplePractice For Mental Health Practitioners

Smaller-sized mental health practices might not be able to afford to use SimplePractice. For a comprehensive service, SimplePractice comes with extra fees. While the telehealth feature is inclusive in the Essential Plan and Plus Plan, the Starter Plan will require a fee of $15 monthly for integrated telehealth.

SimplePractice custom templates enable manual entry which is time-consuming for therapists. However, to manage your time and ensure faster note-taking and documentation, you can use Mentalyc software. It is an excellent AI app designed to help therapists with generating therapy notes during sessions.

What is Owl Practice?

Owl Practice is a cloud-based EHR software designed to assist mental health professionals in running a private practice. It allows you to communicate and engage with your clients easily. It also helps to grow your private practice. The platform has a simple interface which makes it easy for payments and appointments with clients.

Features of Owl Practice

Owl Practice provides the features mental health professionals require to run a thriving practice. The features include:

1. Audience

The users of Owl Practice include solopreneurs and group mental health practitioners. These include therapists, counselors, clinical psychologists, licensed social workers and psychiatrists.

2. Telehealth

Owl Practice is a platform that gives room for couples and family therapy sessions. The video therapy session is available after the sessions and they are encrypted and well-managed by Owl’s servers. They ensure smooth video sessions and secure communications between therapists and clients.

3. Appointment Scheduling

Owl Practice is a HIPPA-compliant practice management software that offers easy setup for appointments. You can make a schedule from your client's profile or its intuitive calendar. Therapists can set reminders or SMS in advance for their clients when creating their profiles.

4. Client Portal

It provides tools such as client messaging, billing, forms and document exchange to manage your clients. The client portal is available for easy online booking but it is not available to users who are using the free trial.

5. Payment and Invoice

This feature helps you to generate invoices, account summaries, and receipts, and email them to your clients. It helps you secure payments, outstanding balances and record payments for your clients who attend your therapy sessions.

6. Clinical Records

It makes it easier to manage your customer information, applications, and bill payment. Another feature is the availability of customized forms to share with your clients. It also provides templates for taking intake notes and therapy progress notes.

Advantages of Owl Practice For Mental Health Therapists

• Owl Practice provides customizable forms for its users. It allows users to generate intake forms, treatment plans, as well as progress notes. Mental health practitioners can design their documents to meet their practice's requirements.

• It enables therapists to provide service fee discounts to clients. The platform also automates the billing process to make it easy to generate invoices, track payments, and process claims.

• Owl Practice is exceptional at managing many clients. It also promotes collaborative treatment for larger practices. Mental health practitioners in the same practice may find it easy to exchange notes and work together on treatment plans. It also has a therapist listing site.

• It is great for clinicians with multiple practices in different locations. For Instance, there is Owl Practice US and Owl Practice Canada, so you can easily switch on the EHR Platform to either location of your preference.

• Owl Practice has an integrated client portal for its users which promotes secured communication between the therapists and the clients. A colleague who’s a therapist started her private practice and enjoys the client portal feature of this platform. We met at a luncheon a few months back. She talked about how easy it has been to communicate with her clients while using the platform. The secure messaging feature is beneficial to both therapists and clients.

Disadvantages of Owl Practice For Mental Health Therapists

Owl Practice has different plans for solo and group practices in the US. and Canada only.

The Owl Practice Canada has 3 Plans. It includes the Growth Plan which begins at $60, then the Advanced Plan which is $80 and the Professional Plan begins at $100 per month. The prices might be expensive for small practices who need all the features it can offer.

The pricing plans for Owl Practice US include:

Owl Starter

It costs $25/month. Mental health practitioners who subscribe to this plan have access to 20 client sessions, calendars, and reminders. Other features include client notes, a billing process, and a dashboard.

Owl Core

This plan costs $39/month and includes a client portal, intake form templates, and video therapy. Other features include online appointment schedules, billing, and payment applications.

