AI receptionist for physical therapy clinics
Therapists are on the floor, not at the desk. Clinic Answering Service books evaluations, captures the referral and injury details, checks remaining PT visits on the eligibility response and keeps plan-of-care patients on the schedule.
Built for OpenEMR, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Google Calendar practices · integration status (sandbox today, REST API live)
Sample call · sample data, not a real patient or payer response
Caller My orthopedic surgeon sent me for PT after my knee surgery. I need to start next week.
Clinic Answering Service Glad to help. Who was the referring surgeon, and what was the surgery date? Thank you. Your Aetna plan shows 30 PT visits with a $40 copay. Our first evaluation slots are Monday 8:00 or Tuesday 4:30.
Caller Monday 8:00.
Clinic Answering Service Booked Monday at 8:00 with Sarah, PT. I have texted your intake form and a reminder to bring the referral. We will set up the rest of your schedule at the evaluation.
Sample data. Eligibility and EHR steps shown run in sandbox (demo) mode today.
Evaluation calls go to voicemail while the therapist is with a patient
Referral and injury details are collected twice, on the phone and at the desk
Patients drop out mid plan-of-care because rebooking is a hassle
What the physical therapy pack does on every call
- Book evaluations and follow-ups into real slots by therapist and location
- Capture referring physician, diagnosis, injury date and surgery date for the eval
- Eligibility (270/271) with PT visit limits and copay read back before booking
- Rebook the whole plan of care (2x a week for 6 weeks) in one call
- Reminder and reschedule calls to reduce missed sessions
- Workers comp and auto claims flagged for front-desk authorization
What is live today, and where a person stays in charge
- EHR write-back: sandbox (demo) for OpenEMR, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, 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.
Evaluation
Referring physician, diagnosis, injury or surgery date, body part, pain level, insurance
Plan of care
Frequency and duration from the eval, preferred days and times, therapist
Workers comp / auto
Claim number, adjuster, employer or insurer, date of injury; flagged for authorization
Systems for this specialty: OpenEMRathenahealtheClinicalWorksGoogle Calendar See how each integration works →
Read next: Real-time eligibility (270/271) explained · After-hours answering service for clinics · AI vs human medical answering services
ROI for physical therapy clinics
What do missed calls cost you?
Defaults are typical for physical therapy clinics. Change them to your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Can Clinic Answering Service read PT visit limits from the eligibility check?
Where the payer includes them. Many 271 responses for physical therapy list visit limits and visits used; Clinic Answering Service reads back only what the payer returns and flags when a plan requires authorization. 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 it book a whole plan of care at once?
Yes. After the evaluation, Clinic Answering Service can call the patient and book the full series, for example twice a week for six weeks with the same therapist, choosing consistent times and texting the list.
Does it collect the referral?
It captures the referring physician, diagnosis and dates on the call, writes them to the patient record and texts a link so the patient can photograph the paper referral before the visit.
How does it handle workers comp and auto claims?
It collects the claim number, adjuster and date of injury, books the evaluation and flags the appointment for front-desk authorization, so nobody is seen without the claim being confirmed.
Which PT EHRs do you support?
No PT EHR write-back is live yet. OpenEMR is the first adapter planned (sandbox today), and systems with a FHIR R4 or HL7 SIU interface can be scoped. Clinics on WebPT or Prompt use the built-in schedule with API or CSV export today.
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.