BrainWorks Behavioral Health provides psychological testing and behavioral health care across eight Southern California locations, serving patients from young children with signs of early autism or learning disorders to older adults with cognitive issues. The practice accepts insurance for testing that can otherwise cost $5,000 to $10,000 out of pocket.
When a Medicaid plan initially said it already had enough providers, Christian Losch, BrainWorks' COO, used tagged call data from CallRail’s Call Tracking to show that 35 of the plan's members had called BrainWorks in two months looking for services. The contract was approved in February, and within six months the plan became one of BrainWorks' largest sources of patients.
As demand grew, BrainWorks needed a way to handle more intake calls without adding more front-desk staff.
With Voice Assist supporting its central intake team, BrainWorks was able to:
- Handle about 50% more cases from January through August without adding administrative staff
- Cut total phone time for intake and scheduling by 50–75%
- Reduce a typical first intake call from 10–15 minutes to two to three minutes
The phones couldn’t keep up with demand
A new BrainWorks office would normally take about six months to fill, but its Riverside location was full within a week. Meanwhile, the front-desk team had grown from about 1.5 people to nearly four full-time employees answering calls and scheduling appointments.
Even with the extra staff, BrainWorks could miss 50 to 100 calls on a bad day — as many as 300 in a bad week — mostly during business hours and lunch. Christian estimates that a prospective patient who could not get through and chose another provider could represent about $1,500 in lost revenue.
Access mattered just as much. Christian said families in California can wait 12 to 18 months for autism testing. For a young child who may need an evaluation before treatment can begin, every extra month matters.
We were at almost four full-time people answering phones and scheduling appointments and still chasing our tails. We were just adding headcount every time we added another office or another doctor.
– Christian, COO, BrainWorks Behavioral Health
A two-week trial showed it could work
The Voice Assist demo gave Christian confidence that it could take on many of the questions reaching the front desk. Using information from the BrainWorks website, Voice Assist, which the practice named Bella, could answer questions he said might take two to four weeks to train a new employee to handle. For Christian, the appeal wasn't just about volume — most medical practices already use AI behind the scenes, and he saw no reason not to bring it out front, too.
Admin tasks are typically your highest-turnover positions. Staff need to take days off, or have family or car troubles. Bella hasn't taken a day off since she started answering calls for us.
– Christian, COO, BrainWorks Behavioral Health
BrainWorks started with lunch and after-hours calls, then moved Voice Assist onto its main intake line after a week or two. The practice also chose to make it clear that callers were speaking with AI.
Early feedback helped the team adjust the experience. While there was some initial pushback from callers who wanted the option to reach a live person, BrainWorks resisted adding a live-transfer option to keep the focus on scheduling rather than fielding one-off questions.
We wanted to make sure it was clear that it was AI. Dealing with a mental health population, we didn't want them questioning whether it was a human or assuming it was a human and then finding out it wasn't.
– Christian, COO, BrainWorks Behavioral Health
All intake for BrainWorks' eight locations runs through its main office in San Diego, where Voice Assist now handles the same central process. A CallRail solutions specialist stayed available when the team needed to change schedules or make other early adjustments.
How it works
When a prospective patient calls, Voice Assist asks initial questions to see if BrainWorks can help, collects basic contact information, and texts a link to enroll in the practice's electronic medical record (EMR) system. BrainWorks set up Voice Assist to only collect contact information — clinical details are handled through the EMR, which runs on CallRail's Healthcare Plan, built to support HIPAA compliance.
The new process also removes some of the slowest parts of phone intake. Staff no longer spend time asking callers to spell out names or repeat details lost to a dropped line. Christian described the old back-and-forth of confirming whether a name started with a C or K. Now the team has the information in front of them before the follow-up call starts.
Scheduling still needs a person, since it means matching each patient's doctor by age group, condition, and location. It also means coordinating the three separate appointments many patients need: an intake, testing, and a follow-up.
The best of the best was probably eight to 10 minutes, and 10 to 15 on the more average cases. Now we have that two-minute call, and the follow-up is three to five minutes tops. We've cut our time down by somewhere between 50% and 75%.
– Christian, COO, BrainWorks Behavioral Health
Handle more cases without growing the front desk
From January through August, BrainWorks saw about 50% more cases without adding administrative staff. Voice Assist absorbed the intake calls that growth generated.
It's really freed up time for people to do things that are a bit more rewarding, rather than sorting through every single call and answering the same question 15 times a week. Whereas getting a family who's been looking for an autism evaluation for 12 months scheduled, a lot of times you get thank-yous.
– Christian, COO, BrainWorks Behavioral Health
Voice Assist now takes the first call. The front desk's job shifted from collecting information to scheduling around it. Demand keeps climbing. The calls that come with it just don't run the whole team's day anymore.
