Best HIPAA-Compliant Call Center Software for Healthcare Providers

Providing timely and accurate support to patients, providers, and other stakeholders is paramount in the healthcare industry. One way to achieve this is through call center software designed specifically for healthcare organizations.

Healthcare call center software improves the patient experience by enabling quick access to information, efficient communication between healthcare professionals, and effective management of confidential health data.

In this article, we explain what healthcare call center software is, outline key features to look for in a solution, and review top providers like:

Best Healthcare Call Center Software

The systems listed below are all HIPAA compliant, offer many useful features for healthcare organizations and have received excellent customer reviews.

• Five9
• Talkdesk
• NICE CXone
• Genesys
• Bright Pattern
• Dialpad

1. Five9

Five9's healthcare contact center system is a cloud-based solution that facilitates in-office and telehealth appointments via HIPAA-compliant video, voice, SMS, chat, messaging apps, and email. Five9 is a reliable platform with a 99.999% uptime and 24/7 live customer support on all plans.

Standout Features

• Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA): Automates tasks like caller authentication and verification, routing calls to the appropriate clinician, scheduling appointments, processing prescription refills, and answering common patient questions
• Proactive notifications: Send appointment reminders via voice or SMS, offer automatic callbacks so patients don’t have to wait on hold
• Omnichannel capabilities: (For Premium plan users and up) Access a wide variety of communication channels like voice, email, SMS, web chat, video, and social messaging–alongside complete patient conversation history and notes across channels
• HIPAA-compliant video conferencing:  Connects patients to healthcare professionals via an Apple or Android mobile video call. Video features include screen sharing, screen annotation, in-call photo and file sharing, and barcode and ID scanning
• Interaction analytics: AI-powered speech and text analysis with automatic topic identification and quality management

Pricing

Five9 offers the four different pricing plans below:

• Core Plan ($149 per month, per user): Blended inbound outbound CCaaS platform with call recording and real-time reporting
• Premium plan ($169 per month, per user): Adds omnichannel support via chat and email and Essential quality management (QM)
• Optimum plan ($199 per month, per user): Adds Enterprise QM, workforce management, and proactive workflow notifications
• Ultimate plan ($229 per month, per user): Adds full workflow automation platform and interaction analytics

Pros and Cons

Five9 is Best For 

Five9 is an excellent choice for healthcare organizations of all sizes. Smaller practices benefit from basic features like omnichannel communication, while larger hospital call centers use AI capabilities to streamline workflows and dive deep into call quality data.

2. Talkdesk

Talkdesk's Healthcare Experience Cloud is a call center solution that caters to the healthcare industry. It comes with EHR systems already integrated into the platform, pre-built provider-patient workflows, and AI tools trained specifically with healthcare expertise. Talkdesk’s HIPAA-compliant software helps organizations securely connect with patients via voice, email, SMS, and self-service chatbots.

Standout Features

• AI-powered self-service tools: Leverages speech-to-text and natural language processing (NLP) to enable healthcare organizations to build self-service conversational chatbots that make knowledge base content recommendations
• EHR integrations: Integrates with leading EHR systems based on the HL7 FHIR standard (alongside specific EHR vendor APIs) to display patient data, flags, and appointment information in the Talkdesk Workspace
• Reporting and analytics: Real-time dashboards, alerts, and custom reporting capabilities track and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs). Agent interaction recordings, transcriptions, and medical-grade speech-to-text understand medical/pharmaceutical terms and make relevant recommendations
• Omnichannel capabilities: Enables live healthcare provider: patient communication across several digital channels (email, chat, SMS), while Studio and routing tools let admins build and optimize voice and digital communication flows

Pricing

Talkdesk offers three feature-bundled plans that range in price from $75-$125 per user/month. Its Healthcare Experience package is quote-based but is presumably at least $125 per user per month. It includes all features in the Elite (highest priced) plan as well as:

• Unified desktop pre-integrated with EHR apps to display health information, past encounters, and previous inbound and outbound conversations across channels
• Pre-built workflows to streamline patient access and manage appointments, billing, and payments
• Ready-to-launch healthcare-trained AI bots for patient interaction
• 100% uptime SLA
• Option to add on two of the following: Workforce Management, Customer Experience Analytics, Agent Assist, Proactive Outbound Engagement

Pros and Cons

Talkdesk is Best For 

Talkdesk is best for large healthcare organizations with high call volume. The 100% uptime guarantee is ideal for call centers that need reliability. Omnichannel and self-service capabilities are helpful for healthcare providers needing to increase patient engagement and relieve pressure on agents.

3. NICE CXone

NICE CXone is a cloud-based omnichannel customer experience platform that manages and improves customer interactions across voice, email, chat, social media, and more.

