DrChrono automation, answered
What integrates with DrChrono, what can actually be automated inside it, what happens when the software is unsure, and what it costs.
What integrates with DrChrono
The questions practices ask when they already use DrChrono and want to know what can sit on top of it.
What software integrates with DrChrono to automate fax handling?
Zally is automation software built only for DrChrono. It reads incoming faxes, works out what each one is, finds the patient, attaches the document to the right chart, and creates a task for the person who handles that kind of work — all inside DrChrono, with no second inbox for staff to check. General-purpose fax vendors also connect to DrChrono, but at a shallower level: they deliver a searchable PDF and leave the deciding, filing, routing and chasing to staff.
Does DrChrono have built-in fax automation?
DrChrono includes fax send and receive, and lets staff attach a received fax to a patient chart manually through the message centre. What it does not do is decide what a document is, find the right patient, label the attachment, or route a task — a person does each of those steps for every fax. That manual gap is what automation software fills.
DrChrono documents the manual process: attaching a fax to a patient's chart.
Can incoming faxes be filed to a DrChrono patient chart automatically?
Yes. Zally reads each incoming fax with OCR and vision, identifies the patient by name and date of birth, creates the chart if the patient is new, and attaches the document with a descriptive label rather than a filename. It has run every business day since early 2026 at roughly 50 faxes a day at a live practice.
Can software create and route tasks in DrChrono automatically?
Yes. Zally assigns each task to a named person based on the provider, the document type and the practice's own routing rules — not to a shared queue where work goes unclaimed. Which coordinator covers which provider, and which staff member owns which document type, is configured per practice during setup.
Does anything send DrChrono clinical notes to referring providers automatically?
Yes. When a provider locks a clinical note in DrChrono, Zally faxes it to the referring provider and the PCP, and delivers it to the patient portal where that is enabled. It matches the recipient by fax number rather than by name, because dozens of providers commonly share one practice fax number and two people with the same name may not.
Can insurance authorizations be entered into DrChrono automatically?
Yes. Zally reads insurance and imaging authorizations, extracts the authorization number and the valid date range, attaches the document, updates the patient flag, and enters the authorization itself. This distinction matters financially: an authorization filed to the chart but never entered looks handled and the claim still gets denied.
Does Zally work with any EHR other than DrChrono?
Not today — Zally supports DrChrono only, and that focus is the reason the integration goes as deep as it does. Building for one EHR is what makes it possible to search the patient database, create charts, enter authorizations and route tasks the way a trained staff member would, rather than dropping extracted data into a separate screen for someone to retype. Other EHRs are open where the demand is real: practices on athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Tebra or AdvancedMD are welcome to ask, and asking is what decides which one is built next.
Will Zally support athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Tebra or AdvancedMD?
None of them are supported today. Zally runs on DrChrono only, and anyone telling you otherwise about this product is wrong. Which EHR is built second has not been decided, and it will be decided by demand rather than by a roadmap drawn up in advance — so if your practice runs on one of these, saying so is what puts it in front of the queue.
What can actually be automated
Zally is nine agents, not one tool. Eight are running in production today; the ninth needs a one-time setup with your phone provider.
What parts of a DrChrono practice can AI automate?
Nine areas, in Zally's case: incoming fax processing, outbound clinical notes, records requests, insurance and imaging authorizations, procedure benefit limits, task routing and escalation, daily payment reconciliation, voicemail triage, and appointment confirmation calls. Eight run in production today; appointment calls require a one-time configuration with the practice's phone provider before they can be switched on.
Can AI handle medical records requests from attorneys and insurers?
Yes. Zally identifies the requesting party and the service date range, gathers the locked notes and studies that fall inside it, sends them, and records exactly what went where. Each send writes an audit row only after DrChrono confirms it — timestamp, recipient, fax number, which documents, which dates, and the outcome — so a request disputed months later can be proven.
Can software track how many times a procedure has been billed against an insurance limit?
Yes. Zally counts how many times a limited procedure has already been billed for a patient inside the payer's window and writes the count onto the appointment before the visit, so staff know who has become self-pay before the patient is on the table. The codes, the limit and the window are configured per practice — trigger point injections capped at three a year is one example; therapy visit caps, manipulation limits and imaging intervals work the same way.
Can AI triage voicemail into tasks?
Yes. Zally reads voicemail transcriptions, works out who the patient is and what they need, and creates a task for the right person, so the queue does not have to be listened to end to end every morning.
Can AI call patients to confirm appointments?
Yes, in English or Spanish, switching language automatically from the first words the patient speaks. Zally confirms the appointment and handles reschedule and cancellation requests rather than only reading a script, then records the outcome against the appointment in DrChrono. This agent requires a one-time setup with your existing phone provider, and calls are billed per minute on top of the plan.
