Medical practices carry a phone burden most businesses never see: PHI moves through every call, federal law dictates what happens when someone dials 911 from an exam room, referrals still travel by fax, and the after-hours line has to reach the right on-call provider without fail. Most phone systems treat all of that as someone else's problem.
Cannon VoIP treats it as the spec. HIPAA-compliant cloud eFax replaces the hallway machine, the AI receptionist answers under an account-wide HIPAA mode, E911 dispatchable locations are registered on each phone number in the portal, and after-hours routing switches automatically. Flat $34 per extension, month to month, no contracts.
Where standard phone systems fail a clinic
Start with 911. Kari's Law requires direct 911 dialing and on-site notification; RAY BAUM'S Act requires a dispatchable location, suite number included, to travel with the call. A generic VoIP account registered to a headquarters address quietly fails both the moment you open a second location or send a provider home with a softphone. Our plain-English guide to E911 rules covers what the law actually demands.
Then the daily grind: front desk staff triaging schedulers, pharmacies, and patients at once; Spanish-speaking patients waiting for the one bilingual staffer; after-hours calls bouncing to an answering service that reads from a script. Each of those is a routing problem, and routing problems are solvable.
What we set up for medical practices
HIPAA mode, account-wide
The
AI receptionist is covered by HIPAA mode: one switch turns on every protection, with a switch for each underneath. Notifications never show patient details, outside CRMs and webhooks get no transcripts, recordings or fax documents, and AI processing can be switched off entirely. Recordings and voicemail are kept 90 days unless you pick another number, an access log shows who opened what, and everyone signs in with two steps.
Compliant faxing, no machine
Orders, referrals, and records move through
HIPAA-compliant eFax from email or the browser at $10 per month. Received faxes land in the same inbox as voicemail and texts and open as a PDF, instead of piling up in a paper tray. Each fax line can email received faxes to chosen people, or send a secure sign-in link instead of the attachment.
E911 for every site and every provider
Each phone number carries its own
dispatchable location, suite numbers included, checked with 911 systems before it is registered. Each clinic building can be a 911 site with its own address, so desk phones send their building's address, and 911 calls from the mobile app send the phone's location. Direct 911 dialing and on-site notification are how the system works, not options.
On-call routing that runs itself
Office hours per number and a holiday calendar with one-click US federal holidays
switch routing automatically, and a company status switch covers snow days and emergencies. The after-hours menu can ring the on-call provider's cell, take a structured message, or hand off to the AI receptionist.
Bilingual by default
Spanish-speaking patients are answered in Spanish: the AI receptionist switches to the caller's language on its own as soon as it hears them, and it speaks 19 languages in all. No separate line, no "press 2," no waiting for the one bilingual staffer.
Records you control
Call recording can be set to all calls, inbound only, outbound only, or none, with overrides per number or extension, and the "this call may be recorded" notice follows state consent laws automatically. You choose how long recordings are kept, and legal holds keep recordings, voicemails and faxes past any retention period. See
security, compliance, and retention for the specifics.
A live interpreter on *84
Dial *84 or tap Translate in the app to bring a live phone interpreter onto a call already in progress, or use it on speakerphone with a patient in the room. It works out both languages itself and only speaks to translate.
911 alerts and 933 tests
When anyone dials 911, the people you choose are alerted by portal notice, email, text, and a phone call, including outside contacts like your alarm company, with a follow-up once the call ends. Dial 933 any time to test what dispatch would see.
Why practices and clinics choose us
Flat $34 per extension per month with no contracts means a practice is never locked into a system that stopped fitting, and never surprised by taxes and fees stacked on the invoice. Texting and transcription are included, and recording can be switched off on PHI-heavy lines. That configurability, not a plaque on a wall, is what HIPAA-conscious means in practice.
Hardware stays boring in the best way: Cannon Certified phones ship preconfigured and register themselves, many existing Yealink, Fanvil, Grandstream, Cisco, and Poly handsets carry over, and replacements ship overnight AM from next to DFW Airport, because a front desk without a working phone is a lobby full of people who could not reach you.
And when you grow, the system grows sideways with you: a second clinic joins the same account, extensions transfer between sites like internal calls, and volume discounts apply automatically at 25 extensions.
What a typical setup looks like
A typical clinic runs front desk, nurse station, provider, and billing extensions at $34 each, cloud eFax at $10, and often the AI receptionist at $65 per month, or free with 10 or more users, for after-hours and overflow. The auto attendant answers with day and after-hours menus: appointments to the desk, refills to a voicemail box that emails transcripts to the nurse station, emergencies straight to instructions and the on-call path.
Migration is deliberately unexciting: numbers port for $15 per line with about two minutes of downtime, usually the next business day, and E911 addresses are registered on each number as part of setup, not left as homework.
Common questions from medical practices
Will you sign a BAA / how does HIPAA actually work here?
Talk to us about your compliance posture before you sign anything, and we will walk through which features healthcare offices typically enable, which they leave off, and how HIPAA mode and
HIPAA-compliant eFax fit your workflows. Turning on HIPAA mode records that you have a signed Business Associate Agreement, with who confirmed it and when. No pressure and no contract either way.
Can after-hours calls reach our on-call provider directly?
Yes. After-hours
schedules switch automatically and can ring an on-call cell, rotate between providers, take structured messages, or route through the AI receptionist. Holiday schedules are separate, so the December calendar does not require anyone to remember anything.
What about therapists and small practices, is this overkill?
The system scales down cleanly: a solo practice can run two extensions and nothing else, month to month at $34 each. Add eFax or the AI receptionist only if the workload justifies it. No minimum seats beyond two, no contract to grow into.
Moving offices? Updating E911 dispatchable addresses is part of the move checklist we walk you through, two minutes in the portal, and arguably the most important setting in the system. Dial 933 afterward to hear the callback number and address dispatch would see.
Phones that fit a clinic
Tell us about your practice and we will map features to your compliance needs.
Talk to us
