The prescreener is a short set of questions a new client answers before their first visit, so you can tell whether your practice is a good fit and arrive at the first visit with the basics. One question set per location serves both the booking page and the AI on the phone.
Turn it on
Go to Settings → Prescreener. Two rows at the top say where the questions are asked:
- Online booking requests from new clients (off by default). Your booking page asks "Is this your first visit with us?" and shows the questions marked Booking page to anyone who says yes. Returning clients skip them.
- Phone calls with new callers shows On or Off. The switch lives on the AI Voice page: click Change on AI Voice. See Ask new callers on the phone.
Changes on this page are kept until you click Save at the top.
Choose the questions
Questions are grouped in five categories: Reason for care, Administrative, Billing & payment, Client preferences and Demographics. Each row has three boxes:
| Box | What it does |
|---|---|
| Booking page | Shown on your booking page to new clients |
| On calls | Asked by your AI receptionist to new callers |
| Required | Must be answered (only when one of the other two is ticked) |
A location starts with a 15-question starter set. Out of the box, the main reason for care (required), how they heard about you, how they plan to pay, preferred appointment times and "anything the provider should know" show on the booking page, and the reason, how they heard about you, how they plan to pay, insurance carrier and member ID are asked on calls. Change any of it; once you save, the list is yours, even if you delete every question. You can have up to 40 questions.
Click + Add question under a category to add one, or Edit on a row to change it.
Edit a question
The Edit question (or Add new question) drawer has:
- Category and Answer type: Short answer, Paragraph, One choice, Multiple choice, Yes / No or Date.
- Question: the wording (up to 300 characters), with + Add help text for a line shown under it on the booking page.
- Choices, for One choice and Multiple choice: at least two, up to 20.
- Save the answer to the client record: Don't save to the record, or one of Preferred name, Pronouns, Referred by, Insurance carrier, Insurance member ID, State, Pharmacy, Primary care doctor or Sex. The field is filled only if it is still empty. Each field can be picked by one question only, and Multiple choice answers can't be saved to the record.
- Show on the booking page and Ask new callers on the phone.
- How your AI receptionist asks it (optional), when it is asked on calls: short, conversational wording for the phone, for example "Who is your insurance with?". Leave it blank to use the question as written.
- Make it required, then Add question or Save. Delete removes a question.
Click Preview at the top of the page to see the booking page as a new client sees it (answers there go nowhere). Then click Save.
Ask new callers on the phone
Go to Receptionist → AI Voice, the Voice tab, New-client questions:
- Ask new callers your prescreener questions (off by default) saves as soon as you switch it.
- Most per call: 1 to 8 questions, 5 by default. The card lists the questions that will be asked, in order, in the wording the AI uses.
The AI asks only callers who say they have never been seen at your practice, before it books them or takes a new-patient message. It asks one question at a time in its own words, skips one the caller already answered earlier in the call, and offers the choices only when the caller isn't sure. Callers can skip any question; the AI records Declined to answer and moves on. If a required question hasn't been answered, it asks it before it books.
At a location on athenahealth where the AI doesn't create new patients, the AI still asks the questions and puts the answers in the New Patient message for your team.
Edit questions in Prescreener on the card takes you back to the question list.
Where the answers go
- Booking page: in the Prescreener section of the request under Online Booking → Requests. A client who said it isn't their first visit shows "Said they have been seen here before, so they skipped the questions." Answers set to save to the record fill the client's empty fields when the booking is confirmed (straight away with instant booking).
- Phone, booked: on the appointment, as a New-client answers block in its notes, and empty fields on the client record are filled in.
- Phone, message taken: in the New Patient message in Tasks. Add patient on that card opens Create client already filled in with the answers.
An insurance member ID shows only its last four characters in answers, notes and messages, for example ••••6789. Click Show member ID on the task card (or Show in the call details) to see the whole ID.
Good to know
- Anyone on your team with access to the location can change the questions and the phone settings.- An answer like "not sure" is kept as said but is never copied to the client record.
- For full intake paperwork after booking (consents, histories, questionnaires), use intake forms and Send documents.