The best AI receptionist for a medical practice is the one that writes into your EMR. It books a real slot. It pulls a lab result. It routes a refill to the right provider. A smooth voice with none of that access doesn’t qualify. We ranked seven options against that standard: EMR write-back depth, how many call types each one resolves without a human, language support, and whether the pricing is public.
Most "best AI receptionist" lists are written by one of the vendors on them, ranking themselves first for reasons they never state. This one states the criteria before the ranking, and says plainly where each tool, Voxy included, is not the right fit. That’s the whole information gap in this space: everyone ranks, nobody shows their work.
How we ranked these
Four criteria, in order of weight:
- EMR write-back. Does the AI book, cancel, and update records in your practice’s EMR, or does it take a message and forward it? This is the line between a receptionist and a talking voicemail box.
- Call-type coverage. A medical front desk fields appointments, refills, lab results, referral status, billing questions, and intake. A tool that only schedules handles a fraction of the calls a practice gets.
- Language support. Practices in Medicaid-heavy, FQHC, and immigrant-heavy markets need a receptionist that can hold the call in the patient’s language, not route it to a translator queue.
- Pricing transparency. Can you find a number without booking a sales call?
We pulled every vendor’s own site, pricing page, or public G2 listing. Where a claim came only from a vendor’s marketing page, we say so instead of treating it as fact.
The ranked list
| Rank | Vendor | Best for | Native EMR write-back | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Voxy | Multi-site and value-based groups | athenahealth, Allscript, Epic, Cerner, eCW, NextGen | Custom — quoted by call volume and site count |
| 2 | DeepCura | Solo or small independent practice | Epic, eClinicalWorks, OptiMantra, athenahealth, Veradigm | $129/mo per provider (DeepCura pricing) |
| 3 | Sully.ai | Hospital or health system running several AI "employees" | Epic plus 20+ EHR systems, per Sully.ai | Not published |
| 4 | Weave | Dental or single-location practice already on Weave | Open Dental, Dentrix, Eaglesoft only, per Weave | Bundled into $199+/mo plans |
| 5 | Greetmate | Multi-location group that needs to stand up new sites fast | Workflow-builder connectors, not native EHR write-back | Not published |
| 6 | Smith.ai | Small practice that wants AI plus a human backstop | None — message-taking with live-agent handoff | From $95/mo (Smith.ai pricing) |
| 7 | Ruby Receptionists | A practice that wants a guaranteed human, no AI at all | None — 100% human, no EHR integration | From $250/mo for 50 minutes |
The seven, one at a time
1. Voxy
Voxy reads and writes in athenahealth, Allscript, Epic, Cerner, eCW, and NextGen, so it books a real slot instead of a placeholder and can pull a lab result or referral status mid-call. It handles the whole call list, appointments, refills, medication questions, labs, referrals, billing, and intake, in 20+ languages, and resolves 98% of calls without a staff member picking up (Voxy deployment metrics, voxyhealth.ai/for-providers). It books, reminds, and routes; it doesn’t diagnose, prescribe, or make a clinical call, and it hands anything clinical to staff. Where it falls short: Voxy is built for multi-site and multi-provider groups. A single-doctor office runs fine on a lighter tool further down this list.
2. DeepCura
DeepCura bundles an AI receptionist inside a broader clinical AI platform, alongside a medical scribe and billing automation, and it includes EHR write-back to Epic, eClinicalWorks, OptiMantra, athenahealth, and Veradigm at no extra cost (DeepCura). At $129 a month per provider it’s the cheapest EMR-integrated option here, and volume pricing drops further past five seats. Where it falls short: the receptionist is one feature inside a scribe-first bundle, not a dedicated front-desk product, and multi-location or enterprise pricing isn’t posted.
3. Sully.ai
Sully positions itself as a team of role-based AI agents, one for scheduling, one for scribing, one for coding, and its receptionist agent connects to Epic and more than 20 other EHR systems, plus a direct Tebra integration (Sully.ai). It handles insurance verification and no-show nudges out of the box. Where it falls short: pricing isn’t public, and the "team of agents" framing means the receptionist competes for attention with several sibling products rather than being the platform’s focus.
4. Weave
Weave already runs phones and texting for a lot of dental and small general practices, and it added an AI receptionist built on Google’s Gemini platform, with live language switching and call transcription (Weave). If your practice already runs Weave, the add-on is a fair test. Where it falls short: the feature is still in beta and, as of this writing, only supports Open Dental, Dentrix, or Eaglesoft, none of which are the EMRs a medical (non-dental) practice runs.
