TheraNest Reviews

Pros

It's simple to use and has everything you need to make your small private practice run. The customer support is AMAZING! I've never had a question or concern that wasn't quickly resolved by their great team.

Cons

I would like to see the TeleHealth screen be bigger. This is a work in progress since this is a newly added feature.

Alternatives Considered

Zoom Workplace

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

TheraNest is the one stop shop that does it all in a super user-friendly fashion. Simple, affordable - exactly what we needed!

Pros

It's a comprehensive program that handles most aspects of the claim processing we all need in a busy practice.

They SAY they offer live customer service when a user runs into questions about how to use the program. That is why I chose them over Simple Practice, which offers NO live customer service.

The reality is when you are in need of an answer on how to use an aspect of the program, you must leave a message on a voice mail.

They will call you back when it's convenient for them to do so - and that's never when I need an answer.

I do all of my claims submissions myself and I'm a fairly intelligent and computer literate user. This is a complex, intricate software with may nuances in use.

My time is limited, and so it doesn't work for me to have to wait for an answer until it's convenient for them to call me back.

Cons

Simply put, they lie about their live customer service.

Their training videos are convoluted, not well-produced and hard to follow in terms of content.

I spent countless hours and significant money to make the transfer over to Theranest, and when I held them to account for their promised and not delivered live customer service they CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT!

This has caused me undue stress and dollars...and they have been very callous and offered no-compromise position. I complained too much, and therefore, they got rid of me! Nice!

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC

Reasons for Choosing TheraNest

Simple Practice makes no false statements about Customer service. They don't offer ANY live customer service options, and the program is fairly buggy and complicated.

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

I chose them because they said they had live customer service available. This turned out to not be true.

Pros

TheraNest is very simplistic and easy to use for a small practice

Cons

TheraNest is unable to handle multilevel practices that require collaboration between various levels of providers (more specifically therapist and bachelor's level caseworkers)

Pros

TheraNest is really easy to use and takes care of everything my practice requires. TheraNest is truly a one-stop shop. I really like how TheraNest handles the credit card processing, scheduling, and reminders. And it's reasonably priced.
TheraNest also has an excellent support staff. I can't underscore that enough. TheraNest has an excellent support staff. There are detailed, step-by-step instructions for everything in, on, and about TheraNest, but if I need to speak with an actual human all I have to do is start a live chat by hitting the icon at the bottom of the screen.
TheraNest also listens to its customers. It's constantly improving the website to make it more user friendly. It's been impressive to see how TheraNest has grown and improved every month since my practice signed up with it over 6 years ago.

Cons

I don't really have any complaints about TheraNest.

Alternatives Considered

Therasoft Online

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

TheraNest was more cost effective and had a simpler design. We used TheraSoft at our old practice and I'm glad we didn't go with it at our new practice. The customer support team as well as the flexibility to make changes and improvements make TheraNest a superior product.

Pros

Theranest offers a very easy to use EHR, making it incredibly efficient to manage and bill for our practice of 350+ clients. The K-Base, though an often underused resource, is filled with all kinds of wonderful how-to articles and videos, the flow of use for scheduling, billing, taking notes, etc is sharp and efficient, and the support team is one of the best I have ever used in any professional and personal capacity.

Cons

Any process or service within this program that I did not enjoy was relayed to the support staff, and quite often they are working hard to hear their customers feedback and make appropriate changes to help improve their users experience. My biggest complaint from the beginning was the lack of ability to filter clients strictly based on their insurance carrier, but that has been in the works as an improvement for a little while and is in the pipeline to come through so I have no complaints!

Pros

Easy to learn and use!
Super user friendly and intuitive!
Great value!
Telehealth option with interactive worksheet feature!!!
Has mobile app version.
Calendar syncs with google calendar.
Processing payments is a breeze!
Forms and client portal save time and paper!
Billing is quick and easy--few clicks and done!
Reports are nice business management feature!
Client reminders and self-scheduling options!
Customer service is TOP NOTCH!
Progress notes and treat

Cons

Honestly, I cannot think of any cons. I have nothing negative to say about TheraNest!

