This article compares two leading EHR platforms: MindWise Health and SimplePractice, highlighting unique strengths, recent innovations, and suitability for various practice sizes and specialties.
This in-depth review is part of an ongoing series. Previous comparisons with other top EHR contenders are available for additional context.
MindWise Health vs: Tebra | Valant | TherapyNotes
Behavioral health practices face increasing pressure to deliver exceptional care while managing complex administrative demands. Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems play a critical role in streamlining operations, enhancing patient engagement, and ensuring secure, efficient documentation.
How do SimplePractice and MindWise Health compare?
Website: https://www.mindwisehealth.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindwise-health/
MindWise Health pricing: https://mindwisehealth.com/pricing
Website: https://www.simplepractice.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/simplepractice/
SimplePractice pricing: https://www.simplepractice.com/pricing/
MindWise Health designed its platform specifically for mental and behavioral health professionals. The company focuses on condition-based screening tests that address a wide range of mental health conditions and patient groups.
Clinicians streamline clinical workflows using customized note templates and documentation tools that MindWise Health designs for behavioral health use cases. Mental health experts developed the intake feature to collect only essential information, avoiding the excessive questioning found in general health applications.
MindWise Health’s dashboard extracts critical information from clinical notes, ensuring providers meet state licensure requirements and insurance standards.
For solo practitioners and small group practices, SimplePractice delivers a user-friendly, all-in-one EHR and practice management solution. The platform automates scheduling, billing, documentation, and client communication. This streamlines administrative and clinical workflows, reducing the administrative burden on independent providers to focus more on patient care.
A flexible API allows custom workflow enhancements. There’s also integration with popular third-party tools like Google Calendar and QuickBooks. Its client portal and automated reminders further simplify patient engagement and retention.
However, its design prioritizes simplicity and broad applicability. SimplePractice’s capabilities are limited when it comes to larger practices, or those requiring advanced group therapy features, multi-provider collaboration, or facility billing. Larger, more specialized practices, especially those with unique program structures like Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) or Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP), or those serving diverse patient populations, often require highly specific and deeply customizable forms and documentation templates. Providers may require workarounds or consideration of a more robust EHR.
MindWise Health offers an extensive suite of multi-attribute assessment tools specifically designed for mental health practitioners.
The platform features more than 65 validated assessments across multiple categories, including addiction, ADHD, anxiety, autism spectrum, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, personality, relationships, and stress-related conditions.
MindWise Health includes the complete DSM-5 Level 1 assessment suite with specialized versions for adults, adolescents (11-17), and children (6-17), enabling comprehensive symptom screening across diagnostic categories. The platform's Big 5 Personality Test (BFPT) provides detailed personality profiling alongside other specialized personality assessments like the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Personality Type Indicator (PTI).
These tools allow clinicians to gather nuanced patient data efficiently across the behavioral health spectrum. The system's mental health-specific documentation templates support various therapeutic modalities and intervention strategies, ensuring comprehensive documentation while reducing administrative burden on mental health specialists.
MindWise Health designed its patient billing and claims processing system for behavioral health workflows. The claims dashboard is behavioral health-specific, with more than 65 automated pre-submission checks and pre-configured CPT codes for psychiatric and mental health services. Additionally, built-in error prevention catches issues before claims leave your system. You’ll be alerted to claims rejections and denials, thanks to an integration with Waystar, the industry-leading healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) platform.
SimplePractice provides several customizable templates like SOAP, DAP, and group therapy notes, as well as specialized intake and treatment plan forms. Its documentation tools streamline clinical workflows, offering:
While there are some built-in scored assessments for behavioral health, notably the GAD-7 and PHQ-9, it does not have the variety of specialized templates offered by MindWise Health. Larger group practices, multi-provider teams, or organizations needing advanced behavioral health features may also find the platform lacking.
SimplePractice recently introduced features that allow for automatic insurance status checks (eligibility verification) for many payers, especially for Plus plan users. The platform can now automatically verify whether a client’s insurance is active, needs review, or is inactive, and displays this information in the client’s chart and on the calendar.
The platform’s primary strength lies in its automation and ease of use. SimplePractice centralizes practice management so that clinicians can focus more on client care.
