Ona vs Valant (2026): Which Fits a Psychiatry Practice?

Valant fits a psychiatry practice that runs on psychiatry-specific clinical depth and PDMP checks across 43 states. Ona fits a psychiatry practice whose bottleneck is the front desk and the money: an AI receptionist answering the phone, EPCS prescribing and billing on one record, at published prices. Both draft the note from a recorded session.

Quick answer:

• Pick Valant if psychiatry-specific clinical depth decides it: utilization review, eLabs, IOP and PHP program workflows, PDMP inside the chart.
• Pick Ona if the operational half decides it: calls answered 24/7 by an AI receptionist, EPCS prescribing, billing and claims on one record, with prices on the page.
• Both record the session and draft a structured note. The difference is what else sits on that record, and whether you see the bill before a sales call.

What each one is

Valant is a behavioral health EHR. The homepage says exactly that, under the line "Put Growth Into Practice", and the audience runs from psychiatry clinicians, PMHNPs and therapists to practice managers and billing managers, solo through large organizations, IOP and PHP included.

Ona is a general ambulatory practice management platform: CRM, EHR and RCM on one record, with the front desk, the chart and the money in the same system. The FAQ on ona.health puts the range plainly - "Ona scales from solo clinics to enterprise systems" - and psychiatry sits inside that range: behavioral health is one of nine served specialties, and its page is headed "For therapy & psychiatry". Behavioral health is a segment Ona serves, not the category Ona belongs to.

One goes deeper into psychiatry, the other wider across the practice. Everything below was checked against both vendors' live pages on September 17, 2026.

Prescribing: EPCS in both, PDMP in one

Psychiatry lives on controlled substances, so start here.

Ona embeds DoseSpot on every patient record. Schedule II-V goes out through "DoseSpot's DEA-compliant EPCS two-factor - push or hardware token, whichever you set up", with identity proofing completed once at onboarding. Refills land in the same queue as new scripts: approve, deny, modify dose or convert, one click. Interactions and allergy contraindications flag at the point of signing rather than after, with severity shown and the source cited. Staff can prepare draft prescriptions for a clinician to sign, both roles on the audit trail. Ona also checks active licensure against the patient's state at signing, which matters when you prescribe across state lines. Detail on the e-prescribing page.

Valant runs prescribing on DrFirst, which it calls "the gold standard in electronic prescribing". Same core capability: prescribe from the note, EPCS for controlled substances, interaction alerts, medication history, real-time pharmacy status, and electronic prior authorization submitted and tracked from the prescribing portal.

Then Valant adds the thing Ona does not have: PDMP integration across 43 state databases plus the District of Columbia, inside the chart. There is no PDMP integration anywhere on Ona's e-prescribing page today. For a prescriber checking the state database several times a day, that is a genuine advantage.

One commercial note. Ona's EPCS is an add-on: $45 per prescribing practitioner for e-prescribing, $25 on top for EPCS. Valant's own blog, updated September 15, 2026, says "EPCS for Schedule II substances and PDMP access across 43 states come standard, not as add-ons" - but Valant does not publish what the plan containing them costs. Compare the structures, not the numbers.

The note: both record the session

A comparison written a year ago would have said Ona records the visit and Valant does not. That is no longer true.

Valant's AI Notes Assist records in-person sessions inside the EHR and drafts structured notes, and transcribes telehealth visits conducted in Valant. Templates cover SOAP, DAP, BIRP, narrative and custom, with pre-built content for CBT, DBT, REBT, ACT, Spravato and TMS.

Ona's ambient scribe records in the room or on a telehealth call, or takes uploaded MP3, M4A or WAV audio up to 100MB for a dictation backlog. Recording is consent-first, with a banner the patient can pause, configurable by jurisdiction and timestamped. Ona diarises the transcript into speaker turns, drafts against your template, and nothing leaves the chart until a clinician signs. It can also transcribe in one language and write the note in another.

So this axis is close to a draw. The difference is what the draft is allowed to touch: in Ona the signed note is the same object that generates the invoice and the CMS-1500, one record rather than two systems agreeing after the fact.

The phone: the part Valant does not cover

Valant's patient communications product is outbound. It sends reminders "through multiple channels such as phone calls, emails, or SMS", runs day-of reminders hours before the appointment, and automates no-show follow-ups, claiming to save more than 93% of the administrative cost of doing it by hand. That is honestly better than what Ona ships for outbound reminders, which today is booking confirmations by email rather than timed SMS cadences.

