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Note Taker FAQs


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Note Taker FAQs

Josh M.
Josh M.
  • Updated
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Note Taker FAQs

Josh M.
Josh M.
  • Updated

Our team has released our first integrated AI-driven tool called Note Taker. In this guide, you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions about Note Taker. For an overview of using Note Taker, see Understanding Note Taker. 

Note: At SimplePractice, we believe ethical AI starts with putting you in control. We're committed to transparency, privacy, and protecting your data every step of the way. To give you proper control over your data, we issued an Addendum to the Terms of Service for Add-On AI Products. This explains our approach to your data and our Add-On AI Products, such as Note Taker.

Below, we’ll cover: 

Using Note Taker 

Note Taker features 

Pricing and availability 

Data and security 

AI at SimplePractice 

Using Note Taker

Can Note Taker progress notes be used for insurance?

We have specific instructions built in when using Note Taker to align with standard insurance guidelines. As always, you’re required to fully review and edit notes generated by Note Taker before submitting to insurance to make sure they align with your clinical expertise and any specific insurance requirements that may be set forth in your insurance contracts. 

How do I talk to my clients about AI?

To talk to your clients about AI, we believe it's important to be transparent, clear, and empathetic. For some tips on how you and your clients can approach this conversation, see our Pollen article Navigating AI in therapy: A guide for clinicians and clients. 

Note: If your state requires two-party consent for audio recording, we have a consent form available for you to send to your client. For more information, see Gathering consent from your clients.

How will I benefit from using Note Taker?

With Note Taker, you can save time on your documentation process and focus more on your clients during sessions instead of typing or writing notes by hand.

For more detailed information on Note Taker, see:

What does it look like on the client’s end when using Note Taker?

During a Telehealth appointment, there won’t be any noticeable changes on the client’s end when using Note Taker to record audio. Only clinicians will be able to see the ability to Record audio in the tool bar of the Telehealth session.

recordaudio.simplepractice.notetaker.pngNote: There are a number of states that do require consent from all parties in order to audio record a session. If you live in one of those states, your client should consent to such recording before you start. For more information, see Gathering consent from your clients. 

What if my client or I want to opt out of Note Taker?

You are in control, and you and your clients have the right to opt in or out of using AI tools for care at any time. 

Note Taker is an optional add-on to your subscription plan. If you add Note Taker to your subscription, you can choose not to use Note Taker to record a session. If you’d like to stop using Note Taker during a session, you can also stop recording at any time. 

Note: If your state requires two-party consent for audio recording, we’ll have a consent form available for you to send to your client. 

Who can access notes generated by Note Taker?

Only team members with access to a client’s profile can see their transcriptions and draft notes. For an overview of team member access levels, see Team member roles and access levels. 

If you submit a help request to Customer Success with a question about a transcription or draft note generated by Note Taker, a SimplePractice team member may securely access these to assist you further. 

Additionally, members of our Product team may reach out to see if you’d like to partner with us on enhancing Note Taker. With your permission, they’ll review your experience with the goal of improving the quality of the Note Taker tool. 

Per our Business Associate Agreement (BAA), all SimplePractice team members act under strict HIPAA obligations. Any SimplePractice team member who assists you is only allowed to view the minimum necessary data for us to deliver this support to you.

Note Taker features

Can I edit a draft progress note generated by Note Taker?

While Note Taker creates space for more meaningful conversations between you and your clients, it’s also important to note that AI may generate notes with mistakes, missing details, incorrect statements, accidental bias, or irrelevant information. To mitigate this, you’re required to review and edit all AI-generated content before saving a note.

Can I use Note Taker for in-person appointments?

The Note Taker feature for in-person appointments is now available in the SimplePractice mobile app for iOS and Android. For more information, see Navigating Note Taker during an in-person appointment.

Can Note Taker accurately understand human emotions?

