Question 1

What is a physician answering service?

Accepted Answer

A physician answering service answers a doctor's office phone when the front desk cannot: after hours, at lunch, or when every line is busy. Traditional services take a message and page the on-call doctor. Clinivocx's AI answers the call, books or reschedules the appointment, answers routine questions from your knowledge base, and escalates urgent symptoms to your on-call protocol immediately.

Question 2

How does on-call escalation work?

Accepted Answer

You define the rules and the AI applies them on every call. Named red flags, including chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke signs, severe bleeding, and suicidal ideation, trigger your escalation protocol the moment they are spoken: true emergencies are directed to 911, and urgent-but-not-911 calls are warm-transferred to your on-call physician or answering chain. The AI never judges how serious a symptom is; it follows the rules you set.

Question 3

Is it HIPAA compliant?

Accepted Answer

A vendor that answers patient calls is a business associate, so Clinivocx signs a BAA with every practice and runs mandatory MFA, PHI masking, and audit logging of PHI access. Clinivocx is not SOC 2 certified; the controls are documented rather than audited.

Question 4

Can it actually book appointments, or just take messages?

Accepted Answer

It books. Clinivocx checks availability, books, reschedules, and cancels during the call, then reads the details back to the patient. Appointments live in the Clinivocx schedule and are pushed to your systems through HMAC-signed webhooks rather than written into your EHR, which is why go-live is measured in days.

Question 5

What does a physician answering service cost?

Accepted Answer

Clinivocx publishes flat pricing by practice size: $799 per month for 1 provider, $1,999 for 2-3 providers, and $4,999 for 4 or more, with no per-minute or per-call meter. Every tier includes 24/7 answering, booking, urgent escalation, six languages, and a signed BAA.

The call	What Clinivocx does
New patient wants an appointment	Checks availability and books during the call
Reschedule or cancellation	Rebooks on the call; frees the slot for the waitlist
“Do you take my insurance?”	Answers from your accepted-plan list; flags unknowns for staff
Chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke signs	Named red flags: directs to 911 and triggers your escalation protocol
After-hours symptom call	Escalates by your rules; warm-transfers to the on-call physician
Refill request	Captures the request and routes an action item; never approves anything
Lab or test result question	Routes to your clinical staff; the AI never reads or interprets results
Referral or records request	Captures who needs what and where it goes, then routes it
Billing question	Takes the details and routes them to whoever handles billing
Appointment confirmation	Confirms, or reschedules if the time no longer works

Physician answering service, without the pager relay

The ten calls a doctors' office gets, handled

On-call nights get quieter

Urgent calls reach one faster

Every call is documented

Physician answering questions

Hear it answer a physician practice