We analyzed dozens of live answering services and narrowed it down to the top eight that answer patient calls and follow through with the work those calls set in motion. Our team opened every published rate card and read customer reviews on independent platforms, then scored each provider on a model that rewards clinical experience on the phone.
How We Ranked These Companies
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling (30%): The person answering has worked inside a clinic.
Same Person on Every Call (20%): One named assistant covers your phones instead of a rotating pool.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards (20%): Published privacy training or an audited security program.
Published Rate (15%): The company posts what the service costs.
Multiple Assistants at Once (15%): Add a second assistant without restarting the search.
Top Live Answering Services: Company Descriptions and Reviews
1. DocVA
DocVA charges a flat $10.95 an hour, so a ten-second call and a ten-minute call cost your practice the same money. Every assistant has U.S. clinic or hospital experience, which means the voice on your phones already knows what a prior authorization is before a patient asks about one.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: DocVA places only assistants who have worked inside a U.S. clinic or hospital.
Same Person on Every Call: One assistant works your practice and remembers what a patient called about last week.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: Every assistant trains on privacy and security expectations before touching a patient record, and operations run under the Philippines Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Published Rate: $10.95 an hour, posted openly, with no lock-in period and no minimum term.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Practices that outgrow one assistant can add a second through the same account team, and the pricing model stays the same.
Customer Review Summary
DocVA holds no independent review profile, so this summary quotes named testimonials published on its own site. Practice owners credit DocVA with growth, including one who reports, “Today, I have a team of five highly skilled virtual assistants.” Others point to “hands-on support” and a billing assistant who “recovered $123,000 for us.”
2. Answering Service Care
Answering Service Care has answered phones since 1974, and one family now runs the company through a third generation. The company posts the business associate agreement it will sign as a readable PDF, so a practice manager reads the breach notification terms before a sales call.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Operators train specifically on medical calls and hold no clinical credential.
Same Person on Every Call: A shared pool of US operators answers, and the dedicated contact on higher tiers manages the account and not the phones.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: Every operator trains on HIPAA, and the company publishes the full business associate agreement for a covered entity to sign.
Published Rate: $40 a month pay as you go up to $639 for 500 minutes, with overage from $1.75 down to $1.35 a minute and a $50 setup fee.
Multiple Assistants at Once: A higher tier buys more minutes and no additional person.
Customer Review Summary
Long-tenured clients consistently praise the partnership, and one writes, “We have used answering service care for the last 15+ years and they have been a great partner for us.” Common feedback flags billing, and another client reports picking up “thousands of dollars of overage charges without warning or notification.”
3. Posh
Posh sells seven published minute tiers ranging from $65 a month to $1,900, and a free trial runs for seven days or 250 minutes. Receptionists book appointments directly into a practice calendar, which lifts more work off the front desk than message-taking alone.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Healthcare receptionists train on HIPAA compliance and hold no clinical credential.
Same Person on Every Call: A general pool answers, and Posh assigns no named receptionist.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: Posh states that its service is fully HIPAA-compliant and that every healthcare receptionist trains on HIPAA.
Published Rate: $65 to $1,900 a month plus $1.90 to $2.30 a minute, on month-to-month agreements.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Buying a higher tier gets you more minutes, not an additional person.
Customer Review Summary
Practices and firms consistently praise how quickly Posh learns an account, and one client writes, “I am impressed with how well they have caught on to our practice area.”
4. Nextiva
Nextiva sells an AI receptionist that greets callers in a customized voice and answers routine questions from a knowledge base you upload. Anything the software cannot resolve goes to your own staff, so the practice keeps the human work and pays $99 a month for the first hundred interactions.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Software answers, and no person works your account.
Same Person on Every Call: The AI answers every time, and escalations go to your team.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: Nextiva publishes a SOC 2 attestation and executes a business associate agreement scoped to voice and video, which leaves SMS and chat outside a HIPAA account.
Published Rate: $99 a month for 100 interactions, then $0.99 for each one after.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Buying more interactions buys more AI minutes and no staff.
Customer Review Summary
Long-tenured clients consistently praise the support desk, and one executive director of ten years writes, “The Customer Support is 2nd to none. Phone Support always picks up when I need to reach them.”