5. Greetmate
Greetmate leans on a no-code workflow builder and claims 300+ integrations, which suits a group opening new locations on a tight timeline. Where it falls short: most of those integrations run through general-purpose connectors, not native bidirectional EHR write-back, so a schedule change made by the AI may still need a staff member to confirm it in the chart.
6. Smith.ai
Smith.ai pairs AI call handling with live human agents who pick up when the AI can’t resolve something, at per-call pricing starting around $95/mo (Smith.ai). For a practice that wants AI speed with a human always one step behind it, that’s a real advantage. Where it falls short: it’s built for general business call answering. It takes the message and routes it; it doesn’t book into your EMR.
7. Ruby Receptionists
Ruby answers with a real person on every call, no AI involved, at plans starting near $250/mo for 50 minutes. Some practices want exactly that. Where it falls short for this list: it isn’t AI, it doesn’t integrate with an EMR, and its per-minute pricing gets expensive past the first hour or two of monthly call volume.
Why EMR write-back is the criterion that decides this
Most of this list will pick up a call and sound competent doing it. The gap shows up one step later, when the caller wants something done: rebook an appointment, check a lab result, confirm a referral went through.
A tool without EMR write-back has to take a note and pass it to staff, which is a faster voicemail box, not a receptionist. A tool with real write-back closes the loop on the call itself. That’s the difference between a vendor that "answers calls" and one that "replaces the phone job."
Medical practices miss roughly 30% of inbound calls, and 67% of patients call a competitor when a practice doesn’t pick up (AnswerNet; Patient10x). Answering the call gets you halfway there. Finishing the request, with no callback later, is what keeps that patient in your practice instead of sending them down the street.
How to choose, based on your practice, not the ranking
The list order fits a multi-site or value-based group. It won’t fit everyone the same way.
- Solo or two-provider practice: DeepCura’s per-provider pricing and bundled scribe make more sense than a platform sized for multi-site groups.
- Dental or single-location practice already on Weave: test the Weave add-on before adding a second vendor.
- Hospital or health system running several AI tools already: Sully’s multi-agent model fits an existing agent stack.
- Multi-location group opening sites fast: Greetmate’s no-code setup gets a new location live sooner, with the tradeoff of weaker EHR write-back.
- Practice that wants AI with a human always in reserve: Smith.ai’s hybrid model, not a pure-AI tool.
- A practice that flatly wants no AI on the phone: Ruby, with the tradeoff of per-minute pricing and no EMR integration.
- Multi-site, value-based, or risk-bearing group where a missed call can mean an open care gap, not only a lost visit: Voxy is built for that math.
If your practice is paid fee-for-service, a missed call is a lost, bookable visit, and the no-show math alone justifies fixing it: no-shows run about $200 each, at a primary-care rate near 19% (Dialog Health). If your practice carries risk under a value-based contract, the calculus runs deeper. A member who can’t get through often ends up in the ER instead, at roughly 12 times the cost of an office visit (Fierce Healthcare), and the care gap that call would have closed stays open.
Most "best AI receptionist" lists rank by who paid for placement or who wrote the list. Rank by EMR write-back instead, and the real question isn’t which tool sounds the most human. It’s which one finishes the job the call was for.
See what a fully write-back-capable front desk looks like
Voxy’s AI Front Desk answers every call, books the real slot in your EMR, and handles refills, labs, referrals, and billing questions without a callback.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI receptionist?
An AI receptionist is software that answers a practice’s phone lines using voice AI instead of a human or a voicemail tree. The better ones do more than answer: they book appointments, check on refills and lab results, and update the practice’s EMR while the call is happening.
What is the best AI answering service for a medical practice?
It depends on practice size and EMR. A multi-site or value-based group needs deep EMR write-back and full call-type coverage, which points toward Voxy. A solo practice on a tight budget is often better served by a lighter, per-provider tool like DeepCura. There’s no single best answer service independent of who’s asking.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a medical practice?
Published pricing in this space runs from about $95/mo for a hybrid AI-plus-human service up to $129/mo per provider for an EMR-integrated platform. Several vendors, Voxy among them, quote based on call volume and site count instead of publishing a flat rate.
Does an AI receptionist book into my EMR, or take a message?
It depends entirely on the vendor. Some AI receptionists only capture a message and forward it to staff, the same job a voicemail box does with a nicer voice. Others read and write into the EMR, booking a real appointment slot or pulling a lab result during the call. Ask any vendor which EMRs they write into, by name, before you buy.
What does a virtual receptionist do that a regular answering service doesn't?
A traditional answering service takes a message. A virtual receptionist, AI or human, is meant to resolve the call: book the appointment, answer the question, route the refill, so nothing comes back to staff as a callback.