AI Receptionist for Medical Practices: A Practice Manager's Guide

By ClinicFlow Team

An AI receptionist for a medical practice answers your patient calls and finishes them: it books, reschedules and cancels appointments in your EHR using your scheduling rules, answers routine questions, sends urgent calls to the provider on call with a summary, and tells anyone with an emergency to hang up and call 911. You can run it 24/7 or only on nights and weekends, and you decide which calls it takes and which stay with your staff.

For a practice manager, the real questions are scope, cost and rollout. Here's how to work through each one.

1. Decide which calls the AI takes

Start from your phone data, not the vendor's feature list. Sort a typical week of calls into groups:

• After-hours calls: these go to voicemail or an answering service today, so they're the easiest place to start. Patients can book at any hour instead of waiting for a callback.
• Simple scheduling: new-patient bookings, follow-ups, reschedules, cancellations.
• Routine questions: hours, directions, insurance accepted, what to bring.
• Calls you'll keep with staff: some practices keep workers' comp, billing disputes or particular providers' patients with a person.

ClinicFlow works beside your front desk or call center. You choose which calls go to the AI, and that choice also caps your monthly spend.

2. Make sure it books the way your practice books

Generic scheduling bots fail in medical practices because the rules are specific: visit types and lengths, which provider sees which complaint, new-patient slots, payer restrictions. Ask how the receptionist learns your rules and who updates them when a provider joins or a site changes.

ClinicFlow is set up around your practice's scheduling rules, providers, procedures and payers, and adjusted on an ongoing basis as they change. It books directly in your EHR. We integrate with Epic, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, ModMed, AdvancedMD and other EHRs through HL7.

For specialty groups, it can also screen new patients against each surgeon's criteria, for example physical therapy or injections done first, so surgical candidates get the surgeon's appointments and others are booked with the linked APP.

3. Check what happens on urgent and emergency calls

This is where a medical practice's phone line differs from any other business. Ask every vendor to walk through a 2 a.m. post-op call.

• Emergencies: ClinicFlow never transfers an emergency call. It tells the caller, "This sounds like an emergency. Please hang up and call 911 now," and ends the call.
• Urgent calls: they reach the provider on call by text or call, with a summary of the conversation.
• Everything else: documented for the morning team.

4. Price it on a normal month

Ask for the total for a normal month at your call volume. ClinicFlow's pricing is published: $100 per provider per month for 24/7 coverage, or $50 per provider per month for nights and weekends only, plus $0.20 per minute on both plans. Per-provider fees count only the providers we schedule for, usually physicians, PAs and NPs. See the pricing page for details.

5. Roll it out in stages

Don't switch every call over on one day. Start with a small share of calls, review them with your team, and grow the share as you're satisfied. Nights and weekends first is the lowest-risk path for most practices.

Related reading

• AI receptionist for doctors: what it does and how to choose one
• What is an AI front desk?
• AI answering service vs. AI receptionist

Want to see it on your own call types? Book a demo and we'll walk through a booking in your EHR and an after-hours urgent call, start to finish.

FAQ

What does an AI receptionist do for a medical practice? It answers the practice's patient calls and completes them: it books, reschedules and cancels appointments in the practice's EHR using the practice's scheduling rules, answers routine questions, sends urgent calls to the provider on call with a summary, and tells callers with an emergency to hang up and call 911. It can cover the phones 24/7 or only nights and weekends.

Which calls should a medical practice give to an AI receptionist first? Most practices start with after-hours calls, because those go to voicemail or an answering service today, and with simple scheduling calls. The practice chooses which calls the AI takes and can keep others, such as workers' comp, with staff. That choice also caps the monthly spend.

How much does an AI receptionist for a medical practice cost? ClinicFlow costs $100 per provider per month for 24/7 coverage, or $50 per provider per month for nights and weekends only, plus $0.20 per minute on both plans. Per-provider fees count only the providers ClinicFlow schedules for, usually physicians, PAs and NPs.

Which EHRs does ClinicFlow work with? ClinicFlow integrates with Epic, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, ModMed, AdvancedMD and other EHRs through HL7.