Behavioral health guide

Best AI Scribes for Psychiatric NPs

For PMHNPs in solo, collaborative or telehealth practice who need fast med-management notes at an individual price. Independent research. No paid rankings.

Last updated 2026-10-13. Curated by a practicing psychiatrist.

Short answer: PMHNPs buying for themselves usually want individual pricing and telehealth capture. Freed (from $39/mo, browser telehealth capture) and Heidi (free plan, desktop telehealth audio capture) fit that profile. For Nabla telehealth and pricing, ask vendor.

What matters for psychiatric NPs

  • Individual, month-to-month pricing.
  • Telehealth audio capture without speakerphone.
  • Med-management and follow-up notes.
  • A BAA that covers your plan, including trials.

Behavioral health criteria

Evidence labels: Documentation reviewed Vendor-reported Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verified. "Ask vendor" means we found no public vendor statement.

Behavioral health criteria, with an evidence label on each cell.
CriterionFreedHeidiNabla
Intake and initial evaluation notesPsychiatry and mental and behavioral health templates listed Vendor-reportedSession notes, progress notes and psychiatric evaluations from user templates Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verifiedAsk vendor
Medication management follow-upsPsychiatry template listed Vendor-reportedAsk vendorAsk vendor
Mental status exam (MSE)Ask vendorExample "Mental State Examination" section in a psychiatrist template Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verifiedAsk vendor
Suicide-risk documentationAsk vendorNo clinical decision-making; sensitive content such as suicide risk is documented only if said in session or added as context Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verifiedAsk vendor
Note formatsStructured SOAP notes per Help Center FAQ Vendor-reportedAny structure via custom templates Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verifiedAsk vendor
Named EHR and practice-management integrationsEHR push to browser-based EHRs on Premier Vendor-reportedEpic, Oracle Health (Cerner), eClinicalWorks, athenahealth, PracticeQ, IntakeQ Vendor-reported
API or SDK widget; Chrome extension for web-based EHRs Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verified
Epic, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks Vendor-reported
Telehealth sessionsYes. Captures browser-tab telehealth (Zoom web, Google Meet, Teams web, Doxy.me) via Chrome extension; Zoom Marketplace app Documentation reviewedYes. Heidi Desktop "captures telehealth audio straight from the call" Vendor-reportedAsk vendor
Individual vs group pricingIndividual: $39, $79, $119/mo (Premier $104/mo annual). Groups: custom quote Documentation reviewedIndividual: Free; Clinician $150/mo or $110/mo yearly. Practice: $180/seat/mo yearly; Enterprise custom Documentation reviewed
APA response (July 2025): paid tiers $66 to $100/month; use the current pricing page Vendor response to APA, July 2025, not independently verified
Ask vendor

Sources, checked 2026-10-13: Freed telehealth capture, Freed FAQ, Freed pricing, Heidi integrations, Heidi pricing, Nabla EHR. Heidi eClinicalWorks and IntakeQ listings and Nabla eClinicalWorks per vendor integration pages.

Suki (APA vendor response)

About the APA label: the APA Committee on Mental Health IT sent questions to AI scribe developers in July 2025 and published the answers on its AI Scribe Tools page. APA states the answers were not independently verified and that it does not endorse any tool. Neither does this site rely on them as verified facts. See our questions to ask before you buy.

Privacy by vendor

Freed

  • BAA: Yes. BAA is part of the Platform Terms on every plan Documentation reviewed
  • Audio and transcript retention: Audio deleted after processing (recoverable up to 48 hours; troubleshooting copies up to 14 days). Notes deletable anytime or auto-deleted after 30 days Documentation reviewed
  • Model training: "Protected health information is never used for AI training purposes" (Help Center) Vendor-reported

Checked 2026-10-13: BAA article, Privacy and audio retention

Heidi

Checked 2026-10-13: HIPAA and BAA, Privacy policy

Nabla

  • BAA: HIPAA documentation on request in Trust Center Documentation reviewed; BAA by plan: Ask vendor
  • Audio and transcript retention: No audio retained; patient data kept per retention settings, standard 14 days (help article edited 2026-08-24) Documentation reviewed
  • Model training: Vendor states it does not train its models on your data Vendor-reported

Checked 2026-10-13: Data retention article, Trust Center, EHR page ("No model training on your data")

Tali AI

  • Audio and transcript retention: Audio streamed in real time, no PHI stored beyond the conversation; custom retention on Enterprise Documentation reviewed

Checked 2026-10-12; sources on the psychiatry guide

Abridge

  • BAA: Yes. Published BAA terms, signed with the enterprise contract Documentation reviewed
  • Audio and transcript retention: Organization-configured retention; single-encounter early deletion not supported Documentation reviewed

Checked 2026-10-12; sources on the psychiatry guide

Dragon Copilot

  • BAA: HIPAA commitments in Microsoft DPA and Product Terms; confirm in your agreement Documentation reviewed
  • Audio and transcript retention: Audio and transcripts retained up to 90 days Documentation reviewed
  • Model training: De-identified data used for model improvement; not used to train general LLMs Vendor-reported

Checked 2026-10-12; sources on the psychiatry guide

Suki

Checked 2026-10-12; sources on the psychiatry guide

Psychotherapy notes and HIPAA

What HIPAA calls psychotherapy notes. Under 45 CFR 164.501, psychotherapy notes are notes by a mental health professional documenting or analyzing the contents of a counseling session that are kept separate from the rest of the medical record. They exclude medication prescription and monitoring, session start and stop times, modalities and frequencies of treatment, results of clinical tests, and summaries of diagnosis, functional status, treatment plan, symptoms, prognosis, and progress. Under 45 CFR 164.508(a)(2), with few exceptions a covered entity needs the patient's authorization before disclosing psychotherapy notes, even for treatment by another provider.

Why it matters for AI scribes: a scribe note that goes into the chart is part of the medical record, so it is a progress note, not a psychotherapy note. If you keep separate process notes, decide whether they should ever pass through a scribe vendor, and ask each vendor in writing how it handles them.

Sources: HHS, Does HIPAA provide extra protections for mental health information? (content last reviewed by HHS 2017-09-12; checked 2026-10-13); 45 CFR 164.501 (eCFR); 45 CFR 164.508 (eCFR). Not legal advice.

Research scores

Scores are documentation-based. Vendors without a publicly documented BAA are shown as "BAA not publicly documented: not ranked, confirm with vendor". See the scorecard.

FAQ

Can a psychiatric NP use these scribes for telehealth?

Freed documents browser-tab telehealth capture and a Zoom app. Heidi Desktop captures telehealth audio from the call. For Nabla, ask vendor.

Is there a scribe with individual pricing for NPs?

Yes. Freed and Heidi publish individual plans. Nabla does not publish prices.

Sources and last checked

Behavioral health criteria and privacy facts for Freed, Heidi and Nabla were checked on vendor pages on 2026-10-13; other vendors on 2026-10-12. Curated by a practicing psychiatrist. See the methodology and corrections.

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