Meet Care AI: Answers, Appointments, and Benefits Help at Any Hour

Most of what your employees need from their benefits is simple: Is this covered? Where can I get seen? Can I get an appointment this week?

Getting those answers is not. It means calling during business hours, digging through plan documents, and guessing what's covered. For hourly workers whose schedules don't bend around a 9-to-5, that friction is often the reason care gets skipped.

Care AI is our answer. It's an assistant built into the Vitable app that helps members book care, understand their benefits, and get answers whenever they need them. Here's how it works.

One Conversation, Start to Finish

Care AI takes a member from describing a symptom, to choosing a provider, to confirming an appointment, all in one chat.

It also knows each member's household and plan, including network, copays, and deductibles. So instead of sending people back to provider directories and plan PDFs, it points them to the right option for their situation.

What Members Can Do With It

• Get plan-specific answers across Virtual Primary Care, CHOICE (ICHRA), and MEC, so they know what's covered.
• Book and manage appointments for themselves and their household members.
• Ask in the language they're most comfortable with, without waiting on a translator or an interpreter-supported call.
• Handle everyday tasks like lab orders, information updates, and finding their way around the app.
• Check whether a medication is covered under their Vitable prescription benefit, before they get to the pharmacy counter.
• Reach a person when a conversation calls for more support.

Built to Know Its Limits

Care AI is often a member's first stop when something feels wrong, so it's built to recognize when Direct Primary Care isn't the right fit.

If a member describes symptoms that may need urgent attention, Care AI sends them to emergency services, or to a low-cost urgent care facility when that's the better option, even when that means pointing outside Vitable's network.

And humans stay in the loop. Members can ask for a person at any point, and conversations get escalated when they need more than self-service. As Care AI has improved, the share of conversations escalated to a human has dropped from about 40% to 24% since launch.

What It Looks Like in Practice

• Refill request: A member asked about refilling a medication. Care AI gathered the details, confirmed urgency, matched them with an available provider on their care team, walked through Telehealth consent, and booked the visit.
• Cost barrier: A member who couldn't afford a prescribed medication was offered a $0 primary care visit to explore lower-cost options. Care AI booked it.
• Side effects: A member reporting side effects from a new prescription was routed to the next available primary care appointment, so the issue was addressed early.
• Emergency triage: A member described symptoms outside the scope of primary care. Care AI recognized the urgency, explained that the symptoms could be serious, and made sure the member had a clear next step: the emergency room.

Helping Members Find What's Already Theirs

We found that many members didn't know how much was already available to them at no cost. Care AI now surfaces covered benefits, including free prescriptions, flu vouchers, and lab orders, at the moment a member needs them. It's less a navigation tool than a benefits discovery tool.

That matters because Vitable pairs primary care with health plans so everyday needs like visits, prescriptions, and labs are handled early and at lower cost. Members get more than 1,000 prescriptions and labs at no cost when prescribed or ordered by a Vitable provider, plus same-day or next-day appointments in our highest-volume states. Our Direct Primary Care has earned an NPS of 91, well above published healthcare industry averages. Care AI makes all of that easier to find and use.

Early Results

• 31%+ of Vitable members have chatted with Care AI.
• 86% of those who rated their experience found it helpful.
• Members keep coming back, often citing speed and clarity. "Fast, easy and convenient to access," one said. Another shared, "I like that I have guidance in the app to help me understand what to do."

Why We Built It

As more employers move to CHOICE (ICHRA) and other alternatives to traditional group health benefits, employees get more options, and more complexity. Without good navigation, that complexity becomes a barrier to care.

"Coverage only matters if people can use it," says Joe Kitonga, founder and CEO of Vitable Health. "Care AI meets workers on their terms, helping them understand their options and take the next step so employers don't have to choose between affordable benefits and a better experience."

Much of what makes care costly and hard to access comes from scarce human time: the phone calls, the decision-making, the coordination between plans and providers. Care AI takes on that logistics layer so members can get back to their lives, and our care team can focus on the moments that call for a human.

What to Tell Your Employees

• It's already in the app. There's nothing extra to sign up for. Care AI is in the Vitable app they already use.
• It works with their plan. Whether they're on Virtual Primary Care, CHOICE, or MEC, it gives answers specific to their coverage.
• It fits their schedule. They can get answers and book visits on their own time, without a phone call.
• A person is always an option. If they'd rather talk to someone, they can ask to be connected to a human.
• It's not for emergencies. If something feels serious, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

See It for Yourself

Want to see Care AI in action, or talk through how it fits a group you're working with? Reach out and we'll walk you through it.

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Further Resources

• Vitable’s Benefits Administration Platform
• Vitable for Members

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Care AI provides navigation and benefits information and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. In an emergency, call 911.