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC, My Clients Plus, EHR 24/7 and SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

Price Features Interface User friendly Intuitive

Pros

Ease of charting and making appointments. That part is typically ok - unless the system is down - which happens way more than it should.

Cons

Not sure where to begin! Theranest is an extremely complicated system and there is a big large learning curve for all users - even just clinicians that make appointments and chart. It is extremely cumbersome for billing and insurance work. Back buttons have to be used all the time - at least 3 times to update client insurance claims. Look at invoice, enter what the client owes, save. Back button - write off the money the insurance won't pay, save, back button, charge the client what they owe, back button, send the client a statement (their "automatic" receipts don't show what the date of service is). I really need someone else trained on the billing part of the system and I cannot even imagine the extra time I would have to take to train someone and the mistakes that would be made. There is way too much room for user mistakes when using the theranest billing system. I pay a lot extra for their billing portion to use their clearing house, yet I am consistently having to go to each payor's websites and figure out what is going on with various claims when the Era's come back to theranest - I should say "if" they come back to theranest. Today their ERA processing suddenly stopped working and now I get to spend hours and hours updating clients billing charts manually for the week! We have 6-7 clinicians and it already takes me 2 full working dates to reconcile accounts with theranest. when things are working "properly". They claim to be very proud of their billing system - as they have "added" features to make the billing process quicker- (which I found their "upgrade3" doesn't even pull the correct amount a client owes and it needs to be manually fixed anyway and I have to manually write off money insurance won't pay). Oh by the way - they upped their monthly fee because they added this "upgrade" that doesn't work. Their updates at times causes problems elsewhere in the system - which means something else like updating a chart for example or simply saving notes you have written stops working. God forbid you don't remember to save everything every 2 seconds or all will be lost. When adding a diagnosis to a clients charge - you have to save it 2x in two different areas or it doesn't save! Customer service is "available" but expect to wait for days before they reply back to you - usually asking questions you have already told them in your request for help email. When you send a message back reiterating what you already said - there is never a quick reply. So any problems with the software could literally take a week to fix. I actually got someone today on chat - which is the very first time in the 6 years this has ever happened - and then had to spend literally one hour chatting about our ERA issue today because he failed to explain anything in any clear way - only directed me to some form and because between each line of chat - it took 2 minutes for the message to even get to each other. (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the system is super slow at times-not my computer - it happens to all of us). They are constantly changing things with the software that are an unnecessary waste and cause a lot of confusion and time for the user because all the sudden something is different. For example, for some reason only they know, they stopped allowing the same email to be used in different client accounts (we work with children). We see many sibling groups and use their parents email on their chart to send statements or reminders, etc. Now we can't use the same email. So again - extra time and money had to be spent for my office manager to call these families and ask for different emails. Parents like information to go to one email. Many parents weren't happy about this. Who checks 3 different emails everyday? Customer service's response was "We recommend you have the parents create emails for their children to access the data, and also should help them distinguish and filter data between their kids if they have multiple". Um, ok. Basically - they will not go back to allowing us to use one parent email for his or her kids. After years and years of headaches and so much extra work theranest adds, just to use the expensive software, that was the straw that broke the camels back. We are searching for a new system - stat. Have not done it before now because the thought of switching all clients over and the learning curve of a new system was too much. BUT - now we are done.

Pros

Theranest is easy to use, keeps track of my calendar, sends reminders to clients, makes billing very easy.

Cons

I wish I could customize more reporting and sorting features to help me do the billing of insurance companies that I have to do on other websites.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice and Therasoft Online

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

I chose theranest for ease of use and best value for the money.

Pros

This product is easy to use and implement and has a great support team when you have questions.

Cons

The lack of options for Progress Note formats

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

It had pretty much all of the same functionality, yet the pricing structure was more reasonable, especially for a new clinician just starting out.

