Setting up group appointments

With group appointments, you can quickly schedule sessions, take notes, and bill clients for an appointment with up to 15 participants at once.

Note: Group appointments and group telehealth are included on the Plus plan, and available as an add-on for $20/month per clinician on the Essential plan. To enable this add-on, see How can I enable group appointments and telehealth on the Essential plan?

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Creating a group appointment
• Editing a group appointment
• Billing for a group appointment
• Using telehealth for a group appointment

Note: To see answers to FAQs about group appointments, see Group appointment FAQs. To learn about recording progress notes for group appointments, see Adding progress notes for group appointments.

Creating a group appointment

To create a group appointment:

1. Navigate to your calendar
2. Click + > Schedule appointment
3. Select Group

4. Click Search clients and select a joining client from the dropdown

5. To create and add a new client, choose + Create client and add their details

Note: A maximum of 15 clients can be added to a group appointment.

6. Enter an optional appointment name
   • If no name is entered, the appointment will appear with the number of clients on the calendar

7. Set the date, start/end time, duration, clinician, and location
   • You can also indicate whether it’s a recurring appointment
   • For more information on recurring appointments, see Adding and managing appointments
8. Under Add services and modifiers, select the service
   • Enter modifiers and update the Fee if needed
   • To view what CPT codes are recommended for group appointments, see Group appointments FAQs
9. Click Done

When you create a new appointment within the next 24 or 48 hours, you can send appointment reminders if:

• You have Alerts toggled on in Settings > Scheduling > Calendar
• You have reminders for Upcoming appointments toggled on for each client

Note: For more information on alerts and reminders for upcoming appointments, see Setting up appointment and time of scheduling reminders.

Check the boxes for the reminders you'd like to send and click Send reminders.

Note: You can also record progress notes for each client. To learn more, see Adding progress notes for group appointments.

Editing a group appointment

Updating client attendance in a group appointment

If you'd like to edit the attendance for a client in a group appointment:

1. Navigate to your calendar
2. Choose the group appointment
3. Click Manage clients > Edit attendance

4. Select the status next to a client’s name and choose another status for the appointment

5. To add a client, click Search clients and select the client
6. To remove a client, click the X next to their status
7. Select Save changes

Editing the overall status of a group appointment

If you need to change the status of the entire appointment:

1. Navigate to your calendar
2. Choose the group appointment
3. Click Cancel appointment

4. Select Clinician canceled or Canceled
5. Click Cancel group appointment

Note: For more information on appointment statuses, see How to change an appointment status.

If you choose Clinician canceled, you can send a cancellation message.

Note: Alerts must be toggled on to send cancellation messages.

Once canceled, no further changes can be made. To remove the appointment, click the trash can icon.

Note: Locked appointments can’t be deleted until unlocked. To learn about locked appointments, see Adding and managing appointments.

Editing the details of a group appointment

To edit the appointment’s details, click Edit.

You can edit the appointment name, date, time, clinician, location, or service. Click Done when finished.

Note: Locked appointments can’t be edited until unlocked. To learn about locked appointments, see Adding and managing appointments.

If Alerts are toggled on, you can send reminders when moving an appointment.

Note: If you don’t see a reminder option, you aren’t permitted to send that reminder type to the client. For more information, see Setting up appointment and time of scheduling reminders.

Billing for a group appointment

When you select a group appointment, you can view:

• The service’s default fee under Services
• The number of uninvoiced, unpaid, or paid clients under Billing

Click Manage billing to see the billing status for each client. If the appointment is uninvoiced, you can select the three dots next to a client’s name for options to:

• Edit fee
• Create invoice
• Create invoice and add payment

Selecting Edit fee lets you change a client’s fee.

Note: If the client has Insurance billing type, you’ll also see a field for Client Copay. You can update copay or billing type using an appointment level billing change.

If an invoice exists for the appointment, you'll have the option to select View invoice and see the invoice’s status.

If the invoice is unpaid, you’ll also see an option to Add payment.

In the client’s Overview > Edit > Billing and Insurance tab, you can set different billing types for individual and group appointments.

Note: Creating claims for group appointments follows the same process as individual claims. To learn more, see Filing primary claims in SimplePractice.

Using telehealth for a group appointment

A telehealth call can have up to 15 clients at once, which is the maximum number of clients for a group appointment. We recommend that all clients have a steady internet connection to avoid any possible issues.

Note: The following steps also apply to couple appointments.

The calendar flyout for a group telehealth appointment will have a link to Join video appointment:

Each participant will be able to join via the telehealth link from their appointment email or text reminder. When the call launches, they’ll first need to enter their name before continuing.

Tip: Like individual telehealth appointments, you can also click Share Link to copy the group telehealth link or manually send it via reminder.

If you have the waiting room enabled, you’ll be able to see which clients are ready to be admitted into the call. You’ll also have the ability to decline a client from joining, or move a client in the call back to the waiting room.

Note: If the waiting room isn’t enabled, clients will be able to join as soon as they enter their name.

On the browser version, you'll see the person speaking in the center of the screen, with you and the other participants in the right column.

On the mobile app, you can use the Speaker or Grid view. In Speaker view, you’ll see the person speaking in the center of the screen, and the other participants at the bottom:

In Grid view, you’ll be able to see yourself and up to three other people at once on the screen:

Tip: If more than three people are with you on a call, click the arrow on the right side to view other participants.

All participants will also be able to chat, share their screen, and collaborate on a whiteboard. To learn more about these features, see Using telehealth features.