AI receptionist for a medical office: what Leap handles and what it hands to your team

A medical office phone rings for two kinds of reasons. Most calls are clerical, like a question about hours or a new appointment. Some need a person who knows the patient. An AI receptionist is useful to a practice when it takes the first kind completely and passes the second kind to your team with enough detail to act on.

This guide describes how Leap splits those calls, what it says on the line, and what your staff receives afterward.

Which medical office calls does Leap handle on its own?

Leap handles office questions, appointment requests and messages without anyone at the practice picking up. It answers from a knowledge base built from your website, your Google listing and any documents you upload, and you review and approve its cards. If a fact isn't there, Leap is set up to say so rather than guess. It takes the caller's name and number, lets your team know, and saves the question so you can answer it once for every later caller.

Typical office questions it can answer from approved knowledge include your hours, address and parking, which insurance plans you accept, what to bring to a first visit, and whether a provider is taking new patients. The answers are only as current as the cards, so it pays to read them before you forward your line.

Callers who hang up before speaking get a text back. Callers can also be answered in English plus up to two other languages you turn on.

How does Leap handle appointment requests?

By default Leap takes an appointment request, and your front desk confirms the time. It collects the caller's name, the reason for the visit, a preferred day and time, and a callback number, then tells the caller your team will confirm a time with them. The caller gets a text saying the request reached the office.

Leap does not connect to a practice management system or an EHR, so it can't see or write to your schedule there. That keeps a person in charge of visit types and referrals. Requests to reschedule or cancel an existing appointment also go to the front desk. If you have an online booking link, Leap can text it to the caller. More on the request flow is on appointment scheduling and new patient intake.

Which calls does Leap hand to your staff, and how?

Anything that needs a clinical or staff decision goes to your team as a message with a written summary. That includes symptoms, questions about medications or prescriptions, test results, billing disputes, and callers who ask for a person. Leap takes the caller's details and what they need, and it doesn't promise a callback time.

After each call your team gets a summary by text, email or both, and the call sits in the Inbox with its recording and transcript. You can write plain-English rules for who hears about which calls, by time, day or call content, and there is always a fallback recipient. Leap can also send a message to your team during the call and mark it urgent. See call summaries and transcripts for what the summary contains.

Live transfer is off by default. If you turn it on and give Leap a number, it can transfer a caller who asks for a person, who is upset, or whose request needs a staff decision. It transfers only while the office is open, makes one attempt, and takes a callback if nobody answers. Your staff hears who is calling and why before the call connects.

What is Leap built not to do on a medical call?

Leap is instructed never to give clinical advice or triage a caller. It does not judge how serious a symptom is, and it does not tell a patient what a result means or whether a medication change is safe. Those questions go to your staff.

If a caller describes something life-threatening, Leap is set up to tell them to call emergency services now and end the call. It does not dial 911 for them, and it is no substitute for 911 or for your clinical team. For calls that are urgent but not life-threatening, it can give the emergency contact you approve, such as an on-call line, take the details and mark the message urgent.

Is an AI receptionist HIPAA compliant?

HIPAA compliance depends on the contract with the vendor and on how patient information is handled. Your practice is the covered entity, and a phone vendor that hears patient details is a business associate. 45 CFR 164.504(e) lists what that contract must require, including appropriate safeguards, reporting any use or disclosure the contract doesn't allow, binding subcontractors to the same rules, and returning or destroying the information at the end where feasible.

Here is how it works with Leap: We sign a Business Associate Addendum with your practice, and your calls run on a separate protected setup where patient information only goes to vendors covered for HIPAA. Ask us to turn it on. HIPAA is turned on per practice on request. It isn't on by default, and it costs nothing extra.

With it on, text and email alerts carry no patient details. The text is a sign-in link, and your staff reads the summary inside Leap. Your practice remains responsible for moving any patient information into your EHR or practice management system.

How do you set up Leap for a practice, and what does it cost?

You set up Leap at /start by giving it your website, or by picking your practice from Google if you don't have one. It builds the receptionist and a Leap phone line in about two minutes, then you review what it learned. You keep your number and forward calls to Leap.

Leap has no after-hours schedule of its own. Which calls reach it is decided by your phone system or carrier forwarding, for example every call or only calls you miss. If you turn on the after-hours greeting, Leap uses your office hours to tell callers you're closed. The forwarding steps for common office systems are in how to forward your office phone.

Leap costs $149 a month, first 100 calls included, then $0.99 a call. Setup is free, with no sales call and no contract, and billing starts when Leap answers real calls. Details are on pricing.