NICE CXone's flexible and HIPAA-compliant platform enables healthcare organizations to route patient calls more efficiently, provides workforce management tools to ensure agents are available to handle patient requests, and uses CXone’s monitoring and analytics features to identify areas for improvement.

Standout Features

• AI routing: Instantly connects patients to the agent with the best-predicted performance based on all available data sources including built-in A/B testing and pre-trained models built on an expansive set of holistic CX data
• Screen pops: Displays CRM-integrated or other patient information on an agent's computer screen during live customer conversations
• Self-service tools: Buildable  conversational AI bots provide first-touch customer resolutions along with smart knowledge management to make self-service answers easier for patients to find
• Workforce management: Enables agent-initiated scheduling changes, peer trade requests, and real-time notifications alongside AI-based forecasting and suggested schedules by channel and other criteria

Pricing

Nice CXone offers 6 pricing plans that range from $71 to $209 monthly per user.

• Digital Agent ($71 monthly): A digital-only contact center with multichannel routing
• Voice Agent ($94 monthly): A voice-only contact center with self-service IVR and call routing
• Omnichannel Agent ($110 monthly): A mixed contact center with omnichannel routing
• Essential Suite ($135 monthly): Adds quality management workflows
• Core Suite ($169 monthly): Adds workforce management tools like AI scheduling and forecasting
• Complete Suite ($209 monthly): Adds AI omnichannel analytics

Pros and Cons

NICE CXone is Best For 

NICE CXone offers solutions for both healthcare providers and insurance contact centers. Overall, its AI capabilities and other advanced features make this system best for larger organizations and call centers looking to streamline the patient journey.

4. Genesys

Genesys is a cloud-based call center services provider that offers omnichannel customer engagement solutions for healthcare organizations of all sizes. Users can manage customer interactions across various channels including voice, chat, email, social media, and SMS.

Genesys helps healthcare providers manage high call volumes, reduce wait times, and improve patient satisfaction via intelligent routing, self-service options, and real-time reporting. It also helps healthcare organizations comply with regulations (including HIPAA laws) thanks to secure messaging and data access control management.

Standout Features

• Health information technology (HIT) integrations: Genesys integrates with a number of healthcare applications including EHRConnect, Abridge, and Thrive
• Agent assist: Reduces the time agents spend searching for answers by proactively providing agents with personalized recommendations and guidance during live interactions
• IVR: Lets users build multi-level interaction flows via a drag-and-drop interface, use predefined flows, enable speech recognition for menus, create touchscreen experiences with visual IVR, and develop omnichannel self-service bots.

Pricing

Genesys offers three versions of its cloud contact center platform: CX1, CX2 and CX3.

• CX1 is a voice-only plan and costs $75 per month per user
• CX2 has a digital-only version for $90 per month per user and a combined digital and voice plan for $110 per user per month
• CX3 has a digital-only version that includes workforce engagement management (WEM) for $130 per user per month and a combined voice and digital platform with WEM for $150 per user per month

Pros and Cons

Genesys is Best For

Genesys has some of the most affordable prices in the CCaaS space, it is therefore best for small healthcare organizations and contact centers looking to improve the customer experience with omnichannel service, IVR, and self-service options. Although Genesys does not offer the same level of reliability as other competitors and lacks advanced features like video chat, it is a solid HIPAA-compliant platform with many essential healthcare features including EHR integrations, IVR, and omnichannel capabilities.

5. Bright Pattern

Bright Pattern's cloud-based HIPAA-compliant contact center software provides a comprehensive solution for healthcare organizations looking to manage patient interactions across multiple channels and deliver exceptional patient experiences.

The platform's automatic call distribution and predictive dialer features route calls and handle patient inquiries more efficiently, while omnichannel routing tools ensure patient requests are handled promptly across all channels.

Standout Features

• Built-in quality management: Automatically stores all chat session transcripts, patient emails, agent responses, and call and screen recordings for future review via keyword or agent name search
• Drag and drop scenario builder: Intuitive, no-code interface lets admins define agent steps to follow during customer interactions, add prompts, receive pop-ups with case or contact information, and automatically reply to emails
• Click-to-call and click-to-chat: Lets businesses add a clickable button on their website or app that initiates a live phone call or web chat with the healthcare  organization's customer service team or contact center

Pricing

Like many other contact center software providers, Bright Pattern pricing is quote-based. It offers 4 different plans:

•  A voice-only platform with inbound and outbound calling including IVR
•  A digital-only platform with SMS/MMS, web chat, video chat, email, and social media messaging
• An omnichannel package that combines voice and digital channels
• A mobile version including voice, SMS/MMS, web chat, and social media messaging

Pros and Cons

Bright Pattern is Best For

Bright Pattern targets larger health insurance companies, but its HIPAA certification and easy-to-use platform make it a good fit for small and medium-sized healthcare providers.

