Our Clinician Referrals feature allows you to easily connect clients who aren’t a good fit for your practice with other SimplePractice clinicians. By searching the Monarch Directory, you can quickly find clinicians based on specialty, location, insurance, and availability, and send referrals directly from your SimplePractice account.

In this guide, we'll cover:

• Initiating the referral process
• Filtering clinician search results
• Sending referrals
• Receiving referrals from other clinicians
• FAQs

Initiating the referral process

If a client’s preferences don’t align with your availability or specialty, you can use our Clinician Referrals feature to recommend other clinicians. You can send referrals from your Clients list, a client profile, and the Inquiries or Requests pages in your SimplePractice account.

To send a referral from your Clients list:

• Select Clients from the left navigation menu
• Next to the client you’d like to refer, click the three horizontal dots
• Select Send Referrals

To send a referral from a client's profile, click Send Referrals in the top right corner.

Note: An email with consent is required to send referrals. To learn how to add an email for a client, see Editing a client's information. You can send referrals to all clients regardless of their status, so you can make referrals at any stage of a client’s care.

To send a referral from the Inquiries or Requests pages:

• Navigate to Inquiries or Requests from the left navigation menu
• Click the three horizontal dots next to the client you’d like to refer
• Select Send Referrals

Note: For more information on managing contact form inquiries or appointment requests in SimplePractice, see Navigating the Inquiries page and Enabling online appointment requests.

You’ll also have the option to attach clinician referrals when you decline an appointment request from a prospective client. To do this, select Search for clinicians at the bottom of the Decline appointment page.

Filtering clinician search results

After clicking Send Referrals, you'll see a list of SimplePractice clinicians in your area who are listed on the Monarch Directory. From here, you can filter the clinician search results to match the client with a clinician who may better meet their needs.

You can filter the results by Location, Specialty, Approaches, Availability, Insurance, Appt types, Telehealth, or More filters.

Note: By default, the search results will display clinicians based on your location. For more information about how therapist profiles are displayed in the directory, see Improving your Monarch profile ranking.

To review a clinician’s Monarch profile, click View Profile. This will open their Monarch profile in a new tab, so you can learn more about their background, specialty, treatment approaches, and more.

Important: Clinicians listed in the Monarch Directory are independent providers who use SimplePractice for their practice management. They’re not endorsed or employed by SimplePractice, and SimplePractice isn’t responsible for their conduct.

Sending referrals

When you’re ready to share your referrals, you can customize the email message and attach clinician profiles to your response. To do this:

• Click Add profile to email to attach a clinician referral

• Repeat as needed to attach additional clinician referrals
  • If you want to remove a profile you added, click the - icon next to their name under Added profiles

• After writing your message to the client, select Preview message
• Click Send referrals

When you send referrals to a client, they’ll receive an email containing your provider recommendations. This email will include a link to view each clinician's Monarch profile, where the client can choose to send a message or request an appointment.

Sending a referral doesn’t notify the referred clinician, and client information isn't shared with referred clinicians. While this feature can facilitate referrals, the client is responsible for establishing contact and sharing necessary information.

Note: SimplePractice and its features have been certified through HITRUST by a third-party assessor that verifies the strictest level of HIPAA compliance.

Receiving referrals from other clinicians

To appear in Clinician Referrals search results, you must have an active Monarch profile. You can check the status of your profile by navigating to Marketing > Profile. An Active profile will also be visible to therapy seekers in the Monarch Directory.

Note: To help other clinicians feel more confident referring clients to you, make sure your Monarch profile is complete and up to date. For tips on optimizing your profile, see Best practices for your Monarch profile. To learn how to edit or preview your profile information, see Updating your Public Information settings.

When a client is referred to you through Clinician Referrals, the referral source will be listed as "via Clinician Referrals" under the date you received their inquiry or appointment request.

Note: This update is part of a phased rollout and may not appear yet in your account.

FAQs

• Can I turn Clinician Referrals off in my account?
• Can I refer clinicians who aren't on Monarch?
• What insurance payers and specialties appear in clinician search results?

Can I turn Clinician Referrals off in my account?

The Clinician Referrals feature is available in paid SimplePractice accounts with a Monarch-eligible clinician. There's no way to disable or hide the Send Referrals option at this time. To learn more about clinician eligibility for Monarch, see Who can list on Monarch?

In group practices with a Monarch-eligible clinician, Account Owners, practice managers, schedulers, and clinicians can send referrals. For more information, see Team member roles and access levels.

Can I refer clinicians who aren't on Monarch?

You can use the Clinician Referrals feature to refer clients externally to providers not listed on the Monarch Directory. To do this, enter the contact details for an unlisted provider in the Email message field.

You can then send the message without attaching clinician profiles.

What insurance payers and specialties appear in clinician search results?

Clinicians can indicate the insurance payers they accept on their Monarch profiles. To update your insurance payers, navigate to Marketing > Profile and select Edit next to Insurance Accepted.

Monarch supports the following specialties: Behavioral health therapy, Counseling, Marriage and family therapy, Psychology, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, Psychiatry, Social work, and Substance use counseling. To update your specialty, navigate to Settings > Profile > Clinical info.