Best EHR for Psychiatrists & Psychiatric Practices in 2026

Why Psychiatrists Need a Different EHR

Psychiatry sits at the intersection of prescribing medicine and behavioral health, and that dual identity creates EHR requirements that neither general-purpose medical platforms nor therapy-only systems handle well. A family medicine EHR gives you e-prescribing but buries you in templates designed for physicals and lab orders. A therapy-focused EHR gives you great progress notes but stumbles when you need to prescribe a Schedule II stimulant with EPCS compliance.

The core problem is controlled substance management. Psychiatrists prescribe stimulants (Adderall, Vyvanse), benzodiazepines (Xanax, Klonopin), and increasingly, buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Federal EPCS mandates now require these prescriptions to be sent electronically, and most state pharmacy boards have followed suit. If your EHR does not support Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS), you are either out of compliance or printing paper prescriptions that slow down your workflow and frustrate pharmacies.

Beyond EPCS, psychiatrists benefit from PDMP (Prescription Drug Monitoring Program) integration built into the prescribing workflow. Checking a state PDMP database before prescribing a controlled substance is a legal requirement in most states. Without in-EHR integration, you are logging into a separate state portal for every patient, every visit. That adds five minutes per encounter across a full patient panel, which is significant.

Psychiatry also has unique documentation needs. A psychiatric evaluation is fundamentally different from a primary care history and physical. You need templates that accommodate mental status exams, suicide risk assessments, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores tracked over time, and split-visit billing (E/M plus psychotherapy add-on codes like 90833 or 90836). General EHRs rarely handle split billing natively, forcing workarounds that increase denial rates.

Finally, measurement-based care is becoming a payer requirement. Insurers and value-based contracts increasingly want to see documented outcome scores over time. An EHR that lets you administer PHQ-9, GAD-7, AUDIT-C, or Columbia Suicide Severity scores directly in the patient portal and graph trends across visits is not just a convenience — it is a revenue protection strategy.

Key Features to Look for in a Psychiatric EHR

Not every feature matters equally. Here is what separates a good psychiatric EHR from a generic one:

• E-prescribing with EPCS: Non-negotiable. You need full Surescripts-certified e-prescribing that includes controlled substance transmission. EPCS requires identity-proofing and two-factor authentication, so the EHR must support a hardware token or biometric authenticator.
• PDMP integration: In-workflow PDMP lookups eliminate the context-switching cost of checking a separate state portal. The best implementations auto-query the PDMP when you open a prescribing screen.
• Psychiatric note templates: Look for structured templates for initial psychiatric evaluations, medication management follow-ups, and split therapy/med visits. Templates should support the mental status exam, risk assessments, and medication reconciliation.
• Split billing support: Psychiatrists who provide both medication management and psychotherapy in the same visit need to bill an E/M code alongside a psychotherapy add-on (90833/90836). Your EHR should generate compliant claims for both services without manual gymnastics.
• Measurement-based care tools: Integrated patient-reported outcome measures like PHQ-9 (depression), GAD-7 (anxiety), MDQ (bipolar screening), AUDIT-C (alcohol use), and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Ideally, patients complete these through a portal before the visit and scores auto-populate the chart.
• Medication history and reconciliation: Real-time access to a patient's fill history through Surescripts Medication History helps you verify adherence and identify potential interactions.
• Telehealth: Psychiatric visits translate well to video. Built-in, HIPAA-compliant telehealth that integrates with documentation saves you from paying for a separate platform.
• Patient portal: A good portal lets patients complete intake forms, outcome measures, sign consents, request refills, and message their provider — all of which reduce administrative overhead for a specialty where support staff is often minimal.

Detailed Reviews

Valant — Best Overall for Psychiatry

Valant was designed from the ground up for behavioral health prescribers, and it shows. The platform's prescribing workflow is the most tightly integrated in the behavioral health EHR space: you get Surescripts-certified e-prescribing, EPCS for all schedule classes, and built-in PDMP lookups that query your state database without leaving the chart. When you open a patient's medication panel, Valant pulls their Surescripts medication history automatically, giving you a real-time view of what has been filled, where, and when. For a psychiatrist managing patients on multiple controlled substances, this level of integration is transformative.

