Quick Summary: Medwriter vs Nabla — Comparing AI Scribes for Psychiatrists. Choosing the right AI scribe for psychiatrists comes down to one core question: do you want a general-purpose tool, or one built specifically for psychiatric practice? This article compares Medwriter and Nabla across the features that matter most to psychiatrists and PMHNPs — from note quality and billing support to workflow tools and group practice management — to help you make the right call for your practice.
Introduction
Documentation burden is one of the most persistent frustrations in psychiatric practice. Between mental status exams, psychotherapy add-on sections, treatment plan updates, and billing codes, the paperwork side of running a psychiatric practice looks very different from general medicine — and that gap matters a lot when evaluating AI scribes.
Two names that come up frequently in this conversation are Medwriter and Nabla. Both are legitimate, well-regarded tools. Both can capture a session and generate a clinical note. But beyond that surface-level similarity, they take meaningfully different approaches — and those differences matter depending on what your day actually looks like.
Here's an honest, feature-by-feature breakdown.
How We Compared Medwriter and Nabla
This comparison focuses on features that are most relevant to psychiatrists and PMHNPs in private practice and group settings. The categories below reflect the real workflow of a psychiatric provider: documentation quality, billing support, EHR integration, pre- and post-visit workflows, and practice management tooling. We've tried to be fair to both products while being direct about where the gaps are.
1. Psychiatry-Specific Design
Medwriter
- Purpose-built for psychiatric practice — not a general medical scribe adapted for mental health
- Includes psychiatry-specific note sections out of the box: MSE, Psychiatric ROS, Psychotherapy Add-On documentation, Psychiatric History, and more
- Supports the session types psychiatrists actually use: medication management, medication management plus psychotherapy, and others
- Templates are built around how psychiatric providers document, not retrofitted from general medicine
Nabla
- A general-purpose AI scribe that covers many medical specialties, with psychiatry as one of many
- Now offers a library of specialty-based note templates, including a dedicated Mental Health template
- Has a meaningful user base among psychiatrists and psychologists
- Does not have psychiatry-specific templates built around psychiatric practice workflows the way a specialty-built tool does
Bottom line: Nabla's Mental Health template is a meaningful addition, and it handles psychiatric encounters competently. That said, Medwriter was built specifically for this use case from the ground up — the difference shows up in the depth of psychiatry-specific note sections, session types, and templates that psychiatric providers rely on every day.
2. Note Quality & Documentation
Medwriter
- Automatically generates structured psychiatric notes with the full complement of sections a psychiatric provider needs (MSE, Psychiatric ROS, Psychotherapy Add-On details, etc.)
- Providers review, edit, and finalize — maintaining clinical oversight without manual note-building from scratch
- Note structure reflects psychiatric documentation standards, reducing the amount of post-generation editing required
Nabla
- Generates clinical notes in approximately 10 seconds post-encounter
- Produces structured notes (including SOAP and custom formats) with strong general accuracy
- Mental Health template provides relevant structure for psychiatric encounters; some providers may still find specialty-specific sections require additional editing to fully capture psychiatric nuance
- Live transcript feature allows providers to mark up the session in real time
Bottom line: Both tools produce useful first drafts. Nabla's note generation is impressively fast and reliable; Medwriter's notes are tailored for psychiatry with psychiatry-specific templates, which tends to mean less cleanup for psychiatric providers specifically.
3. Billing Support
Medwriter
- Billing Code Feature suggests CPT codes based on session content with justification for each code
- Supports both time-based and evaluation & management (E/M) based billing logic — the two primary billing frameworks in psychiatric practice
- Designed to help providers select the most appropriate and supportable code for each visit
Nabla
- Provides smart ICD-10 coding suggestions based on session content
- Supports code addition within the patient view
- Billing support is designed for broad clinical use across specialties rather than optimized specifically for psychiatric CPT billing frameworks
Bottom line: Both tools offer code suggestions. Medwriter's billing logic is built around the specific coding frameworks psychiatric providers work within most — time-based and E/M CPT billing — which makes it a more targeted fit for psychiatric practices.
4. EHR Integration
Medwriter
- Integrates directly with most EHRs used in psychiatry
- Enables one-click push of finalized notes into the EHR
- Eliminates copy-paste workflows between platforms
Nabla
- Integrates with Athenahealth and Epic, two of the most widely used EHR platforms
- Notes can be pushed directly to the patient file within the integrated EHR
- Also offers a browser extension for providers whose EHR isn't natively integrated
Bottom line: Both offer EHR integration. Nabla's support for Epic and Athenahealth covers a large portion of the market; Medwriter's integration spans a broader range of EHRs commonly used in psychiatric practice settings.
