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AI receptionist for urgent care clinics: cost per call, setup and a sample script

What an AI phone agent built on HighLevel Voice AI costs a urgent care clinic, what it should and should not handle, and how a call sounds.

By Zaib Khan Prices checked against official pages Updated

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The short answer

An AI receptionist for urgent care clinics built on HighLevel Voice AI costs about $0.16 per answered call, or $96 a month for 600 calls averaging 2 minutes, phone line included. Roughly 210 of those calls (35%) would come outside office hours, which is where an AI answering service earns its keep. Emergencies, complaints and anything needing judgment should go to a person.

What the AI should handle

Answer hours, location and wait questions

Give hours and directions, share the current wait estimate if staff update it in HighLevel, and offer a timed arrival slot at the nearest location.

Explain self-pay pricing

Read the published self-pay visit prices and testing fees from the knowledge base, and tell self-pay patients they can ask for a good faith estimate.

Send emergencies to 911

If the caller describes anything on the medical director's emergency list, tell them to call 911 and end the booking flow. The list comes from the clinic, never from the AI's judgment.

Book employer services

Take the company name, contact person, service type and number of employees, create an opportunity in the employer pipeline, and alert the account manager.

What to send to a person

  • Any caller describing emergency symptoms
  • Whether the clinic can treat a specific condition
  • Test results and follow-up care
  • Workers' compensation claims

HighLevel's voice agents can transfer a live call, create a task, or trigger a workflow that texts the owner. Set the handoff rules before the agent goes live.

Cost per call and per month

Assumptions for a typical urgent care clinic: 600 calls a month answered by the AI, averaging 2 minutes. Phone minutes are billed per call and rounded up, so each call bills 2 phone minutes at $0.01165.

Setup AI cost Phone line Per month Per call
Pay per use, Standard voice, GPT-4.1 Mini $81.60 $13.98 $96 $0.16
Pay per use, ElevenLabs voice, GPT-4.1 Mini $105.60 $13.98 $120 $0.20
Pay per use, speech-to-speech (OpenAI) $240.00 $13.98 $254 $0.42
AI Employee Unlimited, $97 flat $97.00 $13.98 $111 $0.18
Our estimate from HighLevel's published rates, checked 2026-09-29. Token use is estimated. Highlighted row is the cheapest at this volume.

The breakdown of every Voice AI charge is in our Voice AI pricing guide. Agencies can price this as a monthly service with the calculator's Price a client tab, preloaded for a urgent care clinic.

Compared with staff time

Those 600 calls take about 20 hours of talk time a month. At the US median receptionist wage of $18.27 an hour (May 2025, Bureau of Labor Statistics), that talk time alone is worth about $365, before hold time, breaks, benefits and the calls that come in after hours. An AI receptionist does not replace a good front desk; it catches the overflow and the evenings, and frees staff for the people in front of them.

Sample call

Example AI receptionist call for a urgent care clinicIllustration

AI AGENTThanks for calling QuickCare Urgent Care, Oak Street. I'm the clinic's AI assistant. If this is an emergency, please hang up and call 911. How can I help?

CALLERHow long is the wait right now?

AI AGENTThe current estimate at Oak Street is about 40 minutes. I can reserve a time so you can wait at home. Would the 3:15 p.m. slot work?

CALLERYes. How much is it without insurance?

AI AGENTA self-pay visit starts at $135, and tests are extra. I'll text you the full price list, and you can ask the front desk for a good faith estimate.

CALLEROkay, book it.

AI AGENTYou're booked for 3:15 at Oak Street. What's your full name and date of birth?

CALLERDerek Owens, September 9, 1985.

AI AGENTThank you, Derek. I've texted the address and what to bring.

Prompt tips

  1. Tip 1Give the agent the medical director's emergency list word for word and make the 911 instruction the first branch it checks.
  2. Tip 2Keep a separate knowledge base section for each location with hours, services, testing availability and self-pay prices.
  3. Tip 3Tell the agent to answer 'Do you treat this?' only from the clinic's published services list and to route everything else to staff.

Rules to watch

Emergencies go to 911. The AI must not decide whether symptoms can wait. Have the medical director write the list of situations that end the call with an instruction to call 911, test it before launch, and review transcripts weekly for calls that should have taken this path.

Good faith estimates. Under the No Surprises Act, uninsured and self-pay patients can usually get a good faith estimate on request, and may dispute a bill that comes in at least $400 above it. Publish self-pay prices and have the AI tell callers they can ask for an estimate.

HIPAA across locations. Urgent care clinics that bill insurance electronically are HIPAA covered entities. HighLevel's $297 a month HIPAA package applies to every sub-account in the account once enabled, so a multi-location group pays it once, but HIPAA must be switched on in each sub-account.

General information, not legal advice.

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Questions

Can an AI receptionist tell callers the urgent care wait time?
Only if the wait time lives in HighLevel, for example a value staff update each hour or one fed from the queue system through an integration. Otherwise the agent should offer a reserved arrival slot instead, which meets the same need without quoting a stale number.
What does an AI receptionist cost for a busy urgent care?
At our assumption of 600 AI calls a month at 2 minutes, pay per use comes to about $96 per location, or $0.16 a call with phone minutes. The AI minutes alone come to about $82, under the $97 AI Employee Unlimited plan. Recheck monthly, since flu season can push volume past it.
How does the AI handle a caller with chest pain?
It does not assess anything. The greeting tells emergencies to call 911, and the prompt lists situations, written by the medical director, where the agent repeats the 911 instruction and ends the booking. Review transcripts weekly to confirm the path works as written.
Can one AI agent answer for all our locations?
It can, by asking which location the caller wants and booking into that calendar. Separate agents per sub-account keep numbers, knowledge bases and reporting apart, which is cleaner when locations differ in services, testing and hours.

Sources

  1. No Surprises Act: understanding costs in advance (CMS)
  2. Covered Entities and Business Associates (HHS)
  3. Google Maps user contributed content policy on reviews
  4. HIPAA compliance with HighLevel (help center)
  5. HighLevel pricing page
  6. HighLevel AI product pricing (help center)
  7. HighLevel Phone System pricing and billing guide
  8. HighLevel AI product pricing (help center)
  9. AI Voice Agents overview
  10. HighLevel Phone System pricing and billing guide
  11. BLS Occupational Outlook: Receptionists (May 2025 pay)

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