Glossary
HIPAA mode
Also known as: HIPAA-compliant AI phone, HIPAA AI receptionist
Definition
HIPAA mode on an AI receptionist is the four-part compliance bundle — Business Associate Agreement (BAA), 6-year transcript retention, explicit per-call recording consent, and audited access controls — that makes the AI legal for healthcare practices handling Protected Health Information (PHI).
Why it matters
Dental practices, medical clinics, therapy, chiropractic, mental health — any business that handles PHI on a phone call has legal obligations under HIPAA. An AI receptionist becomes a 'Business Associate' the moment it touches PHI, which means the vendor must sign a BAA and meet the technical/administrative safeguards HIPAA requires. Vendors that don't offer HIPAA mode (or that label it 'we have encryption' without the four pillars) aren't legal to use for protected-health-info handling. Wrong choice = potential OCR penalties + breach-notification obligations.
How it works
When you enable HIPAA mode on a RingDispatch plan ($149/mo add-on), four things change. (1) RingDispatch signs a BAA with your practice; sub-processor BAA flow-through with Anthropic, ElevenLabs, and Twilio is executed at HIPAA-tier signup, contingent on those vendors' current BAA-eligibility on the plans we operate under — we confirm the active sub-processor BAA chain to you in writing before any PHI is processed on your behalf. (2) Transcript retention extends to 6 years (HIPAA's minimum). (3) The AI's call opening includes a recording-consent disclosure: 'this call may be recorded for quality and recordkeeping' — and the AI captures the caller's affirmative yes before retaining the transcript; declined calls have the transcript discarded. (4) Dashboard access flips to role-based with audit logs of every transcript view (timestamp + reader identity).
Examples
- A pediatric dental practice books cleanings: HIPAA mode ensures the patient-name + appointment-type combo (which is PHI) is retained with proper consent for 6 years.
- A therapy practice receives a call about a new client's mental-health history: HIPAA mode logs the consent decision and routes the transcript only to the intake clinician.
- A chiropractor takes a workers'-comp injury intake: HIPAA mode keeps the injury details encrypted at rest, accessible only to authorized staff, audit-logged.