5. Go Answer
Go Answer keeps a New York headquarters, and answers calls from contact centers in St. Lucia and Belize, where a bilingual workforce covers English and Spanish around the clock. Minute blocks start at 100 for $175 a month and climb to 10,000 for $11,000, with overage falling as volume rises.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Agents follow practice-specific scripts and have no clinical credentials.
Same Person on Every Call: A contact-center pool answers from two offshore centers, so the voice changes call to call.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: Go Answer publishes a HIPAA Seal of Compliance vendor badge and commits to no business associate agreement.
Published Rate: $175 to $11,000 a month, with overage from $1.75 down to $1.25 a minute.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Capacity grows by buying a larger minute block.
Customer Review Summary
Firms consistently praise how Go Answer represents a brand on the phone, and one client writes that “their representatives were thoroughly professional and presented our firm in a highly positive light to clients and non-clients alike.”
6. AnswerNet
AnswerNet routes medical calls through a network of 30 integrated call centers and absorbed Signius Communications into the same operation. The scale suits a multi-location group that needs overflow answered at any hour by agents fluent in English and Spanish, and the company publishes no rate card.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Agents train in HIPAA practices and bring no clinical background.
Same Person on Every Call: Calls route across the center network, so the answering agent changes.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: AnswerNet states that all call centers are HIPAA compliant and that agents train in HIPAA practices.
Published Rate: Nothing published, so a practice waits on a quote.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Adding coverage means adding call volume to the contract.
Customer Review Summary
Clients on inbound support programs consistently praise the account teams, and one names “the responsiveness and professionalism of the service management team” as what stood out, while another calls the team “very friendly, effective and professional.”
7. ReceptionHQ
ReceptionHQ starts at $25 a month for message-taking and includes Spanish on every account at no extra charge, making it the cheapest published entry on this list. Its US team covers 5 am to 7 pm MST and hands overnight calls to a team in Australia, and no page on the site states a HIPAA position.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Receptionists handle patient calls with no claimed clinical training.
Same Person on Every Call: A shared reception pool answers, and no account gets a named receptionist.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: ReceptionHQ publishes no HIPAA, BAA, or SOC 2 statement anywhere on the site.
Published Rate: From $25 a month for messages and from $35 a month once call transfers start.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Practices can upgrade or downgrade a subscription tier at any time.
Customer Review Summary
Practices switching from another service consistently praise the call handling, and one writes that “incoming calls get answered in a professional manner and routed appropriately.”
8. LEX Reception
LEX Reception answers only for law firms and runs legal intake and lead qualification through a pool it describes as hundreds of receptionists. HIPAA-compliant accounts open on request for law firms handling medical records, so a medical practice sits outside what the service was built to do.
Healthcare-Trained Call Handling: Receptionists specialize in legal intake and do not answer clinical questions.
Same Person on Every Call: Firms reach hundreds of receptionists, and no receptionist gets assigned.
Documented HIPAA Safeguards: LEX offers HIPAA-compliant accounts as an opt-in for law firms and publishes no BAA or SOC 2 report.
Published Rate: Nothing published, and billing runs by the minute from pickup to hang-up.
Multiple Assistants at Once: Multi-location management exists and stops short of HIPAA accounts.
Customer Review Summary
Attorneys consistently praise the after-hours work, and one writes, “They do a great job handling all of our after-hours calls. Their customer service is top-tier.” Common feedback credits the flexibility, and an immigration attorney reports the team is “flexible and responsive to script changes and additional needs from my business.”
Best for Answering Calls and Booking the Appointment in One Seat
This ranking reflects a scored evaluation of top live answering services across five weighted criteria, using publicly available information and reviews as of 2026. Providers may be added or reordered as new information becomes available.
Nathan Barz is dedicated to integrating virtual assistants into healthcare practices across the United States, Canada, and beyond. With firsthand experience in healthcare, he has successfully implemented virtual medical assistant services in numerous practices, improving profitability and service quality and reducing staff burnout. Nathan firmly believes virtual assistants are the solution to addressing staffing shortages and economic challenges in the healthcare industry.
