Coming in Spring, 2010--Z-Bill.  The newest offering from PsychPsyte.com.  Our comprehensive billing solution is just what you need and deserve.  You can learn to use Z-Bill in minutes.  Create comprehensive client/patient visit records, track billing and payments and print HCFA-1500 billing forms from your PC in seconds.  Z-Bill contains the essential features you look for in mental health billing software.  Unlike any of the other software products out there, Z-Bill is complete right from the first download.  YOU PAY ONLY ONE TIME!!  YOU PAY ONLY ONE TIME!  I had to say that twice because this is one of the biggest annoyances in the life of a mental health practitioner.  I have purchased billing or test scoring software, usually at a premium retail price, only to be stuck with recurrent charges when even minor changes are released.  The first billing tool I purchased (Therapist Helper) charged over $300.00 for the initial software package.  If I wanted to keep getting updates and even patches or fixes to identified problems in the software, I had to pay them an additional $90.00 a year or so.  I'm pretty sure that fee is even higher now.  When Therapist Helper began offering electronic billing, I had to pay an additional $150.00 or so on top of my regular licensing fee if I wanted to use it. 

I believe that software tools are like any other tool.  They should do exactly what they are intended to do for the lifetime of the product.  When I buy a hammer at the hardware store, I expect to be able to keep hammering with it until I break it, lose it or give it away.  I don't expect to get a bill every year for additional grips or attachments.  Even worse would be to be told by the manufacturer that the nails my hammer was designed to nail were no longer supported, so I would have to buy the newer attachment or I could not keep nailing things the way I had been doing.  Yet this is exactly what is the standard for the software industry, and particularly in the small subsector of practice management software. 

As an independent mental health clinician, I object to this business model and I intend to subvert it if possible, at least in my small section of expertise.  When you buy software from PsychPsyte.com, it will work the way it is supposed to for as long as it should.  I will not charge you for support or upgrades that should be a part of the tool to start with.  I will not charge you a recurring fee to keep using software you already paid for.  I started this business in large part to make money, but I am not going to gouge you, the customer, so that I can squeeze out more profit.  PsychPsyte.com is privately owned, with no investors clamoring for unreasonable profits that necessitate unethical business practices.  I believe that I deserve more respect as a customer and so do you.

Z-Bill will do everything you need it to out of the box.  My first version will not support electronic billing.  However, it will eventually and when it does, purchasers will be given the upgrade FREE OF CHARGE.  If you receive Z-Bill as a part of your PsychPsyte.com Professional Membership, you get to keep the software and you will continue to receive upgrades to the software FREE even if you no longer have a paid PsychPsyte.com membership.  The same is true for the other PsychPsyte.com membership software packages, including Tranquility-The Ultimate Behavior Management Tool and AutoTreatmentPlanner.  As mental health providers, we give a lot of ourselves.  It is also ok to expect and sometimes demand to be treated well in return.