AI receptionists for medical practices, and where they must stop
The design question comes before the vendor question. A medical practice deploying any of these has to decide what the assistant is allowed to discuss, and the right answer is scheduling and general inquiries, with anything clinical routed to a person. That boundary is yours to set and every product here will respect it.
We rank first on that boundary being enforceable at the entry price. Clinical questions route out by rule, scheduling and general inquiries carry on, and the assistant announces itself at call start. Booking is on the $49 plan where Rosie gates it to $149.
Smith.ai keeps a human team behind the assistant, which is the difference between a handoff that lands and one that becomes a message. At $150 a month for Pro that is priced above the SMB options here. We employ nobody, so our handoff reaches your front desk or a voicemail.
If you are licensed in Utah, the disclosure requirement is a product specification. State-licensed occupations must disclose prominently and verbally at the start, so ask each vendor whether their assistant can announce itself at call start in your wording.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on the boundary a practice has to draw and on ordinary scheduling, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether clinical calls can be routed out of the assistant by rule, immediately.
- Whether the assistant can speak an AI disclosure at the start.
- What each vendor claims about HIPAA and whether that claim can be true.
- Booking at the entry tier, plus price and overage.
What we could not test
- How reliably each recognizes a clinical question as clinical, which is the safety-relevant behavior and which nobody publishes data on.
- Any vendor's real data posture, which needs their subprocessor list rather than their marketing.
- Practice-management integration depth, thin across this category.
The shortlist at a glance
Billing unit first, because it decides more of the final bill than the headline price does.
| Charges by | Entry plan | After the allowance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreetKeeper | per answered call | $49/mo for 200 answered calls | $0.45 a call on Starter, published |
| Smith.ai | per call | Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
| Abby Connect | per minute (half-rate AI) | Starter $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes | Not published; one Abby Minute buys two minutes of AI handling |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Scheduling at $49 with a verbal AI disclosure available, and a hard limit on what it discusses.
Worth it for: A practice wanting appointments and general inquiries handled while the front desk is with patients, with clinical calls routed straight out and the assistant announcing itself for the Utah rule.
Not for: Any practice needing a business associate agreement, which we do not offer. We make no HIPAA claim, carry no certifications, publish no uptime figure, answer in English only, and have no customers or reviews.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Smith.ai
The human team is what makes a clinical handoff land somewhere.
Worth it for: A practice whose worst call is an anxious patient outside hours, where a trained person catching it changes the outcome.
Not for: Small practices at $150 a month, and anyone expecting their legal-vertical depth to translate to clinical software.
Charges per call. Entry plan Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. After the allowance: Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises.
Ruby
People answering, which matters when a patient is frightened.
Worth it for: A specialist practice with low call volume where the emotional register of the first contact is part of the care.
Not for: General-practice volume, at $250 for 50 minutes with no published overage rate.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
Abby Connect
Human and AI in one plan, so the mix can shift without a migration.
Worth it for: A practice wanting people on the main line and software on overflow, under a single allowance.
Not for: Tight budgets at $165 entry, with no published overage rate.
Charges per minute (half-rate AI). Entry plan Starter $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes. After the allowance: Not published; one Abby Minute buys two minutes of AI handling.
Rosie
Cheap coverage with booking behind the second tier.
Worth it for: A practice wanting out-of-hours calls captured accurately, with its own urgent-care instruction played first.
Not for: Filling the appointment book from the entry plan, since booking starts at $149.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
The boundary to set before you buy anything
Decide what a caller describing symptoms hears, and make it identical at every hour. Usually that is an instruction and a number rather than a question. No assistant on this page should be assessing whether a symptom is urgent, and any vendor demonstrating that is demonstrating a liability.
Keep clinical detail out of the call entirely. Scoping the assistant to scheduling and general inquiries is a design decision that shrinks the data question rather than answering it, and it is the right default regardless of vendor.
And if a business associate agreement is genuinely required by your risk assessment, a vendor who cannot sign one is not a vendor to configure around. We cannot sign one, which makes us the wrong choice for those practices.
Our own pricing, in full
Including the rate after the allowance, which is the number most of this list leaves off.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
The short version
- Booking is included on every tier. Rosie keeps booking and live transfer behind its $149 plan.
- The overage rate is on the pricing page. Rosie, Ruby, Slang and AnswerConnect do not publish theirs.
- Calls are counted, not minutes, so a long useful conversation costs the same as a short one.
Questions people ask about this list
Is any of these HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA compliance is contractual, not a certification. Ask which subprocessors touch the audio and transcript, whether the vendor will sign a business associate agreement, and which of their suppliers they hold one with. We make no HIPAA claim.
What does Utah require of a medical practice?
Medicine is a state-licensed occupation, so the Utah AI Policy Act requires prominent verbal disclosure at the start of the interaction. Ask each vendor whether their assistant can do that.
Can it handle a prescription request?
It can capture that someone rang about one and route it. Anything beyond capture is clinical and belongs with your team.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because the boundary a practice has to draw is configuration, and ours enforces it at $49 with the disclosure spoken at call start. A human fallback and an operating history matter enormously in a clinical setting, and Smith.ai has both. We have neither, and we make no HIPAA claim.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.