Features2023-08-18T21:34:34-04:00

FEATURES

The goals of our behavioral health EHR:

Flexible, easy-to-use, chock full of features.

PSYBooks’ behavioral health EHR and Portal is designed to have every tool a mental health provider in a private or group practice or clinic might need. Our features are flexible and easy to use. We give you lots of options so you can do your practice YOUR way. Not ours.

Key Features of the PSYBooks EHR/Portal

Release Notes

August 11, 2023

PSYBooks Connect

 

PSYBooks Connect is our own built-from-scratch video product. It operates out of your browser, so there’s nothing to download. Connect has a relaxing, realistic-looking waiting room for participants that changes with the season. Your patients can watch a log fire and snow in fall and winter and fish swimming in an aquarium year-round.  Seasonal birds and butterflies can be seen outside the window, including a mother bird feeding hungry babies in spring. If you’re running late or need to get any other message to your participants before the meeting, you can chat with them while they’re in the waiting room or even leave messages for them before they arrive.

Connect also allows you to record sessions. You can save the uploaded video to your own saved files, the Files tab in your patient’s chart and/or directly to their Portal if you want them to have a copy of the session. All transactions take place within the PSYBooks app, making the chance of a security breach next to 0%. PSYBooks Connect accommodates up to four participants in the meeting and provides our subscribers with a low-cost alternative to SecureVideo, which is our Zoom-based video tool. We think you’ll like it!

December 29, 2022

Shared Forms for Group Practices

  This release is specifically for Group Practices. Practice owners can now create standard forms for the entire practice and share them with their employees, interns, etc. This not only keeps the practice standardized but also saves time since only one individual actually creates the forms and shares them with all others. Can be used with intake documents, HIPAA forms, Good Faith Estimates, Mood Trackers – anything that the practice owner wants to make available to everyone. As with all Custom Forms, there’s no extra charge for these and you can create and share as many as you want. Collect eSignatures on them if you wish.
October 20, 2022

Custom Forms

  The Custom Forms tool allows you to convert the forms you regularly use in your practice to online forms. This means you can now send things like your Intake Form, Practice Policies, Informed Consents, HIPAA documents, Good Faith Estimates, etc. all within the app for better workflow and security. You can request eSignatures when needed to produce a legally-binding contract. One really nice use of Custom Forms is with the Client Onboarding tool. That tool now has a link to add Custom Forms, which makes it possible to include your entire packet of intake forms to new clients at the same time you onboard them. You can create an unlimited number of Custom Forms, which gives you the freedom to use them for things like clinical tracking tools. Custom Forms are included for free with your PSYBooks subscription and can be sent to any Portal User, not just your patients. You can create forms for staff members, colleagues, patient family members – or anyone else – in addition to your patients.
March 5, 2022

Esign, Profile Form, and Onboarding Tools.

 

This release is packed full of features:

  • The eSign tool works within our encrypted email system. You attach the forms to your email, check the eSign box, then send them off. Patients are notified via regular email that they have forms to sign. When the patient logs in to their Portal, they’re prompted to create a digital signature and then view and sign your forms. Since PSYBooks’ email is threaded, all correspondence between you and your patient about the forms will be easy to find in their medical record. There’s also a special tool for you to manage your eSign documents so you can keep track of which individuals have returned them and which haven’t. Our eSign tool can be used with non-client contacts, too, should you need to gather digital signatures on forms you send to colleagues or other individuals.
  • The Profile Form allows clients to complete a built-in intake form online. It gathers standard intake information such as name, address, phone number, birthday, sex and gender information, and insurance. When a client returns a Profile Form, the therapist is notified via email that they have a new Profile to review. When the therapist accepts the data, it’s used to populate the Demographics and Insurance tabs of the patient’s chart in the EHR. This is a great time-saver and can also reduce errors since patients fill out their own charts. As with the eSign tools, the Profile Form is pared with a tool for managing Profile Forms so you always know which tasks are complete and which ones are still outstanding.
  • The Onboarding Tools are great for new subscribers. Whether you’re currently a paper-pencil therapist or are considering upgrading from another practice management system, our Onboarding Tools make it super easy. All you need are the names and email addresses of each patient on your caseload. You enter that data in PSYBooks either by uploading a CSV file or by manually entering it. That triggers a process that sends an email to each individual on your list, asking them to create accounts in your PSYBooks Portal. Once they’ve done that, they land on the Profile Form, where they complete their chart online. An email folder in your encrypted email system is also created for them. In other words, all you have to do is enter names and email address – then your entire caseload can be set up in PSYBooks with very little additional work on your part.
July 22, 2021

Secure Email added to PSYBooks Mobile

 

PSYBooks Mobile is now a complete scheduler/communications tool to use with your patients when you’re on the go. Consult your calendar, make new appointments, cancel or edit existing ones, plus contact your patients securely via email, text or phone. You can even start your video sessions from Mobile if you get caught out and can’t get back to the office in time to use your regular PSYBooks app.

