Setmore for Medical, Dental and Therapy Practices: Setmore Health, HIPAA and Costs

What Setmore offers a practice, and the two cautions

Setmore gives medical, dental and therapy practices online booking, reminders, telehealth links and payments. On top of that sits Setmore Health, a HIPAA-oriented account with a Business Associate Agreement that runs on Pro, which costs $5 a provider a month billed annually ^[1]. For a small practice that mostly needs patients to book, get reminded and join a video visit, that is an inexpensive setup.

Two cautions frame everything below. Setmore Health must be chosen at sign-up, and it cannot be added later. And the Terms of Use still say Setmore is not currently HIPAA compliant. So a practice has to read its BAA against the Terms before the first patient books, and it has to keep clinical records in another system, because Setmore books visits and does not keep the record.

Which practices fit, and which need practice software

Small practices fit best. Think doctors, dentists, chiropractors, counselors, physical therapists, massage therapists and aesthetic clinics that need patient self-booking, reminders and video visits. Setmore's healthcare page lists doctors, dentists, hospitals and clinics, physical therapy, counseling, chiropractors and vaccinations, and separate industry pages cover doctors, dentists, clinics, chiropractors, counseling, aesthetic clinics, massage therapy and wellness. One family-run practice, Happy Dental, grew by letting patients book online at any time.

The wrong fit is easy to spot. Practices that need clinical charting, insurance billing, e-prescribing or an electronic health record should look at practice software such as Jane or SimplePractice, which list those tools ^[2]. We found no charting, insurance billing, e-prescribing or EHR connection on Setmore's pages. Setmore can sit beside that software as the booking front door. It cannot replace it.

Setmore Health: the decision you make at sign-up

What the account adds

Setmore Health is the account type for practices that handle protected health information ^[3]. It requires Pro and includes Pro's features, and the medical scheduling page says it is offered to practices operating in the US. Contact records are stored through an API with built-in encryption and extra authentication, support comes from staff with extra health privacy training, and a standard BAA is provided at setup. It works on the web portal and on the iOS and Android apps. It costs nothing beyond Pro.

What it switches off

The account also takes things away. Classes are turned off, Booking Page reviews are deactivated and cannot be turned on, and cancel and reschedule links in notifications are off for good. Text reminders cannot be customized, to comply with HIPAA, and all notifications are shortened to exclude personally identifiable patient information. A reminder says a visit is due, not what it is for. Plan the patient experience around those limits before you build anything, because each one changes how patients book, change and review their visits.

Why the choice is permanent

Opting into Setmore Health is only possible when the account is created, and it is permanent. An existing account cannot be converted. A practice that trials a regular account first will have to start over, re-entering services, staff and patients. There is no way back either: to use regular Free or Pro instead, you need a new account with a different email. So decide before creating any account whether you will ever store protected health information in Setmore. If the answer is yes, start on Setmore Health on day one.

The BAA, the Terms and the apps around them

Two documents that disagree

Access to the HIPAA safeguarding tools requires a BAA between the practice and Setmore, and a standard one comes with Setmore Health setup. Read its scope before booking the first patient, and keep a signed copy. The Terms of Use point the other way. They say "Setmore is not currently HIPAA compliant." and make users solely responsible for HIPAA and HITECH compliance ^[4]. The clinics and healthcare pages, by contrast, call Setmore Health accounts HIPAA compliant. Ask Setmore in writing which document governs your account, and keep the signed BAA, the Setmore Health terms and that answer on file in case an auditor asks.

What the BAA does not do

The Setmore Health article says agreeing to its terms and BAA makes your use meet the Security Rule, but does not on its own make the practice fully compliant. Staff training, access control and your own policies remain the practice's job. Every industry page also requires a signed BAA before you store any protected health information. The agreement starts the work. It does not finish it.

Connected apps and Zoom

Setmore strongly encourages practices to check how each third-party integration, such as Square, uses patient data before activating it, and the Terms disclaim liability for privacy breaches arising from third-party payment integrations. A practice that connects Square for payments, Zoom for video and Mailchimp for newsletters has three more vendors touching patient information, each with its own terms. Connect only what you need. Zoom deserves a check of its own. Setmore says Zoom is not HIPAA compliant and that patient health information is not shared through it, while its doctor and medical pages say video sessions can be locked for privacy. Check your own Zoom agreement before running telehealth through it.

