You'd think but they basically just slapped little "oh we aren't actually healthcare" snippets in their licenses and are hoping that's enough to get them out of actually being required to comply with HIPAA despite them very clearly needing to.

So yeah it should apply but they are just claiming they aren't a mental healthcare service to avoid it despite them being a literal mental health crisis hotline.

It probably won't hold up but it might be enough to lessen penalties since they can feign ignorance.