If you’re shopping for a new EHR (or EMR) for your behavioral health organization, it’s likely that you’ve come across Welligent and Behave Health, two of the top comprehensive software solutions purpose-built for addiction treatment and other behavioral health settings. While there is a lot of overlap in what these two software solutions can do for your organization, it’s important to understand some of the key differences between these two, as well. Today, we’ll compare Welligent and Behave Health and determine the strengths and weaknesses of each EHR.
There are Some Key Similarities to The Way Welligent and Behave Health Function
Before we get into the differences between Welligent and Behave Health, let’s look at their similarities.
Welligent and Behave Health are both cloud-based software suites that claim to be “all-in-one” solutions for behavioral health. Naturally, they are both HIPAA compliant. Each platform offers addiction treatment EHR staples, such as client dashboards, telehealth capabilities, integrated Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), outcomes tracking, and more. Both software solutions can be accessed from any device, including smartphones, which makes them ideal for clinicians and patients who are always on-the-go.
Finally, both systems offer robust customer service via email or phone. Both systems will schedule free walk-throughs and consultations to help you determine if their software is a good fit for your organization.
Welligent and Behave Health Serve Different Segments of the Behavioral Health Industry
While Welligent and Behave Health both advertise as “behavioral health EHRs,” they actually serve different segments of the behavioral health industry. There is some overlap in their target industries - such as IOP, inpatient, and medication assisted treatment programs (MAT) - but this is limited mostly to the addiction treatment field.
In addition to addiction treatment, Welligent also caters to:
Foster care agencies
Mental health organizations
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Organizations
Human services organizations
Public health organizations
Student health organizations
And more
In contrast, Behave Health caters to the behavioral health industry only with a strong focus on addiction treatment. This allows Behave Health to hone in on the specific needs of this idiosyncratic industry without overburdening clinicians and patients with over-complicated menus, options, and workflows. Behave Health packs in everything that behavioral health organizations need without the clutter.
Welligent Has Limited Patient Engagement Capabilities and Customers Must Pay Extra to Access Robust Patient Engagement Features
Behave Health and Welligent both have patient-facing dashboards or portals that allow patients to track their progress, access treatment planning files, access health records, connect with community resources, engage with alumni activities, and so on.
However, in order to access all of the Welligent’s patient-facing features - also called patient engagement capabilities - you’ll need to spring for an additional software called CaredFor, which is a part of the ContinuumCloud software suite. This will, of course, cost extra.
Behave Health, on the other hand, offers all of its patient engagement capabilities in a single all-in-one package for an affordable monthly fee. There is no upsell or bait-and-switch. Behave Health is fully functional out of the box.
Welligent Offers a “Workforce Management Solution” For An Extra Fee, While Behave Health Offers Basic Human Resources Functionality for Free
The ContinuumCloud software suite, of which Welligent is a part, includes a third piece of software called Datis e3, which can handle human resources workflows such as:
Position control
HR Management
Recruiting Management
Time and Attendance
Payroll
Benefits
Talent Management
Business Intelligence
Bear in mind that like the patient engagement capabilities offered by CaredFor within the ContinuumCloud software suite, you’ll end up paying extra to access the HR features powered by Datis e3 if you choose Welligent.
Behave Health, on the other hand, does not have a corresponding human resources suite. Instead, Behave Health offers basic human resources functionality, like:
Employee and user roles
Custom permissions
Assignable employee tasks
Employee schedules
Employment document storage
Employee communication logs
Employee contact management
However, unlike Welligent, Behave Health does not offer add-on payroll, timesheet, recruiting or benefits features.
Behave Health Offers Soup-to-Nuts Behavioral Health Billing and Welligent Doesn’t
Another key difference between these two platforms is how they handle billing.
Simply put, with Behave Health, you have the option of closing your billing department and allowing Behave Health’s billing specialists handle every part of your revenue cycle management. With Welligent, you’ll need to retain your existing billing service.
Both software solutions offer RCM (revenue cycle management) capabilities like:
Billing dashboard
eVOBs
Patient eligibility
Copays
Coding
Claims submission
Patient responsibility payments
Easy reporting
Still, between the two, only Behave Health offers a truly soup-to-nuts behavioral health billing service.
Still Weighing the Pros and Cons of Welligent and Behave Health? We’re Here to Help.
Behave Health is committed to making it easier - and more profitable - to operate evidence-based, results-focused addiction treatment centers.
Our all-in-one app puts clinical, administration, staff, admissions, alumni, residents, treatment plans, billing, insurance authorizations and more - all at your fingertips.
Get your free trial started today and see why more addiction treatment centers prefer Behave Health.
PS. Just getting started with behavioral health? Need help with certification, too? Behave Health can also help direct you to the right resources for help with Licensing or Accreditation by either The Joint Commission or CARF. Mention to your product specialist that you’re interested in this service after you start your free trial!