While AI has made significant strides in analyzing human emotions through voice tone analysis and behavioral data, understanding emotions is a complex task. In general, AI can recognize patterns indicative of emotions, but the subtleties of human feelings and experiences are still difficult for AI to fully comprehend. That is one of the reasons why we require clinicians to review notes generated by Note Taker for accuracy and completeness before finalizing and locking them.

Can I teach Note Taker how to take notes?

While you’re not able to teach or adjust Note Taker to take notes using specific guidelines, Note Taker will adapt to your therapeutic style with each session.  

Can I use Note Taker without recording a Telehealth session?

Note Taker can only be used during a Telehealth appointment when using the recording feature. It isn’t possible to dictate or write in to Note Taker separately from the session. Additionally, it isn’t possible to record yourself separately from the client, as the tool is built to record both you and your client during the session. 

Do I have to record the whole appointment?

Note Taker will only record an appointment when you choose to Record audio during a Telehealth session: 

recordaudio.simplepractice.notetaker.png

You can turn Note Taker on and off as many times as you want during an appointment. However, Note Taker may not generate a note if there isn’t enough recorded content to base a note on. 

You’re required to thoroughly review and edit all notes generated by Note Taker to make sure they align with your clinical expertise. When recording only portions of a session, you may have to make more in-depth edits to capture the appointment completely.

Does Note Taker work with couple and group appointments?

Note Taker can be used for both couple and group appointments. For more information on couple and group appointments, see: 

Does Note Taker use the previous progress note to help create a new draft note?

Note Taker references your previous progress note for each client to create drafts that match your unique documentation style. Instead of generating generic notes, Note Taker analyzes your last progress note for the client to understand your preferences for formatting, note sections, writing style, complexity level, and overall structure. This means each draft note will be tailored to how you document care for that specific client.

Helpful tips

  • Review your recent notes: Take a moment to ensure your last progress note for each client reflects your current documentation preferences, as these will influence future drafts.
  • Start fresh when needed: If you want to change your documentation style for a particular client, edit the generated draft to your new preferred format. Future sessions will adapt to this updated approach.
  • Quality over quantity: Note Taker learns from well-structured notes, so taking time to finalize your notes thoughtfully will improve future draft quality.

What languages and accents does Note Taker work with?

Currently, Note Taker is available for English-speaking Telehealth appointments. Note Taker is built to work with a diverse range of accents. 

What does Note Taker look like when using the Telehealth by SimplePractice mobile app?

If you’re using the Telehealth by SimplePractice mobile app, you’ll see the option to record the audio in the bottom tool bar. To begin recording, click the AI icon.

You can click the pause icon in the bottom tool bar to pause the audio recording at any time.

Click the AI icon again to resume recording the audio of the appointment.

Pricing and availability

Can I enable this for individual clinicians in a group practice?

Account Owners in a group practice can enable Note Taker for individual clinicians. This $35/month per clinician enabled add-on fee will be added to the group practice’s subscription.

For more information on enabling Note Taker for a clinician, see Managing Note Taker in your account. 

How much does Note Taker cost?

Note Taker is available via an optional $35/month per clinician add-on to your subscription plan after your 30-day Note Taker free trial ends.

Note Taker doesn’t have a feature that another software is offering. When will this be available?

We’re constantly evaluating features available through Note Taker, and we’ll continue to enhance Note Taker moving forward. We’ll always consult with clinicians to determine what is most important to them and make sure we’re adding valuable enhancements that will help your practice thrive.

To help us enhance Note Taker, please use the feedback tool to provide us your input on what features you’d like to see added. 

feedback.simplepractice.notetaker.jpg

We’ll notify you as enhancements are added to Note Taker. 

What plans will Note Taker be available on?

Due to the importance of documentation in therapy, Note Taker is offered in all subscription plans as an optional add-on. For more information on our plans, see Which subscription plan is right for me?

Why isn’t Note Taker included in my subscription at no cost?

There are significant costs associated with AI computing and the features that Note Taker provides, such as distinguishing between speakers when recording, summarizing the session, and creating the transcription. Our goal is to deliver a tool that is valuable to our customers while still being priced fairly and competitively. 