5. Workflow Features
This is where the comparison gets particularly interesting for psychiatric providers, because a lot of what makes a scribe genuinely useful in psychiatry isn't just the note — it's everything around the note.
Medwriter
- Chart Prep: Before a follow-up visit, Medwriter summarizes the patient's most recent session and suggests follow-up questions — giving providers a structured starting point for the encounter
- Long-Term Treatment Plans: Medwriter drafts treatment plans, tracks when the next one is due, and helps prepare updates for clinician review and submission
- Real-Time Checklists: During the session, Medwriter provides live checklists to help providers remember key topics, assessments, and follow-up items
- Prior Authorization Support: Scans past documentation, flags gaps relative to payer requirements, and helps providers submit more complete prior authorization requests
- Additional Documents: Generates letters of medical necessity, accommodation letters, referral letters, patient instructions, and other clinical correspondence
- Medical Assistant Workflows: Allows support staff to enter intake information before the provider joins the session
Nabla
- Focuses primarily on ambient note generation as its core value proposition
- Offers a live transcript that providers can annotate during the session
- Generates patient instructions that can be shared after the encounter
- Does not offer built-in chart prep, treatment plan drafting, prior authorization support, or clinical checklist features
Bottom line: This is the most significant gap between the two tools. Medwriter covers a much broader range of the psychiatric workflow — before, during, and after the session. Nabla excels at in-session documentation but doesn't extend into the surrounding workflow in the same way.
6. Support for Group Practices
Medwriter
- Includes dedicated admin tooling for group practices and enterprise customers
- Allows practice administrators to manage providers, oversee documentation workflows, and support practice-level operations
Nabla
- Offers enterprise plans with custom configurations for larger organizations
- The tooling is designed for large health systems rather than psychiatric group practices specifically
Bottom line: Medwriter's group practice tooling is designed with the psychiatric group practice and enterprise context in mind. Nabla's enterprise offering is more oriented toward large general health systems.
7. Multi-Language Support
Medwriter
- Supports sessions conducted in multiple languages
- Accommodates diverse patient populations without requiring providers to document in a single language
Nabla
- Supports 35+ languages, covering a wide range of patient populations
- Notes are generated in English even when sessions are conducted in another language
Bottom line: Both tools support multilingual sessions. Nabla's language coverage at 35+ languages is notably broad; Medwriter similarly supports multiple languages to accommodate diverse patient populations.
Verdict: Which One Should Psychiatrists Choose?
Nabla is a capable, well-built AI scribe with a legitimate presence in mental health practice. Its fast note generation, dedicated Mental Health template, Epic and Athenahealth integration, and extensive language support make it a reasonable choice for providers who primarily need help with in-session documentation.
But for psychiatrists and PMHNPs who want a platform built around how psychiatric practice actually works — with specialty-specific templates, psychiatric billing logic, chart prep, treatment plan support, prior authorization tools, and real-time clinical checklists — Medwriter offers a depth of functionality that a general-purpose scribe simply isn't designed to match.
The difference isn't just about feature lists. It's about how much of your workflow the tool understands out of the box. Psychiatric documentation has its own structure, its own billing logic, and its own rhythms. Medwriter is built around those rhythms from the ground up.
If you're evaluating AI scribes for your psychiatric practice, Medwriter Ai is worth a closer look.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI scribe for psychiatrists?
- The best choice depends on your specific needs
- Specialty-specific scribes generally outperform general-purpose tools for psychiatric work
- Look for psychiatry-specific note sections, psychiatric billing support, and workflow tools like chart prep and treatment plan drafting
How is Medwriter different from general AI scribes?
- Built for psychiatric and mental health providers
- Includes psychiatry-specific templates and session types (e.g., medication management, medication management plus psychotherapy)
- Offers psychiatric billing logic
- Includes workflow tools designed around the needs of psychiatrists and PMHNPs
Does Nabla work for psychiatry?
- Yes — it supports psychiatric documentation and has a meaningful mental health user base
- Offers a dedicated Mental Health note template
- Generates notes in ~10 seconds
- Integrates with Epic and Athenahealth
- However, it's a general-purpose tool — no psychiatry-specific session types, CPT billing frameworks, or extended workflow features
What should I look for when choosing an AI scribe for psychiatrists?
- Psychiatry-specific note sections (MSE, Psychiatric ROS, etc.)
- Psychiatric billing logic (time-based and E/M coding)
- EHR integration
- Workflow features beyond note generation — chart prep, treatment plan support, prior authorization assistance
Can an AI scribe help with prior authorization in psychiatry?
- Some scribes do include prior auth support — most general-purpose ones do not
- Medwriter, for example, scans past documentation, identifies gaps against payer requirements, and helps prepare more complete submissions