Abel · an AI colleague for the back office
While you see patients, Abel works the back office.
Describe a task once and watch Abel do it. After that it's handled every time it comes up — in your EMR, your fax inbox, wherever your staff already work. Abel asks when it isn't sure, and never guesses.
Works with eClinicalWorks today. Twenty minutes to teach it the first task.
Back office roster
Thursday, 8:14 am
AbelBack officeHoursOn, alwaysHandlesFax intake · Filing · EscalationOn today
- Read everything that came in overnight
- File the results to the right chart
- Delete the marketing faxes and the duplicates
- Draft the patient notifications for reviewWaiting on you
- Text Dr. Whitfield — one value is out of range
A day with Abel
What does a Thursday look like?
Nothing below needs a person to start it. Abel works the queue as it fills, and the only time your staff hear from it is the one item it could not settle on its own.
An illustration of the shape of a day — the names, times and counts are invented.
5:40 am
Nine faxes came in overnight. Abel has read all nine.
What each one is, whose patient it belongs to, and whether anyone needs to see it today. Not whenever someone gets to the pile — within a few minutes of it landing.
6:05 am
Six are filed.
Refill requests, a records request, two lab results. Each one matched to the right chart in eClinicalWorks and put where your staff would have put it.
6:06 am
Two are deleted.
A drug rep’s marketing blast and the third copy of a discharge summary you already have. They never reach the queue your staff open at eight.
7:52 am
One is waiting on a person.
A cardiology consult note for a patient Abel cannot match with confidence — two charts share that date of birth. It texts the coordinator whose job that is, and stops.
8:14 am
Answered in one message.
She replies with the right patient. Abel files the note, tells her it is done, and remembers to ask the same way the next time two names collide.
11:30 am
A result comes back out of range.
Abel files it and texts Dr. Whitfield, because that is the rule she gave it. Nobody had to notice the fax first.
4:15 pm
Someone asks it a question.
"How many faxes are still sitting there?" Three, all refill requests, none urgent. Same phone number your staff already text it on.
The escalation rule
When does Abel ask you?
This is the rule itself, in Abel's words — not a summary of it.
I ask a person when the answer is not mine to pick: when I cannot match the patient with confidence, when the document is one I have not seen before, when the next step cannot be taken back, or when the rule you gave me does not cover what is in front of me.
I do not guess, and I do not take the likeliest answer to keep moving. The work waits with your staff exactly where it would have waited without me — and I say which item it is, and why.
- It asks the person whose job it is
- Not a distribution list, not a shared inbox. The ordering provider, the referral coordinator, whoever you told it owns that kind of work.
- One question, then it carries on
- Answering is a text message. Abel takes the answer, finishes the item, and tells you it is done.
- Your staff can start the conversation too
- What came in today, what is still waiting, did that referral ever go out. Same number, same thread, no new software to open.
Abel
Text messages
A thread of the shape your staff will actually get. The names and the patient are invented.
The other half of the job
What won't Abel do?
A colleague is worth having because you know where their judgment stops. Here is where Abel's does.
It will not guess a patient
Two charts with the same date of birth is a question, not a coin flip. Abel stops and asks, every time, and the item stays where your staff would have found it anyway.
It will not do anything irreversible on its own
Sending something to a patient, submitting to a payer, deleting a record. By default Abel prepares the work and hands it to a person. You decide, task by task, where that line sits.
It will not take initiative you did not ask for
Abel does the tasks you described and nothing beside them. There is no "while I was in there anyway."
It will not work where you cannot see it
Every run is in the console with the steps in order and the screens it acted on — including the runs where nothing went wrong.
It will not fail quietly
When Abel cannot finish something, a person hears about it that day. A task that stopped without telling anyone is worse than one that never started.
It will not ask your staff to change how they work
Same EMR, same fax inbox, same screens, same phone. Nobody has to learn a new system to work alongside it.
Teaching it
How do you teach it?
You already know how the work should be done. Abel's whole job is to learn that from you once and then keep doing it. About twenty minutes per task, and you never do that task again.
01
You describe it, in a sentence
"When a lab result comes in for Dr. Whitfield, file it to the chart and text her if anything is out of range." Text it to Abel or type it in the console. No forms, no flowcharts, no settings to configure.
02
It does the job once, while you watch
Abel works through it in a real browser — your EMR, your fax inbox, whichever site the job lives on. You watch each step and correct it as it goes, the way you would with anyone learning a task for the first time.
03
From then on it is handled
Abel does that task every time it comes up, without being asked. When a screen moves and something breaks, Abel repairs its own work — there is no script for anyone at your practice to maintain.
The arithmetic
What does this take off your P&L?
We cannot fill this in for you — we have no idea what your practice pays. So here is the worksheet. Put a number next to the lines you would stop paying, add them up, and compare the total to one flat monthly fee.
| What you pay for outside the practice | How it is usually priced | Your number, per month |
|---|---|---|
| Outsourced billing serviceUsually a percentage of collections, monthly | Usually a percentage of collections, monthly | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| Records and release-of-information vendorUsually per page or per request | Usually per page or per request | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| Virtual assistant hoursUsually hourly, plus the agency’s margin | Usually hourly, plus the agency’s margin | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| After-hours answering serviceUsually per call, against a monthly minimum | Usually per call, against a monthly minimum | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| Per-workflow automation toolsUsually per prior auth, per referral, or per physician | Usually per prior auth, per referral, or per physician | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| Document scanning or fax handling contractUsually monthly, per line | Usually monthly, per line | Blank — fill in your own figure |
| AbelFlat, per practice — every task, every run, everyone on your staff | One line, month to month | $1,000 |
One line is deliberately not on this worksheet: anyone on your payroll. Abel takes the work that has been sitting in a pile and the pieces you have been paying someone outside the practice to handle. It gives your staff their afternoon back — that is a different claim, and it is the only one we will make.
Pricing
What does it cost?
One line on the worksheet, and you can work it out without a call.
Flat rate
$1,000/ month
per practice, per month
No setup fee, no per-seat charge, no per-fax charge. Month to month — leave whenever you like.
- Every task you teach it, however many that turns out to be
- Every run, every day — nothing is metered
- Everyone on your staff, texting it and reading the console
- A setup session for each task, with us on the call
- Abel repairing its own work when a screen moves
One practice
Who is actually using it?
One independent practice, live today, on eClinicalWorks. We are not going to show you a wall of logos we do not have. What we can show you is what Abel did there, and the console it did it in.
- faxes read
- 2277faxes read
- jobs finished without a person
- 4056jobs finished without a person
- jobs brought to a person, on purpose
- 353jobs brought to a person, on purpose
One practice · last 30 days. When there is a second practice we will say so, and say which is which.
File the result and tell the doctor
- Opened the fax
- Read it — lab result, ordered by Dr. Whitfield
- Matched the patient in the chart
- Filed it under Labs
- Texted Dr. Whitfield — one value is out of range
The screens it acted on
Every run looks like this: the steps in order, the screens it acted on, and what it changed. Including the runs where nothing went wrong.
Next step
Give Abel one task and see what Thursday looks like.
Twenty minutes on a call. You describe the job, Abel does it while you watch, and it is handling it by the time we hang up.