Documentation in Valant is built around psychiatric workflows. The initial evaluation template walks through presenting complaint, psychiatric history, substance use history, family history, mental status exam, risk assessment, and treatment plan in a logical sequence. Follow-up medication management templates are streamlined for 15-20 minute visits, focusing on symptom review, side effects, and prescription changes. Valant also supports measurement-based care with built-in PHQ-9, GAD-7, and other standardized instruments that patients can complete through the portal before their appointment. Scores are tracked longitudinally and graphed directly in the clinical chart.

The tradeoffs are price and complexity. Valant typically runs $100-$300 per provider per month, making it two to four times more expensive than SimplePractice or TherapyNotes. Implementation takes longer, and the interface, while functional, is not as visually polished as newer competitors. For solo psychiatrists who do not need advanced reporting or large-practice management tools, Valant may be more system than you need. But for prescribing-heavy practices, collaborative care teams, or group practices with a mix of psychiatrists and therapists, Valant is the most complete package available. See how it compares head-to-head in our Valant vs TherapyNotes comparison.

TherapyNotes — Best Documentation

TherapyNotes earns its reputation through clinical documentation. The platform's note templates are among the most structured and customizable in the behavioral health space, covering everything from initial intake and treatment plans to progress notes and discharge summaries. For psychiatrists who value thorough, defensible documentation, TherapyNotes makes it straightforward to create notes that meet payer audit standards without sacrificing clinical detail.

TherapyNotes supports e-prescribing through a Surescripts integration, and EPCS was added in recent years. However, the prescribing workflow is not as deeply embedded in the clinical chart as Valant's — it functions more as an add-on module than a native feature. PDMP integration is available but varies by state, and the medication management tools are less sophisticated. If you are a psychiatrist whose practice is roughly half therapy and half medication management, TherapyNotes hits a pragmatic middle ground: excellent notes, serviceable prescribing, and a clean interface.

Pricing is a clear advantage. At $69-$79+ per provider per month (with small per-claim fees for billing), TherapyNotes costs significantly less than Valant while still covering the essentials. Billing is handled in-platform with integrated claim submission and ERA posting. The main limitation for prescribing-heavy psychiatrists is that TherapyNotes was originally built for therapists and counselors. The medication management experience reflects that lineage — it works, but it does not feel like it was designed for someone writing 30 prescriptions a day.

SimplePractice — Best for Solo Psychiatrists

SimplePractice has become the default EHR for a generation of solo mental health clinicians, and its appeal for psychiatrists is straightforward: a polished, modern interface, excellent telehealth, and a patient experience that feels contemporary rather than clinical. The client portal is best-in-class for behavioral health, handling intake paperwork, consent forms, outcome measures, appointment requests, secure messaging, and payment processing in one seamless flow. For a solo psychiatrist trying to minimize administrative staff, that portal does a lot of heavy lifting.

SimplePractice added e-prescribing in 2023, and it has matured into a functional module for psychiatrists who prescribe primarily non-controlled medications. EPCS support is available, though the prescribing workflow is simpler than what Valant offers. There is no native PDMP integration, so you will still need to check your state PDMP separately. For a psychiatrist who sees 15-20 patients a day and prescribes mostly SSRIs, SNRIs, and atypical antipsychotics — with occasional controlled substance prescriptions — SimplePractice handles the job without overcomplicating it.

The platform starts at $49/month for a solo provider, making it the most affordable option on this list. Telehealth is included on all plans, which is notable since many competitors charge extra for video visits. The limitation is scale. SimplePractice works well for solo practitioners and very small groups, but it lacks the multi-provider scheduling, advanced reporting, and operational management tools that larger psychiatric practices need. If you plan to grow beyond three or four providers, you will likely outgrow SimplePractice.

AZZLY Rize — Best for MAT Programs

AZZLY Rize occupies a specialized niche that is increasingly relevant to psychiatry: medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorders. With the removal of the X-waiver requirement in 2023, any DEA-licensed prescriber can now prescribe buprenorphine, meaning more psychiatrists are incorporating MAT into their practices. AZZLY Rize and Ease are both strong fits for this use case, with ASAM-aligned assessments, SUD-specific treatment planning, MAT medication tracking, and compliance-oriented workflows.

