An AI receptionist can answer patient calls around the clock, book visits when connected to a supported EHR scheduling system, answer routine questions, and send other requests to staff. For primary care practices, that can mean fewer missed calls and less time spent answering the same questions or scheduling routine visits.
Before choosing one, check whether it can follow your practice's rules for new and established patients, preferred clinicians, same-day visits, and calls that need a nurse or another staff member.
What can an AI receptionist do for a primary care practice?
An AI receptionist can take on routine phone calls that would otherwise interrupt the front desk. What it can do depends on its EHR integration and how the practice sets it up.
Common patient request | What an AI receptionist can do |
Scheduling a visit | Find available times and book a visit in the EHR, where supported |
New-patient inquiries | Share which clinicians are accepting new patients, using practice-provided information, and book eligible visits |
Same-day visits | Find and book available same-day visits that meet the practice's rules |
Office hours and locations | Answer routine questions without involving staff |
Insurance questions | Share approved insurance information or send more specific questions to staff |
Prescription refills | Take the request and send it to clinical staff. |
Lab results and medical records | Send requests to the appropriate team |
Some calls still need staff, especially those involving clinical decisions. The agent should pass those requests along rather than try to answer them.
In Solv's study of more than one million calls handled by Maya, about 30% involved booking or scheduling. Most of those calls came from urgent care organizations, so the figure is not a benchmark for primary care. Your own call data will show which requests are most common at your practice.
Can an AI receptionist follow primary care scheduling rules?
Primary care practices often have different scheduling rules for different patients, clinicians, and visit types. An AI receptionist needs to follow those rules, just as staff do.
New and established patients: A clinician may have openings for follow-ups but no new-patient visits available. The agent should offer only the times each patient can book.
Preferred clinician: Patients may want to see the physician who manages their ongoing care. The agent should respect that preference and the practice's rules rather than book any open time.
Visit types: Physicals, chronic-condition follow-ups, and sick visits may need different lengths or scheduling rules. The agent should follow the practice's approved guidance.
No available visit: If the requested clinician has no opening, the agent should offer an option the practice allows, such as another time or a staff callback, rather than book the wrong visit.
Can an AI receptionist book into athenahealth, Epic, or eClinicalWorks?
Solv integrates with athenahealth, Epic, and eClinicalWorks. Maya can book visits directly into the EHR.
Ask a vendor to show you how its agent works with your EHR and your practice's scheduling rules. Can it tell new and established patients apart? Does it offer the correct clinician, location, visit type, and length? Is the availability up to date? Does the booked visit appear in the EHR? What happens when there is no suitable opening?
If staff still have to enter the visit afterward, the agent has taken a scheduling request, not completed the booking. That difference matters when you're trying to reduce phone work.
How is an AI receptionist different from a medical answering service or phone tree?
A phone tree asks callers to choose from a menu and sends them to a person or department. A medical answering service answers on behalf of the practice and may take messages, transfer calls, or book visits, depending on the service.
With an AI receptionist, callers can say what they need without working through a menu. The agent can answer routine questions and, with the right scheduling connection, book visits during the call. It can also send requests to staff when needed.
When comparing options, ask what each one can finish during the call and what your team will still need to do afterward.
Can an AI receptionist reduce front-desk phone work?
Front-desk staff have to answer phones while checking in patients, managing paperwork, and helping people in the office. If an AI receptionist handles routine questions and bookings, staff can spend more time on the requests that need their attention.
Patients should still be able to speak with staff when they need to. Check whether the agent can transfer a caller, share the reason for the call where supported, and take an appropriate next step when no one is available. For after-hours calls, decide in advance which requests can wait until the office reopens and which need to reach someone sooner.
What if our physicians are already fully booked?
A practice accepting new patients may want to turn more calls into booked visits. A practice with full physician schedules may care more about avoiding wrong bookings, handling routine questions, and making sure follow-up visits are scheduled correctly.
An AI receptionist can't add clinician time to the schedule. Be clear about whether your priority is booking more visits, scheduling existing demand more accurately, or reducing staff phone work.
What should a primary care practice test before choosing an AI receptionist?
Ask vendors to demonstrate calls that reflect how your practice actually operates:
- Preferred clinician: Can an established patient book a follow-up with the right physician?
- New patient: Does the agent avoid offering a new-patient visit with a clinician whose panel is full?
- Refill or lab result: Does the request reach the right team with the information staff need?
- No opening available: Does the agent offer an approved next step instead of booking the wrong visit or ending the call?
- Reporting: Can you see how many visits were booked, how many requests needed staff, and how often staff had to correct something?
Also ask about your phone system, EHR setup, and what staff need to do during implementation. A natural-sounding conversation matters, but the booking needs to be correct and requests need to reach the right people.
Why choose Solv's Maya for primary care?
Solv has spent 10 years helping patients find care, book visits, and pay. We've powered 115M+ healthcare visits across 2,500+ healthcare sites and built technology for scheduling, EHR connections, insurance, and payments.
Maya brings that experience to the phone, handling 4 million patient calls annually. She answers calls 24/7 in more than 80 languages, handles routine questions, books visits through supported EHR scheduling workflows, and sends more complex requests to staff. For primary care practices, that can mean fewer calls interrupting the front desk and more patients able to book when they call.
Maya works with your existing EHR, so you don't have to replace it. You can use Maya on its own or add other Solv products for online scheduling, registration, insurance, payments, and patient engagement where they fit your practice.
See how Maya would handle calls at your practice. Request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI receptionist schedule a visit with a patient's usual primary care physician?
Yes. Solv's Maya can book visits with a patient's preferred physician when supported by the practice's EHR integration and scheduling rules. Maya can account for provider availability, visit type, and whether a patient is new or established, depending on the configuration. If the preferred physician has no available visits, the practice can define how those requests should be handled.
Can an AI receptionist tell a patient whether their insurance is accepted?
Solv's Maya can answer general insurance questions using information provided by the practice, where configured. For questions about a patient's specific plan, network status, or out-of-pocket costs, additional verification may be needed. Solv also offers insurance eligibility and payment tools that practices can use alongside Maya.
Can an AI receptionist handle prescription refill or lab-results calls?
Yes. Solv's Maya can capture prescription refill requests, lab-results questions, and other requests that need clinical staff, then route them to the appropriate team. Maya doesn't approve prescriptions, interpret test results, or make clinical decisions. This helps staff spend less time answering routine calls while ensuring clinical questions reach the right people.
Does an AI receptionist answer calls after hours?
Yes. Solv's Maya answers patient calls 24/7, including evenings, weekends, and holidays. Patients can get answers to routine questions and book supported visits even when the office is closed. Practices can also configure how Maya handles calls that need staff involvement or follow-up.
Will an AI receptionist replace our front-desk team?
No. Solv's Maya helps reduce front-desk workload by answering routine questions, scheduling visits, and routing requests that need staff attention. This gives staff more time to help patients in person and handle more complex needs. Maya works alongside your existing team and can be added without replacing your EHR or other systems.
How should a primary care practice measure results?
When evaluating Solv's Maya, track how many calls are answered, how many visits are booked, how many requests are handled without staff involvement, and how often staff need to follow up. Compare these results with your call volume and workload before using Maya. For practices with full physician schedules, fewer interruptions and more accurate scheduling may matter more than additional visit volume.
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