With PSYBooks Mobile, you don’t have to enter your clients as contacts in your phone and then worry about how to keep them secure. You just sign in to psybooks.mobi and all client information is already there waiting for you. No app to download for you or your clients. Just give them the psybooks.mobi URL and tell them to sign in to their PSYBoooks Portal the way they always would – just on their smartphone.

July 16, 2021

Free Forms for your Practice

 

PSYBooks now offers free forms for our subscribers that you can download and customize for your practice. Currently, we have 48 forms that were originally published with Risk Management: Clinical, Ethical, and Legal Guidelines for Successful Practice (2nd Edition)” by William F. Doverspike, PhD. We’re giving you both .doc and .pdf files. This will allow you to download the .doc file you need, customize it to fit your practice, then save it as a PDF and upload your customized PDF form to Tools > My Files. From there, you can email your customized form directly to your Portal Users to ensure it’s all 100% HIPAA compliant.

The forms are reproduced with permission from The Professional Resource Exchange, Inc. [Professional Resource Press].

April 1, 2021

The App Gets a Facelift

  We’ve been focusing so much on getting new features out to you that the app was looking pretty dated. Most of the icons, tools and images had been designed back in 2013 so it was DEFINITELY time for an update. We went through the entire site and updated the look and feel so it’s a bit spiffier looking. Hope you enjoy it!
October 8, 2020

Announcing PSYBooks Mobile!

 

PSYBooks mobile is a totally different app made to work on your phone and to have the features you most need when you’re away from your office such as contacting patients, scheduling appointments, even launching video sessions if you can’t make it back to your office (or if the Internet in your office is down).

One of the features PSYBooks Mobile offers is encrypted texting. You can text with any Portal User (as well as Admins and other Subscribers in your office) and know that you’re HIPAA compliant, and also that the texts will be saved (since texts are considered part of a client’s Medical Record). You can also do group texts with any groups you have entered in PSYBooks.

September 17, 2020

Interoffice Memos and Dynamic To-Do Lists: All Part of PSYBooks’ Therapist Notification Tool (TNT)TM

 
  • Individual and group practices now have interoffice memo tools for sending quick, HIPAA-Compliant messages to other subscribers and admins working in their office – either in-house or remotely. All memos are kept within the PSYBooks app for the ultimate in security and privacy.
  • The to-do list part of the TNT consists of possible unfinished tasks the app finds that you may not have noticed. Each item has the most likely tools you’ll need to complete it right there on the TNT. For example, your TNT might find a claim that has been rejected by the clearinghouse:

    Notice that the reason for the rejection is clearly visible. Each row also has tools that allow you to fix the claim, e.g., you can email the client for additional information, edit the session, and/or make changes to their chart. Once you’ve corrected your claim, you can resubmit it, all from the TNT. No need to search through the EHR for the tools you need to fix the claim and resubmit.

    Once you complete the item (in the example above, that would be resubmitting the claim), it is automatically removed from your to-do list. You also have the option of using the checkbox and trashcan tools to remove items manually, giving you complete control over your to-do list at all times.

May 27, 2020

CC POS Payments

 

We just released a tool that will allow you to enter CC POS (Credit Card Point of Service) payments you receive from insurance companies. It’s done with the Method field on the the Add Insurance Payment tool.

May 14, 2020

Session Start/Stop Times

 

To save you time, we auto-populate the session start and stop times with the times you set for the appointment. However, if the actual start/stop times for your session were different, you can change them. Session start/stop times are carried over to your Session Notes in the patient’s chart and also to the PHI Report.

February 11, 2020

The Preview PDF Tool, Gender Identity Fields, and the GOI/Group/Clinic Practice Updates.

 
October 10, 2019

Enhanced Calendar Tools

 

You can now enter both sessions and client payments right from your calendar, eliminating the need to switch back and forth between the Charts and Calendar tabs. As you use them, the new session and payment tools on each appointment block will be marked as “pending” or “finished,” giving you a quick visual of what tasks you still need to do on any given day. Some users may now be able to do most or all of their daily tasks right from the Calendar.

