# Help Scout for Healthcare: HIPAA Plans, the BAA and AI Limits

> Help Scout for healthcare: HIPAA needs Pro or the Plus add-on plus a signed BAA, AI stays off until a second addendum, and Docs is not covered.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/help-scout-for-healthcare — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_

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Help Scout can carry patient conversations, but only on two plans and only after a signature. HIPAA support is included on Pro, sold as an add-on on Plus, and not available on Free or Standard.[1] On either plan, Help Scout processes protected health information only after your organization signs its Business Associate Agreement. Pro costs $75 per user per month billed annually, or $90 billed monthly, with a 10-user minimum. Plus costs $45 per user per month billed annually, or $54 billed monthly, and Help Scout does not publish the HIPAA add-on's price. Compliance never comes from the tool alone. **Your configuration and your other vendors decide the rest.**


**$75** — Per user per month for Pro billed annually, where HIPAA is included (10-user minimum)



- **Plus or Pro** — Only plans with HIPAA (add-on on Plus)
- **2 signatures** — BAA, then the AI Healthcare Addendum for AI
- **Docs excluded** — Knowledge base sits outside HIPAA coverage


## The HIPAA gate: which plan, which paperwork

| Plan | Price per user per month (billed annually / monthly) | HIPAA | SSO/SAML and IP restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not available | Not available |
| Standard | $25 per user per month billed annually / $30 per user per month billed monthly | Not available | Paid add-on |
| Plus | $45 per user per month billed annually / $54 per user per month billed monthly | Paid add-on, price not published | Paid add-on |
| Pro (10-user minimum) | $75 per user per month billed annually / $90 per user per month billed monthly | Included | Included |

The BAA comes in two versions, one for covered entities and one for business associates working as subcontractors. Covered entities sign it online and receive a copy by email, and Help Scout will not change its BAA for an individual customer. **Legal review happens before purchase, not after.** The Terms require an Order and a signed BAA before any PHI enters the account,[2] so the 15-day trial of Standard or Plus (no card needed) is for testing workflows with invented records. Pro trials go through sales.

Signing changes how the account behaves. Notifications lose identifying information, the Slack integration stops carrying conversation data, and Slack link previews are switched off by default and omit the subject, message preview and customer name. Agents can edit, delete or hide thread contents that should never have been sent. The signed BAA also opts the account out automatically of the Terms clause that lets Help Scout pool de-identified customer data into Training Datasets for its AI; other accounts must opt out by email.



> ⚠ **Other vendors need their own BAA:** A CRM, phone tool or AI provider connected to Help Scout that stores PHI is not covered by Help Scout's BAA.

## What HIPAA costs a small practice

Every person with a login is a billable user, the Account Owner included, and the HIPAA add-on on Plus has no list price. So the useful number is the gap you would pay to get HIPAA included on Pro instead. By our arithmetic, five users cost $225 a month on Plus billed annually ($2,700 a year), while Pro's 10-seat floor is $750 a month billed annually ($9,000 a year). The gap is $525 a month at five users. It narrows by $45 for each added user, reaching $300 a month at ten users.

From ten users upward, the gap stays at $30 per user per month on annual billing. The rule is simple. If Help Scout quotes the Plus add-on below that gap for your headcount, Plus with the add-on costs less; above it, Pro is cheaper and brings SSO/SAML and IP restrictions without separate add-ons. Ask for the HIPAA, SSO and IP quotes together, because all three are unpriced on Plus. Monthly billing on either plan costs 20% more than annual, which puts Pro's minimum at $900 a month.

Clinicians who only need to read threads do not have to take full seats. Plus includes 5 light users (up to 25) and Pro includes 15 (up to 50); they view conversations and collaborate but cannot reply to patients or be assigned. Extra light users cost $10 per light user per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly. Plans renew automatically unless written notice is given at least 30 days before the term ends, and refunds exist only under the 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment; our [Help Scout pricing guide](/articles/help-scout-pricing) covers the billing rules.

## A front desk's day in a PHI-safe inbox

The usual design is one Inbox per function. Help Scout suggests separate Inboxes for patient care, billing, scheduling and each location, or for intake, records, billing, insurance and credentialing, with at least one reserved for mail that contains PHI. Plus includes 5 Inboxes and Pro includes 10; an extra Inbox costs $10 per Inbox per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly. Help Scout's healthcare report says the 700 healthcare teams it analyzed run four separate inboxes on average and have used Help Scout for more than five years on average.

Mail arrives by forwarding your existing addresses, and several addresses can feed one Inbox. Workflows then assign each message to the right team by address or scan for keywords and route it, and Teams with round-robin routing start on Plus, so every HIPAA account has them. Pro adds load-balanced routing and unlimited workflows, against 500 on Plus. Help Scout's own best-practice guide adds workflows that tag requests by subject and follow up when a patient has not replied.

Patient context belongs on the contact, not the conversation. Customer properties such as date of birth, clinic ID and referral source sit in a sidebar next to every thread and stay visible across Inboxes, up to 50 per account. Custom fields, 10 per Inbox, suit flags like PHI handling or insurance status, but their data does not follow a conversation moved to another Inbox. Permissions decide who sees which Inbox.


> 💡 **Store patient context on the contact:** Customer properties on the contact profile stay visible across Inboxes. Custom-field data does not follow a conversation moved to another Inbox.


