What is an AI answering service?+
An AI answering service picks up your practice's calls in a natural voice instead of a live operator. It answers routine questions, takes complete messages and requests, and passes anything that needs a person to your team. Lydoh is an AI answering service built for medical, dental and veterinary practices: it answers 24/7, answers from your own approved content, and escalates urgent after-hours calls to your on-call provider.
Is an AI answering service HIPAA compliant?+
It can be HIPAA-aligned, the same as a human service can. HIPAA is about how protected health information is handled, so what matters is a signed Business Associate Agreement, minimal PHI, access controls and an audit trail. Lydoh is designed around those principles: it collects a name, callback number and brief reason, isolates each practice's data, logs every escalation, and offers a BAA for eligible healthcare deployments. No product is "HIPAA certified"; compliance also depends on your own environment.
How much does an AI answering service cost?+
Lydoh is $199 a month, flat, with unlimited calls and a 14-day free trial. Other AI answering services price on different units: some per minute of talk time, some per call, and some publish no price at all. Live answering services usually bill per minute or per call. Our answering service pricing index lists published rates side by side with sources.
What is the difference between an AI phone answering service and voicemail?+
Voicemail records whatever the caller chooses to say, and many callers hang up instead. An AI phone answering service holds a conversation: it answers the caller's question from your content, asks for the details your team needs (name, callback number, reason, preferred time), confirms them, and texts your team a structured request the moment the call ends.
Can an AI call answering service transfer calls to my staff?+
Yes. During business hours, a caller who asks for a person is transferred to your line. After hours, urgent calls go to your on-call provider: Lydoh dials them, waits for them to accept, moves to the next provider in the rotation if no one answers, and texts the whole on-call team if nobody accepts.
Does an automated medical answering service give medical advice?+
Lydoh never does. It answers only from content you approve, keeps calls to scheduling and general information, opens after-hours clinical calls with a 911 reminder (or a reminder to go to the nearest emergency animal hospital for veterinary clinics), and lets the caller decide whether the matter is urgent. Clinical judgment stays with your licensed staff.
How long does setup take?+
Under 10 minutes. You sign up, answer a few questions about your practice, and get a dedicated number. Then you forward your existing line to it, or publish the new number. No new phone hardware, no calendar integration and no software migration.