We’ve also received feedback from our customers on wanting some features to be add-ons so that the base price of each subscription plan doesn’t increase. With these factors in mind, and because we want you to remain in control of how you document your sessions, we’ve decided to make this feature an add-on for those who want to use it.

Will Note Taker work with an external Telehealth platform?

Note Taker is designed to work only with SimplePractice Telehealth via our web app or mobile app. 

Data and security

Are my data and my clients’ data secure with Note Taker?

SimplePractice has received a HITRUST certification that verifies the strictest level of HIPAA and security compliance. Your data and your clients’ data are secure with any SimplePractice AI feature, as all SimplePractice features are HIPAA compliant and follow our Security & Privacy policies. 

Note: For more information on how Note Taker aligns with our Security & Privacy policies, see Understanding our approach to Note Taker. 

We’re deeply invested in the security and confidentiality of patient data. Protected Health Information (PHI) will never be sold and is always safeguarded in alignment with HIPAA regulations and our comprehensive Privacy Policy. 

My state has legal requirements for audio recording. Can I use Note Taker?

In states that require consent for audio recording Telehealth sessions, it’s your practice’s responsibility to review the Consent to Record Audio Form and update it according to your practice policies, along with the legal requirements of your state. If you have any questions on your state’s legal requirements for using Note Taker to audio record Telehealth sessions, we recommend consulting your local regulatory body.

What happens to the transcription data?

The audio recording is deleted immediately after the transcription is created, which usually occurs within minutes after the recording is finished. The transcript is available for your use to confirm the accuracy of the note, or to confirm any other details you wish, until either you sign and lock the note, or 7 days, whichever is earlier. During that period in which the full transcript is available for your review, it is not used for any other purpose and is completely private and secure.

In the future, after we develop the opt-out solution, we will store de-identified transcripts for clinicians who chose not to opt-out. We will use these de-identified transcripts to continue to improve Note Taker in the following ways:

  • To help Note Taker better distinguish relevant from non-relevant session content
  • To reduce biased language with diverse representation across clients and clinician styles

Any de-identified and anonymized transcription data will also be fully encrypted. We follow all regulations, including HIPAA and industry best practices to keep your data safe and secure.

What is de-identification?

De-identification or anonymization means that any identifying data is completely removed, and any association with the client or clinician is deleted. There will be no data that can be traced back to the client or the clinician. We maintain our existing commitment to full de-identification and removal of personally identifiable information in compliance with HIPAA.

We plan to use the “Safe Harbor” method of de-identification under HIPAA - this method requires the removal of a specific set of 18 identifiers including: names, geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, dates (except year), telephone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, health plan beneficiary numbers, account numbers, certificate/license numbers, vehicle ID and serial numbers, device ID and serial numbers, web URLS, IP addresses, biometric identifiers, full face photos or comparable images, and other identifier that could be used to identify an individual. Even after removing the specified identifiers, we have an obligation to ensure that there is no actual knowledge and no reasonable basis to believe that the remaining information could be used to identify an individual. Data would be used internally, in aggregate, at SimplePractice. Dialogue between your client and you, even with the identifiers removed, will never be seen by anyone as restated text in an AI output or anywhere else in our product.

Will the recording and transcription of the appointment be deleted?

After you finish recording an appointment, Note Taker generates a transcription and uses it to draft a note. The recording will be deleted immediately after the transcription is generated, usually within minutes. After the summary is created, the transcript is then available for your use only (and will not be used for any other purpose) for either 7 days or after the note has been locked and signed, whichever comes sooner.
The purpose of making the transcript available to you during this period is to allow you to confirm that the summary is accurate and check any details if needed. It is not shared with anyone or used for any other purpose during that time frame. Once the earlier of 7 days or your signing and locking of the note occurs, the transcript is deleted. We are not currently storing any transcripts from the recording beyond that time frame.
However, we’re currently developing an opt-out solution. This will give you control over whether or not your session transcripts are retained. After the feature is developed, any retained session transcripts will be de-identified/anonymized, which means that PHI and the association with clinician and client are removed in compliance with HIPAA standards such that the transcripts could not be traced back to you or your client. When the ability to opt-out is available, you will be notified.