September 17, 2019

Mini-Release: More Email

 

We now add email tools by all files you upload to make it easier to send HIPAA-compliant encrypted files to your contacts. You’ll find the new tools at Tools > My Files and also on the Files tab of each of your patients’ charts. When you click the email icon by a file name, we’ll open a Compose Email form with that file already attached. All you’ll have to do is find the right contact(s) in your “To” box, write anything you want and click Send.

February 2, 2019

Video Sync and Other Enhancements

 
  • Video sessions entered on the PSYBooks calendar now automatically sync with your Secure Video dashboard and vice versa.
  • Create repeating video appointments.
  • Create and save video groups.
  • Use the Add Appointment tool to designate the appointment type as Office, Video, Phone or Other. Appropriate icons will appear on your PSYBooks calendar so you’ll be able to easily see what kind of appointment you have with a person. Video sessions can be started by clicking the camera on the appointment block:

July 26, 2018

Appointment Requests, Manage Appointment Requests and the Portal Calendar.

 

The Appointment Request Tool uses a dynamic, interactive calendar that allows you to send available appointment times to clients and others. It is most suited for therapists who want the functionality of an interactive calendar, but who do not want to put their entire calendar online. For example, this tool might be used with new clients who are scheduling an initial appointment, or with existing clients who need to reschedule or want additional appointments. The Manage Appointment Requests Tool allows you to edit or delete existing Appointment Requests as well as add new ones.

Recipients of an Appointment Request you’ve sent – whether clients or others – sign in to their Portal Calendars to see the times you’ve sent. If one or more of the times has already been booked, their Portal Calendars will not show those times – it will only display the times that are still available for booking. That’s what makes this feature interactive – Portal Calendars are always in sync with the therapist’s calendar, no matter how many changes have been made in the appointment times that were originally offered.

April 9, 2018

Group Appointments and a Manage Groups Tool.

 

This release features a new set of tools for working with groups. A “group” could be a couple’s or family session, a therapy group, or even non-therapy groups such as staff meetings or supervision. In short, a group can be any appointment that has at least two attendees for which you may want to use the special tools.

With client (i.e., “therapy”) groups, you can schedule appointments for all members at once, send appointment reminders, track attendance, write one group note that posts to each chart (or the charts you select), enter sessions and client payments, file insurance and write individual notes for each group member – all from a single new tool called “Manage Groups”. In addition, you can post a copy of the Group Note to your personal notes section (Tools > Notes & Reminders).

Non-therapy groups allow you to send appointment reminders to all group members, track attendance, and keep personal notes in your Notes & Reminders section.

Oct 24, 2017

Appointment Reminders.

 
  • Send email and/or text reminders.
  • Use our default templates or create custom templates that fit your practice.
  • Use the same reminder for everyone or create individualized ones for certain people.
  • Enjoy our easy drag ‘n’ drop interface for adding reuseable variables to your templates.
  • Send yourself an email each morning with your daily schedule.
  • Be creative! PSYBooks reminders can be used to send affirmations, quotes, congratulatory or supportive messages – again, send the same reminder to everyone or tailor-make a reminder for one specific person.
June 2, 2017

Credit card enhancements

 

Make your life easier with these enhancements:

  • The ability to save your clients’ credit cards so you can reuse them without having to reenter the data each time
  • The ability to use the Portal to email sensitive documents such as receipts straight from the app, i.e., without having to download them first

The first one is fairly self-explanatory but will definitely save you some time. Learn more about processing credit cards in PSYBooks.

The second one came from questions people have asked about whether credit card processing devices such as Square are HIPAA-compliant. After some research, the answer I found was, “It depends.” Evidently, the devices themselves are exempt from HIPAA because they only process payment info. However, the gray area comes when you want to send your client a receipt from the device. At that point, it’s a little iffy as to whether that information is considered PHI or not.

PSYBooks can now eliminate that gray area by allowing you to send those kinds of emails straight from the app. You’ve always been able to do that by downloading the documents first. But now, you’ll notice an email icon with the receipt link that will allow you to email the receipt as an attachment without having to download it. We even attach the document and pre-populate most of the fields in the email so all you have to do is click “Send”. It’s the ultimate in convenience, safety and HIPAA-compliance. These “in house” emails have been added to many of the reports, too.

   
April 7, 2017

Video!

