Doctor On Demand is one of the largest telehealth platforms in the U.S, and another one which doesn’t focus solely on therapy. Instead, here you combine treatment for mental health issues with seeing all kinds of physicians and treating any other health concerns you might have.
With regards to mental health specifically, the biggest advantage is you can meet with both a psychologist and a psychiatrist at the same time.
This Doctor On Demand Review will naturally focus on the mental health section of the platform. We’ll objectively describe everything we like or don’t about it, and then compare it to other similar services.
The most obvious comparison is with their main competitors – other telehealth platforms such as Amwell and MDLive, but we will also try and compare Doctor On Demand with other top online therapy sites.
Doctor On Demand is a private company which was founded and still owned by celebrity psychologist Phil Mcgraw (also known as Dr. Phil) and his son. Thanks to its high profile founders the company enjoyed a lot of media attention and displayed tremendous growth each year. They currently have more than 800 employees with offices in San Francisco, Minneapolis and New York.
Doctor On Demand was just recently merged into Grand Rounds in a multi million dollar deal. We expect these news will only accelerate the company’s growth and hopefully bring in some much needed improvements to their services.
| Year Founded | 2012 |
|---|---|
| U.S Based Company | Yes |
| Number of Licensed Therapists | 120 |
| Accepts Insurance? | Yes |
| HIPAA Compliant | Yes |
| Therapy Modes | Video Live Sessions |
| Available Treatments | Private and Teen Therapy |
| Average Price | $129 – $179 Per Meeting |
| Sign Up Time | Less Than a Minute |
| Response Time | Within The Day |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Website | www.doctorondemand.com |
| Customer Reviews | 84% positive |
| Our Editorial Rating | 3 Stars |
| Current Promotion | None |
Signing up only takes a few seconds – you fill in your email address and select a password. Then, you’ll only need to add a few personal details such as your name and DOB and you are done. You’ll then immediately go to the main dashboard screen where you can choose between medical and mental health treatments.
As part of the signup process you will be asked to choose your insurance provider. If you are not sure what coverage you want to use, or don’t have any, you can select to skip this stage and complete later at any time you’d like to.
Before you schedule your first session, you might also want to take the free mental health assessment offered on the site. This feature offers nothing groundbreaking – just the run of the mill questionnaire you’ll see at most mental health websites, but it is useful in helping you to determine what type of treatment would suit you the most, and which therapist you should choose to help you with it.
When you select a therapist you like they will be immediately notified. You’ll then have to wait until they confirm the day and time you have requested – this usually takes a day or two, so it’s better to book meetings a few days in advance. This is also the part of the software that has the most bugs in it – we had to refresh the page multiple times before we were able to see the list of therapists we could choose from. We didn’t experience any of these issues while using the mobile app.
Doctor On Demand claims to put all applicants who wish to offer services on their platform through a rigorous vetting process. Based on our experience using the site, the level of therapists is good – so we’d like to believe that what they say is true. That said, unlike other therapy platforms, Doctor On Demand is not very transparent when it comes to what they require from potential applicants.
When we went through their job ads we saw a lot of variance in the required skills and credentials. It’s safe to say though that in order to be featured on the site, a counselor is required to have at least a Master’s degree, 1 year of clinical experience and a certificate from their state board.
The lack of transparency only makes it more crucial you read through profiles before choosing your therapist. On their profiles, you can also see what each counselor specializes at and get a better idea if they can help you or not. Common areas of expertise include:
Psychiatric services operate in exactly the same way regular therapy does. You can even combine both if you feel a mixture would yield the best result, or if you are not sure which treatment suits you best.
The initial psychiatric evaluation costs $299 and subsequent meetings cost exactly the same as meeting a psychologist does. Psychiatrists on the platform are able to diagnose and prescribe medicine to their patients, aside from any of the controlled substances.
Unlike BetterHelp and Talkspace, the 2 most popular therapy sites, Doctor On Demand only offers a pay per meet module. There is no option to chat with your therapists and 24/7 mental health support is not offered. So in that regard, Doctor On Demand is very similar to the traditional approach often used in live therapy.
We don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with this approach. In fact, many people might benefit from the more rigid structure and the ability to book sessions on demand.
That said, even if you think this treatment method is right for you – there are better options than Doctor On Demand. Amwell for example, another therapy site that takes insurance, works the same way, but is substantially cheaper and the therapists are overall more qualified and just better.
Throughout this Doctor On Demand review we did our best to explain what’s good or bad about their therapy platform. We hope by now it’s clear why even though we think it’s a great company, with excellent customer service and a world class mobile app, we simply can’t endorse them currently as the best online therapy site.
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