Vonage, Nextiva, and similar business VoIP platforms replace your phone system with modern cloud infrastructure: call routing, voicemail, basic auto-attendant, and sometimes lightweight CRM. None have an AI that books appointments or understands "I need to reschedule my crown prep." Skrypt is purpose-built for that conversation.
Vonage and Nextiva are solid phone infrastructure choices. They're not AI front desk products. Skrypt is often deployed on top of an existing VoIP system — your current phone number stays the same, calls route through Skrypt's AI agent, and bookings land in your PMS automatically.
Most practices that add Skrypt are already on a VoIP system — Vonage, Nextiva, RingCentral, or even their original carrier. None of that changes. Skrypt sits at the call layer: your existing phone number stays the same, calls hit Skrypt's AI voice agent first, and the AI handles the interaction. If a call needs a human — complex billing, a patient requesting to speak to a specific provider, a clinical triage escalation — the AI routes it to your team or to voicemail per your configured rules.
The result: your Vonage or Nextiva lines stay intact for internal team communication, conference calls, and any workflow your staff currently runs through the VoIP system. Skrypt handles the patient-facing inbound call volume — new appointments, rescheduling, procedure questions, after-hours calls — without touching your existing phone infrastructure.
For multi-location practices, Skrypt assigns a separate AI number per location while maintaining central visibility in the Client Hub Portal. Your VoIP system can remain the internal call backbone for staff. The patient never notices the difference; they dial the same number and reach an AI that knows their practice's schedule and services.
Yes. Skrypt Health operates independently of your VoIP phone system. There are two ways to set it up: call-forwarding from your current number to Skrypt's AI, or a full number port where Skrypt becomes the primary answering layer and forwards to your Vonage or Nextiva lines when a human is needed. Most practices start with call-forwarding — it takes under 10 minutes to configure and lets you run Skrypt in parallel with your existing system before deciding whether to port.
Skrypt Health has a configurable escalation matrix. Any call that triggers an escalation condition — clinical question, upset patient, complex billing, explicit patient request for a human — is routed to your designated team line, on-call number, or voicemail. During business hours this is typically a warm transfer to the front desk. After hours, escalation conditions go to the on-call contact or emergency line you specify during onboarding. The AI never tries to handle clinical questions or situations outside its defined scope.
Skrypt Health's HIPAA compliance is self-contained — it applies regardless of what phone infrastructure the call originated from. The AI voice agent, call recording, transcript storage, and PMS write-back payloads are all handled within Skrypt's HIPAA-compliant infrastructure. Your Vonage or Nextiva account does not need to be on a HIPAA BAA for Skrypt to operate. Skrypt signs its own BAA with every healthcare practice customer as part of standard onboarding, with no additional legal negotiation required.
The most efficient setup for most practices isn't replacing their VoIP system — it's adding an AI front desk layer on top of it. Vonage and Nextiva are solid infrastructure choices that handle the internal communication backbone well: staff calls, conference calls, voicemail routing, and the basic IVR tree that greets inbound callers.
Skrypt sits above that layer. When a patient calls your practice number, the call routes to Skrypt's AI voice agent first. The AI handles the patient interaction — booking, answering FAQs, after-hours triage — and escalates to your VoIP lines when a human is needed. The patient experience is seamless: they dial the same number they always have, reach an AI that knows your practice, and either get their question resolved on the call or get transferred to a staff member with full context already captured.
For practices already on Vonage or Nextiva, adding Skrypt requires no change to the existing phone infrastructure. The most common configuration is call-forwarding from the practice's main number to Skrypt's AI line — a change that takes under 10 minutes and is fully reversible if the practice ever wants to revert.
Yes. Skrypt Health works on top of your existing VoIP setup — it doesn't replace it. The most common configuration is call-forwarding: your main practice number stays on Vonage or Nextiva, but inbound calls are forwarded to Skrypt's AI line first. If the call needs a human, Skrypt routes back to your Vonage or Nextiva extensions. Your existing VoIP contract is untouched. Some practices eventually port their main number to Skrypt when the contract renews, but it's not required to get started.
Neither platform has healthcare-specific AI receptionist features. Both have basic IVR (interactive voice response) and auto-attendant capabilities that can route callers to different departments or play recorded messages. Vonage has a virtual agent product and Nextiva has some AI-assisted features, but neither integrates with dental or veterinary practice management systems, books appointments, or handles healthcare-specific workflows like clinical triage or treatment plan follow-up. They are general-purpose business phone platforms, not healthcare front-office tools.
Vonage and Nextiva typically price per user per month — ranging from $25–$50/user/month depending on the plan and features. A practice with 5 staff members on Vonage Business would pay $125–$250/month for the VoIP platform. Skrypt Health's AI Receptionist tier starts at $429/month flat — no per-user or per-call fees, regardless of call volume. The two tools serve different purposes: Vonage or Nextiva as phone infrastructure, Skrypt as the AI front-desk layer on top. Many practices run both for a combined cost that is still significantly below adding a second full-time receptionist.
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