Running a behavioral health / therapy practice can be both expensive and time-consuming, but luckily there are a variety of options out there to help stretch your dollar further without sacrificing your quality of care.  Read on to see 5 easy ways to save money.

Disclaimer

This post contains recommendations for specific products.  We have no financial ties to these products, and recommend them purely from our own experience.  Carefully consider all of your options before making your choices!

1. Save Money On Your EMR/EHR Software

At Behavioral Health Connection, our EMR/EHR software has some of the lowest prices around, while still offering you the dependable and easy-to-use service you need at your practice, whether you have 100 staff members, or just yourself.  Check out our low prices today!

2. Sublease Instead of Renting Yourself

Rather than renting your own office space (which may require a lease agreement for anywhere from 1 to 5 years) consider working with an established practice, to sublease some of their un-used space.  This could be an office in their suite, a conference room, or even their regular offices but during nights and weekends.  Think about what you would be willing to pay, and what would be enticing to the other practice: a fixed rate, or a percentage of your income.

3. Rent Out Some Of Your Unused Space

This is kind of the opposite of #2 above.  If you are already renting a suite of offices, consider making room for another provider to lease out your unused space.  This can be a great way to supplement your regular income.  If you select a provider who offers services which you do not, then this is a way to bolster your own position; you will be able to refer patients to each other.

4. Save Money On Office Software

For most of the business world, Microsoft Office is generally considered the defacto office software.  When you need word processing, you load Word.  For spreadsheets, it's Excel.  Presentations: Powerpoint.  But buying the software for everyone's office computer can run up a bill very quickly.

Instead, try out these free alternatives:

LibreOffice - Has all the same features as MS Office, and can load and save .docx, .pptx, and .xlsx files no sweat.  Sometimes the files don't look exactly the way they did originally, but we've never had a problem.

FreeOffice - While we've never used it, this software claims it loads and saves MS Office files perfectly, no compromises at all.  They do have a paid version, but this free version should be all you need.

5. Use a VOIP Service For Landlines

One of the simplest and cheapest ways of providing a phone in every office is with a VOIP service.  This is an Internet-based telephone which still rings like a normal phone, has voice mail, caller ID, hold, etc.

We can recommend Dialpad, as it has low monthly rates, and is easy to have multiple employees per office.  You can set your primary number to ring a secretary location first, then ring other locations if no one picks up, etc.  There are plenty of VOIP phone services out there which also provide this functionality.

When a client calls your number, it "rings" an app on your computer or mobile phone, and then you can answer using a headset if you wish.  But, if you prefer a physical phone, these are called "SIP" phones, and are readily available on Amazon.  Just make sure it is compatible with your VOIP service before beginning.  A good way to check is with the tech support for the VOIP service.