HIPAA-compliant AI clinic answering service for US practices

Medical answering service features that book, verify and fill visits

Clinic Answering Service has everything a serious medical answering service needs, plus the EHR write-back, live eligibility and waitlist AI that turn answered calls into booked, covered visits for US clinics.

In short: Clinic Answering Service is a medical answering service that books instead of taking messages: it books real appointments (EHR write-back is sandbox today, OpenEMR first), runs an X12 270/271 eligibility check during the call (sandbox until a clearinghouse is contracted), fills cancellations from your waitlist, warm-transfers with a whisper summary and reports recovered revenue in dollars. Every plan includes 24/7 answering, English and Spanish and a signed BAA.

Only in Clinic Answering Service

Standout 1

Live insurance check during the call

Clinic Answering Service runs an X12 270/271 eligibility request while it is still talking to the patient and reads back the status, copay and preventive benefits the payer returns before booking the slot. Today the eligibility connection is a sandbox: results are labelled test data until a clearinghouse is contracted for your account.

Why it wins: Fewer surprise bills and fewer no-shows over coverage. The assistant reads back only what the payer's 271 response states, says the plan "shows as active" rather than promising coverage, never guarantees payment, and sends errors, timeouts and inactive results to your front desk for a manual check.

  • Standard 270 request, 271 response, saved with a timestamp to the visit
  • Reads back only payer-returned fields, in plain words; never a guarantee of payment
  • Errors, timeouts and inactive plans become front-desk tasks; re-check if the visit is more than 30 days out

A 270 asks the payer: is this patient covered for this service on this date? The 271 answers with status, copay and limits, usually in seconds.

Real-time eligibility (270/271) explained

Standout 2

OpenEMR write-back (sandbox today, first in line)

The OpenEMR adapter is designed to write appointments, intake answers and call summaries straight into OpenEMR. Today it runs as a sandbox (demo) that returns test references; athenahealth, eClinicalWorks and Open Dental adapters are planned after it. The REST API and CSV export are the live path today.

Why it wins: Thousands of US clinics run OpenEMR and are rarely offered an answering service that writes to their schedule. The Radiatus EMR base is the planned pilot market.

  • Designed to read real slots from the real schedule, not a copy
  • Summary and recording link attached to the patient record
  • Patient matched by name, DOB and phone before anything is written

Status today: Sandbox (demo). Planned setup: register an API client, map facilities and appointment categories, test, then forward calls.

OpenEMR integration status · OpenEMR phone automation guide

Standout 3

Cancellation to AI waitlist fill

When someone cancels, Clinic Answering Service calls and texts the waitlist in priority order until the slot is filled, then writes the new booking to the schedule and tells the front desk.

Why it wins: Empty chairs become revenue the same day. Text-only waitlists wait for someone to reply; a phone call usually gets an answer while the slot is still worth filling.

  • Priority order you control: urgency, patient type, provider
  • Stops the moment a patient accepts
  • Each fill shows up in the revenue ledger with its dollar value

Waitlist fill is part of the Group plan ($699/month, up to 10 locations, 3,000 pooled minutes).

Compare clinic answering service plans

Standout 4

Revenue ledger

Each answered call is tied to the visit it booked and that visit's fee from your fee schedule. A weekly report shows recovered dollars, not call counts.

Why it wins: Owners see ROI in dollars, which makes the renewal decision easy. Phone analytics count calls; few tie them to the fee schedule.

  • Visit fee pulled from your own fee schedule
  • Weekly email to the owner and office manager
  • Separate lines for new patients, reschedules saved and waitlist fills

Estimate it before you start: missed calls per day × share that would book × visit value × 22 working days.

Missed-call ROI calculator

Standout 5

Warm transfer with a whisper summary

When a human is needed, your staff hear a ten-second private summary ("Maria, existing patient, tooth pain since Monday") before the call connects.

Why it wins: Staff never ask "how can I help?" twice. Callers feel looked after instead of handed around, day or night.

  • Whisper plays only to staff, never to the patient
  • Routes to front desk, on-call provider or billing
  • Transcript already open on screen when they pick up

At night the same transfer goes to your on-call provider, with an SMS backup if nobody answers.

After-hours answering service for clinics

Everything a serious medical answering service needs

The baseline, done properly. Every plan includes these.

24/7 AI call answering

Your practice greeting, your hours, your voice. Every call picked up on the first ring, nights and weekends included.

Booking, rescheduling, cancelling

Offers two real slots, confirms, moves or cancels appointments by voice and texts the result.

Call pop

Caller's record and next visit appear on staff screens the moment a known number rings.

Missed-call text-back

If a call ever drops, the patient receives a text with a booking link within seconds.

New-patient intake by SMS

Intake link sent during the call; answers land in the chart before the visit.

Routing, on-call and voicemail

Rules by time, caller type and keyword; on-call escalation for urgent calls; voicemail only if you want it.

Recordings, transcripts, summaries

Every call recorded and transcribed, with a three-line summary attached to the patient record.

English and Spanish

Language detected in the first sentence; texts and intake links follow in the same language.

HIPAA: BAA, encryption, audit logs

Signed BAA on every plan, AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit, role-based PHI access and a PHI access log kept six years, exportable as CSV.

Call analytics

Volume, answered, outcomes and sources by hour, day and location.

Per-location numbers and hours

Each location gets its own number, greeting, hours and schedule.

Number porting and softphone

Port your existing number or forward it; staff take transfers on a browser softphone or any desk phone.

Frequently asked questions

Can staff join a live call that Clinic Answering Service is handling?

Yes. From the live call card, press Join call. You hear the whisper summary first, then the patient; Clinic Answering Service steps back and keeps transcribing so the summary and record note are still written.

Which EHRs can Clinic Answering Service write appointments into?

As of October 2026, none in production. OpenEMR, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Open Dental and Google Calendar run as a sandbox (demo) with test references; OpenEMR is the first production adapter planned. Dentrix is planned per practice. What is live is the REST API and CSV export, which any system can use to receive bookings.

Does Clinic Answering Service work after hours and on weekends?

Yes. Clinic Answering Service answers 24/7, including nights, weekends and holidays. After hours it can still book into open slots, escalate urgent calls to your on-call provider with a whisper summary and text a callback time for anything that can wait.

Can it handle Spanish-speaking patients?

Yes. Clinic Answering Service detects English or Spanish in the first sentence and runs the whole call, the confirmation text and the intake link in that language. Bilingual handling is included on every plan, with no per-call add-on.

Never send a patient to voicemail again.

Ask for a demo and a person replies within one US business day. BAA signed before the first patient call. No long-term contract.

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