Question 1

What is gBell?

Accepted Answer

gBell is software that carries patient calls through scheduling, intake, system updates, and staff handoffs for clinics and hospitals. It is a software product, not an agency or a staffing service.

Question 2

Who is gBell for?

Accepted Answer

Small and mid-size medical and dental practices where the front desk is understaffed, and every missed call is a patient who books somewhere else or a no-show nobody confirmed.

Question 3

Is gBell HIPAA compliant, and does it sign a BAA?

Accepted Answer

gBell operates as a business associate under HIPAA and signs a Business Associate Agreement with a practice before any patient information moves. The BAA governs how protected health information is handled and takes precedence over the standard terms of service. A vendor claiming its terms of service already cover HIPAA is not describing how the law works.

Question 4

Are calls recorded?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The agent states at the start of every call that the caller is speaking with an automated assistant and that the call is recorded. A practice can adjust the wording and the voice but cannot remove the disclosure or move it later in the call. If a caller asks not to be recorded, the agent offers to take a message or transfer to a person. Several states, California among them, require every party to a confidential conversation to consent before it is recorded.

Question 5

Does gBell use patient data to train AI models?

Accepted Answer

No. Protected health information is not used to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any AI model, and agreements with model providers prohibit them from doing so with data gBell sends. Where a provider offers zero data retention it is enabled. Where a provider retains data briefly for abuse monitoring, that retention is covered by a business associate agreement and the data is still not used for training.

Question 6

What happens if a caller has an emergency?

Accepted Answer

The agent is instructed to tell a caller describing an emergency to hang up and call 911, and to flag the call to staff at the highest priority. gBell is not an emergency service, cannot dispatch help, and must not be relied on as a triage mechanism. A practice remains responsible for an emergency plan that does not depend on the service being available or correct.

Question 7

What happens when a call needs a human?

Accepted Answer

The call escalates to staff, who receive the transcript and a patient summary before they pick up rather than after. Practices configure when, how, and to whom calls escalate.

Question 8

Can patients book without calling?

Accepted Answer

Yes. gBell provides an embeddable self-scheduling widget a practice can place on its own website, and patients who booked by phone can reschedule or cancel through a link sent to them.

Question 9

How does gBell protect patient information in emails and text messages?

Accepted Answer

Patient-identifying detail is not placed in email or SMS message bodies. Those messages carry a link, and the patient verifies with a one-time passcode before anything is shown, so a forwarded message or an unlocked phone does not expose someone’s appointment.

Question 10

Does gBell verify insurance?

Accepted Answer

Yes. gBell sends a 270 eligibility request, reads the payer’s 271 response, explains the returned coverage and benefits, and routes missing detail to the next action.

Question 11

Does gBell post EOBs and ERAs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. gBell Payment Posting matches an EOB or ERA to the right claim lines, applies approved posting rules, and reconciles the remittance to its check or EFT before clean work reaches the practice system.

Question 12

Does gBell include a clinical scribe?

Accepted Answer

Yes. gBell Scribe turns post-visit clinician dictation into a case-specific draft with exact source quotes, uncertainty review, clinician approval, and export.

Question 13

Does a practice keep its own phone number?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Practices keep their own number, their own calendar, and their own tone. The agent answers in the practice’s name, not the vendor’s.

Notes from the front desk