MindWise Health's patient management system features specialized digital onboarding designed specifically for mental health intake processes. This comprehensive system collects relevant client history before initial appointments. The system uses condition-specific questionnaires that gather essential information while avoiding excessive questioning that might overwhelm patients.
The platform's behavioral and mental health monitoring capabilities track patient progress through 65+ validated assessments across multiple categories, including addiction, anxiety, depression, and personality disorders.
For example, a clinician could potentially use a combination of personality assessments (like the Big 5 Personality Test), mood disorder screenings (such as the Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9 for depression), and substance use evaluations (like the Addiction Severity Index) to build a comprehensive profile of a patient's mental health status. The AI-enhanced dashboard could then potentially highlight key areas of concern or patterns across these different domains, assisting clinicians in prioritizing care and informing treatment planning.
SimplePractice’s platform enhances client engagement for solo and small group practices. The secure, HIPAA-compliant patient portal lets patients request, reschedule, or cancel appointments. This reduces administrative burdens and improves flexibility for both clients and providers. Communication through direct messaging, automated appointment reminders, and easy sharing of documents, keeps patients informed and engaged.
Scheduling is intuitive and efficient, with features that allow clinicians to manage appointments, set recurring sessions, and block out unavailable times, all from a centralized calendar.
For follow-up, SimplePractice supports automated reminders and secure messaging, which help maintain continuity of care and reduce no-shows. Patients can also access their health records, educational resources, and treatment plans via the portal.
The platform's telehealth capabilities are designed to complement MindWise Health's core focus on mental and behavioral health care. As such, the telehealth capabilities are available in the specialized mental health platform, focusing on integration with scheduling and overall practice management to create a streamlined experience for both providers and patients.
This integration ensures that telehealth appointments can be seamlessly incorporated into the platform's scheduling system, eliminating the need for separate telehealth solutions. The user-friendly portal for booking and telehealth sessions (included in Complete and Enterprise plans) is HIPAA-compliant and designed to be accessible and straightforward for patients.
Telehealth is available as a separate, low-cost add-on to our Starter plan, since some providers (like group homes) don’t need that feature.
SimplePractice includes telehealth in all of its subscription plans. The integration features seamless video sessions directly from the provider’s dashboard and supports up to 15 clients plus the clinician in a group session.
The platform automatically generates secure, HIPAA-compliant links for each appointment. Clients access the platform without logins or passwords.
Appointment reminders with telehealth links are sent automatically, reducing no-shows and streamlining scheduling. This integration allows clinicians to manage scheduling, documentation, and video sessions all within one platform.
MindWise Health offers EMR integration capabilities designed specifically for mental and behavioral health workflows. The platform focuses on mental health-specific integrations that support specialized clinical documentation and assessment needs. Key integration features include:
Simple Practice’s integration capabilities are designed to reduce administrative burden, enhance productivity, and ensure seamless data flow for mental health and wellness professionals. Key integration features include:
MindWise Health excels with its specialized focus on mental and behavioral health, offering a comprehensive platform tailored to psychological practice needs. The system's standout feature is its extensive library of 65+ purpose-built assessment tools covering 12 distinct categories. MindWise Health's customizability for specific mental health practices enhances its value for specialized clinics and behavioral health providers.
SimplePractice shines for solo and small to mid-sized mental health practices. The platform includes a comprehensive toolkit for scheduling, documentation, billing, and telehealth, all in one place. SimplePractice focuses on ease of use, automating routine tasks, and offering customizable templates to streamline administrative work.
Both EHRs address the needs of behavioral practices.
MindWise Health offers a more robust solution for outcomes-driven care:
SimplePractice excels as an intuitive, all-in-one solution for solo practitioners and small groups. It automates scheduling, billing, and documentation, and offers a user-friendly interface that makes workflows more efficient. Simple Practice’s flexible API and third-party integrations further simplify administration for independent providers.
Ultimately, the best choice depends on your team’s workflow, size, and clinical goals. Evaluate your needs carefully, and you’ll find the EHR that helps your practice thrive.
To see how MindWise Health can help your organization thrive, contact our team for more information or a personalized demonstration.