Setting up providers, visits and patient records

Providers, visit types and buffers

Each doctor can have a profile so patients reach the right consultant, and each service has its own booking link, for check-ups, cleaning or cosmetic procedures. Counselors create separate links for guided self-help, group therapy or specific therapy routes. Practices offer in-office and virtual visits from first consultation to follow-up, with a length and price for each visit type, and Zoom links are created only for the services you specify. Chiropractic teams add buffer time to clean tables or update records between patients, and massage therapists use it to sanitize the room. Patients never see it.

Treatment plans and groups

Practices can book recurring follow-ups to cover full treatment plans, daily, weekly, monthly or custom, with reminders before each session. Recurring appointments need Pro or Setmore Health. A physical therapist who books a patient twice a week for six weeks can set the whole course in one go, so the patient leaves the first visit with twelve sessions booked. Groups are harder. Counselors can offer group therapy links, but Setmore Health turns classes off, so a HIPAA account cannot run group sessions as classes. That is a real gap, because the class feature is what limits seats and closes booking when a group is full. Confirm the setup with support before planning groups.

Intake, notes and logins

Custom fields on the booking form collect the details you need before a visit, and patient profiles update automatically on booking. Never ask for bank or card details in custom fields, and under Setmore Health ask only what the BAA covers. Notes can store session details, medical history, treatment plans and even x-rays. They are notes, not a certified health record. Customer login lets patients see past and upcoming visits and update their details. Front-desk staff who only book through the Booking Page do not need logins. Everyone else gets the lowest access level that works.

Several providers, locations and calendars

The free version allows four staff logins, each with its own calendar and booking link, and at Happy Dental ten dentists log in from ten terminals. Two-way Google sync is available to Pro and Setmore Health customers, and blocking time in the calendar also blocks it on the Booking Page. Reports filter appointments by service or provider and export to XLS from the browser. One limit matters for groups of clinics. Multiple locations under one login is not available for HIPAA accounts yet.

Reminders, rescheduling and telehealth

Text and email reminders are automated. Text reminders need Pro; on Pro they can be customized, while on Setmore Health they cannot. Each Pro user gets 500 SMS credits a month, but texts cannot be sent to many countries, including Germany, France, India and Ireland. Dr. Nowakowski of Life-Enhancing Chiropractic reports nearly zero no-shows with text reminders. For a practice with ten no-shows a month, cutting them even by half recovers five appointments, which for most practices is worth far more than the $60 a year a single provider pays for Pro on annual billing.

Rescheduling is where the account type changes daily work. On a regular account, patients reschedule from their confirmations and the freed slot reappears on the Booking Page. Setmore Health removes those links from notifications, so patients must call or use the Booking Page. Expect more phone calls about changes. Put your phone number and rescheduling rules on the page.

Telemedicine meetings run on Google Meet or Zoom and can be locked for privacy, and Google Meet or Zoom links arrive in confirmations for group sessions. Counselors use virtual sessions to reach rural clients and cut travel-related cancellations. Teleport, Setmore's own video tool, was retired after 30 September 2026. Given Setmore's own position on Zoom, confirm which video tool your compliance review allows before turning either on.

Taking payment before the visit

Fees can be taken online through Stripe, Square or PayPal from the Booking Page, in full or in part, and prepayment can be made mandatory so a booking is confirmed only after payment. Transactions can sync to accounting apps. Aesthetic clinics take deposits at booking to secure appointments, and the aesthetic page also offers buy now, pay later and discount codes. Deposits need Pro, and one setting covers every service. Buy now, pay later runs through Stripe and works only for online payments through the Booking Page, not in person, while the practice is paid in full upfront.

Getting found, and answering the phone

Reserve with Google opened to medical practices in April 2024, according to Setmore's deployment notes, and puts a Book button on the Google Business Profile. Under Setmore Health, check that the booking data stays within your BAA. Dental practices can connect the Booking Page to the Facebook Book button so patients book without leaving Facebook. Because Setmore Health deactivates Booking Page reviews, a HIPAA account relies on Google reviews instead. Take care that any review request you send does not itself reveal that the recipient is a patient.

