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Nobody answered, so they took the other job.
Brimeo answers your recruiting line and your inquiry line on the same number. A caregiver calling about your posting gets screened and books an interview while she's still on the phone. A family calling about care gets the logistics captured and a consult booked. And when someone calls off a 6am shift, your coordinator is awake before the client notices.
"I saw your posting. I'm a CNA, two years' experience."
Great — are you currently certified, and do you have reliable transport?
Yes to both. I can work weekdays and every other weekend.
That's a great fit for what we have open. I can get you in for an interview tomorrow at 10am — does that work?
Actions taken
Screened — certification current, reliable transport, weekday/weekend availability
Interview booked — tomorrow, 10am
Written back to CareerPlug
Live demo
Call it as a family, then as a caregiver.
The number below is a working home care agent. As a family, say you're looking into care for your father. As an applicant, say you saw the job posting and you're a CNA with two years' experience. Those should be two completely different conversations — and you'll notice the first one never asks about anyone's health.
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The short answer
What is an AI receptionist for a home care agency?
An AI receptionist for a home care agency is a voice agent that answers every inbound call and works out within a sentence or two which of four calls it's on: a caregiver applying for work, a family inquiring about care, a caregiver calling off a shift, or a referral partner. Each gets a different conversation and lands in a different place.
On the recruiting side it screens against your criteria and books the interview during the call. On the client side it captures the practical shape of the inquiry — hours, days, start date, service area, who's deciding, how it's being paid — and books the consult.
It does not ask about anyone's health, medications or conditions. Your care manager covers that in the assessment, where it belongs.
By the numbers
The cases you turn down aren't a demand problem.
Share of home care providers who have had to deny care because of the workforce shortage. The average small-to-mid-sized provider refuses 510 care hours a month. Apply your own billing rate to that number.
Source: MissionCare Collective study of small- and mid-sized home care providers, 2023, reported by the Home Care Association of America.Interview show-up rate for caregiver candidates interviewed the same day, against those interviewed seven or more days out. Same-day candidates are nearly twice as likely to turn up, and the steepest drop happens in the first twenty-four hours.
Source: Hellohire platform data — 163,000+ completed virtual caregiver interview bookings, April 2025 to March 2026. Vendor data, but with the sample stated.Projected total job openings in home care between 2024 and 2034, driven mostly by workers leaving — on top of 681,000 genuinely new positions. The workforce already doubled from 1.4 million in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2024, and it isn't keeping up.
Source: PHI, Direct Care Workers in the United States: Key Facts, September 2025.A note on where these came from
Two of the three are independent research. The middle one is a vendor's own platform data, and we've said so — but they published the sample size and the period, which is more than most. What you won't find on this page are the figures that circulate in this industry with no source at all: response-time percentages, average client lifetime values, and the lost-revenue arithmetic built on top of them. If we can't tell you where a number came from, we don't print it.
What it handles
Built for both halves of your phone.
Applicant screening, and an interview booked on the call
Applicants who call your posting get screened on what actually disqualifies: certification and whether it's current, driver's license and reliable transport, which shifts and days they can genuinely work, how far they'll travel, right to work. Then an interview slot, while they're still on the phone. Not a voicemail they never return.
It knows which call it's on
A caregiver asking about the job and a daughter asking about care need entirely different conversations. The agent works out which within a sentence or two and switches track — different questions, different outcome, different system the record lands in.
Shift call-offs, escalated in minutes
5:40am, someone can't make the 6 o'clock. The agent identifies the caregiver from their number, sees which shift and which client is now uncovered, and gets your coordinator on the phone. It does not try to fill the shift — that's a judgment call and it belongs to a person.
Client inquiries: the practical shape
Hours and days needed, start date, address and whether it's in your service area, who's making the decision, how it's being paid. Enough for your care manager to walk into the consult prepared and for you to know whether it's a case you can staff.
Rates and minimums, answered straight
The first question nearly every family asks is what it costs. The agent quotes your published hourly rate and your shift minimum, and explains that total hours come out of the assessment. It does not invent a weekly figure.