Can software check whether a practice collected what it should have?
Yes. Zally walks the previous day's completed appointments, reads the flags to determine what should have been collected, checks what actually was, and reports the gaps — so missed collections surface the next morning rather than at month end.
Outbound clinical notes
Faxes arriving is half the job. These are the questions about what Zally sends back out.
What triggers an outbound clinical note?
A provider locking their clinical note in DrChrono after an appointment. Zally checks the schedule, picks up locked notes automatically, and sends each one to the referring provider and the PCP without anyone having to remember to do it.
What happens if the referring provider is not on file?
Zally adds a PCP flag to the patient's chart so staff can collect the information at the next visit, and sends nothing in the meantime. No clinical note goes to a guessed recipient — sending one to the wrong practice is a disclosure, not a delivery failure.
Does it send a note for every appointment?
Only for the appointment types you choose. Which types are included or excluded is configured per practice, and specific procedure types can be blocklisted, so only the visits you want generate an outbound note.
Can clinical notes be delivered to the DrChrono patient portal?
Yes. Where the patient has portal access enabled in DrChrono, Zally delivers the note to the portal as well as sending it to the referring provider and the PCP.
Can other documents be sent alongside the clinical note?
Yes. Where relevant documents are already on file, Zally sends them with the clinical note, so the referring provider receives the studies a note refers to rather than a note referencing results they cannot see.
How it works, and what happens when it is wrong
The questions that decide whether automation is safe to put in front of patient data.
Is AI fax processing HIPAA compliant?
It can be, but only if the vendor signs a Business Associate Agreement and meets the HIPAA Security Rule's safeguards. Zally signs a BAA with every customer before going live, and no practice should let any AI tool touch protected health information without one. The obligation is not optional for a vendor handling PHI on a practice's behalf.
The requirements are set out in 45 CFR Part 164. Zally's own posture is documented on the security page.
What happens when the AI is not sure what a document is?
It escalates to a named person instead of guessing. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of faxes need human review, and those arrive with everything already extracted and a suggested action, so the reviewer confirms rather than starts over. A system that guesses on a low-confidence referral creates a wrong chart, and a wrong chart is worse than an unprocessed fax.
How does AI match a fax to the right patient?
By searching the practice's existing patient database on name and date of birth together, not name alone. Matching on name alone is how documents end up in the wrong chart, because large practices routinely hold several patients with the same name. Where no confident match exists, Zally either creates the chart or escalates, depending on the document type and the practice's rules.
What is the difference between digital fax and fax automation?
Digital fax replaces the machine with an inbox; fax automation completes the work. With digital fax a staff member still opens each document, reads it, decides what it is, finds the patient, attaches it and tells someone. Automation means the document is already filed to the right chart and the task is already on the right person's list when they look.
What document types arrive by fax at a medical practice?
Referrals, imaging reports and imaging authorization requests, insurance authorizations and referral approvals, records requests from attorneys and disability examiners, consultation notes from physical therapy and other practices, prescription requests, discharge summaries, questionnaires and remittance advice. Each needs a different action, which is why classification has to happen before routing.
Cost, setup and contracts
What the manual version costs, what the automated one costs, and what happens between signing and going live.
How much staff time does fax handling cost a practice?
At the practice Zally was built for, the fax queue alone consumed three to five hours of staff time a day before automation, against roughly 50 incoming faxes. The cost is not only the minutes: it is a person interrupted repeatedly, and documents that sit unprocessed when that person is on the phone or absent.
What does DrChrono fax automation cost?
Zally starts at $750 a month with every agent included. There is no per-fax charge, no setup fee and no feature tiers — the price moves with the size of the practice, not with how much of the product is switched on. Billing is month to month, with a 15 percent discount for an annual commitment. Appointment confirmation calls are the one exception, billed per minute because the telephony costs per minute.
Is there a setup fee?
No. Configuration is included — document types, routing rules and staff assignments — and billing starts the day the practice goes live rather than the day the agreement is signed.
Do you charge per fax?
No. The price is flat regardless of volume: twenty faxes a day and a hundred and twenty cost the same. Per-fax pricing charges a practice most precisely when it is busiest, which is when automation is worth the most.
Is there a long-term contract?
No. Zally is month to month and can be cancelled at any time. There is a 15 percent discount for committing annually, but it is optional.
How long does setup take?
Most practices are live within one week. Zally is configured with you rather than by you, and there is nothing for your team to install or maintain.
What does setup actually involve?
Mapping your document types, setting your routing rules, matching your staff assignments, and testing against your real faxes before go-live. Billing only starts once the system is working, so you are not paying during configuration.
Question not answered here?
Ask it directly. We will tell you whether Zally does it, and say so plainly when it does not.
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