One of the major factors in choosing a service for telehealth is whether that service can used inside a HIPAA-compliant practice. The services, by themselves, cannot grant HIPAA compliance, but they can provide features and safeguards that will enable them to be used in a HIPAA-compliant way.
SPSI does not endorse or recommend any of the services listed below, but we’ve gathered some basic information about them to help you start your search.
We recommend that analysts and therapists visit telehealth service websites and review their features closely to make sure they meet your needs. Many services offer features with similar names, but have limitations that might make them a bad fit for your practice. (For instance, if you need to do group sessions, you wouldn’t want to pick a service whose limit on group size was too low.)
Most services are happy to do a consultation with you—either by email, phone, or website chat—to answer your questions.
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Zoom
SPSI uses Zoom teleconferencing as a way for Candidates and students to attend classes when they are unable to attend in person. Currently, SPSI has instructed all class participants and instructors to use Zoom in order to implement social distancing.
Zoom offers a free version that allows unlimited length 1-to-1 meetings, and 40-minute group chats. Its Pro version starts at $14.99 per month and offers unlimited length meetings with up to 100 participants. Compare the different Zoom plans here.
Zoom is a popular service, but is not specifically aimed at healthcare providers. Neither the Basic or Pro version of Zoom are recommended for HIPAA-compliant uses, but Zoom does offer Zoom for Telehealth plans starting at $200 per month.
VSee
VSee offers a Basic VSee Messenger plan at $49 per month that includes a BAA (Business Associate Agreement) for HIPAA compliance. You can compare VSee’s plans here.
They also offers a VSee Clinic service that combines video chat with features like a virtual waiting room, scheduling, intake forms, and consent forms. Up to 30 people can be on a video call at once. Find out more about VSee Clinics here.
Doxy.me
Doxy.Me offers services that enable HIPAA compliance for all of its plans, including its free, Basic plan. The free plan includes only Low Definition video, which may not be optimal for psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Their $35 a month Professional plan includes Standard and High Definition video, audio-only calls, and other features like group calling with up to 10 participants, screen sharing, and payments.
TheraPlatform
TheraPlatform offers an extensive suite of tools for managing clients, scheduling, and billing, in addition to video chat capabilities.
Their plans that enable HIPAA compliance, including video chat with up to three patients at a time, start at $29 per month. The $39 Pro level include features like video-sharing and screen-sharing, online appointment booking, meeting reminders, syncing with your calendar, intake and progress forms, and billing patients.
Compare TheraPlatform’s plans here.
Thera-Link
Thera-Link offers a Basic level plan for $30 a month that includes 5 sessions and a client scheduler. Their Plus plan is $45 a month and includes unlimited sessions.
All of their plans enable HIPAA compliance with a BAA, a waiting room that can be customized, scheduling tools, and accepting payments.
You can hold group sessions with no limit on the number of participants, but Thera-Link recommends no more than 16 in order to preserve quality.
Compare Thera-Link’s plans here.
TheraNest
TheraNest is a web-based service for mental health professionals, and offers a suite of tools for providers, like scheduling, forms, billing, and telehealth. They also provide a mobile app.
Their service starts at $38 per month with up to 30 active clients included, and increases in price with each additional 10 active clients.
You can conduct group video chat sessions with up to 6 participants.
Find out more about TheraNest here.
SimplePractice
SimplePractice is designed as a online portal for your practice that enables HIPAA compliance with scheduling, forms, billing, and telehealth.
Telehealth is available as a $10 add-on to their Professional plan, for a total of $69 per month. Their site does not indicate whether group chats are possible with their telehealth service.