6. Dialpad

Dialpad is a cloud-based communication platform that is a great choice for healthcare organizations due to its compliance with HIPAA, enterprise-grade security (including SSO), and integrations with numerous healthcare-related applications including EHRs. Dialpad offers advanced features such as video meetings, built-in call analytics, automated SMS appointment reminders, follow-ups, and voicemail drops.

Standout Features

• Call summary: Provides admins with a concise overview of a conference call or video meeting including a searchable transcript, action items, and notes
• Live speech coaching: Uses AI to provide agents with real-time recommendations, action item tracking, and sentiment analysis to improve the patient experience.
• Flexible call routing: Using DTMF keys or voice prompts, users can direct patients to the right agents based on skill level, availability, or longest idle time. Patients can also opt for an automated callback to avoid long hold times.

Pricing

Dialpad offers three AI contact center plans ranging from $80 to $150 monthly per user.

• Essentials ($80 monthly): Voice-only contact center with IVR, call distribution, and call monitoring
• Advanced ($115 monthly): Adds digital channels and virtual assistant
• Premium ($150 monthly): Omnichannel support and AI customer satisfaction score

Pros and Cons

Dialpad is Best For

Dialpad is a solid option for medical call centers of all sizes. Smaller contact centers will benefit from Dialpad’s Essentials plan, which includes many key features but does not guarantee omnichannel support. Larger contact centers benefit from Dialpad’s Premium plan, which includes unlimited call queues and custom reports made with the business intelligence (BI) feature.

Essential Healthcare Call Center Features

To comply with the various regulations and restrictions of patient communications and record-keeping, there are a few important features to look for in a healthcare call center solution.

HIPAA Compliance

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) establishes security standards for the protection of patients' electronically stored information.

This could refer to both call records and notes, as well as any information shared between your contact center solution and your electronic medical electronic health record (EHR) or emergency medical services (EMS) software.

Omnichannel Communication

Omnichannel communication is a contact center software communication strategy with a singular, asynchronous interface combining all available voice and digital channels, including email, phone, website chat, video conferencing, and in-person interactions.

Omnichannel communication enables patients and healthcare professionals to interact with an organization via the channel of their choice, while ensuring that the communication is secure, consistent, and unified across all channels.

Integration with Medical Record Systems

A medical records integration allows healthcare providers to synchronize their contact center software with their electronic medical records (EMR) system. This integration enables contact center agents to access patient records and information in real time, providing convenience, reducing human error, and ensuring key files are always on hand for appointments.

Call Routing

Call routing is the process of directing incoming phone calls to the most appropriate agent or department within an organization. This is typically done using an automated system, such as an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

ACD automatically routes calls to the most appropriate professional based on various criteria, including language spoken, agent skills, caller location, existing customer relationships, or even the time of day.

AI-Powered Automation

AI-powered automation uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms along with preset rules to automate repetitive tasks and processes, analyze data, identify patterns and trends, and make data-driven decisions.

In healthcare, AI-powered automation can be used for a variety of tasks, from medical diagnosis to administrative tasks such as appointment scheduling and medical record keeping.

Appointment Scheduling and Reminders

Some CCaaS platforms include no or low-code workflow builders that enable healthcare providers to create self-service tools for patients to schedule or cancel appointments.

These workflow builders send reminder texts, emails, or voicemails to patients automatically at a specified time before their appointment.

IVR System

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is an automated phone system that typically uses pre-recorded voice prompts to guide callers through a series of call menu options.

IVR lets healthcare organizations streamline patient interactions by providing self-service prompts for processes like appointment scheduling, medication refills, and billing inquiries. This reduces call volume, ensures bills are paid on time and in the correct amount, and improves patient outcomes.

Callbacks

Callbacks are part of an IVR or IVA system and give patients the option to request an automatic callback when an agent is available to take their call as opposed to waiting on hold.

Reporting and Analytics

Real-time and historical reporting and analytics keep contact centers operating efficiently. Key metrics such as average handle time, dropped calls, and missed appointments are monitored and displayed in customizable reports.

Call recordings, transcripts, sentiment analysis, and video recordings are also a part of reporting and analytics.

Which Provider Should You Choose?

• Patient insights: Talkdesk and NICE CXone offer customizable reporting dashboards with real-time alerts
• Low-cost options: Bright Pattern is an affordable solution without a lot of extras
• Large hospitals: Genesys and Five9 offer the most options when it comes to EHR and CRM integrations
• Video appointments and telehealth services: Dialpad and Five9 both offer secure web conferencing