What’s a HIPAA Compliant Answering Service? Cost & How it Works

A HIPAA compliant medical answering service is the answer to overwhelming numbers of patient phone calls. OhMD’s Call-to-Text will allow you to manage call volume with a more convenient workflow.

A healthcare answering service makes it possible for your medical practice to offer extraordinary patient care while maintaining compliance with HIPAA standards.

What’s a HIPAA compliant answering service?

A HIPAA compliant answering service is a system that helps medical practices handle incoming calls while protecting sensitive patient information, as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Unlike a traditional call center, a HIPAA compliant service ensures that all communication, including voicemail, call recordings, and follow-up messages, meets strict privacy and security standards.

These services are designed specifically for healthcare organizations and include safeguards like:

• Encrypted voicemail and messaging
• Secure storage of call data and transcripts
• Access controls to limit who can hear or read messages
• Audit logs and documentation for compliance tracking

By using a HIPAA compliant answering service, practices can confidently manage after-hours calls, high call volumes, or routine patient requests without risking a data breach or violating patient privacy laws.

In OhMD’s case, features like Call-to-Text and Visual Voicemail allow your team to respond to patient needs quickly while keeping every message secure and linked to the correct patient record. It’s a modern alternative to phone tag and overloaded voicemail inboxes — one that’s built for today’s healthcare communication needs.

How does an automated medical answering service work?

When a patient calls your practice, you can give them options to get in touch with you.

1. Press a key to hang up and get an automated text back from your practice using HIPAA compliant messaging
2. Leave a voicemail, allowing staff to play back the recording or read the automated transcript in OhMD
3. Stay on the line and wait to speak with someone from your organization

Giving patients these options through a live answering service will save your staff time and accommodate the communication needs of your patients. OhMD’s Call-to-Text also makes transitioning patient voicemails into their Electronic Health Record (EHR) effortless.

How much does a HIPAA compliant answering service cost?

The cost of a HIPAA compliant answering service can vary widely depending on the provider, features, and call volume. Traditional medical answering services often charge:

• Per-minute or per-call rates, typically ranging from $0.75 to $1.50 per minute
• Monthly base fees, which can range from $50 to $250 or more depending on usage
• Setup fees or extra charges for integration with your systems

These services may also offer add-ons like voicemail transcription, custom call scripting, or live nurse triage, each with its own cost.

OhMD’s Call-to-Text is different. It’s included as part of the broader OhMD platform, which offers HIPAA compliant messaging, video visits, and automated workflows all in one place. That means no separate bill for your answering service and no surprise fees for common features like voicemail transcription or call logging.

If you’re already using OhMD for secure messaging and communication, enabling Call-to-Text gives you a cost-effective, compliant way to reduce call volume and improve your patient response time without paying for a separate call center.

Why use a HIPAA compliant answering service?

With the right medical answering service you can save time and be more efficient in your work assisting patients. A recent study showed that medical office receptionists spent less time on phone calls when using an automated phone answering service. They were better able to care for their patients and were more satisfied with their job. Medical answering services, like Call-to-Text, make maintaining HIPAA compliance easy while also eliminating the need to listen to and transcribe patient voicemails.

Here are a couple of reasons you may be interested in an answering service:

• OhMD Call-to-Text allows a patient to choose their preferred method of communication. This gives you the opportunity to increase patient satisfaction while keeping patient information secure.
• Using OhMD as a HIPAA compliant medical answering service will allow you to save precious time. An automated medical answering service will eliminate phone tag and the need to manually transcribe voicemails.
• Using Visual Voicemail, you will be able to listen to and read patient voicemails without picking up a phone. You can respond directly to patient voicemails via text in their OhMD message chain.
• Voicemail transcription will come into OhMD already associated with existing patient names, or as “Unknown” until you merge the message with the correct patient. This will allow you to see precisely who left the voicemail, without having to listen to and categorize all the office voicemails by patient.
• This feature also allows for easier transition of voicemails from OhMD to your EHR. You will no longer need to transcribe patient messages by hand. Instead, OhMD Call-to-Text will do that for you.

Using a HIPAA compliant answering service at your practice

Let’s consider a couple of examples of when an automated medical answering service could come in handy.

1. A patient calls in looking to get a prescription refill. When they call in, they are given the option to press 1 to hang up and receive a text from you. You have now successfully bypassed a real-time phone call and have a text in its place. Administrative staff can respond to the text when they have the time, or use an automated flow like OhMD Autopilot to connect with the patient when it is convenient for them.
2. A concerned parent calls in and decides to leave a message rather than send a text. They are able to list their child’s symptoms and the Call-to-Text will transcribe their message for you to read in their chat in OhMD. You can then respond back to them via text if you choose.
3. An elderly gentleman calls in and would like to speak to a nurse about starting a new medication. He opts to stay on the line and wait until someone is available to speak to him.

When it comes down to it, patients are customers, and they want good customer service. Giving them the opportunity to get in touch with you in the manner they would prefer allows you to offer convenient health care access.

Who can use the Call-to-Text feature?

The Call-to-Text feature is available to all OhMD clients. If you are interested in this feature, email us by clicking the button below or write in to our support chat to discuss how to make this option available to you.

Imagine how an easy change, such as offering text to patients who call in, can make great strides in improving your office. Suddenly your staff has more time, your patients get faster responses, and you are more connected with them than ever before.

See how simple patient communication can be with two weeks of free HIPAA compliant texting and all the other OhMD tools!