 

The PSYBooks Portal now offers video. PSYBooks Video is 100% HIPAA-compliant, whereas products like Skype and Facetime are not. PSYBooks Video is based on the Zoom platform which produces the best video quality we’ve seen and offers the following features:

  • Unlimited sessions for unlimited particpants. You can conduct individual sessions, do couples’ and family work, conduct groups or use it for online staff meetings.
  • Two-way screen share. (Good for PowerPoint presentations or anything else you might want to share with your clients.)
  • Online clinician directory for you to advertise your telehealth services.
  • Chat. (Handy if some participants don’t have microphones or are muted.)
  • The ability to create unlimited E-Documents that your patients can fill out and electronically sign while waiting for their appointment to start. (Good for intake forms, HIPAA documents, etc.)
  • Shareable whiteboards you can use to write or draw as you conduct your session.
  • Customizable links for your virtual waiting room.
  • 24/7 phone and email support.
Feb 14, 2017

“Fix This ERA”

 

Fix This ERA is a whole set of tools that allow you to work with those pesky ERAs that won’t allocate properly. For example, sometimes insurance companies send ERAs with negative balances as a way to adjust for previous errors on their part. Or maybe you’ve already allocated a client payment to the session that would cause the ERA to create a negative session balance issue. In the past, these kinds of ERAs couldn’t be processed without some extra work and creativity on your part. But now, with the help of the new tools that are part of the Fix This ERA feature, they can. Perhaps the best part is that you don’t have to navigate anywhere else in the program. The Fix This ERA tools appear on the same page as the problem ERA.

Nov 24, 2017

At Rest File Encryption

 

This release ensures that ALL files you upload to PSYBooks – whether through one of the file upload areas or as attachments in email system – are encrypted. Files have always been encrypted while they were in motion; now they are also encrypted ‘at rest’. In addition to uploaded files, this at-rest encryption applies to all PDF files generated by the program such as claims (CMS 1500 forms), statements, receipts, reports, etc. This new state-of-the-art encryption adds another tier to our safety commitment to you.

Oct 14, 2016

Lower rates for large practices, group emails, ability to send PHI directly to support when you have questions

 
  • Larger practices now pay a reduced rate of $40 per month for the first five practitioners in the same office and $25 per month for each additional practitioner. As always, admins are free.
  • Improved group email functionality in the Portal allows you to connect some of your own Portal Users with one another. For example, you can now connect your entire support staff, whether on-site or off, just by sending them a group email. This will enable them to use PSYBooks’ encrypted email system when communicating about your clients.
  • Added a “Contact PSYBooks” link in the Portal which will make it safe for subscribers to include client PHI when communicating with us on support tickets.
June 9, 2016

Client Portal & Encrypted Email

 

This was a huge release that included not only the client portal but also our encrypted email system. The portal is the interface between you and your clients and staff. Therapists can now exchange emails with clients or colleagues and know that it’s safe and HIPAA-compliant. PSYBooks’ email is encrypted both in motion and at rest. Furthermore, any attachments sent with emails are also encrypted.

Dec 18, 2015

Billing Providers

 

This release is specifically for those users who need the ability to list separate billing vs. rendering providers on the CMS forms you send to insurance companies. The Billing Providers release makes it possible for certain types of group practices to use PSYBooks. The tool was made with maximum flexibility in mind. For example, it covers situations where the practice may have more than one office, different billing providers at each office, and also when billing providers may vary by insurance company, or even by specific client or session.

Aug 1, 2015

Various enhancements

 
  • Added a new “Hide” tool to let users hide specific items in a chart’s Sessions & Payments tab. The goal of this tool is to make it easier to find things in the table. For example, you can now hide everything except unallocated client payments to allow you to allocate payments more easily.
  • Tweaked the Client Statement to make it easier for clients to understand.
  • Added functionality to allow subscribers to add and/or remove certain features they might want on their PSYBooks account, such as the ability to efile or extra storage space.
June 30, 2015

ICD 9/10 Crosswalk and other enhancements

 

Added an ICD-9/ICD-10 diagnoses crosswalk/conversion tool for looking up ICD-10 codes.

Dec 26, 2014

Notes & Reminders

 

Added a Notes & Reminders section to enable users to create editable “To Do” lists as well as other types of notes they need to maintain for their practice. The Notes & Reminders page is in the Tools section of the app (the older name for the Tools section was Reports).

Nov 20, 2014

New Financial Reports

 

Added three new reports to the Financial Reports section: Claims & Statements, Past Due Accounts and Payments Received.

Sept 23, 2014

Contacts

 

Added “Contacts” sections to both the Library (for therapist contacts) and the client chart (for client contacts). This release includes the functionality to add additional payers to a client’s account.

July 7, 2014

Launch