Care Aide is a set of AI-powered features built into SimplePractice that help you prepare for sessions, keep track of agenda items during telehealth appointments, and reduce documentation work afterward. It includes everything in Note Taker and expands on it with additional features across the care journey.
Care Aide is designed to support the care and expertise you bring to clients.
In this guide, we'll cover:
- Understanding Care Aide features
- Reviewing AI-generated content
- Preparing to use Care Aide
- Managing Care Aide in your account
- Leaving feedback on features
- Additional resources
Note: At SimplePractice, we believe ethical and responsible AI starts with putting you in control. We're committed to transparency, privacy, and protecting your data every step of the way. To support the responsible use of AI-powered features, we issued an Addendum to the Terms of Service for Add-On AI Products that explains how data is used and protected when using tools like Note Taker and Care Aide.
Understanding Care Aide features
Care Aide features appear at different points depending on your workflow and the information available in a client's record. Each feature is designed to support specific parts of the care journey, from preparing for sessions to completing documentation afterward.
Before an appointment
As you prepare for an appointment, Care Aide can help you review relevant client information more efficiently.
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Intake Summaries
- Intake Summaries provide a consolidated view of a new client's background by synthesizing information from intake documents, demographic details, and scored measures.This can help you get oriented before your first session without opening each document individually.
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Session prep
- Session prep brings together reminders and relevant context ahead of an appointment. It pulls from Session Sidekick and the pre-session summary from Note Taker so you can review what was covered previously, what to follow up on, and key details before the appointment starts.
During an appointment
During a session, you may need to reference information from a client’s record while staying present.
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Session Sidekick
- Session Sidekick appears within the telehealth experience and surfaces reminders from prior sessions, treatment plan details, client context, and quick actions. This allows you to access important information without navigating away from the session..
After an appointment
Post-session documentation can be one of the most time-consuming parts of clinical work. Care Aide includes features that can help streamline this work:
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Client Summaries
- Client Summaries are AI-generated summaries of what was discussed in the session that you can review and share with clients. This can help reinforce key themes and takeaways between sessions.
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Treatment Planner
- Treatment Planner uses available client information to help generate or update treatment plans. This can help keep documentation aligned with changes in a client’s care over time, without needing to start from scratch.
Reviewing AI-generated content
Care Aide is designed to assist with documentation, but the content may be incomplete, inaccurate, or missing context. It does not replace your clinical judgment or serve as final documentation.
To ensure accuracy, review all outputs for factual errors, incorrect details, or information pulled from the wrong context.
Always review the content for clinical appropriateness by verifying that the language, framing, and emphasis match your clinical perspective. Adjust tone, terminology, and focus to reflect how you would document the session yourself.
Important: Always review and edit all AI-generated content before using it in practice. Make sure it reflects the client's situation, your clinical expertise, and the documentation you want in the record.
For details on how SimplePractice handles data in AI-powered features, see the AI Addendum to the Terms of Service.
Preparing to use Care Aide
Care Aide is available as a paid add-on on all SimplePractice plans. It includes everything included in Note Taker and expands on it with additional features across the care journey.
You can choose whether to use Note Taker on its own or add Care Aide for the full feature set. If you add Care Aide, Note Taker features are included automatically.
The add-on fee is $59 per month for Account Owners and $49 per month for other clinicians in a group practice. Account Owners can enable Care Aide for themselves and other team members within their practice.
Understanding our approach to Care Aide
Our Care Aide features are HIPAA compliant and follow our Security & Privacy policies. SimplePractice has also been certified through HITRUST by a third-party assessor that verifies the strictest level of HIPAA and security compliance.
We’re deeply invested in the security and confidentiality of patient data. Protected Health Information (PHI) will never be sold and is safeguarded in alignment with HIPAA regulations and our comprehensive Business Associate Agreement.
In alignment with our Security & Privacy policies, we’ve implemented the following controls to protect your clients’ sensitive data when using Care Aide:
- As with all data in your clients’ charts, transcript and notes are safeguarded with comprehensive security measures that have been validated against third-party certification standards
- Care Aide features comply with the strict standards set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Gathering consent from your clients
Gathering client consent is an important step before using AI-powered features. Whether you’re a new or existing Note Taker user, we recommend that you review your current documentation to verify that your consent forms cover all AI features used by your practice.
SimplePractice offers a Consent for Use of AI Tools with De-Identified Transcript Retention form that you can share with clients. You may consider using this form if:
- You’re a new Note Taker or Care Aide customer and haven’t previously gathered consent from your clients
- You’re upgrading from Note Taker to Care Aide and want to gather consent for the use of additional features
- You’re using Note Taker or Care Aide and opting in to transcript retention
Consent requirements can vary, so we recommend confirming the relevant requirements with your legal counsel and/or licensing board. For more information, see Managing consent forms.
Managing Care Aide in your account
Care Aide is available as a paid add-on on all SimplePractice plans. It includes everything included in Note Taker and expands on it with additional features across the care journey.
You can choose whether to use Note Taker on its own or add Care Aide for the full feature set. If you enable Care Aide, Note Taker features are included automatically.
Starting a Care Aide trial
When you start a trial, you'll receive a confirmation email. After the trial, Care Aide costs $59/month for Account Owners and $49/month for each additional clinician in a group practice. You'll also receive notifications before your trial ends and when billing begins.
If you currently have a paid Note Taker subscription, your existing Note Taker billing will continue during the Care Aide trial period, but you won’t be charged an additional amount while trialing Care Aide.
Note: If you’re part of the limited group of customers with early access to Care Aide, you’ll be automatically enrolled in a 30-day Care Aide trial beginning June 17, 2026. If you’re an Account Owner, Care Aide will be automatically enabled for you, and you’ll need to enable it for your team members as needed.
Enabling Care Aide
To enable Care Aide:
- Navigate to Settings > Practice > Plan info
- Under Add-ons, click Manage access next to Clinical support suite
- Toggle Care Aide on
- Click Save
Note: Account Owners in a group practice can enable or disable Care Aide for individual clinicians. When Care Aide is enabled for a clinician, they’ll receive an email confirming their access has started.
Turning off Care Aide
You can disable Care Aide at any time by toggling it off and clicking Save.
Important: Turning off Care Aide during your trial won't pause or extend the trial period. While Care Aide is turned off, you won't have access to its features. If you turn Care Aide back on before the trial ends, you’ll regain access to the features for the remainder of your trial.
If you previously subscribed to Note Taker, you'll be returned to your Note Taker subscription when Care Aide is turned off.
Leaving feedback on features
You can provide feedback directly when using each Care Aide feature.
- Intake Summaries: Select How was this summary? from the Inquiries page or the client profile
- Client Summaries: Select How was this summary? below the generated summary
- Treatment Planner: Select Help us improve
- Session Sidekick: Use the thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate whether the content aligns with your preferences
You can rate the feature and provide written feedback. Our team reviews this feedback to improve these tools over time. If you notice recurring issues that affect your workflow, you can also reach out to our team.
Additional resources
For more information about Care Aide, see: