Editorial Standards
How BestOnlinePsychiatry.com researches, writes, medically reviews, and updates our independent rankings of telehealth psychiatry services.
Our Editorial Mission
BestOnlinePsychiatry.com exists to help readers find the right online psychiatry provider through independent, evidence-based reviews. Our editorial mission is to provide accurate, current, and actionable information about telehealth psychiatry services in the United States — and to do so in a way that prioritizes reader health and well-being over any commercial relationship.
We are committed to:
- Independence from advertiser influence in editorial rankings and recommendations
- Transparency about how we evaluate providers and where our information comes from
- Accuracy verified through multiple sources and clinical review
- Currency through regular updates as providers, prices, and regulations change
- Honesty about our limitations — we are a review publication, not a medical service
Who Writes Our Content
All editorial content on BestOnlinePsychiatry.com is written by experienced health journalists and editors with backgrounds in medical reporting, telehealth, and consumer health. Our authors are accountable for the accuracy of their work and are named explicitly on every article they write.
Author credentials, professional experience, and relevant disclosures are linked from each article's byline and available on our About page. Authors do not have equity, employment, or paid-content relationships with the providers we cover. Any prior or current relationships with telehealth companies are disclosed publicly.
Medical Review Process
Every article on BestOnlinePsychiatry.com is reviewed by a licensed Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) before publication. Our medical reviewer is Christopher Betley, PMHNP, licensed to practice across 15 U.S. states, with a clinical focus on psychiatric diagnosis and medication management. His verifiable NPI is 1922695501.
Our medical reviewer:
- Holds active PMHNP licensure across multiple U.S. states, with current clinical practice in psychiatric care
- Reviews each article for clinical accuracy, appropriate framing of medication and treatment options, and compliance with current standards of care
- Signs off on substantive updates to existing articles
- Is named with credentials on every article they review, along with the date of the most recent review
Medical reviewer changes are disclosed publicly. Articles awaiting re-review are flagged as such on the page.
Source Selection
We base our content on the following hierarchy of sources:
- Peer-reviewed medical research — published in journals indexed by PubMed/MEDLINE, with preference for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and randomized controlled trials
- Government and regulatory sources — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and state regulatory bodies
- Professional medical organizations — American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Medical Association (AMA), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and equivalent specialty organizations
- Primary provider information — each service's own published documentation, intake processes, and clinical policies, verified directly with the provider where possible
- Independent user feedback — aggregated review data from Trustpilot, Reviews.io, Better Business Bureau (BBB), and major app stores
We do not rely on:
- Provider-supplied marketing copy treated as fact
- Anonymous online forums or testimonials of unverifiable origin
- News articles without primary-source citations
- Other affiliate sites or aggregators as a sole source
Update Cadence
Our rankings, provider information, and pricing are reviewed and updated:
- Quarterly — full provider lineup, scoring, and rankings
- Monthly — time-sensitive data including pricing, insurance acceptance, and state availability
- Immediately — when material changes occur, including regulatory actions, provider closures or acquisitions, significant changes to scope of service, or new entrants warranting evaluation
Every page on the site carries a "Last updated" date reflecting the most recent substantive review. Minor edits (typo fixes, broken-link corrections) are tracked internally but do not refresh the published date.
Conflict of Interest Policy
Members of our editorial team — writers, editors, and medical reviewers — must disclose any of the following relationships with companies we cover:
- Current or recent employment (within the prior 24 months)
- Consulting or advisory roles
- Direct equity ownership
- Speaker or paid-content relationships
- Immediate family member working at a covered company
Where conflicts exist, they are disclosed prominently within the relevant article and considered when assigning authors and reviewers. A member of our team has previously worked in the telehealth industry; this is disclosed on the homepage and does not influence rankings, which are determined by our methodology.
Affiliate Relationships
BestOnlinePsychiatry.com participates in affiliate programs with some — but not all — of the providers we review. We receive compensation when readers sign up through links on our site. This compensation:
- Does not affect our editorial rankings, scores, or recommendations
- Does not affect which providers are featured in our reviews — we cover all major providers we consider editorially relevant, regardless of affiliate status
Affiliate links are labeled with the rel="sponsored" attribute per Google's webmaster guidelines and disclosed at the top of every page in accordance with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides.
Fact-Check Process
Before publication, every article passes through:
- Source verification — every factual claim is traced to a primary source
- Clinical review — medical reviewer sign-off on all clinical content
- Editor review — for accuracy, clarity, and adherence to editorial standards
- Final disclosure check — affiliate disclosures, conflicts of interest, and source citations confirmed
Errors discovered after publication are handled per our Corrections Policy.
Contact Us
Have questions about our editorial process? Believe we've made an error? Want to give feedback?
Email: connect@bestonlinepsychiatry.com
Subject line: Editorial inquiry, Correction request, or General feedback