AI receptionist for behavioral health and therapy practices
A first call to a therapy practice takes courage. Clinic Answering Service answers warmly and privately, asks only what intake needs, matches the caller to a clinician who takes their insurance, books the session and routes anyone in crisis to a human or the 988 Lifeline immediately.
Built for OpenEMR, athenahealth, Google Calendar practices · integration status (sandbox today, REST API live)
Sample call · sample data, not a real patient or payer response
Caller I have been feeling really anxious for months and I think I need to talk to someone.
Clinic Answering Service Thank you for calling, and I am glad you reached out. I can help you find a first appointment. Would you prefer in person or video, and do you have a preference for your therapist? I can also check your insurance.
Caller Video, and I have United Healthcare.
Clinic Answering Service Your United plan shows outpatient therapy benefits with a $30 copay listed; the office confirms final costs. Dr. Alvarez has a video opening Thursday at 5:00 PM. Shall I book it? I will text a private intake link, and you can call back anytime to reach a person.
Sample data. Eligibility and EHR steps shown run in sandbox (demo) mode today.
New clients who reach voicemail rarely call back
Intake calls take 20 minutes of a clinician's time
Confidentiality rules make a general answering service risky
What the behavioral health pack does on every call
- Confidential intake: concern, preferred clinician gender, telehealth or in-person, insurance, availability
- Match to clinicians with openings who are credentialed with the caller's plan
- Crisis words trigger an immediate warm transfer to a clinician, or the 988 Lifeline after hours
- Eligibility (270/271) for outpatient mental health, with copay and out-of-network status
- Book, move and cancel telehealth and in-person sessions in your EHR
- Voicemail preferences honored: Clinic Answering Service never leaves a message that reveals the practice unless the client has consented
What is live today, and where a person stays in charge
- EHR write-back: sandbox (demo) for OpenEMR, athenahealth, Google Calendar. Bookings land in the built-in Clinic Answering Service schedule and reach your system by REST API or CSV export until a production adapter is released. Status per system.
- Insurance eligibility (270/271): sandbox until a clearinghouse is contracted for your account; sandbox results are test data and are labelled as such in the app. Once live, the assistant reads back only what the payer's 271 response states, says "the plan shows as active" rather than "you are covered", never quotes a price or guarantees payment, and flags errors, timeouts or inactive results to your front desk for a manual check.
- Clinical safety: the assistant books, routes and escalates. It never gives medical advice, triages symptoms or approves refills; urgent words you define go to a person on your on-call list, emergencies are told to call 911, and crisis calls go to a clinician or the 988 Lifeline. Your staff review escalations, new-patient records and flagged eligibility results.
Intake and booking examples
Each call type has its own short intake. Answers are written to the patient record, not to a message pad.
New client
Main concern in their words, preferred format and clinician, insurance, availability, how they heard about you
Crisis screen
Safety words trigger human transfer or 988 routing; nothing else is asked
Returning client
Identity confirmed, clinician, reschedule or cancel, confidentiality preferences for texts and voicemail
Systems for this specialty: OpenEMRathenahealthGoogle Calendar See how each integration works →
Read next: HIPAA-compliant AI receptionist checklist · After-hours answering service for clinics · AI vs human medical answering services
ROI for behavioral health practices
What do missed calls cost you?
Defaults are typical for behavioral health practices. Change them to your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How does Clinic Answering Service handle a caller in crisis?
Crisis words and phrases you approve trigger an immediate warm transfer to a clinician on your on-call list. If nobody answers within your time limit, Clinic Answering Service connects the caller to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and alerts your team by text.
Is Clinic Answering Service appropriate for confidential behavioral health intake?
Yes. It operates under a BAA, asks only what intake requires, and never leaves identifying voicemails without consent. Substance use programs covered by 42 CFR Part 2 should talk to us first: dedicated Part 2 handling is planned, not built.
Can it match new clients to the right therapist?
Yes. You load each clinician's specialties, formats, accepted plans and openings. Clinic Answering Service offers the best matches with real slots and writes the booking and intake notes to the clinician's schedule.
Does it check mental health benefits?
It is built to. A 270/271 check for outpatient mental health returns active status, copay or coinsurance and sometimes the network status. Out-of-network callers are told your self-pay rate and superbill policy. Today the eligibility connection is a sandbox: results are test data until a clearinghouse is contracted for your account, and the assistant never promises coverage beyond what the 271 response says.
Can clients ask for a person?
Always. Saying "person", "staff" or "someone real" transfers immediately with a whisper summary. Clinic Answering Service introduces itself as the practice's virtual assistant at the start of every call.
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.