Patient call volume: answer the routine questions online

Which front-desk calls could the website answer?

The routine ones: hours, location, insurance, services, how to book and how payment works. Those answers don’t change from one caller to the next. So they can live on a page.

Say I could add one section to a small practice’s website to answer a repeat call. It would cover operating hours and in-network insurance.

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) notes that practices have invested in patient portals, automated reminders and other digital tools. Even so, for a large share of patients the phone often remains the real “front door” (MGMA Stat).

No website can promise a lower call volume. What it can do is answer the routine questions on pages patients can check before they call. It can also keep those answers accurate.

How do you find out which questions the front desk hears most?

Keep a simple tally of call topics for one normal week. A tally is just a mark for each call, next to its topic. It shows you which questions to answer on the site first. It is based on your own phones, not guesswork.

1. Print the tally sheet below. Keep it next to each phone at the front desk.
2. After each call, add a mark next to its topic. If a call covers two topics, mark both.
3. If a call doesn’t fit a row, write a short topic in “Something else”, such as “parking for vans”. Never write who called or why they need care.
4. At the end of the week, add up each row. Sort the topics from most marks to fewest.

Template: one-week call-topic tally sheet.

The sheet records topics only. No names, birthdays, phone numbers, member IDs, symptoms or reasons for a visit go on it. So it never holds patient information. You can share it with whoever updates the website.

What should the hours and location section say, including holidays?

Give the regular hours for each day and the dates of holiday closures. Add the address with a directions link, parking, how to find the entrance and the phone number. Put all this on the contact page. Also put it in the footer, the strip at the bottom of every page.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises practice websites to include regular and holiday office hours. It also advises the address, with a link for directions if feasible, and phone and fax numbers (AAP practice marketing guidance). That advice is written for pediatric practices. But the same details fit any independent practice.

Write the hours day by day, not as one range. A range can hide a late opening or an early close. Add holiday closures as soon as they’re set. Take them down once they’ve passed. Make the phone number a click-to-call link. Then a patient reading on a phone can tap it to call.

Patients also see hours in the practice’s Google Business Profile. It lets a business set special hours for holidays and other short-term changes. Setting special hours doesn’t change its regular hours (Google Business Profile help). Update the website and the profile on the same day. That way the two never disagree.

How should the site answer “Do you take my insurance?”

Name the plans the practice is in network with. In network means the plan has a contract with the practice to provide care. Say when the list was last checked. Tell patients to check their own benefits with their plan. “Most major plans accepted” doesn’t answer the question patients are really asking.

When patients called to ask if a practice took their insurance, what I saw was this. They wanted to know two things. Was their plan in network with the clinic? And would the plan pay, instead of leaving them with a surprise bill?

A page can fully answer the first part. It can also point clearly to where the second part gets answered.

The AAP advises listing accepted insurances, co-payment expectations and acceptable forms of payment (AAP practice marketing guidance). On a website, copay expectations can mean when the copay is collected and how. Leave out the dollar amount for each plan. It changes too often to publish.

Illustrative example, with made-up plan names. Before:

After:

The “after” version answers the in-network question directly. It is also honest about what a list can’t tell a patient. The dental specialty page shows how an insurance page can split “Are you in network?” from “Will you file my claim?”.

Where do new-patient forms and first-visit details belong?

On one “New patients” page. Link to it from the main menu and from appointment reminders. The page should hold blank forms to download and how to return them. It should also say what to expect at the first visit.

The AAP suggests tabs for patients, such as registration forms and a “welcome to the practice” packet for new patients (AAP practice marketing guidance). A tab is a menu section on the site. A welcome section can cover what to bring and how early to arrive. It can also cover where to park and roughly how the first visit runs.

Don’t use the public website to collect patient information. Offer blank forms to download and print. Patients send completed forms back the way the practice already handles patient information, such as its patient portal or the front desk. Don’t add a web form that asks for health details. This is general information, not legal advice.

Which calls should stay on the phone?

Anything that depends on the individual patient or changes often. That means eligibility checks, prior authorization, specific scheduling questions, copay amounts and anything clinical. An eligibility check asks the patient’s health plan for information on eligibility and coverage under the plan. Prior authorization is approval from a health plan that may be required before a service is covered. The website’s job is to make these calls easy to place. It is not there to replace them.

The calls I saw that a website shouldn’t try to handle were about information that keeps changing. A patient’s copay amount is one example. Anything that needs constant updates is another. A copay figure on a web page goes out of date as soon as the plan changes.

Eligibility checks, prior authorization and scheduling also show up in an MGMA Stat poll from March 10, 2026, with 294 applicable responses. Practice leaders named time-intensive phone tasks for their staff: eligibility and prior authorization (45%), scheduling (31%), intake (9%), prescription refills (6%) and other (9%) (MGMA Stat). Time-intensive means a task takes up a lot of staff time. These figures show which phone tasks practice leaders find time-intensive for their staff. They don’t show what patients ask. They also don’t show how phone time is divided.

For these calls, the website can still help. Put a click-to-call button at the top of every page. Link to the practice’s existing online scheduling, if it has one. Say plainly that symptoms and medical questions go to the clinical team, not the website. A new practice website from ClinicBuilds includes click-to-call, a link to the practice’s existing online scheduling (if any) and Google Business Profile link-up.

Checklist: turn each repeat call into a line on the website

Take the top topics from your tally. Give each one a place on the site, a plain answer and an owner. The template below is a starting point. Change the owners to match your office.

Template: call-to-content map.

Then work through it in order:

1. Run the one-week tally and sort the topics.
2. For each top topic, write the answer in plain words, as you would say it on the phone.
3. Put each answer where the map says. Link it from the page patients land on most.
4. Name one owner for each answer and set a date to check it.
5. Change the Google Business Profile on the same day as the website.
6. Repeat the tally after a few months to see which topics still come up. Then adjust the pages.

Starting prices for a new site or a redesign are on the pricing page. Ask for a free presence review to see which repeat front-desk questions your current website could answer.