Trust

Healthcare

AnswerTide is not for protected health information yet. A HIPAA tier is planned; it isn't available today and has no date. Last updated 4 October 2026.

Not for protected health information

AnswerTide is not for protected health information. It is not HIPAA compliant and we do not sign business associate agreements. Do not use it to collect or discuss patient records.

No-patient-details mode

For businesses whose customers might mention health details anyway. An owner or admin turns it on for a brand in Settings › Compliance, and the change is recorded in the audit log. Rolling out

Items marked “Rolling out” are built and tested, and are being switched on as our database update rolls out.

It asks people not to share medical details

Each channel adds this sentence right after our AI disclosure (on the phone, right after the greeting):

Please don't share medical details here, such as dates of birth, insurance or member numbers, or medications.

It removes common health details before they are stored

These details are replaced with a label, such as “[date of birth removed]”, before a message is stored or sent to any other service, including the AI model:

• Dates of birth: a full date written next to words like “date of birth”, “DOB” or “born on” (replaced with “[date of birth removed]”)
• Member, insurance, policy, group, Medicare and Medicaid numbers written next to those words (replaced with “[member number removed]”)
• Medical record numbers and patient IDs written next to those words (replaced with “[record number removed]”)
• Names of common medicines followed by a dose (replaced with “[medication removed]”)

This covers chat messages, emails received, voicemail transcripts, messages left through a lead form and your team's own replies. Email we send, webhooks and our public API apply the same removal on the way out.

Team tools get a callback request, not the message

Slack, your CRM and your helpdesk get only “Callback requested” and the person's contact details. The message itself is never sent to them, not even with details removed. Your team reads the conversation in AnswerTide.

Call recording stays off

Turning the mode on switches call recording off on every phone number, and it can't be switched back on while the mode is on.

Transcripts are deleted after 30 days (proposal)

Proposed policy, under review: a daily job deletes messages, team replies and helpdesk notes older than 30 days, and clears the text of emails and of handoff transcripts. The record that a conversation happened, its outcome label, usage and billing are kept. See Retention and deletion.

What it can't do

• Removal works by matching patterns and a list of common medicines. It reduces what is kept; it cannot catch every way a person might describe their health.
• A number with no label next to it, or a date with no birth wording next to it, is kept. Everyday words that are also medicines are kept.
• Messages from before the mode was turned on stay as they were until the 30-day deletion removes them. Webhooks and our public API remove details from them on the way out in the meantime.
• On the phone, the caller's voicemail audio is kept by our phone provider and transcribed there. Only the transcript we store has details removed.
• You remain responsible for not sending protected health information through AnswerTide.

Related: Terms · Security · Subprocessors