These platforms bundle EHR, billing/RCM, and CRM into a single operating model, which simplifies operations for treatment centers that do not want to manage multiple vendor relationships. Billing workflows are built for complex reimbursement patterns common in SUD treatment, including concurrent billing for medical and behavioral health services, prior authorization tracking, and payer-specific claim formatting. For a psychiatric practice that runs a MAT program, outpatient SUD treatment, or dual-diagnosis services, this integrated approach reduces administrative friction and revenue leakage.

AZZLY Rize and Ease use quote-based pricing, so you will need a tailored quote. These platforms are less suited to general outpatient psychiatry practices focused only on anxiety, depression, and ADHD without meaningful substance-use treatment workflows. If you are evaluating SUD and MAT capabilities, review both the AZZLY Rize vendor profile and the Ease vendor profile.

E-Prescribing Feature Comparison

E-prescribing capabilities vary significantly between platforms. Here is how our key recommendations compare on the features that matter most to psychiatrists:

The takeaway is clear: if controlled substance prescribing is central to your practice, Valant, AZZLY Rize, and Ease offer the most complete infrastructure. TherapyNotes and SimplePractice handle basic e-prescribing but require more manual steps for controlled substances and PDMP compliance.

Solo Psychiatrist vs. Group Practice Considerations

Your practice size should heavily influence your EHR decision. The needs of a solo psychiatrist working from a home office are fundamentally different from those of a 15-provider psychiatric group with multiple locations.

Solo Psychiatrists

If you are running a solo practice, your priorities are simplicity, low cost, and a good patient experience. You are probably your own scheduler, biller, and IT department. SimplePractice excels here because its client portal handles most patient-facing administrative tasks automatically — intake forms, consent signatures, appointment reminders, payment collection, and secure messaging. At $49/month with telehealth included, it is the lowest-cost option that still includes e-prescribing.

The trade-off is prescribing depth. If you prescribe a high volume of controlled substances, SimplePractice's lack of PDMP integration means extra manual steps each day. A solo psychiatrist who writes 20+ controlled substance prescriptions daily may find that Valant's higher price pays for itself in time savings.

Group Practices (3-20+ Providers)

Group practices need multi-provider scheduling, role-based access controls, shared patient panels, practice-level reporting, and potentially multiple location support. Valant is the strongest option for mid-size psychiatric groups because it was designed for multi-provider behavioral health organizations. Its reporting suite includes productivity dashboards, revenue analytics, no-show tracking, and outcome data aggregation across the practice.

Groups that include both psychiatrists and therapists benefit from an EHR that supports both prescribing workflows and therapy documentation in a single platform. Valant and TherapyNotes both handle this well, though from different angles: Valant is stronger on the prescribing side, while TherapyNotes is stronger on the documentation side. Our Valant vs TherapyNotes comparison breaks down the differences in detail.

For a broader look at how these platforms compare against the full behavioral health EHR market, see our behavioral health EHR comparison page.

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and Psychiatry

The intersection of psychiatry and substance use disorder treatment has expanded dramatically since the DEA eliminated the X-waiver requirement in January 2023. Any physician with a DEA registration can now prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, and many psychiatrists are adding MAT to their service lines. This shift creates new EHR requirements that most psychiatry-focused platforms were not built to handle.

MAT programs require ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) criteria documentation for level-of-care assessments, substance use-specific treatment plans, medication administration and dispensing logs for buprenorphine and naltrexone, urine drug screen tracking with result documentation, and compliance reporting for state licensure and SAMHSA regulations. Standard psychiatric EHRs like Valant and SimplePractice can accommodate some of these workflows through customization, but they do not provide native support.

AZZLY Rize and Ease were built for this use case. If your practice runs a dedicated MAT program, operates an outpatient SUD treatment center, or serves a dual-diagnosis population where substance use is a primary treatment focus, these platforms provide stronger compliance and operations infrastructure than general psychiatric tools.