It stops before the health questions
When a caller starts describing conditions, medications or what someone can and can't manage, the agent says that's for the care manager's assessment and moves to booking it. It doesn't collect it, doesn't store it, and doesn't pass it along. Families get a straight answer about why.
Referral partners, recognized not qualified
A discharge planner or a case manager you've named gets routed straight to whoever owns that relationship — no screening questions, no "how did you hear about us." The agent logs that they called. It doesn't take details about the person they're calling about.
After hours, which is when this happens
Caregivers call off before dawn. Applicants call in the evening after a shift. Families call on Sunday when the family has finally had the conversation. Almost none of it lands between nine and five.
Call by call
Which calls does a home care agency get, and what happens to each?
She's calling after her shift, and she applied to four agencies this week. The agent screens on what disqualifies — certification and whether it's current, license and transport, which shifts and days she can actually work, travel distance, right to work — and then books her an interview before she hangs up. The soonest slot, because the show-up rate for a same-day or next-day interview is roughly double a week out.
Written backApplicant record in your ATS with every screening answer and an interview on the calendar. Not a voicemail for someone to return on Friday.
There's a client expecting someone in eighty minutes. The agent recognizes the caregiver from their number and pulls their assigned shift rather than asking anyone to spell their name before dawn. It confirms which shift, asks whether it's today only or longer, and gets your coordinator on the phone immediately. It does not try to fill the shift. Who covers depends on overtime, on client familiarity, and on things only your scheduler knows.
Written backCall-off logged against the shift and marked uncovered, with an alert to the on-call coordinator — so the gap is visible in your system before anyone opens a laptop.
The agent captures the practical shape: how many hours and which days they think they need, when they want to start, the address and whether it's inside your service area, who in the family is making the decision, and how they're planning to pay. Then it books the care consult against your care manager's real calendar. It doesn't ask what's wrong with Dad.
Written backInquiry with hours, days, start date, service area check, decision-maker and payer, plus a consult booked and a confirmation text.
The agent quotes your published hourly rate and your shift minimum, and explains that how many hours someone needs comes out of the assessment rather than out of a phone call. It does not produce a weekly total. Then it offers the consult, because a rate without a plan attached is how families price-shop themselves into the wrong decision.
Written backInquiry logged with the rate question flagged, so your care manager knows price is front of mind before they walk in.
No car, and every one of your open cases is a twenty-minute drive from anywhere. The agent doesn't book an interview it knows will waste both parties' time. It says the current openings need reliable transport, asks whether that might change, and logs it — because in six months your case mix will be different and this is a person who wanted to work for you.
Written backApplicant record with the screening outcome and the specific blocker, so your recruiter can see what you're turning away and why.
Families explain the situation because they think that's what you need. The agent stops them politely: those questions belong in the assessment, where a care manager can actually do something with the answers. It doesn't write any of it down. Then it goes back to the things it can use — hours, days, start date — and books the consult.
Written backInquiry with the practical details only. The health information isn't captured, isn't stored, and isn't passed on.
If a caller says somebody has fallen, is on the floor, or is in distress at this moment, the agent tells them to hang up and call 911. It does not take details, does not book anything, and does not offer a callback first. The call ends there.
Written backLogged as an emergency redirect with the timestamp and exactly what was said, and an alert to your on-call number so somebody follows up.
The agent recognizes her, because you told it who your referral partners are. No qualifying questions, no "how did you hear about us." Straight through to whoever owns that relationship, with a note that she called. It doesn't take details about whoever she's calling about — she can give those to a person.
Written backReferral contact logged against the partner record, so your referral reporting is accurate without anyone typing it in.
