Every call answered. Every appointment booked. Every benefit checked.
Jelo is the AI receptionist built into an optometry EHR. It picks up after one ring, books directly into your schedule, verifies vision and medical benefits, and hands anything it can't resolve to a person at your desk.
In development. Book a demo for early access; pricing is an add-on from $290/month on top of the $300/month Jelo platform.
4.9/5 from 50 practices
Add-on from $290/month · Not included in the $300/month platform · Early access via demo · Last reviewed: August 30, 2026
What is an AI receptionist for optometry?
An AI receptionist for optometry is a phone agent built into the practice's EHR that answers every inbound call, books and reschedules eye exams directly into the schedule, verifies vision and medical benefits before the visit, sends reminders and intake forms, and hands anything it cannot resolve to a human at the front desk.
The difference between a bolt-on answering service and an EHR-native receptionist is what the agent can see. A generic service gets a calendar link; Jelo's receptionist reads the live optometry schedule, the chart, the patient's plan, and the contact-lens Rx, which is why it can finish the call instead of taking a message.
How much does an AI receptionist cost?
Jelo's AI receptionist will be an add-on from $290 a month on top of the $300 a month Jelo platform; it is not included in the platform fee. Generic AI receptionists are sold in per-plan or per-call tiers. A full-time front-desk hire in the US typically costs $38,000 to $48,000 a year fully loaded, and still cannot answer during a busy check-out or after hours.
The $300 platform fee covers the EHR, patient CRM and recall, optical POS, scheduling, and the built-in billing tools, and it is live today. The receptionist is a separately priced add-on that is still in development; the AI biller and the AI scribe are priced separately as well.
What EMR do optometrists use with an AI receptionist?
Most optometrists run RevolutionEHR, Eyefinity (OfficeMate/ExamWRITER), Compulink, Crystal PM, or MaximEyes and bolt a generic call-answering service on top through a calendar link. Jelo is an optometry EHR with the AI receptionist built in, so the agent books into the real schedule and sees the chart instead of a shared calendar.
For the full picture of what AI does in an eye-care practice today, including scribes, coding, and claims, read AI in optometry, 2026.
What it handles, and what it hands to a person
Configured during onboarding with your hours, providers, appointment types, and escalation rules.
Handled end to end
- New-patient exam booking with insurance capture
- Reschedules and cancellations, with the slot released instantly
- Contact-lens reorders from the patient's current Rx
- “Are you in my network?” and copay questions, verified against the plan
- After-hours, lunch, and during-exam coverage
- Appointment reminders and intake forms sent by text
Escalated to your desk
- Clinical questions and symptom triage
- Billing disputes and refund requests
- Anything outside its configured scope
- Callers who ask for a person
- Emergencies, routed to your on-call line
The front desk that never sleeps
By the time the patient walks in, you already know what's covered and what they owe.
Answers after one ring, every time
During exams, at lunch, and after hours. No voicemail, no hold music, no call that rolls to a competitor because the desk was busy checking someone out.
Books straight into the EHR schedule
Reads provider availability, appointment types, and exam-length rules, then writes the booking into the same schedule your team sees. Reschedules and cancellations release the slot instantly.
Verifies benefits before the visit
When a caller asks whether you take their plan, Jelo checks vision and medical eligibility and confirms coverage, so the front desk knows what is covered and what the patient owes before they arrive.
Sees the chart, not a shared calendar
Because it is native to the Jelo EHR it knows the patient's last exam, current contact-lens Rx, and recall status. A CL reorder call takes one minute instead of a callback.
English and Spanish
Answers in the caller's language and books the visit the same way, with the intake form sent in that language too.
Reminders and intake by text
Confirms the booking, sends the intake form, and reminds the patient before the visit. Fewer no-shows without anyone at the desk sending messages by hand.
Escalates to a human
Clinical questions, billing disputes, and anything it cannot resolve go to a person at your desk, or become a callback task if nobody is available. It never guesses.
What “books into the schedule” really requires
Schedule access, provider rules, insurance capture, and chart lookup. A calendar link gives you one of the four.
| Capability | Jelo | Goodcall | Smith.ai | Weave |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Books directly into the EHR schedule | Calendar link | Calendar link | Check vendor | |
| Sees the chart and the patient's plan | ||||
| Verifies vision + medical benefits | ||||
| Contact-lens reorders from the Rx | ||||
| English and Spanish | Check vendor | Check vendor | Check vendor | |
| 24/7 after-hours coverage | Check vendor | |||
| Optometry-specific scripts | Generic | Generic | Generic | |
| Signed BAA included | Check vendor | Check vendor | Check vendor | |
| Pricing | Add-on from $290/mo (in development) | Per-plan tiers | Per-call / per-plan | Add-on pricing |
Jelo's AI receptionist is in development and priced as an add-on to the $300/month platform. Goodcall and Smith.ai are general-purpose AI and virtual receptionists that integrate through calendar links; Weave is a phone and communications platform sold with add-on pricing. Verify current features and pricing with each vendor.
What missed calls cost vs. a front-desk hire
Calls per day × missed-call rate × the share that would have booked × your average visit value.
Illustrative only. Assumes 21 working days per month and that every recovered booking is a visit you would otherwise have lost. Adjust the sliders to your own call log and fee schedule.
A worked example with illustrative assumptions: a one-doctor practice takes 40 calls a day. If 20 percent go unanswered while the desk is busy or closed, that is 8 missed calls. If 30 percent of those callers would have booked and the average exam plus materials is worth $180, the practice is losing roughly $430 a day, or about $9,000 a month across 21 working days. The AI receptionist add-on will start at $290 a month, on top of the $300 a month Jelo platform. Even at a quarter of those assumptions the add-on pays for itself in the first week. Pair it with the no-show playbook and the recall guide and the same phone line brings existing patients back too.
Hear it answer a call
Book a demo and we'll ring your practice's line live. You hear the greeting, the booking, and the benefits check on your own phone before you decide anything.
Book the live callHIPAA, call-recording consent, and where the data goes
Jelo is HIPAA compliant with AES-256 encryption, immutable audit logs, role-based access, and a signed Business Associate Agreement on every subscription. Protected health information is never used to train external models. Call recording and consent-disclosure rules vary by state (several require all-party consent), so the practice configures the greeting disclosure during onboarding. This is not legal advice; confirm requirements with your state board or counsel. See our HIPAA checklist for optical shops.
Pricing, stated plainly
Jelo platform: $300 a month, flat, for the whole practice, live today. That covers the optometry EHR, optical POS and inventory, patient CRM and recall, scheduling, and the built-in billing tools. No per-provider surcharges, no long-term contract. Payer enrollment and data migration are free, and most practices are live in 5 to 14 days.
AI receptionist: add-on from $290 a month, in development. It is not included in the platform fee. Book a demo for early access; final pricing depends on call volume and lines. The AI biller (10% of insurance reimbursement) and the AI scribe (from $70 a month) are separate add-ons, also in development. Full detail on the pricing page.
For the exam side of the same platform, the AI scribe for optometry drafts the assessment, plan, and ICD-10 codes from the findings the doctor enters, and the practice management layer ties scheduling, billing, and reporting together.
Frequently asked questions
Last reviewed: August 30, 2026
Stop losing patients to voicemail
An AI receptionist that books into your real schedule and checks benefits on the call. In development, add-on from $290/month. Book a demo to get early access.
Continue exploring Jelo
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