Soteria Mental Health

Several years ago, Luthi decided to start her mental health practice, where two long-time friends and colleagues soon joined her. Her practice is flourishing, and she hopes to grow enough to add more therapists and serve more patients.

While many of Soteria’s patients are long-term, others may leave after their specific needs have been addressed. To keep her caseload full, Luthi regularly networks with other providers, like chiropractors, therapists, and medical providers. Luthi also networks with other therapists, primarily through Facebook groups, which helps her find referrals for new patients in need of her expertise. Outside of networking, Luthi generally relies on word of mouth and website traffic to drive in new potential clients. 

As Luthi finds new clients to engage with, the next step has always been communication.

When Luthi first started, she knew her practice needed a HIPAA compliant way to communicate with her patients. “Cost was obviously a consideration with just email and accessibility,” Luthi said, explaining how she chose to work with Google’s email. Soon, however, Luthi realized that most email platforms don’t automatically offer encryption.

She realized she could use Google internally, so long as she signed a business associate agreement, but it wasn’t considered secure enough for emailing individuals outside of Soteria. “We need something because I need to be able to communicate with clients and want to make sure it is HIPAA compliant,” she explained. While talking on the phone was an option, Luthi knew it would be time-consuming to only communicate over calls. Texts, similarly, couldn’t guarantee HIPAA compliance.  

The solution

As Luthi explored her options, she learned about HIPAA compliant email platforms. “There are some other ones out there that aren’t seamless, and I think that’s a big reason why Paubox stands out,” Luthi said. Some of her colleagues, for example, use Hushmail, which requires email recipients to open a new browser for security. Luthi felt an option like that could make clients wary of opening emails. “If I was a client,” Luthi explained, “I don’t know that I would ever open emails from my therapist.” Luthi felt this extra friction, especially for less tech-savvy patients, could be a deterrent to receiving care.  

Luthi learned about Paubox through colleagues, and one ultimately offered her a referral code. She explored several other platforms, including Hushmail and HippoMail, but said the biggest factor was cost and convenience. After only hearing good things, Luthi decided to take the plunge and try Paubox’s HIPAA compliant email solution. With a referral, the cost made it a no-brainer for her new practice.  

The results

With Paubox, Luthi now feels confident in sending secure, HIPAA compliant emails that are easy to open. Approximately 90% of her practice’s emails go to patients, generally to catch up in between sessions, schedule meetings, and prepare for new clients. The other 10% of emails go to others at the practice, different providers, or other individuals in the network. 

Now that she’s used Paubox for a while, Luthi enjoys referring others to check it out for themselves. “I think people are typically blown away by the fact that our overhead costs are really low and all of our emails are encrypted. It’s all very seamless and very streamlined,” she said. As soon as other therapists learn how easy it is for Luthi’s team to communicate with clients, they want to know more. She appreciates the note at the bottom of every email, reminding recipients that their email is secure.  

Luthi says that one of the biggest drivers for therapists is that Paubox is low-risk. With a referral, the price is low, allowing practices to try it for themselves. After that, most practices are satisfied with the sender and recipient experience. 

She’s happy to regularly communicate with clients via email whenever she needs to include protected health information. With such a seamless service and a great referral program, Luthi has continued to suggest Paubox to practices looking for a secure and straightforward way to communicate with clients.