What does it read and write — and what it deliberately doesn't touch
What it reads
- Open roles, screening criteria and interview availability in your ATS
- Your live shift schedule: who's assigned where, and which shifts are today
- Caregiver records: certification, availability, assigned clients
- Your care manager's consult calendar
- Your published hourly rates, shift minimums and service area
- Your named referral partners
What it writes back
- Applicant records with screening answers, and interviews booked
- Screening outcomes for applicants you couldn't place, and why
- Shift call-offs, against the shift, marked uncovered
- Client inquiries with hours, days, start date, service area, decision-maker and payer
- Consults booked against the care manager's calendar
- Referral contacts logged against the partner record
Where the write is direct, and where it isn't
| System | What happens |
|---|---|
| Applicant tracking — CareerPlug, JazzHR, Breezy, Indeed | Applicant records and interview bookings write here. This is the side most agencies have never automated, and it's where the page's value concentrates. |
| Scheduling and agency management — WellSky Personal Care, AxisCare, AlayaCare, Smartcare, Generations | Where an API is available we read the shift schedule and caregiver records and write call-offs, inquiries and consults. Access varies by vendor and plan; we'll tell you which applies on the first call. |
| Clinical records, EVV and Medicaid billing — HHAeXchange, Sandata, care plan documentation | We don't touch these, by design. Visit verification, billing and clinical documentation are a compliance surface we stay out of. Nothing we handle needs to go near them. |
| No integration available | Synced calendar for interviews and consults, plus a structured record pushed to your recruiter and your scheduler. It works, and it's how most agencies start. |
The boundary
What it handles. When a person takes over.
The agent handles
Screening applicants against your written criteria
Booking interviews and care consults
Taking shift call-offs and waking the coordinator
Hours, days, start date, service area, decision-maker
Your published hourly rate and shift minimum
Recognizing and routing referral partners
A person takes over
Every hiring decision
The interview and the consult themselves
Deciding who covers the shift
Anything about someone's health or care needs
Any total cost, care plan or contract
The relationship itself
What the agent is never allowed to do
It does not collect health information. Not conditions, not medications, not what someone can or can't manage on their own. When a caller offers it, the agent says it isn't the right place for that and moves on. This is a design decision, not an oversight — the assessment is where those answers get used, and it happens with a person.
It does not assess care needs. It won't tell a family whether four hours or twelve, or what level of care anyone needs.
It does not quote a total. Your hourly rate and your minimum, yes. What this costs per week, no — that comes out of an assessment somebody does in the home.
It does not give benefits advice. It won't tell anyone what a policy covers or what they might qualify for.
It does not handle a medical emergency. If someone is hurt or in distress right now, the caller is told to hang up and call 911. There is no version where it takes details first.
It does not fill a shift. It takes the call-off and wakes the right person. Who covers depends on overtime, client familiarity, and things only your scheduler knows.
It does not make hiring decisions. It screens against criteria you wrote down and books interviews. Everything after that is yours.
It does not pretend to be a person. If a caller asks, it says no.
These boundaries are written down during onboarding and they're visible in the transcripts. You can read every call it took.
Onboarding
How long until it's answering your phone?
Step 1 — Discovery and configuration
We map both funnels. Recruiting: your open roles, your real screening criteria, your interview availability, what disqualifies someone. Client side: your service area, rates and minimums, consult calendar, the practical questions worth asking and the ones that are wasted. Then your call-off and escalation rules, including who gets woken and at what hour. And we listen to your recent calls, because how your recruiter already talks to a caregiver at 8pm is the thing worth copying.
Step 2 — Build and test
We build the agent, connect it to your ATS and your scheduling system, and run it through the calls that go wrong: the 5:40am call-off, the applicant who's a bad fit, the family who starts describing a diagnosis, the caller who talks over it. You listen to those recordings before it takes a single live call.
Ongoing — Weekly calibration
Someone reviews transcripts every week and changes the agent as your open roles change, your rates change, or a caller finds a phrasing that trips it. This is a service, not a login.
What changes by month three?
Three things change on three different timescales, and it's worth knowing which is which before you start.
Every call gets answered, including the evening applicant calls and the pre-dawn call-offs. The first surprise for most owners isn't the client inquiries. It's the volume of applicant calls they'd been losing to voicemail and had never counted, because nothing in their stack was counting them.
