Virtual medical receptionist services in Australia, honestly compared

We run one of the services on this list. DotVA places offshore VAs, and if you want Australian-resident medical receptionists, or a full-time offshore hire at the lowest published starting price, other rows in this table suit you better than ours. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.

The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked on this page or in our dental comparison. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess, and where a site does not say where its team works, we do not assume.

The services at a glance

Service	What it is	Published price	Where the team is	Software named	Terms
DotVA medical virtual receptionist (that’s us)	One dedicated VA for reception plus billing and recall admin	$12-17/hr admin, $18-25/hr specialist, AUD ex GST, from 10 hrs/week	Philippines, working Australian business hours	Best Practice, MedicalDirector, Zedmed, Genie, Gentu, Clinic to Cloud, HotDoc	No lock-in contract; stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice; free replacement any time
Avant Practice Solutions	Remote medical reception, call overflow and temporary cover	Not stated publicly	Australian-based team; Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm	16 systems including Best Practice, Genie, Gentu, Clinic to Cloud, Zedmed, PracSoft and MediRecords	Reception and overflow: fixed contract, onboarding typically 2 to 6 weeks. Temporary cover: pay as you go
VMORE	Virtual reception, theatre bookings, dictation and billing for specialist practices	Not stated publicly; “no start-up fees”	Not stated publicly; offices in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney	Not stated publicly	Not stated publicly
Healthie Reception	Virtual reception team for health practices	Plan prices not published	Australia; its site says calls are not diverted to subcontractors or overseas	Cliniko, Xestro, Gentu, Zedmed, PracSuite, Halaxy, Zanda	Month to month; billed fortnightly in advance
Your Phones Covered	Per-call answering with diary management	Its medical page says plans “start from 69.00 a month”; its specialist example with about 105 calls and 105 bookings is 950.00 a month (prices ex GST)	Australian team on Premium and Essential plans; Manila team on Value plans and managed admin	Genie, Gentu, Clinic to Cloud, Best Practice, Medical Director, Zedmed, Shexie, Cliniko, Halaxy, Coreplus	Medical page: “no lock-in contracts”. Terms: minimum engagement two months; notice to the end of the plan period or 28 days, whichever is longer
OfficeHQ	Per-call answering	$35 a month plus $3.40 a call, or $370 a month with 100 calls, ex GST; diary bookings billed by the minute	Majority in Australia, with overseas overflow	Not stated in text	No minimum term; 7-day free trial
HealthDoers	Dedicated offshore medical receptionist, managed	”From $24,000 /year” all-inclusive; hours and GST basis not stated	Filipino staff; offices in Richmond VIC and Taguig, Metro Manila	Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Best Practice, Genie, HotDoc	No lock-in contracts; 30 days’ written notice
Staff Domain	Dedicated offshore healthcare admin staff, managed; no receptionist role named; it says it serves mid-market companies and is not the right fit if “You need fewer than three people”	From AUD $799 a month per person working from home or AUD $1,099 office-based, plus a $1,200 recruitment fee per hire split across months 3 and 4 (GST basis not stated)	Philippines	Not stated publicly	No lock-in; 60 days’ notice
Tarino	Recruiter: you engage and pay the receptionist directly	$5,000 once excl GST, then no monthly fee to Tarino; its medical receptionist page gives a typical salary of $1,200 a month	Philippines-based hires; Tarino is in Sydney	Cliniko, Halaxy, Nookal, Splose, Power Diary, HotDoc	No lock-in; replacement search within 6 months
Helen AI (Healthengine)	AI receptionist for general practice	Not stated publicly	AI, 24/7	Best Practice, Pracsoft	Not stated publicly
Xaida (Avant)	AI receptionist for Best Practice users	Not stated publicly; “flexible pricing based on call volume”	AI, 24/7; data stored and processed in Australia	Best Practice	Not stated publicly

Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism.

Three more services take health practice calls and do not publish prices: Remyee (reception and billing admin for allied health practices), OracleCMS (a 24-hour contact centre) and Well Done (24-hour call centres in Melbourne, Adelaide and Nowra).

Our row in full is on pricing. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your practice better we will tell you on the call.

