We also need the ability to send both partners in a couple separate intake paperwork, and this process is very difficult in Theranest

It would be good to know if Theranest is going to address this problem. It has be 10 YEARS since this request has been posted and nothing has happened.

If it is not a priority, then it would be helpful and respectful to let your users know so we can make decisions about which EHR is the best fit for those of us who see couples and families.

To see one family of five, requires that I have five clients on my case load counting as one case. This translates into those who are seeing couples and families having to pay more for a subscription to allow for adequate caseloads.

I know of a practice that used Theranest for years and dropped them recently for a much more expensive EHR that allows couples/families to have both a shared account and individual portals. This is a no-brainer.

Yes please! This would be extremely helpful

How in the world is this still not a thing - it was requested almost TEN years ago. That’s a whole decade! And as of right now, it has 822 votes!

If you aren’t going to implement it, at least tell us why.

I am in the process of setting up my new Theranest account and in the import am realizing that this is going to be extremely cumbersome as I see mostly couples and families. PLEASE fix this, I may have to go back to my old EHR...I havent cancelled it yet.

I agree wholeheartedly with all of these suggestions. With 805 votes when it Theranest going to listen and provide their customers, many who are working with couples and families, to treat them as one client (as they should be). It seems very unfair to charge us twice for the same client. If I see 10 couples a week and set it up as their system requires you to do it, then I am being billed for 20 active clients. It certainly feels like the system is specifically designed to take advantage of the customer and charge them a much higher rate than necessary. It appears the company is lining their pockets rather than simply making a change to the system that allows the customer the freedom to do what they need to do therapeutically in a way that actually matches what is happening with the client. I was really disappointed to realize today, as I talked with my live agent, that this was the case. It certainly makes me wonder if there is a better system available, one who doesn't intentionally gouged their customers.

I am thinking of changing to SimplePractice for this reason alone. It cost more financially and in time/energy to try to manage every client individually and couple them up. This is a necessity for those of us who are sole practitioners who see a lot of couples (families).

To anyone this might be helpful for:

Our agency uses 1 account for couples. We assign an Identified Patient (IP) as the main person on the account and label their preferred name as "IP Name & Partner's Name", so it should a "Barack & Michele Obama" or "Tom H & Rita W Hanks" (if they have different last names).

Intake paperwork is then sent to the IP, once completed the partner is added in "Contact Network" and given access to the client portal. Then intake paper is resent out to the client portal with instructions for the Partner to complete and sign it.

Once the paperwork is complete we update the billing information to reflect both client name and emails to send receipts/bills to.

1 session = 1 note = 1 invoice generated
1 joint Treatment plan

Is this still clunky and have it's flaws when individual sessions are needed with a different counselor? Yes! But it is working for us until TheraNest can make changes so I wanted to share.

It would be great to be able to assign a client as the IP of a couple or family for notes and billing purposes.

The current family/group system is clunky and frustrating. Not user friendly.

YES. And I hope that this would also fix the problem of not being able to see couples on the mobile app. This makes the mobile app basically useless for me because I cannot accurately view my calendar or agenda.

The process of creating a family group so that all family members can be viewed in one account in the client portal really needs to be simplified. So often, one if not both parents as well as a slew of kids are being seen in one office, and it is a struggle to get them all combined into one client portal account when they are using one email address among them all.

Right now I have to delete the email address on file from every person except one in order to create a contact group, then go back and put the email address back in. Logically, one would think that if all these people have the SAME EMAIL ADDRESS, they should be IN ONE GROUP. The process is not intuitive at all. Parents need access to their children's accounts, but if the parent and their kids are all being seen in one office, the process of making that information available to them is clunky - and clients have complained that even when they are given access, their view within the client portal is confusing and they can't figure out how to make bill payments for every account individually.

And, when seeing a couple or family, be able to add in multiple birthdays on the client detail page.

I realize that we need to have an identified patient for billing purposes but creating a couples/family as a "group" while counting each as a single case messes with several things.

1) instead of the case taking up one slot in our allotted client load spaces they take up two. This may not matter to giant group practices but for us little guys who are individual clinicians it forces us to pay higher costs than we should.

2) The current "group" approach creates a lot of additional work. (As a side note in NM we get plaid less for couples, despite it being twice engagement requirements). The current group approach requires the clinician to write up a group note...does that count for the progress note? NOPE...we then have to write TWO progress notes, one for each couple with individual MMSE and treatment plans. This is crazy extra...we need to have a couples setting that allows both parties to have individual consent documentation, a shared portal and notes being integrated.

If the couple are being seen as individual clients with another therapist within the same agency then fine they can have two separate case files but we still need a single one for the couples therapist to operate from.

So I am able to send consent forms to multiple people but only write one note at the end but with multiple mental statuses and only have to update one ledger and not have to zero out the other ledgers so they come up as "billed".

Can you please fix this feature? Billing is a nightmare

Please also fix the app so that it shows group appointments. I see couples and families and have to create a "group" for them. If I am checking my schedule on the app, I am erroneously led to believe I have an open slot where I had scheduled a group because group appointments do not show up on the app. Why shouldn't they?!?

Agree with many of the comments below - it is a hassle to treat couples / family cases as "groups" where each group member might be billed separately. It also takes up a client "spot" on my client list. If I am seeing a family of 4, it is one appointment, one payment, but takes up the space of 4 clients. I don't carry more than 30 active cases at a time but if I am seeing multiple families / couples at a time, I run out of space on my client list because each member is treated as an individual. PLEASE FIND AN ALTERNATE SOLUTION TO THIS