Pros

Uploading documents into client's charts was a breeze. It made it easy for my staff and I to review charts electronically. The calendar feature is very user-friendly.

Cons

It was very difficult to figure out how to co-sign on my staff notes. I needed this function and found it hard to set up. Setting up each staff person was a little difficult.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

TheraNest was affordable. It didn't charge me per staff as some other programs. That was financially feasible for me and my agency.

Pros

It is oriented to my profession - mental health care.
It has most of the functionality that our company needs:
- appointment scheduling
- room booking that prevents double booking, a must for us because we have 9 staff sharing 3 offices
- invoice/receipt generation is easy
- International user friendly, we are in Hong Kong
- has the necessary features for managing the financial side of the business
- appointment reminder features, easily editable reminder message
- TN consistently add useful features to help with the business, e.g. custom forms, improved ease of use of the software
- integration with other calendars
- color coding for staff, ease of identifying each other on the master calendar
- staff permissions feature
- customer support has been excellent from the beginning

Cons

- staff permissions can be item selectable rather than group together in the basic five categories
- basic navigation still needs some touch-up
- mobile app needs an update
- need to expand the list of reports that can be generated or permit selectable items to be generated for a report

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC, Acuity Scheduling, SimplePractice, CounSol.com and vcita

Reasons for Choosing TheraNest

Ease of use, and TN is oriented to my business

Switched From

Mindbody

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

International user friendly, has room booking features, reasonable price

Pros

I really love the reports, especially the demographic reports (with pie charts even) that I can pull with this EHR. I also love the all-in-one pricing, in that I can have as many therapists as I want - pricing is based on number of clients, not therapists. This EHR is user-friendly, somewhat updated GUI (still lagging behind the times, but not bad), and easy enough to figure out on one's own.

Cons

Cons - truly - there is only one problem I have found in the limited time I have used TheraNest. If you need to contact customer support - good luck. Emails generally take a week or longer to receive a response and I have only spoken 1x to a live person by calling support - and I have called MANY times.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Choosing TheraNest

TherapyNotes was fairly expensive for the same features with fewer reports. SimplePractice was just way too expensive and nickel-and-dime every service or feature they offer.

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

I was really taken with TherapyNotes' reports and smooth operation. I love their pricing by clients rather than by staff. They do charge additional fees for Telehealth/clinician, but it's worth it to have an integrated client portal (with payment and signatures) and demographic reporting.

Pros

I like that it is easy to see whether or not I completed my notes. Integrated Telehealth appointments.

Cons

There's not a lot of ability to see multiple calendar dates at once or move between dates. I get charged for every little thing.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Choosing TheraNest

Change in venue

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

My partner liked it better than simple practice

Pros

I liked the forms and templates. It was the first EHR software I had used. I did not have a comparison.

Cons

Billing is complicated.
Forms are difficult to complete in session. Support is terrible. It was a chat. It took days, many times, to get a response and the response would not address the issue.
Fees increased, but service and product were stagnant.
When you want out, it is very difficult to export data and you have to pay them to store it.

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC and SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

I liked the way you paid by number of clients because some of our therapists were part time.

Pros

I like that you can send text reminders. It helps with the no show rate in our clinic. They have great customer service - but customer service only goes so far when the software isn't working correctly.

Cons

Form the scheduling to billing this software is riddled with functionality gaps and bugs. As a facility that have therapists and prescribing physicians the scheduling feature doesn't allow you to setup defined appointment times. Basic schedulers should allow you to define the types of appointments in your clinic and assign a time frame to them. This same functionality should extend to the TheraNest portal. Patients can go online and request any appointment time. For example an initial intake in our clinic with the psychiatrist is one hour. A patient can go line and find any available time (they typically find 15 min slots) and submit a request to schedule that time. This results in calling the patient back and finding a time. What's the point of allowing the patient to schedule/request a time if I have to call them back? I should be able to define an initial intake as an hour so my staff can't schedule that type of an appointment for less than an hour AND patients on the portal can't request an appointment for less than an hour. We finally shut the portal off because it was causing more work calling patients back then if they'd initially called and were scheduled from the get go.
If you have any patients with co insurance get ready to spend an ungodly amount of time processing the secondary insurance. While they say they support secondary insurance they do not. You have to manually enter all of the information onto the claim for the secondary insurance.