Four products share one name

1. A managed medical reception team (Avant Practice Solutions, Healthie Reception, VMORE). Medical receptionists who work in your practice software as an extension of the front desk, with specialist-practice extras such as theatre lists at Avant and theatre bookings and dictation at VMORE. Avant and Healthie Reception say their receptionists are in Australia; VMORE has four Australian offices and does not state where its team works. None of the three publishes plan prices, so budget for a conversation.
2. A per-call answering service (OfficeHQ, Your Phones Covered, OracleCMS, Well Done). A shared team answers overflow or after-hours calls: about $3 to $6 a call at OfficeHQ and Your Phones Covered, on quote at OracleCMS and Well Done. Our comparison of virtual receptionist services covers their plans in detail.
3. An AI receptionist (Helen AI, Xaida). Software that answers calls around the clock and books straight into Best Practice. Avant says Xaida accesses only booking-related data, and Healthengine says Helen has no access to patient clinical records. Neither publishes prices. The allied health AI tools, Lyngo and Aeva AI, integrate with Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and PracSuite rather than GP systems.
4. A dedicated offshore receptionist or VA (DotVA, HealthDoers, Staff Domain, or a direct hire through Tarino). One person in your software for set hours. With us that person is on your phones and also does the work behind the calls: recalls, referral chasing, Medicare and DVA billing admin, results follow-up to your doctors’ notations. Ask each provider what its roles cover.

What the dedicated options cost

Few providers publish prices, so this compares the ones that do. Where we have multiplied, that is our arithmetic.

Option	Published price	What that buys
DotVA, part-time	$12-17/hr ex GST	10 hours a week for about $520-736 a month
DotVA, full-time	$12-17/hr ex GST	40 hours a week for about $2,078-2,944 a month
HealthDoers	From $24,000 a year	A dedicated receptionist; hours not stated on the page
Staff Domain	From AUD $799 a month, plus $1,200 recruitment	One person working from home; no receptionist role named
Tarino	$5,000 once, then a typical salary of $1,200 a month paid to your hire	A direct hire you pay and manage yourself; hours not stated
OfficeHQ, for comparison	$370 a month	100 answered calls with messages; no admin

The published starting prices at HealthDoers, Staff Domain and Tarino are below our full-time cost. Where we fit is part-time: 10 to 30 hours a week from one person, at a published hourly rate, with a $500 deposit that is credited to your first invoice.

How to compare them

1. Overflow or ownership? If the front desk copes except at peaks, buy overflow: a per-call service or AI. If the practice needs someone to own reception and the admin behind it, buy a person.
2. Which software? Confirm the provider works in your system by name. Best Practice, MedicalDirector, Genie, Gentu, Zedmed and Clinic to Cloud are not interchangeable.
3. How many hours? Some offshore staffing providers price full-time roles. If you need 10 to 20 hours, check the minimum.
4. Onshore or offshore? A privacy and preference decision as much as a price one. Read the next section first.
5. What are the exit terms? Published notice runs from 28 to 60 days, and one provider’s reception service runs on a fixed contract. Get the terms in writing.

Privacy and clinical boundaries

Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, so start here rather than with price.

Providers whose teams are in Australia keep the work onshore, so APP 8 only comes into it if the provider itself sends data offshore. Ask where each plan is answered: at least one service answers some plans in Australia and others overseas.

Offshore assistants, including ours, are, in most cases, a cross-border disclosure under APP 8 of the Australian Privacy Principles. You stay the responsible entity, and an overseas recipient’s breach of the APPs can be treated as your breach. Our guide to hiring an offshore VA legally covers the obligations. In practice the risk is managed by scoping access: a receptionist’s login can be limited to the appointment book, billing and correspondence, and we hold a firm line that a VA does not access My Health Record. We add a signed confidentiality agreement before day one and a data-handling addendum mirroring the APPs on request. The full setup is on our data security page.

Whoever answers, the clinical line stays with the practice: no triage decisions, no results given, no advice. A receptionist follows your written rules for urgent calls and passes everything clinical to your team.

Who should pick whom

• You want Australian medical receptionists as an extension of your front desk: Avant Practice Solutions or Healthie Reception. Avant’s team works Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; Healthie Reception answers Monday to Thursday 7.30am to 7pm, Friday 7.30am to 5pm and Saturday 7.30am to 12.30pm (EST, as stated on its site).
• A specialist practice that needs theatre bookings, dictation and billing: VMORE, founded in 2007, or Avant.
• Overflow and after-hours calls only: OfficeHQ or Your Phones Covered by the call, or OracleCMS and Well Done for 24-hour cover.
• A GP clinic on Best Practice that wants bookings made around the clock: Helen AI or Xaida.
• A managed offshore hire at the lowest published starting price: HealthDoers or Staff Domain. Tarino if you are happy to engage and manage the person yourself. Staff Domain says it is not the right fit if you need fewer than three people.
• 10 to 30 hours a week from one dedicated person covering reception and the admin behind it: that is the practice we built DotVA for. See how it runs for GP practices, medical specialists and dental practices, or by software: Best Practice, Gentu, Clinic to Cloud and Zedmed.

Run your own numbers

Price your hours on the VA cost calculator and check our tiers on pricing. Allied health clinics have their own comparison, and so do dental practices and psychology practices. If the right answer for your practice is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.