Finding the Best EHR for Mental Health: An Evaluation Checklist

2024 Gallup research found that 80% of adults believe mental health problems have increased in the past five years, with 42% reporting they’ve increased “a lot.” As more people acknowledge the need for mental health care, the demand on providers to meet this need continues to increase. This rise is placing a renewed emphasis on the importance of providers adopting the right electronic health record (EHR) solution to support their efforts and introduce efficiencies that are needed to deliver more care and support to more people.

The best EHR for mental health can help streamline processes, ensure smooth care coordination, and take much of the administrative burden off providers. This better enables them to spend more and better-quality time with clients and take care of new clients. Choosing the right EHR is critical to realizing these benefits.

Assessing Mental Health Software Companies: Finding the Right EHR

Here is a checklist of five essential features to look for when researching mental health software companies and their EHR solutions that can strengthen your organization’s operations and care delivery.

1. Integrated Evidence-Based Practices and Clinical Tools to Meet the Mental Health Crisis

Research shows that, with the right level of supervision and training, evidence-based treatments can result in better therapist competency and improved skill — which are necessary to addressing the current mental health crisis.

When choosing a mental health EHR for your organization, look for a solution with embedded evidence-based practices. Top EHR vendors, like Core Solutions, integrate the most up-to-date and evidence-based workflows and protocols directly into the platform so providers can access these tools at the point of care to better serve their clients. The best EHR for mental health also guides providers through evidence-based protocols to ensure fidelity.

Additionally, look for an EHR with integrated artificial intelligence (AI)-backed tools that aid in clinical decision-making and effective, efficient care delivery. Ensure that the company behind the EHR is developing these AI tools with an ethical and responsible approach. These tools should include:

• Ambient dictation, which uses natural language processing (NLP) to document and provide real-time summaries of therapeutic notes, saving providers critical time.
• Symptom tracking, which reviews caregiver and therapeutic notes to spot hard-to-see symptoms and connect them to potential diagnoses.
• Health-related social needs (HRSN) tracking, which identifies social determinants that might impact a client’s mental health.

EHR features like these can provide the clinical decision support and treatment planning assistance needed to more effectively address widespread mental health needs.

2. Bespoke Solutions to Bolster Mental Health Care Delivery

Most EHRs are built to support clinical care delivery, but only the top EHR vendors design bespoke solutions specifically for mental health care. As one study notes, “The lack of successful implementations of technology-enabled mental health services may in part be driven by the development of digital mental health tools occurring independent of mental health care providers and the context of the health system, and thus, they are not well-designed for the target users.”

To avoid implementation pitfalls, it’s critical to adopt a solution custom-made for the mental health care space. Look for an EHR platform with customizable role-based workflows designed for mental health staff and providers. These embedded workflows should address your staff’s particular roles, tasks, and deadlines, and should automate tasks to support their work. With these features, a bespoke solution can reduce the administrative burden on providers and staff and ensure smooth EHR implementation and usage.

3. Care Coordination Capabilities to Address Comorbidities and Whole-Person Care

With 68% of individuals with mental health conditions also having physical medical conditions, according to a study on comorbidities, it’s vital for mental health providers to effectively coordinate care with primary care physicians, specialists, crisis centers, and other facilities and providers.

The best EHR for mental health facilitates whole-person care by enabling seamless communication and collaborative treatment planning among providers. Find an EHR with secure, encrypted communications features that allow providers to text, email, call, and/or chat with one another seamlessly. Top mental health software companies enable providers to quickly and securely share data and session notes and align on treatment plans directly through the platform. And with customizable workflows and task alerts, facilities across the care continuum can stay in lock step with one another to best serve their shared clients and address comorbidities together.

4. Empowerment Features to Engage Underserved Clients

Despite the widespread need for mental health services, too many people simply aren’t receiving care, either due to their location in mental health care shortage areas, systemic barriers, or cultural stigma. Mental Health America reports there are 340 people requiring care for every one mental health provider — a ratio that leaves many without care.

Look for mental health software companies that offer EHRs with features that empower clients to seek out and participate in care. Integrated telehealth capabilities, for example, allow clients to access care wherever they are, which is critical for those in shortage areas. Secure mobile features allow clients to review educational materials, schedule appointments, message their providers, and review therapeutic notes directly from their portal.

By making it easy for clients to engage in care, the best EHR for mental health helps clients easily access providers and participate in care longer term.

5. Operational Support Solutions to Save Time and Stay Compliant

In mental health care, billing and collections are particularly complex challenges. Clinics must account for the location of services, session length, patient age, prescriptions, and the type of clinical services offered to code services accurately. Combined with navigating claims denials, insurance enrollment, pre-authorization requirements, and state and federal compliance rules, complicated billing protocols can be taxing.

The best EHR for mental health can relieve organizations of much of this burden by providing advanced revenue cycle management (RCM) capabilities. Adopt a solution with these embedded RCM features to better ensure:

• Accurate charge capture
• Streamlined insurance eligibility verification
• Effective risk modeling and stratification
• Smooth Medicaid and insurance billing with integrated capabilities
• Quick support with mental health waivers
• Compliance with state and federal requirements with embedded deadlines and alerts

These features can help your organization avoid costly billing errors or non-compliance fees, while optimizing RCM to ensure long-term sustainability.

The Best EHR for Mental Health: An All-in-One Solution

Individually, each of the capabilities highlighted in this checklist is essential to providing effective, person-centered mental health care.

But what sets Core Solutions’ Cx360 platform apart from other top EHR vendors? It offers every one of these features — and many more — all within a central solution tailor-made for today’s mental health care practitioners and their clients.

To see how the Cx360 platform can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your care delivery and client engagement, request a demo today.