Your 24/7 medical answering service books follow-ups without interrupting check-in.

Google Calendar or Outlook per provider, so a sick visit lands on the right calendar during the call, and Calendly if your new-patient booking runs through it. HubSpot holds new-patient leads from the website chat. Zapier and signed webhooks carry the booking and the desk messages into whatever your practice management vendor accepts, and text confirmations to the patient sit on Pro. She does not write into the chart.

Penny starts at $29 a month on Starter with annual billing. Pro at $99 adds the on-call schedule, warm transfer by rotation, and text confirmations. Business at $249 adds the compliance controls a practice asks about first: PHI-minimized transcripts, the redaction switch, retention you set, and a BAA on request. The answering service cost guide compares plans, included minutes, and usage charges. Usage above your included minutes is billed at your plan’s per-minute rate.

Yes. She asks for the full name and the date of birth before she books or says anything about an existing appointment, the same two identifiers your desk requires. A caller who cannot give both gets a message taken and nothing confirmed. A family member calling for a patient is handled under the contact rules you set; by default she books the visit and discloses nothing about prior visits.

It goes to the desk as a message with the medication as the caller named it and the pharmacy, marked routine, with the turnaround your office states. She does not put a refill on the schedule, does not say whether the provider will approve it, and flags a controlled-substance request for the provider without commenting on it. If the caller also needs a visit, she books the visit separately.

No, on any plan and under any setting. A results question becomes a message for the provider with the patient’s two identifiers and callback number. If your portal releases results, she can say so and offer the portal, and the desk or the nurse makes the call back.

Yes, when each provider has a calendar connected. She asks which provider the patient saw last and offers that calendar first; if it has no slot in the window the caller needs, she offers the provider you have marked for overflow and notes the switch on the appointment. New patients go to whoever you have marked as accepting them.

On the Business plan, yes, on request. That plan carries the controls the agreement assumes: PHI-minimized transcripts, the redaction switch that keeps the date of birth and the visit reason out of email summaries, and a retention period you set with deletion after it. Your practice’s recording notice sits in the greeting where recording consent is required. The security page lists the rest.

That the provider on call answers that, and then she connects them. During business hours the transfer goes to your nurse line. She never says a symptom can wait, never suggests a remedy, and never names a medication or a dose, on any plan and on any call.

She stops scheduling and follows your clinician-approved protocol, including directing the caller to 911 when required. Questions about whether a symptom can wait go to your nurse line or on-call provider. Your clinical lead reviews the wording and fallback route before use. Penny records the outcome and gives no medical advice. The dedicated Emergency Rules page covers the setup in detail.