An AI receptionist for direct primary care practices on Hint.
Private equity backed groups can afford a call center. A physician owned practice should not have to sell to get one. MedPhone answers every call, books the visit and puts the rest in front of the physician, priced for a practice of one.
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An AI receptionist for a direct primary care practice is a voice AI system that answers the practice phone, handles membership questions and visit booking from the practice’s own rules, and routes anything that needs the physician to the physician with the context written down. It replaces the voicemail box, not the doctor.
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Why should an independent practice have the same tools as a private equity group?
Because the gap is no longer about medicine. In 2024, 42.2 percent of US physicians worked in a private practice, down from 60.1 percent in 2012, according to the American Medical Association’s Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. In the same survey, 6.5 percent said their practice was owned by private equity.
A consolidated group answers its phones with a staffed call center and the software behind it. A solo physician answers them between patients, or does not answer them at all. Direct primary care was built on the opposite promise: a small panel, unhurried visits, and a doctor you can actually reach.
MedPhone exists so that promise survives a busy Tuesday. Every call answered on the first ring, the routine ones finished on the call, and the physician still the person who decides what matters. No call center, no contract, and no need to sell the practice to get one.
60.1%
- of US physicians worked in a private practice in 2012
42.2%
- of US physicians worked in a private practice in 2024
6.5%
- worked in a practice owned by private equity in 2024
Source: American Medical Association, Physician Practice Benchmark Survey.
What a direct primary care phone line actually fields.
A membership practice has fewer insurance calls than a fee for service clinic and more of something else: people deciding whether to join, and members who expect an answer today.
- Prospective members asking what the membership includes, what it costs and how to join
- Existing members booking a same day or next day visit, which is the promise the model is sold on
- Refill requests that should reach the physician as a task, not as a voicemail
- Questions about labs, imaging and medications at the practice’s own cash prices
- "Do you take my insurance?", which in a membership practice needs a clear answer about how the model works
- Evening and weekend calls from members who were told they can reach their doctor
How MedPhone answers a member’s call
Meet and greet booked
- CallerHi, a friend told me about Dr. Lee. How does the membership work?
- MedPhoneIt is one flat monthly fee that covers your visits and messages with Dr. Lee. I can text you this practice’s price list and book a free meet and greet. Would Thursday at 4 work?
- CallerThursday at 4 is great.
Thursday 4:00 PM, price list sent by text.
An illustrative call. Your practice sets the answers and the rules.
What MedPhone does on every call.
This is how MedPhone runs in production today on athenahealth. The Hint integration is new, and on a demo we will show you exactly which of these run on Hint for your practice. The mechanics are on the how AI phone agents work page.
- Answers every call on the first ring, during hours and after
- Explains the membership from the practice’s own configured answers, in the practice’s words
- Books, reschedules and cancels visits against the physician’s real availability
- Takes refill requests and routes them to the physician as a task to approve
- Sends anything clinical, urgent or personal to the physician under rules the practice sets
- Writes a summary of every call, so nothing a member said is lost
What MedPhone never does: give clinical advice, diagnose, or stand between a member and their physician. Anything urgent goes to the physician or to 911 under the rules you set.
Priced for a practice of one.
From $150 a month for 500 minutes of calls, $300 for 1,000 and $600 for 2,000, with $0.30 a minute beyond your allowance. A direct care practice already runs on a transparent monthly price, and so does this.
- No setup fee
- No contract
- No provider fee
500 minutes included. Every caller answered at once. Only $0.30 per AI minute.
The full breakdown is on the AI receptionist pricing page, and the AI receptionist for small medical practices guide works through when it pays for itself and when it does not.
Questions Hint practices ask about an AI receptionist for direct primary care
Yes. MedPhone AI is listed on the Hint Marketplace as an AI phone agent for direct care practices. The listing is how Hint practices find us, and this page is the detail behind it.
The Hint integration is new, so the honest answer depends on the workflow. On a twenty minute demo we will show you exactly what runs on Hint for a practice like yours. MedPhone itself is live in production on athenahealth, as a verified athenahealth Marketplace Partner, so the call handling is not new.
For most, yes. A direct primary care practice usually runs with one physician and very little front desk staff, and members join because they were promised they can reach their doctor. An AI receptionist answers every call, handles booking and membership questions, and sends anything that needs the physician straight to the physician.
They should feel the opposite. The calls that need the physician still reach the physician, with the context already written down. What goes away is the voicemail, the hold music and the callback the next morning. Any member who asks for a person gets one.
MedPhone starts at $150 a month for 500 minutes of calls, with $300 for 1,000 minutes and $600 for 2,000. Calls beyond the allowance are $0.30 a minute. There is no setup fee, no contract and no per provider fee, so a solo physician pays for the calls answered and nothing else.
Yes. MedPhone signs a Business Associate Agreement, encrypts patient data at rest with AES 256 and in transit with TLS 1.3, never uses patient data to train models, and logs every action. A membership practice holds the same health information as any other, and it gets the same protections.
Keep the practice yours. Answer every call.
Twenty minutes, a real call, and a straight answer on what runs on Hint for a practice like yours.