Comparing Behave Health and EHR Your Way for Addiction Treatment EHR Shoppers 

September 12, 2023 Ben Weiss

Comparing Behave Health and EHR Your Way and trying to decide which one is best fit for your addiction treatment or behavioral healthcare organization?

EHR shopping is a dreaded task among many addiction treatment providers. It can often feel like every SaaS company is promising the world and delivering…quite a bit less. Whether this is your first EHR purchase or yet another attempt to find functional software for your organization, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed by the options and wary of sales pitches.

In this post, we delve into the similarities and differences between Behave Health and EHR Your Way. We’ll describe the pros and cons of each and cover some of the common issues that users run into with these behavioral health software options.

The tech you use to power your organization is a key player in the success (or failure) of your business. Let’s arm you with the information you need to make an informed decision!

What is Behave Health?

Behave Health is an all-in-one software solution for addiction treatment and mental health organizations. Behave Health is an expansive answer to the myriad workflow problems that behavioral health professionals grapple with on a daily basis.

Behave Health is a cloud-based application that can be used on your computer, your phone or any other device that’s convenient for you, anywhere, anytime. It can handle individual notes, group notes, treatment planning and new patient “paperwork,” certainly, but its functionality goes well beyond standard EHR fare. Behave Health also offers a billing service, revenue cycle management (billing, denials appeals, patient responsibility payments, financial reporting, etc), medication management, ePrescribing, and more. Unlike many general healthcare EHRs, Behave Health caters specifically to the needs of addiction treatment providers and other clinically adjacent settings, like sober living.

What is EHR Your Way?

EHR Your Way is an EHR designed for tech aversive healthcare organizations who have legacy paper-based workflows that they would like to incorporate into their EHR. EHR Your Way offers a scanning service that will enter your paper documents into the EHR, as well as a customization service that can modify the software’s workflows to conform to existing workflows, whether they’re digital, paper or a hybrid of the two.

EHR Your Way targets private practices, group practices, home healthcare organizations and assisted living organizations. While they do put a focus on behavioral health, their product is designed to serve more than one type of healthcare organization.

EHR Your Way offers new patient intake workflows, appointment setting, clinical notes, billing, reporting, and patient portal functionality for users on a software-as-a-subscription model.

What are the similarities between Behave Health and EHR Your Way?

There are actually many similarities between Behave Health and EHR Your Way.

Both software platforms offer:

Cloud-based connectivity
Clinical notes
Billing
Reporting
Patient portal
Appointment setting
Medication management
ePrescribing
Treatment planning
New patient workflows
Discharge summaries
Onboarding help
Ongoing training
Customer service
Outcomes collection tools
Client management
Voice-to-text functionality
HIPAA compliance/BAA
Drug testing workflows

What are the differences between Behave Health and EHR Your Way?

While the features offered by Behave Health and EHR Your Way have a lot of overlap, there are a few glaring differences between these two software systems. Let’s look at these differences one by one.

Paper Friendliness

EHR Your Way allows you to hold onto your paper records in whatever way works best for your organization, for better or for worse. For paper-free offices, this isn’t a “feature,” but this functionality may appeal to behavioral health organizations that have very limited tech aspirations.

Behave Health is a decidedly forward-looking EHR that prioritizes a digital-first approach to behavioral health workflows. Behave Health does not offer a scanning service for existing paper records and it doesn’t offer to modify workflows around the individual preferences of each organization.

Modern User Interface

EHR Your Way was designed by medical doctors in 2008, when George W. Bush was still president of the United States. That was quite a while ago and the user interface is showing its age. The “look” of the software is dated and feels pretty retro overall. EHR Your Way’s user interface recalls the aesthetics of Windows 98, if the reader remembers that 25+ year old computing classic.

Behave Health has a modern user interface that looks and feels intuitive and clean. The “look” of Behave Health might be considered classic, but it’s definitely not dated or retro.

Compare the clinical notes user interface of EHR Your Way:

(Note: This “Impression Notes” screenshot from EHR Your Way was sourced here.)

Versus the clinical notes user interface of Behave Health:

As you can see, these two software platforms have a vastly different approach to user interface.

While EHR Your Way does have a retro appeal, most providers will likely find Behave Health’s interface much easier to use overall.

AI Compatibility

EHR Your Way has no AI compatibility or functionality at this time.

Behave Health recently introduced a waitlist for Behave AI Assistant, a HIPAA compliant artificially intelligent EHR assistant built on ChatGPT4 and fully integrated into the Behave EHR. With the Behave AI Assistant, users can present generative prompts to ChatGPT4 inside the EHR as they are creating clinical documentation and completing billing tasks. This functionality can be used in a number of ways, including: creating first drafts for notes, crafting email messages, and answering clinical and/or billing questions in real time.

Again, for tech phobic users, this difference between Behave Health and EHR Your Way won’t likely inform too much decision-making, but for organizations who are looking to stay competitive and leverage technology to improve operations, this difference will be quite meaningful and may even be a deal-breaker.

Want an Addiction Treatment EHR That Just Works? You’ve Found It.

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!