Healthie vs Upheal: which EHR is right for therapists?
Both Healthie and Upheal are EHRs. The difference is who they were built for.
Healthie is a multi-specialty platform primarily serving nutrition coaches, dietitians, and wellness providers. It handles scheduling, billing, documentation, and telehealth. AI documentation is available via their AI Scribe, which is currently in beta.
Upheal is an AI-native EHR built specifically for mental health practitioners. Notes connect to treatment plans and the client's full clinical history. The compliance checker audits documentation against behavioral health payer standards. The AI assistant handles scheduling, billing, and admin. At £0.70/session capped at £49/month, it typically costs less than Healthie and includes AI that's built into the platform rather than added on.
Healthie vs Upheal at a glance
Two EHRs, different foundations
Healthie was built for nutrition and wellness providers. The platform handles meal planning, supplement protocols, and outcome tracking across wellness disciplines. Therapists can use it, but the documentation templates, clinical workflows, and feature set reflect a different kind of practice.
Upheal was built for behavioral health from day one. Therapy-specific note formats, modality-aware documentation, compliance checking against behavioral health payer standards, treatment plans that automatically link to session notes. The platform understands the difference between a progress note and a SOAP note, between a treatment goal and a care plan, between what a therapist needs and what a dietitian needs.
AI documentation
Healthie's AI Scribe is currently in beta. It generates notes from session recordings but doesn't connect notes to treatment plans or prior clinical history.
Upheal's AI is built into the EHR from the start. Notes connect to treatment goals through Golden Thread. Smart Sections let you build custom note sections using your own prompts — document EMDR phases, DBT skills, or family systems dynamics in exactly the format you use. The compliance checker reviews every note against payer standards before you sign.
The AI assistant goes further: before your next session, it pulls the client's history, open goals, and what hasn't shifted. Between sessions, it handles scheduling changes, drafts client messages, and manages admin. Healthie handles practice management. Upheal runs the documentation side of your practice too.
Where Upheal goes further
AI built in, not bolted on.
Healthie's AI Scribe is in beta — it generates notes from recordings, but the AI doesn't connect to treatment plans, prior sessions, or clinical history. Treatment plans are manual. There's no compliance checker. Upheal's AI is how the EHR works from the start. Notes link to treatment goals through Golden Thread, the compliance checker audits documentation before you sign, and every piece of clinical context follows the client from session to session.
AI assistant.
Healthie handles practice management. Upheal's AI assistant goes further: before your next session it pulls the client's history, open goals, and what hasn't shifted; between sessions it handles scheduling changes, client messages, and billing admin. Healthie has nothing comparable.
Golden Thread treatment planning
Upheal's Golden Thread feature creates a comprehensive narrative connecting all aspects of client care. The system automatically links session notes to treatment goals, tracks intervention effectiveness, and generates case snapshots that demonstrate progress over time. This integration ensures every session builds meaningfully toward therapeutic outcomes, making it easier to demonstrate progress to clients, supervisors, and insurance providers.
Healthie offers traditional EHR treatment planning tools with outcome measure insights and timeline charts. While functional for basic treatment planning needs, the system lacks the automated integration between session content and treatment goals that characterizes specialized behavioral health platforms.
Smart Sections and customization
Upheal's Smart Sections allow therapists to create custom AI-powered template sections using their own prompts. Clinicians can instruct the AI to capture specific therapeutic approaches — tracking window of tolerance in trauma work, documenting co-regulation techniques, or monitoring family systems dynamics. This section-level customization creates templates that truly reflect individual clinical expertise.
Healthie provides customizable templates within their charting system, allowing providers to select from existing template options or create specialty-specific documentation. However, customization is limited to template selection and field arrangement rather than AI prompt engineering.
Compliance Checker for audit readiness
Upheal's Compliance Checker analyzes notes against real payer standards from Aetna and Optum, identifying gaps in treatment necessity justification, progress measurement, risk assessment completeness, and diagnostic consistency. The system provides line-by-line compliance reports, helping therapists identify specific documentation elements that could trigger claim reviews before submission.
Healthie maintains HIPAA compliance and security standards within their EHR infrastructure but does not currently offer automated compliance checking against specific payer requirements. The platform focuses on general healthcare compliance rather than behavioral health-specific documentation standards.
Pricing comparison
Healthie's plans relevant to a therapy practice run $45-130/month. The Core plan at $19.99/month covers only 10 active clients, which is too few for most practices. The Essentials plan (up to 250 clients) is $45/month billed annually. The Plus plan with unlimited clients is $129.99/month. AI Scribe is currently in beta and not yet available as a paid add-on.
Upheal is £0.70/session capped at £49/month — all AI features included, no add-ons. A lighter caseload pays less.
Insurance billing is coming soon to Upheal. If that's part of your practice, now is a good time to get started on the free plan and be ready when it goes live.
Who it's for
Healthie makes sense if you run a multi-disciplinary wellness practice where therapists work alongside dietitians, health coaches, or other wellness providers who already use Healthie. Single-platform consistency across specialties is a real operational benefit in those settings.
Upheal makes sense if you run a therapy practice and want an EHR built specifically for behavioral health — AI that understands therapy documentation, compliance checking against mental health payer standards, and an AI assistant at lower cost than Healthie's base plans.
What Healthie actually costs for a therapy practice
Healthie works well for multi-disciplinary wellness practices where consistency across specialties matters. If dietitians, health coaches, and therapists are all on the same platform, that operational benefit is real.
For a mental health-only practice, the case is harder to make. The AI is still in beta. The documentation tools were designed for wellness, not behavioral health. At $45-130/month without a Compliance Checker, AI treatment plan linking, or an AI assistant, you're paying for a general wellness EHR and adapting it to therapy. Upheal was built for therapy and costs less.
Frequently asked questions
Is Healthie built for therapists?
Not specifically. Healthie is a multi-specialty wellness EHR primarily serving nutrition coaches, dietitians, and wellness providers. Upheal was built exclusively for mental health practitioners.
How does Healthie pricing compare to Upheal?
Healthie plans start at $45/month and scale to $135+/month for larger practices. Upheal is £0.70/session capped at £49/month with all AI features included.
Does Healthie have AI notes?
Yes, via AI Scribe which is currently in beta. Upheal's AI documentation is fully available on all plans and connects notes to treatment plans through Golden Thread.
Does Upheal have insurance billing?
Insurance billing is coming soon. Healthie includes insurance billing on higher-tier plans. If insurance billing is part of your practice, now is a good time to get started on Upheal's free plan and be ready when billing launches.