Owl Pro

Owl Pro costs $49/month. With this plan, users have access to unlimited sessions, secure messaging, collaborative video therapy sessions, and tracking medications.

Owl Practice Group Edition

This plan is best for a group mental health practice. It costs $49/month and includes all features essential for your group practice.

Other drawbacks include:

• It does not come with a free plan.
• Fees cancellation are not included in their features.
• Owl Practice is a platform that is still limited to web-based practice. It is yet to have a mobile app, unlike SimplePractice which has an efficient mobile app for both Android and iOS users.
• Users who are not tech-savvy might find it hard to understand the platform’s features. It might take time to learn how to customize it to meet their needs.

Owl Practice Vs SimplePractice Comparison

The following are comparisons of Owl and SimplePractice features:

1. Mental Health Practice Size

• SimplePractice - The users are sole practitioners and group mental health practices of different sizes. It is great for small to large practices.
• Owl Practice - It is more suitable for small and medium-sized practices.

2. Pricing

• SimplePractice The price is from $29 to $99/month. It has a telehealth feature which is optional and beneficial for larger practices. With this feature, there might be additional fees.
• Owl Practice Its price starts from $25/month. Medium-sized practices that need more comprehensive features will find this platform valuable.

3. Mobile App

• SimplePractice Easy to access with mobile apps on IOS and Android phones. This enables the therapists and clients to access the platform on the go.

• Owl Practice It is a web-based practice management software. It does not have access to a mobile app yet.

4. User Interface

• SimplePractice It’s designed to help reduce administrative tasks and this is possible because of its intuitive, easy-to-use user interface.

• Owl Practice It has a more complex user interface. New users might not find it easy to learn or use.

5. Billing and Invoicing

• SimplePractice Its features are quite expensive, but it provides great value for your money. It makes the insurance billing and claims filing process simple for small to large practices.

• Owl Practice It offers automation of billing for clients and insurance claims. Although, its features are great for smaller mental health practices with complex billings.

Conclusion

Choosing between Owl Practice and SimplePractice depends on the needs of your practice. Factors such as the size of your practice, and budget are to be put into consideration.

The two EHR softwares provide excellent features that help therapists manage their tasks and grow their practices. If you have solo or group practices and desire a simple yet affordable EHR system, SimplePractice might be your best choice. If you run a small or medium-sized practice with complex billings, Owl Practice is best for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Owl Practice Designed Only For Residents In The US?

Owl Practice is a software designed for people in the US and Canada. Mental health practitioners who live in other countries can use this platform but they have to ensure the privacy regulations follow their country’s privacy laws. Then the need to ascertain that the telehealth regulation standards meet their region’s conditions. They also need to consider the payment processing and insurance billing. A mental health professional can seek the support team to clarify its functionality and any compliance outside USA and Canada.

Which EHR Software Offers Better Telehealth Services?

SimplePractice and Owl Practice offer HIPAA-compliant telehealth services.  SimplePractice charges a fee for this feature, while Owl Practice incorporates telehealth with no extra cost.

Is SimplePractice Designed Only For Residents In The USA?

SimplePractice is a platform designed for residents in the US. People from different regions can access this platform but must consider its data privacy and compliance with their country’s regulations. For example, therapists who are residents in Europe must take note of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). They must ensure SimplePractice aligns with the GDPR requirements.

Can These EHR Platforms Handle Insurance Billing?

Yes, both SimplePractice and Owl Practice offer comprehensive insurance billing tools. Owl Practice ensures all your claims are processed and submitted without an issue. It helps to check the status, and manage, and update your claims as necessary. SimplePractice is well known for its easy-to-use billing interface.

Who Can Use The Owl Practice Insurance Feature?

Users in the US. subscribed to Owl Pro can use the insurance feature. Owl Starter and Owl Core subscribers will need to upgrade to Owl Pro to use the comprehensive insurance management features. Users in Canada can also make use of the Owl Practice insurance feature.