Mend
Mend Engage · Appointment reminders

HIPAA-compliant appointment reminders
that do more than remind.

Text and email reminders for mental health and substance use clinics — consent-aware, minimum-necessary, 42 CFR Part 2-safe — that confirm the visit, collect intake and screeners, and hand a cancellation to the waitlist before it costs you the hour. No app. No portal login.

See it in a demo All of Engage →
The rules, plainly

Compliant reminders are about what the message says — and who agreed to get it.

Four rules govern a behavioral health reminder. Mend applies all four by default so your team does not have to remember them at 4:55 on a Friday.

HIPAA: reminders are treatment communications

Permitted without a separate authorization. The minimum-necessary rule still applies: when and where, not why. Mend's default templates carry no diagnosis, no medication and no provider specialty, and every customer is covered by a business associate agreement.

Confidential communications

A patient can ask to be reached at a different number, by a different channel, or not at all. Mend stores that preference on the patient and honors it across reminders, outreach and screeners.

TCPA: consent and opt-out

Automated texts to a mobile number need prior express consent, captured at intake, and every message must honor STOP. Mend records consent, includes opt-out language, and stops texting the moment a patient asks — across every product.

42 CFR Part 2: don't reveal the program

A reminder from a substance use program must not identify it as one. Mend lets Part 2 programs set sender names and templates that pass this test and applies them automatically to those programs' appointments.

What happens after the reminder

A reminder is step one. The patient in the room is the point.

  1. 01

    Booked

    The appointment lands in your EHR. Mend sees it through the bi-directional sync — nothing to re-key.

  2. 02

    Reminded

    Text and email, timed to your rules (7 days, 48 hours, morning-of), in the patient's language, minimum-necessary content.

  3. 03

    Confirmed or not

    A tap confirms. A reply reschedules. Silence is a signal — Coordinate scores the risk and follows up.

  4. 04

    Prepared

    Intake, consent, insurance and screeners (PHQ-9, GAD-7) completed before the visit, from the same thread.

  5. 05

    Filled

    A cancellation goes to the waitlist in minutes. The slot is someone else's appointment before it goes cold.

Steps 1–4 are Mend Engage. Step 5 is Mend Access. The follow-up when a patient goes quiet is Mend Coordinate. How the pieces fit →

7.4%
Average no-show rate across Mend customers, down from 20%+
63%
Average reduction in no-shows
80%+
Patient adoption — no app, no login, any language
40M+
Patient appointments run through Mend
Questions compliance teams ask

Straight answers.

What privacy officers and front-desk leads ask before turning on automated reminders.

Are text message appointment reminders HIPAA compliant?

Yes, when done correctly. HIPAA treats appointment reminders as part of treatment communications, so a covered entity may send them without a separate authorization. What matters is the content and the controls: the minimum-necessary rule means a reminder should say when and where, not why; the patient's right to request confidential communications means they can ask you to use a different number or channel; and the sending platform must be covered by a business associate agreement with appropriate safeguards. Mend signs a BAA with every customer and keeps reminder content to the minimum necessary by default.

Do patients have to consent to automated text reminders?

For automated texts to a mobile number, yes. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires prior express consent, which most clinics capture at intake alongside the phone number, and every message must honor an opt-out. Mend records consent, sends the required opt-out language, and stops texting a number the moment a patient replies STOP — across every Mend product, not just reminders.

What about 42 CFR Part 2 for substance use programs?

Part 2 protects the fact that a person is a patient of a substance use disorder program. A reminder from such a program must not identify the program as SUD treatment — no program name that gives it away, no diagnosis, no medication. Mend lets Part 2 programs set reminder templates and sender names that meet this standard, and applies them automatically to those programs' appointments.

How is Mend different from a standalone reminder tool?

A reminder tool sends a message and stops. Mend Engage confirms the appointment, collects intake, consent and screeners before the visit, and when a patient cancels, Mend Access offers the slot to the waitlist. When a patient does not respond, Mend Coordinate predicts whether they will show and reaches out again — or hands the case to your staff. Reminders are the first step of a system that gets the patient into the room, not the whole product.

Do reminders work for patients without a smartphone or a portal login?

Yes. Mend works over plain text messages and email, with no app to download and no portal account to activate, in the patient's preferred language. That is why patient adoption with Mend runs above 80% where behavioral health portal adoption sits below 20%.

What results do behavioral health organizations see?

Across Mend customers the average no-show rate is 7.4%, down from the 20%+ rates typical of behavioral health organizations before Mend — a 63% reduction. Reminders alone do not get you there; confirmations, waitlist fill and prediction do the rest.

See reminders, confirmations and waitlist fill on your schedule.

Schedule a Demo Everything in Engage →

BAA with every customer · consent and opt-out recorded · Part 2-safe templates