Pros

It was easy to learn how to use the different functions that we needed. This system has a whole lot of uses but we do not use them all for our small company. What we do use has made document storage so much more easier than paper filing, and the versatility of being able to access it from other locations was a life saver for those late night calls from our employees needing to work. We could help them no matter what time of the day. They are constantly working to make improvements and add more functions.

Cons

Forms are not as customizable as we needed, but they are improving on this. My example would be when we would have to print up therapy notes for records release, the initial set up of their forms caused a simple checkbox note to print out to 4-5 pages of paper and in giant fonts! Yikes, that was a lot of waste just to have to fax client's records somewhere. Lots of trees went into those record releases, trust me. But Theranest listened to this and made the forms so that we could change how they printed. It was not picture perfect on some of them, but we were able to get down to 2-3 pages of printing!

Pros

Set up to document all phases of counseling; ability to upload documents into client records; MSE with each progress note; can email clients through client portal for HIPPA compliance; clients can securely complete, sign, and submit intake paperwork through client portal; ability to accept credit and debit cards easily for services rendered; GREAT invoicing and billing features; automated appointment reminders; integrated calendar; multi clinician capability; Wiley planner and progress note features; the reports feature is fantastic for tracking payments, invoices, and notes status. Subscribers can also develop custom forms for clients or for clinician documentation needs. The help and tutorial features are easy to follow, and customer service has been responsive. TheraNest continually seeks feedback about subscriber needs and uses that feedback to improve their product. There is also an internal office chat box feature.

Cons

Like any product, it is not perfect. The calendar feature is good but has room for improvement with respect to appointments spilling into nonwork hours or the occasional time I choose to see clients outside my regular hours to compensate for conferences or other needs taking time from my regular client schedule. I understand this issue is being addressed. Progress notes can be lengthy due to incorporation of the client's entire treatment plan into the note. I have yet to find a way to mark treatment goals and objectives as completed in the treatment plan even when using the review feature. This would be a helpful feature to track a client's progress quickly and for planning future session interventions to address unmet goals.

Pros

I've been working with Theranest for almost 10 years. Theranest software keeps my client files HIPAA compliant, which is crucial in the mental health/medical field; I have never had a problem. Once set up, billing is very simple. If I'm having a difficult time with billing, records , program, etc, customer support is easy to access. I appreciate the Knowledge Base that has been developed as well as how Theranest has consistently improved the software or made adjustments based on their customers recommendations.

Cons

I'm a very small practice (3 individuals). I don't like having to pay extra for changes that I would like to make i.e. using Wiley notes. I understand how Theranest makes it's money but for something that doesn't require ongoing support, some things should just be another option ie. choosing between Standard note or SOAP note.I also feel the percentage for assistant billing (following up with insurance providers for unpaid invoices) is very high, considering once you figure out the problem and I begin to be reimbursed for services and no further assistance from Theranest staff is required; I am still expected to provide you with a percentage of what I'm billing. Perhaps just charging a one-time fee.

Pros

Interface and ease of start up. Built in billing.

Cons

Billing, recent change, and customer service

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC and SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

Preferred the interface

Pros

Customer service and responsiveness is very impressive. Now that I understand how it all works together, appointment scheduling and notes are very easy to use. I used to love that they have integrated credit card processing, but for the way we run our business it has a serious flaw. They are very open to feedback, and try to be responsive to features being asked for. Since we've signed up with them in January they have added quite a few new features, some of which are really helpful, others that don't apply to the way we happen to run our business.

