Patient Intake Software: Where the Answers Land

Patient intake software is worth buying when each answer lands in a field of the patient's chart. A tool that only produces a tidy PDF still leaves your front desk typing.

Next, check for a signed business associate agreement (BAA, the HIPAA contract that binds a vendor to safeguard patient information). It must cover the plan you would buy, and a new patient must be able to finish the packet on a phone.

Quick answer

• Fill in your current intake as a new patient, on your phone, and write down the minutes.
• Open a finished packet in the chart and count the answers a person still types.
• Multiply the retyping minutes per packet by your new patients and hourly staff cost to get the monthly price of the status quo.
• Check whether the federal web accessibility rule reaches your practice, and note its date.

Follow one answer from the phone to the chart

An answer can end up in one of three places. It can write itself into a field the doctor sees, sit in a submissions list you export, or arrive as a PDF attached to the chart. Only the first removes work.

DrChrono's help page shows how this splits inside one product. Its check-in saves name, address, insurance, the insurance card photo and signed consents into the chart. Medications, allergies and conditions behave differently.

Even inside the EHR, staff still enter some answers by hand. Count those. I wrote about the DrChrono patient portal separately. I have also connected DrChrono appointment data to Google Ads for a US medical practice, though never intake forms.

Where each route puts the answers

Every cell below comes from the vendor's own page. A cell marked "not stated" is a question for the demo.

Sources: IntakeQ pricing, Jotform HIPAA and its plans, Google's HIPAA help page and Forms responses help, Phreesia pricing.

Two details hide in those pages:

• IntakeQ's low-volume plans start at $29.90 a month but cap you at 10 form submissions a month, or 25 appointments plus 25 client form submissions per practitioner every 30 days on the $59.90 plan.
• Phreesia's pricing page offers full access to its Intake platform at no cost through spring 2027 and does not say which practices qualify. A banner says standard pricing begins May 1, 2027, while the FAQ says every Intake product is included through May 31, 2027. Ask whether you qualify and which date your contract uses.

On Google, third-party add-ons sit outside the BAA, so answers sent through one leave its cover. For where a web form's data travels, read HIPAA website forms.

The BAA is a HIPAA contract, so it is a US question. In Ontario, PHIPA requires a company that provides the electronic means for a custodian to collect, use or retain personal health information to meet the prescribed requirements.

The accessibility deadline moved to 2027 or 2028

The rule applies if your practice receives HHS federal financial assistance. In its 2024 Section 1557 rule, HHS said Medicare Part B payments count as that assistance under Section 504 too. Ask a healthcare attorney if unsure; I am not one.

HHS's web accessibility standard sits in its Section 504 rule (45 CFR 84.84), a US rule. An interim final rule published May 11, 2026 extends the compliance date from May 11, 2026 to May 11, 2027 for recipients with 15 or more employees. For recipients with fewer than 15, it moves from May 10, 2027 to May 10, 2028.

If your practice is a recipient, the second clause matters: an intake page a vendor runs for you likely counts as content you make available through a contract. The notice says recipients include health care providers "of all sizes", small local clinics among them. Ask every vendor for its WCAG 2.1 AA conformance statement and test results.

Run the packet yourself with a phone

Do this before any demo, on each trial, and on your current intake if patients get it as a link or PDF.

1. Open the link on your phone with Wi-Fi off, as a new patient would.
2. Count screens and watch the clock until you reach the signature.
3. Photograph an insurance card and see whether the image attaches or you must type the numbers.
4. Close the tab at the halfway point and reopen the link. Were your answers saved?
5. Open the chart as the front desk and find every answer, then mark which ones you could not search or sort.

Step 5 gives you the number that matters: answers someone must retype.

What the retyping costs

Put your own three numbers in: new patients, retyping minutes and hourly cost. The saved minutes depend on the answers landing in fields, so use the result of step 5.

Make the demo answer these

• Show me which answers write into chart fields and which become documents.
• Tell me what staff must review before a patient's edit reaches the chart.
• Confirm the BAA covers the plan I would buy.
• Show a patient saving halfway and returning on the same link.
• Give me the 12-month total, with setup and any plan change after a free period.
• Send your WCAG 2.1 AA conformance report.

Prices and rules checked on 2026-10-31.