But nothing on valant.io describes software that picks up an incoming call.

Ona's AI receptionist answers every call 24/7, books against the live calendar honoring service duration and buffers, captures structured intake into the chart, and routes urgent or sensitive calls to a human. Ona's page is specific about the psychiatric case: "Urgent symptoms and sensitive flows - such as mental-health distress or medication safety concerns - bypass the agent entirely and ring a human." Any call type can be flagged human-only. Transcript, recording and intake land on the patient record, and first-time callers become leads in the CRM. Most clinics are answering live calls within about a week, and number porting or running in parallel first is supported.

For a psychiatry practice with one front-desk person and a phone that rings during sessions, that is the difference between a missed new-patient call and a booked one. Minutes come in tiers: 400 at $100 a month, 600 at $150, 800 at $200, 1,500 at $400, with $0.20 a minute beyond the bundle.

One record, from the call to the paid claim

In Ona the chain holds without re-keying. The AI receptionist books the appointment and writes intake to the chart. The visit produces a signed note. The note produces an itemized invoice and a pre-filled CMS-1500. Insurance sits on the same record: real-time eligibility with co-pay, deductible and out-of-pocket max on the chart, submission, a status pipeline, a denial queue, and the patient balance after adjudication. Payments run on Stripe at pass-through rates, and Ona states it does not take a cut of your payments. Claims run through Ona Clearing House, which needs no separate account, contract or fee on your side.

Valant covers most of that: scheduling, billing, credit card processing, an integrated clearinghouse, eligibility checking, Claim Assist colour-coding for unbilled, overdue and in-process claims, the MYIO portal, and RCM as a service. What it does not cover is the inbound phone. Its Prospective Patient Management module, which Valant's own page calls "the built-in CRM for mental health", tracks referrals, inquiries and UTM campaign attribution, so the gap is the call itself, not the pipeline behind it.

Where Valant is genuinely stronger

Three things, stated plainly.

Clinical reporting. Valant ships Clinical Reporting and Performance Reporting as named products, built for behavioral health and for aggregate reporting across IOP and PHP. Ona ships ready-made PHQ-9 and GAD-7 screening forms, scored on the server at submission across 0-27 and 0-21 with preconfigured severity bands, a suicidality flag on item 9, and results visible to clinicians only, each result living on its own form. Ona's own reporting is operational and financial: Activity, Revenue, Patient A/R and Claims dashboards with one-click CSV export, not psychiatric instrumentation.

Program depth. Utilization review, eLabs, and native support for psychiatric CPT codes including 90792 and 99202 through 99215. Practices running IOP or PHP will find workflows in Valant that Ona does not model.

Outbound reminder cadences. Valant automates them, Ona does not today.

How they compare

One axis only: how much of a psychiatry practice's day - the phone, the chart, the prescription and the money - sits on a single record before you add another vendor. Not a clinical quality ranking. Prices are from each vendor's live pricing page on September 17, 2026.

Coverage order	Platform	What sits on one record	Psychiatry strengths	Current limits	Pricing
1	Ona	Inbound calls, leads, intake, scheduling, chart, scribe, telehealth, EPCS prescribing, billing, eligibility, claims, portal	AI receptionist 24/7 with sensitive calls ringing a human; EPCS with licensure check at signing; consent-first scribe; the signed note generates the claim	No PDMP; screening form results live per form rather than aggregated; no IOP or PHP program workflows; no SMS reminder cadences	$130 practitioner seat, $45 staff seat, 10% off annual; e-prescribing $45 and EPCS $25 per prescriber; receptionist from $100; clearing house from $69 for claims, ERAs and eligibility checks
2	Valant	Chart, scribe, prescribing with PDMP, scheduling, billing, clearinghouse, eligibility, portal, prospective patient pipeline, outbound reminders	PDMP in 43 states and DC; clinical reporting; utilization review; eLabs; IOP and PHP program workflows	No inbound AI phone answering; no published prices, trial terms or contract length	Custom quote driven by the number and type of provider licenses; no dollar figure published
3	Osmind	Psychiatry chart, portal and mobile app, telehealth, prescribing add-on, payer services on higher plans	Purpose-built TMS, Spravato and ketamine workflows; automated Spravato REMS compliance	Narrower practice management; EPCS priced separately; percentage-based fees on service plans	Osmind One $249 per clinician monthly; EPCS via DrFirst $49 per clinician monthly plus setup
4	SimplePractice	Scheduling, chart, telehealth, billing, portal, with AI notes and prescribing as paid add-ons	Large template library and a mature therapy-first workflow	AI note taking and ePrescribe cost extra; no inbound AI phone answering	Starter $49, Essential $79, Plus $99 monthly; Care Aide, Note Taker and ePrescribe extra