For psychiatrists who occasionally prescribe buprenorphine but do not run a formal MAT program, the additional compliance tooling in AZZLY Rize is probably unnecessary. Valant's standard e-prescribing with EPCS is sufficient for ad hoc buprenorphine prescriptions.

Pricing Comparison

EHR costs for psychiatry practices vary widely depending on features, practice size, and contract terms. Here is a summary of what to expect:

Keep in mind that the listed prices are starting points. Actual costs depend on the number of providers, selected add-ons (e-prescribing tokens, additional users, advanced reporting), and contract length. Most vendors offer discounts for annual prepayment. EPCS typically requires a one-time hardware token purchase ($25-$75) or a recurring soft-token fee in addition to the base subscription.

For a deeper breakdown of EHR pricing across the industry, see our EHR cost guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best EHR for psychiatrists?

Valant is widely considered the best EHR for psychiatrists in 2026. It was purpose-built for behavioral health prescribers and includes integrated e-prescribing with EPCS for controlled substances, in-workflow PDMP lookups, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 measurement-based care tools, and AI-assisted clinical documentation. For MAT-heavy and growth-oriented behavioral health groups, Ease is also a strong option due to its AI-native operations model. For solo psychiatrists on a budget, SimplePractice offers a more affordable alternative with solid telehealth.

Do psychiatrists need EPCS-enabled e-prescribing in their EHR?

Yes. As of 2025, most states and all Medicare Part D prescriptions require electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). Psychiatrists routinely prescribe Schedule II-V medications such as stimulants, benzodiazepines, and buprenorphine. An EHR with built-in EPCS eliminates the need for handwritten prescriptions, reduces errors, and keeps your practice compliant with DEA and state pharmacy board regulations.

How much does an EHR for a psychiatry practice cost?

EHR pricing for psychiatry practices typically ranges from $49 to $300+ per provider per month. SimplePractice starts at $49/month for solo practitioners, TherapyNotes ranges from $69-$79/month, and Valant (the most feature-rich option for prescribers) ranges from $100-$300/month. Enterprise and group practice solutions like AZZLY Rize and Ease use quote-based pricing. Additional costs may include EPCS token fees, e-prescribing add-ons, and clearinghouse charges.

What is the best EHR for a psychiatrist who also does therapy?

SimplePractice is an excellent choice for psychiatrists who split their time between medication management and psychotherapy. It offers flexible note templates for both visit types, built-in telehealth for therapy sessions, a polished client portal, and e-prescribing capabilities. TherapyNotes is another strong option with superior documentation templates specifically designed for talk therapy, though its prescribing features are less mature than Valant's.

Can I use a general-purpose EHR like Epic or athenahealth for psychiatry?

You can, but it is usually not ideal. General-purpose EHRs like Epic and athenahealth were designed for primary care and hospital systems. While they support e-prescribing, they lack psychiatry-specific features like structured psychiatric evaluation templates, PHQ-9/GAD-7 outcome tracking dashboards, integrated PDMP lookups, and medication-assisted treatment workflows. Most independent and small-group psychiatry practices find that a behavioral-health-specific EHR is faster to use and better suited to their clinical workflow.

The Bottom Line

Choosing the right EHR for psychiatry comes down to how you practice. If prescribing is your primary activity and you need the tightest possible controlled substance workflow, Valant is the clear winner. If you are a solo psychiatrist who wants a modern, affordable platform with good telehealth and a great patient experience, SimplePractice delivers excellent value. If clinical documentation quality is your top priority and you split time between therapy and medication management, TherapyNotes offers strong note templates at a reasonable price. And if your practice includes medication-assisted treatment or SUD services, AZZLY Rize and Ease provide stronger compliance and operational infrastructure than general psychiatric EHRs.

No single EHR is perfect for every psychiatric practice. The vendors on this list represent the strongest options for different practice profiles, and each one has trade-offs. We recommend starting with a demo of the platform that best matches your primary use case, paying close attention to the prescribing workflow, note template flexibility, and billing accuracy during your evaluation. For additional guidance, see our EHR selection process guide and the full behavioral health EHR comparison.