Urgency comes from SLAs. Plus allows two policies with conditions on a customer property or custom field, so a post-operative question can carry a faster target than a billing query; Pro allows unlimited policies. After closing, a satisfaction survey can go to the patient at once. Help Scout's report says 67% of those 700 teams automate routing in workflows, 73% leave private notes before closing and 75% track satisfaction on every conversation. Help Scout's customer story on mTuitive describes it handling requests from hundreds of clients, and its help center shows Healthie, a practice-management and telehealth platform, running Beacon in its iOS and Android apps.

## AI with patient data: off until a second signature

AI features are switched off automatically in every HIPAA account.[3] They come back only after you sign the AI Feature Healthcare Addendum on top of the BAA. That second signature unlocks AI Drafts and AI Summarize, which are included on Plus and Pro with no usage fee. AI Drafts writes a reply from the team's past replies and Docs, and a person reviews and edits it before sending. **Nothing goes out without a human.**

Scout (formerly AI Answers), the patient-facing agent, is billed through the Envoy add-on at $0.75 per resolution on top of the per-user price, in Beacon chat and email but not on social channels or SMS. It answers; it books nothing and changes no records. Help Scout positions it for questions that need no private data, such as office hours, basic insurance policies and how to book an appointment. Its help center gives an example Scout role for a healthcare practice and advises an exclusion for medical questions, which sends them straight to the team. A hundred resolutions cost $75 a month.

Know where the data goes. Help Scout's AI Transparency page says it uses OpenAI foundation models, does not send account data back to OpenAI to train the global model, and logs AI interactions that are not HIPAA-protected for internal review. OpenAI and Anthropic appear on its sub-processor list for machine learning. Adoption is still early: Help Scout's report says 7% of its healthcare teams used Scout (then called AI Answers).


> ⚠ **AI stays off without the addendum:** In a HIPAA account, AI Drafts, AI Summarize and Scout remain switched off until you sign the AI Feature Healthcare Addendum on top of the BAA.


## Where PHI must not go

Docs, the knowledge-base product, sits outside Help Scout's HIPAA coverage. Keep it to non-sensitive content such as directions, hours and insurance basics; Help Scout's report says 54% of its healthcare teams run an active knowledge base. Integrations sign in through OAuth with the same access as the user who connects them, and any system that stores PHI, a CRM for example, needs its own BAA with that vendor. Phone works only through integrations, so the same rule applies to your calling tool.

EHR or EMR connections are possible through the API, but your organization is responsible for HIPAA compliance once data leaves Help Scout. The MCP connector follows the same logic: Help Scout's BAA does not cover the AI provider you connect through it. Help Scout offers no patient portal and points to the API for building one. Its Customer Portal (Plus and Pro) lets selected contacts sign in with a one-time email code to see their conversations, and its Notification-Only Email mode, recommended for healthcare, keeps reply content out of email; system auto-replies still send standard content.


> 💡 **Get every Plus quote together:** HIPAA, SSO/SAML and IP restrictions are unpriced add-ons on Plus and included on Pro. Compare the combined Plus quote with Pro's cost for your headcount.


## What to hand your compliance lead

Help Scout holds a SOC 2 Type 2 report, shared on request, runs third-party penetration testing at least annually and keeps production data in a private cloud behind VPN and multi-factor authentication. Data is hosted on AWS in the United States, apart from off-site backup, and web traffic is encrypted over 256-bit SSL. Two-factor sign-in works on every plan. Help Scout's healthcare page says it completes regular audits and annual risk assessments for HIPAA and strives for 99.99% uptime. That is a goal, not a contract.

Two gaps matter for clinics. Advanced Privacy Controls, which masks personal data automatically, is still in early access through support. Most data, conversations and customers included, leaves only through the Inbox API, so plan your export path before you need it. Outside our help-desk catalog, Intercom lists HIPAA support on its Expert plan, listed at $132 per seat a month. Our [Help Scout buyer's checklist](/articles/help-scout-buyers-checklist) turns these points into questions for the sales call.


## FAQ

**Can we switch HIPAA support off later?**

Yes, but it is a formal step: removing HIPAA requires a signed deactivation BAA that you request from Help Scout support.

**Who owns the AI output in a HIPAA account?**

Help Scout's AI Transparency page says the customer owns its data and the output of the AI features.

**What happens to patient data if we cancel?**

Cancellation is immediate, and Help Scout can restore a cancelled account only on written request within 14 days. Export conversations and customers through the Inbox API first.

**Can data stay in the EU?**

No. Help Scout hosts on AWS in the United States and offers no EU-only data residency; its DPA allows processing wherever Help Scout or its sub-processors operate.


## The bottom line

Help Scout suits clinics, telehealth providers and health-tech companies whose patient contact is mostly email and chat. The HIPAA floor is Plus with a quoted add-on or Pro from ten seats, always with a signed BAA, and AI waits for a second addendum. Inside that frame, separate Inboxes, contact properties, conditional SLAs and light users cover a front desk's day well. Skip it if you need a patient portal, native phone or PHI in your knowledge base. Help Scout supplies the safeguards; your team still owns the compliance.



## Sources

[1] Help Scout Pricing: Affordable Customer Support Software — https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ (2026-11)
[2] Terms of Service — https://www.helpscout.com/company/legal/terms-of-service/ (2026-11)
[3] Intuitive Help Desk Software for Healthcare Organizations — https://www.helpscout.com/industry/healthcare/ (2026-11)
[4] Help Scout help center — https://docs.helpscout.com/
[5] Help Scout developer documentation — https://developer.helpscout.com/