Cons

Some features only seem half thought out. For example: you can write one group note and have it appli to all members of the group, but in order to sign the note you have to go into each members account. This completely negates the time saved by applying the note to all group members with one key stroke. We are a small clinic and use this as our accounts receivable software also, yet there is no accounts receivable report you can generate. They have something called an "Invoice Aging" report that lists each clients outstanding invoices, but you have to go through and manually add up all the lines to get the total. To me, having an accounts receivable report should be standard. Just give me their name and the total of what they owe us. And now for the biggest con for us: The integrated credit card processing. The structure of our clinic is that each of us earns exactly what our clients pay us (in crude terms, we "eat what we kill"). For this reason when we get a deposit in our bank account we need to be able to easily identify what transactions make up that so we can give the correct therapist credit for it. There is currently no way to get this info. Theranest suggested we look at a list of payments recently made and figure out a combo that add up. This is way too time intensive (we have a bookkeeper we have to pay to do this) and it's prone to error. We're hoping they fix this soon

Pros

I started my business as a part-time venture while I transitioned from full-time employment with a larger company. I liked being able to pay a lower-tiered amount, depending on the number of clients I had enrolled. As my practice has grown, it has been easy to adjust my subscription to reflect my business' changing needs. The telehealth platform is easy to use. It does not have a whiteboard function, although it does allow for screen sharing. There are times when the platform is unreliable, so I have a backup video platform account to use in these instances.I do not bill insurance, although accepting credit cards and logging cash payments into the system is seamless, with easy to access invoices and superbills.

Cons

The video platform (while it has been recently updated), could use some improvement.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

Initial cost during startup.

Pros

An affordable EHR that does everything you need it to do, and feels more user-friendly than Simple Practice.

Cons

Some things could be improved, such as offering templates for notes, more ways of documenting notes; more flexibility with calendar/scheduling (changing it to a 3-day versus 5-day view, blocking times, etc). I also wish it was easier to create intake forms - the "dynamic forms" page is confusing at first and unfortunately personalizing forms isn't available (e.g., changing fonts, alignment, etc)

Alternatives Considered

TherapyNotes, LLC

Reasons for Choosing TheraNest

Cost

Switched From

SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

Cost and accessibility

Pros

When I began at my current place of employment, I had worked as a counselor/therapist for over 30 years, but had never worked in a clinical setting. Thus, when I began, I had a great deal to learn about progress notes, assessments, treatment plans, etc. It took me about nine months to get the feel for the paperwork and the software. From that point, I have felt comfortable with navigating the software. The articles in the help section were useful and answered most of my questions. One of the early lessons I learned was never to leave a page on which I had entered information without saving it. Overall, it was fairly easy for me to learn, given that it was my first experience with any kind of software designed for the mental health field. I should also mention that I use TheraNest as a therapist; there is another staff member to work with the business/financial side of it.

Cons

As with any technology, when a problem occurs which prevents one from doing the necessary work, it is very frustrating. In the nearly four years that I have used TheraNest, those kinds of problems have not occurred very frequently. When they have occurred, the TheraNest tech team has had them resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

Pros

Software is very user friendly and intuitive.

Cons

Some of the add-on features are more complex. Billing and credit card processing. The training when taken a while ago seemed to move too fast. Seems training is now mostly on-demand type components. Help can be delayed at times (I suppose this is due to COVID-19, but not absolutely sure.)

Some of the modules with casework seem incomplete. Creating treatment plans for instance - - it is difficult to update the plans. Only option is to add addendums.

Alternatives Considered

SimplePractice

Reasons for Switching to TheraNest

Cost and ease of use.

Pros

The client portal and the fact that the intake can be done online! I love custom forms, the appointment reminders, emails, payroll.... I love it all! I especially love the customer service. I'm a loyal customer especially because of the way they are with their customers (texting, emailing and constant improvements). 10 stars!

Cons

Id like payroll to be able to have the option to select the payouts due tab and pay clinicians when claims are paid in full. Copays are attached to this currently and I have to select "copay paid to clinician" even though it's not in order for payouts due to work the way I need it to.

I also need to be able to print out a demographics sheet on a single client to an option.

I'd also like the email to have a time that an email was sent.