Will the transcription data be used to improve the AI model?

After releasing an opt-out feature, we may improve Note Taker using transcription data that has had all identifying data removed and any association with the client or clinician deleted.

Important: We’ll never use transcription data that hasn’t had all identifying data and association with the client or clinician deleted to improve Note Taker. 

For more information on what happens to the transcription data after a note is locked and signed, see What happens to the transcription data?

Will you sell my data?

We’ll never sell PHI. 

AI at SimplePractice

Can I view the recording of the Note Taker live Q&A from April 2, 2025?

The Note Taker live Q&A was hosted by SimplePractice leaders on April 2, 2025 at 11 AM PT. To watch the recording, see:

Can I view the recording of the Note Taker live Q&A from June 23, 2025?

The Note Taker live Q&A was hosted by SimplePractice leaders on June 23, 2025 at 11 AM PT. To watch the recording, see:

What AI company is SimplePractice partnered with?

As mentioned in our live Q&A on April 2, 2025, we’ve partnered with Claude by Anthropic for our Note Taker tool.

What is SimplePractice’s overall approach to AI?

Our approach to AI is centered around three main principles:

  • Privacy and Data Security: Protecting patient data is our top priority.  We hold ourselves, and any vendors with whom we share data, to strict data privacy, security and ethical standards that align with regulations and best practices to ensure that data, including Protected Health Information (PHI) and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII), is collected, stored and used responsibly.  PHI and PII will never be sold.
  • Practitioner-centered: Mental health care is fundamentally human.  Practitioners will remain at the center of patient care, with AI serving as a supplement to inform and support the delivery of care while preserving the therapeutic relationship.  Our decision-making around the use and development of AI is rooted in our mission to empower mental health practitioners to thrive.
  • Clinical Integrity and Inclusivity: Through collaboration with licensed mental health professionals, our AI-powered solutions are grounded in clinical best practices and evidence-based standards.  We build our systems to serve diverse populations equitably, working to identify, reduce, and prevent bias in our AI systems.

Where else is AI used in my SimplePractice account?

We currently leverage AI through our chatbot to quickly provide answers to your questions and connect you with our team. For more information, see Getting support directly in your SimplePractice account.

Note: For an overview of our support options, see How can I get help from your team? 

We also use AI to help us detect and prevent potentially fraudulent activity in accounts. 

Will Note Taker replace therapists?

At SimplePractice, we believe mental health care is fundamentally human, and clinicians will remain at the center of client care. We see AI as a supplement to inform and support the delivery of care while preserving the therapeutic relationship. 

AI should serve as a way to empower clinicians. We value the human connection and expertise clinicians bring, and we believe that the human elements of understanding, empathizing, and offering personalized support remain crucial in providing treatment. We built Note Taker to enhance your ability to run a thriving practice and allow you to spend more time on the tasks that are most important for you. 

Because you’re required to review notes generated by Note Taker, you have the final say over AI-generated content, allowing you to make sure your notes are ultimately in line with your expertise. 

Will you be adding more AI functionality to SimplePractice in the future?

We’re exploring adding AI tools and features in the future that will provide more efficiency and flexibility for your practice. All of our AI features will be HIPAA compliant, follow our Security & Privacy policies, and be designed with input and thorough testing from licensed clinicians. SimplePractice has received a HITRUST certification by a third-party assessor that verifies the strictest level of HIPAA and security compliance. 

Is AI mentioned in your Terms of Service?

Our Add-On AI Products, such as Note Taker, are covered in our Addendum to SimplePractice Terms of Service for Add-On AI Products. The Addendum covers the legal guardrails and requirements around your use of the Add-On AI Products as well as our commitments and obligations around your data when you use the Add-On AI Products. There is a summary at the top of the Addendum that is intended to explain the contents in plain, easy to understand language.

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