Where Front-Desk Phone Time Goes: 45.0% Is Eligibility

Eligibility and prior authorization calls take the most phone time in medical practices, at 45.0% of responses in a March 10, 2026 poll by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). Scheduling ranked second at 31.0%, so those two call types make up 76.0% of the answers.

The MGMA Stat poll drew 294 applicable responses from practice leaders, who named the phone task that uses the most staff time. Insight Health AI sponsored the poll.

Which phone tasks take the most staff time

MGMA described the eligibility and prior authorization category as verifying coverage, checking coordination of benefits, and managing prior authorizations, including submitting requests, tracking status, and handling denials. The 45.0% share is about 1.5 times the 31.0% share for scheduling.

Phone task	Share of 294 practice leaders
Eligibility and prior authorization	45.0%
Scheduling	31.0%
Intake	9.0%
Other	9.0%
Prescription refills	6.0%

Source: MGMA Stat poll, March 10, 2026, 294 applicable responses.

Intake calls, at 9.0%, cover registration details such as demographics, insurance, and referral information. Refill calls, at 6.0%, often arrive without the pharmacy name or dose. The other 9.0% includes result questions, billing questions, clinical triage, and language barriers.

The MGMA article adds that nearly half of physicians report working with incompletely staffed teams more than a quarter of the time. A short-staffed front desk has fewer people to take the 45.0% of calls that need insurance checks.

What practices plan to automate first

A separate MGMA Stat poll on February 10, 2026 asked 177 practice leaders about their top focus for AI and automation in the front office. Scheduling led at 31.0%, the same share it holds in the phone-time poll. MGMA noted that the figures do not total 100.0% because of rounding.

Automation focus	Share of 177 practice leaders
Scheduling	31.0%
Calls	27.0%
Registration and eligibility	23.0%
Prior authorization	16.0%
Other	5.0%

Source: MGMA Stat poll, February 10, 2026, 177 applicable responses.

The two eligibility lines add up to 39.0% of automation plans, compared with 45.0% of phone time. The two polls drew different samples, so the gap is a rough guide only. In the calls category, MGMA named voice bots, call routing systems, and automated conversion of voicemail into tasks. In the scheduling category, it named patient self-scheduling to fill gaps and canceled appointments. MGMA advised practices to agree on their rules first, because automation applies existing rules at larger scale, including inconsistent ones.

How many patients book online

An MGMA Stat poll on July 29, 2025 asked 244 practice leaders what share of patients use digital tools to self-schedule. NextGen Healthcare sponsored it. In 71.0% of practices, fewer than 25.0% of patients book this way.

Under 25.0% of patients: 71.0% of practices
25.0% to 50.0%: 21.0%
51.0% to 75.0%: 5.0%
Over 75.0%: 3.0%

A November 2024 MGMA poll found 73.0% of groups in the lowest band, so the share fell by 2.0 points in about eight months. By addition, 92.0% of practices in the 2025 poll have half or fewer of their patients booking online. Groups with the highest self-scheduling rates were significantly more likely to say the tools reduced no-shows.

Does AI reduce staff workload

In an MGMA Stat poll on August 5, 2025, 71.0% of 244 practice leaders reported some AI use in patient visits, and 29.0% reported none. Among all respondents, 47.0% use AI in 25.0% of visits or fewer, 10.0% in 26.0% to 50.0%, 7.0% in 51.0% to 75.0%, and 7.0% in 76.0% or more.

Among practices that use AI, 44.0% said it has not reduced staff workload, 39.0% said it has, and 17.0% were unsure. Practices that use AI in more than 25.0% of visits were more likely to report a lower workload. MGMA respondents who saw savings credited real-time note creation during visits, which cut manual typing.

Where phones sit among 2026 access priorities

In a December 9, 2025 MGMA Stat poll of 236 practice leaders, 22.0% named phone access as their top patient access focus for 2026. No-shows led at 27.0%, online scheduling followed at 24.0%, and new-patient wait times took 21.0%. Another 5.0% chose other. Phone access and online scheduling together account for 46.0% of responses.

A September 15, 2026 MGMA Stat poll of 251 practice leaders looked at outside booking channels. About 17.0% pay for listings or bookings on third-party platforms such as Zocdoc or Healthgrades. Another 77.0% do not, and 6.0% were unsure. Across both groups, provider referrals, physician-to-physician relationships, word of mouth, and patient referrals were the most common sources of new patients.

No-show rates and reminder tools

Phone and scheduling work connects to missed visits. In an MGMA Stat poll on August 11, 2026, 32.0% of 190 practice leaders said no-show rates were higher so far in 2026 than in 2025. Another 58.0% said they were about the same, and 10.0% said they were lower. The higher-rate share rose 5.0 points from the August 12, 2025 poll. MGMA reported that average deductibles rose 37.0% to $3,786 in 2026, from $2,759 in 2025.

Practices that saw improvement named automated reminders, no-show fees, transportation support, and same-day appointment availability. In a January 7, 2025 MGMA Stat poll of 622 practice leaders, 42.0% used a no-show fee and 58.0% did not. Among fee users, 25.0% reported better no-show rates in 2024, against 16.0% of practices without a fee.

MGMA DataDive practice operations data put the single-specialty aggregate no-show rate at 7.0% in 2019 and 6.81% in 2023. The rate fell to between 5.0% and 5.55% in 2020 through 2022, when telehealth use was high.

Sources

Talk to us

Fifteen minutes about your practice and the systems you run.

Book a demo