Alma Announces Generative AI-Powered Progress Notes to Reduce Therapist Burnout and Improve Client Outcomes

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Jun 11, 2024, 09:00 ET

Alma's comprehensive EHR enables therapists to scale their practice and deliver high-quality care, with over 80% of clients seeing improvement

NEW YORK, June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alma, a membership-based network that helps independent mental health care providers build thriving private practices that accept insurance, expanded its electronic health record (EHR) suite today with the introduction of AI-generated progress notes. Powered by a partnership with the AI-native therapy documentation platform Upheal, this technology incorporates extensive feedback from therapists and enables them to be more present in-sessions and save hours on progress notes that meet clinical best practices.

With this launch, Alma is the first company to offer AI-supported clinical documentation in an integrated practice management solution for mental health providers that spans insurance, billing, and EHR.

"We are building a one-stop shop for therapists that gives them the right combination of technology and support they need to thrive as independent clinicians," said Alma founder and CEO Dr. Harry Ritter. "By expanding our EHR offering with AI-generated progress notes, we're freeing up providers' time to delve deeper into client sessions, personalize treatment plans, and ultimately improve client outcomes. Today, we're seeing that over 80% of Alma clients are improving over the course of their care."

Designed exclusively for therapy sessions, Alma's AI-powered note taking tool is HIPAA compliant and requires both providers and clients to explicitly opt in before a session begins. The tool, called Note Assist, is:

Secure: All session recordings and transcripts are automatically deleted after the progress note is generated. Session data on Alma's platform is never used to train the AI model.
Provider-autonomy: Providers have the opportunity to review, edit, and add to each progress note as they see fit before saving.
Efficient: In a pilot of early users, Alma providers spent 50% less time writing progress notes, freeing up valuable time in their day to focus on client care and their own mental health. This time back can play a critical role in reducing provider burnout. The American Psychological Association found that 36% of providers are experiencing burnout in their 2023 report.
High-quality: The same pilot found that progress notes with Note Assist are twice as long as average, indicating these notes are capturing a more complete and accurate documentation of the sessions.

"The ability to automate progress notes has changed my entire practice, taking away the stress and pressure I felt to get my notes done within 24 hours and giving me time back to focus on my own wellbeing," said Alma member Dr. Alexis Mercado, LMFT. "I'm able to be more present in the room with my clients and forge a deeper connection, allowing us to talk about the big issues and create a plan forward together. I view Note Assist as a useful first draft, giving me a jumping off point and allowing me to remain in control of my practice."

"At Upheal, we're committed to helping therapists achieve a better work-life balance. Our team focuses on minimizing time spent on documentation while ensuring exceptional note quality and maintaining a privacy-first approach to AI. Our 20% month-over-month growth is a testament to the value we offer. We're thrilled that our partnership with Alma will broaden our positive impact to thousands more," said Upheal co-founder and CEO Juraj Chrappa.

All members have access to Alma's EHR built specifically for the needs of behavioral health providers, enabling them to seamlessly onboard new clients, manage their schedule, document care, create evidence-based Wiley treatment plans, track client progress over time with clinical assessments, and benefit from integrated insurance and billing tools.

Alma's clinician-first approach also leads to positive experiences for people using the platform to find mental health care, enabling them to feel supported over the course of their therapy journey:

Access to care: People seeking care can begin care with a provider in Alma's network within 3 days on average.
Engagement: Over 80% of clients have at least three sessions with their Alma provider.
Clinical Outcomes: Over 80% of clients who start therapy with symptoms of depression or anxiety see improvement over the course of their time in therapy.

Today, Alma's network has over 22,000 mental health providers that are licensed to practice in all 50 U.S. states. Almost 40% of providers in Alma's network self-identify as Black, Hispanic/Latine, or Asian, and 10% self-identify as LGBTQIA+, enabling them to provide culturally responsive care to diverse populations.

Alma's AI-generated progress notes offering, Note Assist, is currently available to a limited number of providers, and will be available for all providers in the network later this year. If you are a licensed provider interested in joining our beta program for Note Assist, please join our waitlist here.

About Alma
Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high-quality, affordable mental health care by giving providers the tools they need to build thriving in-network private practices. Alma's membership-based platform enables providers to manage insurance, billing, scheduling, client referrals, and continuing education, enabling them to focus on what matters most: delivering care to clients. Named one of Inc.'s Best Workplaces in 2022 and 2023, Alma's investors include Thoma Bravo, Insight Partners, Optum Ventures, Cigna Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Sound Ventures, BoxGroup, and Rainfall Ventures. Learn more at www.helloalma.com.

SOURCE Alma