HIPAA and an AI answering service: six questions to ask before it goes on your line

An answering service hears patient names, dates of birth and the reason for the call. Whether it is an operator or an AI receptionist, that makes it a vendor your compliance officer needs to understand. These are the questions worth asking, and how Workup Agent answers them.

1. What does the agent collect?

Only what you tell it to. The agent asks the questions you configure for an appointment request or a provider message: name, best number and time, a date of birth if you require it, the reason for the call. It does not probe for clinical detail and it does not answer clinical questions; those are taken as messages for the provider.

2. Where does it go?

Each call is logged with a transcript and delivered to your team by email within seconds, and into your scheduling or practice system where connected. Where the data lives, and for how long, is set out before go-live, and it is part of the walkthrough rather than a surprise in the contract.

3. Who built it, and what audits stand behind them?

Workup Agent is built and supported by Micronetbd, a company in business since 2012 that is SOC 2 Type 2 audited and has built HIPAA-aware healthcare software on Salesforce, including an application listed on the Salesforce AppExchange. Ask any vendor the same question and ask to see the report.

4. Will they sign a business associate agreement?

What your practice needs depends on what the agent collects and where it is stored, so Micronetbd walks through your requirements, including a business associate agreement, before anything goes live. A vendor that will not discuss a BAA is telling you something.

5. What happens with an emergency?

Callers who describe an emergency are told to call 911. Matters you define as urgent, a post-operative concern for example, are transferred live to the on-call phone you choose. Everything else is a promised callback with an alert behind it. The rules are yours and they are written down.

6. Can we hear it first?

Yes. Call Pandoodle, Micronetbd's own AI receptionist, on (609) 834-3127, or text it on (609) 945-6884. The same agent, with your practice name and your rules, is what goes on your line.