In local mode — the default — Hey Eduardo runs entirely on your Mac. PHI is processed on your own hardware and never sent to us or to any AI company, so there is no vendor receiving client data and no BAA to sign with us.
Select the letter, press ⌥⇧A and ask. Eduardo lists the deadlines and explains what happens if you don't respond, on your Mac, in local mode.
Here's a denial letter from an insurance plan. Let's ask Hey Eduardo what it means.
Select the text, press Option-Shift-A, and type a question.
It reads the letter right on your Mac. In local mode, nothing is sent anywhere.
Both deadlines, in plain English.
Follow-up questions remember the letter.
Including what happens if you stay silent: the denial becomes final, and $540 comes out of future payments.
So why not paste it into ChatGPT or Claude? This letter has a client's name, member ID and dates of service. That's protected health information.
ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro don't come with a business associate agreement. In local mode, Hey Eduardo reads it on your Mac, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Hey Eduardo. heyeduardo.app
Consumer AI chat tools like ChatGPT, Claude.ai, and Gemini don't sign Business Associate Agreements. Pasting PHI into them discloses it to a vendor with no BAA in place — exactly the kind of disclosure HIPAA restricts.
Pasting session notes, intake forms, or any patient-identifying information into a consumer AI tool discloses it to a third party without a BAA.
Even enterprise AI tools require careful BAA negotiation, contract review, and ongoing vendor oversight. Most solo and small-group practices don't have time or legal support for this.
HHS OCR proposed the first major HIPAA Security Rule update in 20 years (January 2025), citing the rise of AI tools and ransomware. New standards favor data-minimization architectures.
Hey Eduardo runs the AI model on your Mac. In local mode, when you paste in a session note, ask about a treatment approach, or draft a referral letter, the PHI is processed by your own hardware. It is not sent to any server. It is not stored by any vendor. It is not used to train any model.
That keeps the disclosure question simple: no third party receives PHI, so there is no business associate and no BAA to sign with us. The PHI still lives on your Mac, though, which makes the Mac part of your HIPAA safeguards. The setup below takes about five minutes.
Local mode keeps PHI off other companies' servers. These three settings protect what stays on your Mac.
Local is the default. In Settings → Cloud, check that Run summaries is set to On this Mac, and look for the grey Local badge on the panel. Never use cloud mode for client material; switching to it asks you first and names what changes.
Eduardo keeps your last 25 results, with part of the text you captured, so you can reopen them. For clinical work, switch off Keep my last 25 results in Settings → Reading → Recent, and clear anything already saved.
Client information that stays on your Mac is only as protected as the Mac. FileVault, Apple's built-in disk encryption, is in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Use a login password and screen lock too, and if you back up with Time Machine, encrypt the backup disk.
Psychologist? See Hey Eduardo for psychologists.
Type or paste raw session notes. Ask Eduardo to format them into SOAP, DAP, or your preferred structure. Review and edit before saving.
Work through diagnostic considerations, evidence-based interventions, and treatment plan formats without sending case material to a third party.
Paste in journal articles, CE course materials, or DSM-5 sections and ask for plain-language summaries. Stay current without overwhelming your reading list.
No software is HIPAA compliant on its own. Compliance depends on how your practice handles PHI. What Hey Eduardo changes is the disclosure question: in local mode, PHI is processed on your Mac and never sent to us or to anyone else. You are still responsible for securing the Mac itself, which is what the setup checklist on this page covers.
Not with us. A BAA is needed when a vendor receives PHI on your behalf, and in local mode we never receive it. Cloud mode is different: it sends the text you capture to the AI provider you chose, so keep cloud mode off for anything involving PHI.
Yes, in local mode. Paste in session notes or intake material and ask Eduardo to summarize, restructure, or explain it; the text is processed on your Mac. Review everything before it goes into the record. You keep full responsibility for clinical judgment, and Eduardo is a drafting and comprehension aid, not a clinical decision-making tool.
Cloud mode is opt-in: you add your own Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter API key, and the text you capture is sent to that provider under your account. It is meant for general research with no client data, so do not use it with client material. The panel shows a Local or Cloud badge at all times, so you always know which one is on.
By default it keeps your last 25 results, including up to 4,000 characters of the text each one came from, so you can reopen them later. That history is stored on your Mac only and never uploaded, and follow-up conversations are not saved to it. For clinical work, switch it off and clear it in Settings → Reading → Recent.
Not directly. Eduardo reads text you highlight in any application. Copy a note from your EHR, highlight it or paste it into Eduardo, and ask. The EHR data stays in the EHR, and in local mode the conversation stays on your Mac.
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