Phones still matter. Setmore's blog claims that one in three patients still prefer to call after hours, and those calls go to voicemail unless someone answers. Live Receptionist puts a real receptionist on every call, including after hours, weekends and holidays, in English or Spanish, US only. Custom scripts triage urgent from routine calls, and urgent ones are forwarded to the practitioner. It supports multiple practitioners and locations from one account. HIPAA call handling, however, needs a Live Receptionist Health account.

What a practice pays

These totals are our arithmetic from the published prices, and Setmore Health costs nothing beyond Pro. Free suits a practice that stores no protected health information. Pro adds texts, recurring visits and two-way sync, and any practice that handles patient health data should create a Setmore Health account from the start, at Pro's price. A solo therapist pays $60 a year on annual Pro for Setmore Health, texts and recurring sessions. Five providers cost $300 a year on annual Pro, or $720 on monthly billing. Count rooms too, because every calendar is billed as a user, including a treatment room. Adding Live Receptionist raises the bill by $1,188 a year. Our Setmore pricing guide covers the plans in full.

Setmore next to Jane, SimplePractice, Acuity and Calendly

Jane and SimplePractice are practice software, not schedulers. Jane lists HIPAA compliance on all plans, and its cheapest plan costs $59 a month for one practitioner; Jane Practice costs $79 a month. SimplePractice Starter costs $49 a month per practitioner after its promotion. A year of Jane Practice costs about sixteen times a year of Setmore Pro for one practitioner, by our arithmetic. Both add clinical tools Setmore lacks: Jane lists insurance billing and an AI scribe, and SimplePractice lists note-taking and ePrescribe add-ons. The choice turns on whether you need charting and insurance billing or only booking.

Acuity Scheduling puts its BAA on Premium, at $49 a month billed annually for up to 36 calendars. Three providers cost $180 a year on Setmore against $588 on Acuity Premium, a difference of $408 a year in Setmore's favor on annual billing, by our arithmetic. Acuity adds packages and custom intake forms, which matter more to wellness practices than to medical ones. Calendly says it does not currently comply with HIPAA, GLBA or similar regulations. For any practice that handles patient data, that rules it out, while Setmore offers a BAA. Our Setmore alternatives roundup covers more options.

The gaps, the fine print and a setup plan

Setmore Health switches off classes, reviews and self-service rescheduling. Multiple locations are not available for HIPAA accounts, SMS does not reach many countries, and the Terms of Use still disclaim HIPAA compliance. Some older pages also confuse the picture. The doctors page refers to a Team account and says Free video meetings use a built-in tool for four participants, and the massage page describes Pro for two logins and Team for three or more. Trust the pricing page, which lists only Free and Pro, with unlimited Pro users.

The Terms carry three more clauses worth knowing. They are governed by North Carolina law and cap liability at the price charged. They also let Setmore cancel or reprice service if SMS and email costs exceed what a customer pays, which is exactly the case of a busy clinic sending many reminders on a low-priced plan. Watch your SMS use. Separately, Setmore fulfils personal data deletion requests within 30 days.

Before the first patient books

• Decide on Setmore Health before sign-up, then create the account as Setmore Health.
• Sign the BAA and get its scope, and which document governs, in writing.
• Count provider and room calendars, since each one is a user.
• Add providers and visit types with buffer time, and set reminders.
• Check SMS coverage for your patients and plan rescheduling without email links.
• Review each integration's handling of patient data before turning it on.
• Decide on after-hours call coverage, then test a booking.

The bottom line

For a small practice that needs online booking, reminders and telehealth links, Setmore is inexpensive, and Setmore Health gives a BAA at Pro's price. Choose it at sign-up, because it cannot be added later or removed. Read the BAA against the Terms, which still disclaim HIPAA compliance, and get Setmore's answer in writing. Pair it with clinical software if you keep records or bill insurers, and skip it entirely if what you need is a practice management system rather than a booking page.