Your written caregiver criteria and the ones you actually hire on are not the same document, and this is the window where that surfaces. Same on the client side: questions get cut because nobody ever answered them, and added because your care manager kept walking in blind. If nothing changes here, nobody is reading the transcripts.
Applicant-to-interview rate, interview show-up rate, and how many minutes an uncovered shift sits before a human sees it. Those are aggregate measures and they need a quarter of calls before a comparison means anything. A chart at week two isn't telling you much yet.
It writes to the systems you already run — both of them.
Recruiting
Scheduling and agency management
Your existing phone number · Zapier · Make · anything else with an API. If a system can't be connected, we'll say so on the first call rather than three weeks into onboarding.
How it hands a call to a person.
When a call needs a person, the agent briefs whoever picks up first — so a coordinator woken at 5:40am doesn't have to ask three questions before understanding the problem.
Handing a call-off to your coordinator
- Which caregiver, which shift, which client
- How long until the shift starts
- One shift or a longer absence
- Whether the client has been told
Handing a family to your care manager
- Who's calling and their relationship to the person needing care
- Hours, days and start date they're asking for
- Whether the address is inside your service area
- Stated payer source
- Whether cost has already come up
- Whether they mentioned talking to other agencies
Whoever picks up already knows. The agent stays on to book the follow-up if there is one.
What agency owners ask before they buy.
Does it actually screen caregivers, or just take a message?
It screens on what disqualifies: certification and whether it's current, license and transport, which shifts they can genuinely work, travel distance, right to work. Then it books the interview on the call. That last part matters more than it sounds — candidates interviewed the same day show up at roughly double the rate of candidates interviewed a week later.
Can it tell the difference between a family and a caregiver applicant?
That's the first thing it does. Different questions, different outcome, different system the record lands in. Call the demo number twice and try both — it's a ninety-second test.
What does it do with a 5am call-off?
Identifies the caregiver from their number, sees which shift and which client is uncovered, marks it in your system and gets your on-call coordinator on the phone. It doesn't try to fill the shift — who covers depends on overtime and client familiarity and things only your scheduler knows.
Do you handle health information?
No, and that's deliberate. The agent captures hours, days, start date, service area, who's deciding and how it's being paid. If a caller starts describing conditions or medications, it says that's for the care manager's assessment and moves on — it isn't collected, isn't stored, isn't passed along. We don't connect to clinical records, EVV or billing systems either.
So is this HIPAA compliant?
The honest answer is that we've designed around the question rather than claiming to have solved it. Nothing we handle is health information, and we don't touch the systems where health information lives. We currently work with private-pay agencies. If you bill Medicaid, VA or insurance, tell us on the first call and we'll be straight with you about what we can and can't take on today.
Will it quote our rates?
Your published hourly rate and your shift minimum, yes. A weekly total, no — that comes out of the assessment, and it explains that to the family rather than dodging.
Does it make outbound calls?
No. Brimeo answers your phone — inbound only. That includes applicants calling your posting, which is where a lot of this volume is. Automated outbound calling carries consent obligations and carrier registration requirements plenty of vendors market straight past. We'd rather tell you where the line is than sell you into a problem.
What if someone calls about an emergency?
They're told to hang up and call 911, and the call ends. No details taken, nothing booked first.
Does it work with our existing number?
Yes. Forward your line during office hours, after hours, on no-answer, or all three. Nothing about your published number changes.
Can I hear what it said on a call?
Every call recorded and transcribed. Recordings and transcripts are kept for 90 days. If it got something wrong you'll see exactly what, and it gets fixed in that week's calibration.
What if it doesn't know the answer?
It says it doesn't have that and gets someone who does. Handling that well is harder than handling the calls that go to plan, and it's worth asking any vendor about.
How long until it's live?
Within 3 business days of sending us your details in most cases, even with two configurations to set up here — recruiting and intake. You'll hear the recordings before it takes a live call.
Answer both sides of your phone.
These boundaries are written down during onboarding, and they're visible in the transcripts.