Compliance isn't a badge you buy, it's how patient information is handled on every call. Here's what HIPAA actually asks of an answering service, and how Hello AI is built to meet it: a signed BAA, minimal PHI, strict access control, and a complete audit trail.
What HIPAA requires of an answering service
Any vendor that touches PHI on your behalf must sign a BAA. It's the legal backbone of a compliant relationship: no BAA, no compliant deployment.
You should collect only the information needed for the task. Hello AI asks for a name, callback number, and brief reason, not a medical history.
PHI must be limited to authorized people. Hello AI isolates every practice's data with row-level security so only your team sees your calls.
You should be able to show who accessed or handled information, and when. Hello AI logs calls and every after-hours escalation attempt with timestamps.
How Hello AI is built for it
Hello AI was built by VoiceboxMD specifically for healthcare-adjacent businesses. It never gives medical advice, never solicits clinical detail, and keeps conversations to scheduling and general information. After hours, urgent matters are escalated to your on-call provider with only the callback essentials. The sensitive conversation happens directly between your provider and the patient, not through the AI. See how that flow works in after-hours answering.
FAQ
HIPAA compliance is about how protected health information (PHI) is handled, not whether a human or software answers the phone. An AI answering service can be HIPAA-aligned when there's a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), PHI is minimized and access-controlled, and there's an audit trail. Hello AI is designed around those principles and offers a BAA for eligible healthcare deployments.
Yes, a Business Associate Agreement is available for eligible healthcare plans. Because Hello AI may handle limited PHI (a caller's name, number, and reason for calling), a BAA is the foundation of a compliant deployment. Contact us to put one in place before you go live.
Hello AI only collects what's needed to route a call, typically a name, callback number, and a brief reason. It never solicits detailed medical history, and it never gives medical advice. After-hours urgent alerts to your on-call team are kept to the callback essentials rather than clinical detail, so sensitive information stays in your systems.
Access is scoped to your practice. Dashboard data (requests, call logs, and escalation records) is isolated per tenant with row-level security, so only your authorized team members can view your calls. Every urgent after-hours escalation is logged with timestamps for accountability.
Never. Hello AI is strictly a scheduling and information assistant. It answers only from your approved content, deflects emergencies to 911, and lets patients self-select urgency without any clinical assessment. Anything requiring judgment is transferred or escalated to your staff.
Start a free trial to explore, and request a BAA before you take live patient calls.