What each one costs

Ona publishes everything. $130 per practitioner seat, $45 per staff seat, monthly, 10% off across all services on annual billing, every feature on every plan. Add-ons are itemized: e-prescribing $45 per prescribing practitioner, EPCS $25, calls with transcription and recording $25 a month, omnichannel SMS, email and chat $150 a month and free at two practitioners or fewer. The AI receptionist runs $100, $150, $200 or $400 for 400, 600, 800 or 1,500 included minutes. Ona Clearing House starts at $69 a month for 100 claims, 100 ERAs and 200 eligibility checks and reaches $1,099 for 2,500, 2,500 and 3,750; cash-pay practices need no plan. Trial is 14 days with no credit card, no setup fees, no long-term contract, and migration from any EHR is free, typically inside one business day.

Valant publishes no dollar figure. Its plans and pricing page describes flexible, customized pricing shaped by the number and type of provider licenses your organization needs, plus optional add-ons such as patient engagement, reporting, telehealth and AI-assisted documentation, and asks for your contact details so a product specialist can connect. No trial length, implementation fee or contract term is published there.

A worked example on the Ona side: two prescribing psychiatrists plus one front-desk staffer, both prescribers on e-prescribing and EPCS, and 600 receptionist minutes, is $305 in seats, $140 in prescribing add-ons and $150 for the phone. You can compute that before anyone calls you.

Who should pick which

Pick Valant when the clinical program is the product: utilization review, eLabs, IOP or PHP, or a prescriber who needs the PDMP inside the chart. Accept that you will not see a price until you talk to someone.

Pick Ona when the operational half is what breaks: calls going to voicemail during sessions, notes stacking past 7pm, nobody sure which claims are stuck, four vendors to reconcile. Ona puts the phone, the chart, the prescription and the claim on one record, prices it in public, and lets you run the whole thing for 14 days without a card. Related: Ona vs SimplePractice and the Ona Health review.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ona or Valant better for a psychiatry practice?

It depends on which half of the practice hurts. Valant is the deeper psychiatry-specific record: utilization review, eLabs, IOP and PHP program workflows and PDMP in 43 states. Ona is the broader operating system: the phone answered by AI, EPCS prescribing, billing and claims on one record, at prices published on the site.

Does Ona support EPCS for controlled substances?

Yes. Ona embeds DoseSpot on every patient record and supports Schedule II-V controlled substances through DoseSpot's DEA-compliant EPCS two-factor signing, push or hardware token, with identity proofing completed once at onboarding. EPCS is an add-on at $25 per prescribing practitioner per month and requires the e-prescribing add-on at $45.

Does Ona have PDMP integration?

No. There is no PDMP integration on Ona's e-prescribing page today, so prescribers check the state database outside the chart. Valant publishes PDMP access across 43 state databases plus the District of Columbia. If a one-click PDMP check inside the note is a hard requirement, that is a real point for Valant.

How much do Ona and Valant cost?

Ona publishes its prices: $130 per practitioner seat and $45 per staff seat per month, 10% off annually, with e-prescribing $45 and EPCS $25 per prescribing practitioner, and the AI receptionist from $100 a month for 400 included minutes. Valant publishes no dollar figures. Its pricing page describes custom pricing driven by the number and type of provider licenses, quoted by a product specialist.

Does Valant answer inbound patient phone calls?

Not with an AI agent. Valant's patient communications product sends outbound reminders by phone, email and SMS and automates no-show follow-ups, and nothing on valant.io describes software that picks up an incoming call. Ona's AI receptionist answers 24/7, books against the live calendar and writes the transcript to the chart.

Does Ona include PHQ-9 and GAD-7 screening forms?

Yes. Ona ships ready-made PHQ-9 and GAD-7 forms, scored on the server at submission across 0-27 and 0-21 with preconfigured severity bands, a suicidality flag on item 9, and results visible to clinicians only. The patient fills in an ordinary form and never sees a number, and each result lives on its own form in the chart.

Next step

Test the axis that decides it for you. If it is the phone, book a 15-minute demo and listen to the AI receptionist take a new-patient call and write it to the chart. If it is prescribing, bring a Schedule II script and watch it go out with the licensure check. Or start the 14-day free trial, full access, no credit card.