Practice Management for Psychologists & Counselors

Why is practice management important for mental health practitioners?

With all the time spent organizing appointments, tracking client information, managing staff and other commitments, effective practice management is often overlooked. You have a list of clients, appointment schedules, and hourly charges, that’s all that matters, right?

Managing business finances may appear simple, but tracking invoices, payments, expenses, and insurance claims is often a job in itself. After spending years honing the skills needed to assist clients, many practitioners still feel that they lack the business skills required to run a successful practice.

There are several specific business challenges that mental health practitioners face, but there are also tools available that can make the job much easier.

Business Challenges

Complexities of Billing Insurance

While your hourly fee may seem simple enough when billing clients directly, insurance providers require a plethora of documentation to manage those same payments. You will need to fill out paperwork provided by each insurer to manage billing directly with them, meaning tens of different forms for each insurer. Luckily, there are solutions available to streamline this process. Practice management softwares, such as SimplePractice, enable you to easily file claims electronically and keep all financial information, such as invoices and payments, in one place.

HIPAA Compliance

It’s not only your finances that you have to consider when managing all of your documents, what about client data protection and other important records? Because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it is vital that you protect clients’ private health information. When keeping session notes and client records, you need to ensure that you are using a HIPAA compliant system.

Invoicing Online

While paper invoices used to be the norm, most clients now expect to access their payment information online. Being able to offer clear and transparent billing options online is essential to compete in today’s crowded marketplace. In our recommended solution, SimplePractice, you can even integrate billing into an easy-to-use telehealth portal.

Accepting Credit Cards

Now that clients have access to their invoices via an online platform, it’s important to make sure that payments are streamlined. Collecting outstanding copays is a pain for both you and your clients. Instead, we recommend automating the billing process by keeping client credit cards on file.

Practice Management Solutions

To address all of these challenges, we recommend SimplePractice. This online platform provides tools to manage client appointments, charge insurers, deliver invoices and payments, keep confidential information secure, and much much more, all in one place.

SimplePractice allows your practice to go paperless, getting rid of the confusing documentation previously used to track client information and payments. Clients can see their personalized invoices online and make payments via their phone or computer using a credit card.

SimplePractice + QuickBooks Online

While SimplePractice handles the client side of your practice, you still need to keep track of your expenses, payroll, assets, and loans. For these functions, we recommend QuickBooks Online. SimplePractice reports can be easily exported to QuickBooks, and the two softwares complement each other perfectly.

We have helped a number of practices grow and streamline their operations using these two programs. If you are interested in discussing how SimplePractice and QuickBooks could help you grow your business, schedule a free consultation with us today.