For Psychologists & Behavioral Health · Chicago
Illinois just became the first state to ban AI-delivered therapy, while your notes, scheduling, and billing tools quietly run on AI. We build practices, and AI policies, that comply with the Wellness and Oversight Act, the Confidentiality Act, and HIPAA at the same time.
Counsel with fifteen years of legal experience, including in-house roles at multi-site healthcare organizations: MSO/PC structures, IDFPR-regulated professionals, real audits.
How we help
Bundle quoted in writing
PC or PLLC formation for solo and group practices, informed-consent and records policies built to the Confidentiality Act’s stricter-than-HIPAA standard, telehealth consent flows, and a 12-month compliance calendar sized for behavioral health.
Project
A written AI-use policy that maps every tool in your practice to the Act’s permitted categories, administrative and supplementary support only, plus client consent language for AI note-taking, documentation of professional review for AI-assisted drafts, and vendor terms that keep the AI on the right side of the therapeutic line.
Project
Employment and 1099 arrangements for associates and postdocs structured against misclassification risk, supervision documentation, and compensation splits that respect fee-splitting rules.
Retainer or project
The Confidentiality Act makes therapy records the most protected documents in Illinois civil practice. We handle subpoena responses, court-order analysis, parent-access questions for minor clients, and the disclosure decisions that carry license risk when improvised.
Retainer
Fractional counsel: HIPAA program maintenance tuned to psychotherapy-notes rules, WOPR compliance as your tool stack evolves, payor audits, and the monthly written report.
Common questions
Yes, with structure. The Wellness and Oversight Act permits AI for administrative and supplementary support, which includes documentation assistance, when a licensed professional remains responsible; it prohibits AI from delivering therapy, interacting therapeutically with clients, detecting emotions, or generating treatment plans without professional review. The compliant pattern: disclosed to the client with consent, professionally reviewed before finalization, and covered by a written practice policy.
The Act targets anyone providing, advertising, or offering therapy services in Illinois without a licensed professional; its enforcement aim includes AI products marketed as therapy. Publicly available self-help and educational materials that don’t purport to be therapy sit outside it. For your practice, the relevant duty is what YOU deploy and recommend: a tool you integrate into care is your compliance problem.
It is stricter, and it governs in addition to HIPAA. Therapy records and communications get heightened protection, disclosure generally requires specific written consent or a court order after statutory procedures, and improper disclosure carries its own liability. Practices that run on HIPAA-only policies are running below the Illinois standard.
Either can serve; the decision turns on tax elections, how clinicians will buy in, and whether you’ll mix license types in one entity, which raises its own rules about who may co-own a professional entity. We resolve those three questions first; the acronym follows.
These answers are general information, not legal advice; your facts control. Statutes cited should be verified as current.
45 minutes. Your structure, your gaps, and what we’d do first, with or without us. We’ll gladly sign your NDA.
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