If you're shopping for an AI receptionist, Sully.ai is probably on your list. It offers a set of AI agents for clinics and health systems, from phones to clinical notes.
TriFetch is on the same list for many clinics. Both answer patient calls and book visits. The difference shows up in the paperwork behind the visit: referral faxes, prior authorizations and denials, which is where clinics lose the most staff time.
We wrote this to help you compare the two on the things that matter to a clinic's front desk. We're TriFetch, so we've stuck to what Sully publishes about itself and linked our sources at the end.
What does Sully.ai do?
Sully.ai is a healthcare AI company. It describes itself as "AI agents for the front desk, the visit, and everything after". It offers several AI roles, including a receptionist, scribe, medical coder, consultant, nurse and pharmacist.
On the front desk, Sully's AI Receptionist "answers the patients who call your organization and calls the patients you need to reach", and Sully says it offers "24/7 availability." It "books directly into your EHR's open slots, then texts the patient a confirmation," and can "confirm the insurance on file with the caller."
Beyond the front desk, Sully's AI Scribe turns visits into clinical notes, its AI Medical Coder suggests billing codes, and its AI Consultant supports clinical reasoning. Its AI Nurse page says it "coordinates referrals, prior-auth requests, and care handoffs."
What does TriFetch do?
TriFetch is a healthcare AI company that automates clinic front-desk work. Its AI agent, Linda, handles the admin work between a patient's first call and their visit. She answers calls around the clock, up to 50 at once. She reads referral faxes and enters them into your EMR. Then she verifies eligibility, submits the prior authorization, tracks it and appeals the denial if there is one.
TriFetch works with mid-size to large healthcare clinics and health systems, across specialties like gastroenterology, cardiology, ENT and ophthalmology.
How do TriFetch and Sully.ai compare?
TriFetch and Sully.ai both answer patient calls and book visits. TriFetch also handles referral faxes, prior authorizations and denial appeals, goes live faster and publishes its pricing. Here's how the two line up on the work a clinic front desk actually does.
| Feature | Sully.ai | TriFetch (Linda) |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 call answering | Yes, answers and makes patient calls, 24/7 | Yes, up to 50 calls at once |
| Books the patient | Yes, books directly into your EHR | Yes, books onto your schedule in the EMR |
| Referral fax intake | Not listed | Yes, entered into your EMR same day |
| Eligibility check | Confirms the insurance on file with the caller | Yes, verified with the payer |
| Prior auth submission | AI Nurse "coordinates" prior-auth requests. Submission not described | Yes, same day |
| Denial tracking + appeals | Surfaces denial risks. Appeals not listed | Yes |
| EMR connection | Integrations with named EHRs, including Epic, athenahealth and NextGen | Own login in any browser-based EMR, no API |
| Time to go live | "Most programs launch in 2–3 weeks" | One week |
| Clinical tools | Scribe, medical coder and clinical consultant | Not offered. Linda focuses on front-desk work |
| Pricing | Not published on its website | Custom plans from $5,000/month, priced on volume. Self-serve plan for smaller clinics coming early 2027 |
Sully details reflect its public website as of November 12, 2026. Every Sully claim links to the page it comes from. See the full TriFetch comparison page for other vendors.
Who covers each step?
For most specialty visits, a booked appointment isn't the finish line. A referral has to be entered, the payer has to approve the service, and a denial has to be worked instead of dropped. Here's the full path, and which tool covers each step based on what each one publishes.
Both tools handle the phone call and the booking. Steps 2, 4, 5 and 6 are where TriFetch goes further. Our guide on why prior authorizations get denied goes deeper on that part of the workflow.
How do they connect to your EMR?
Sully.ai connects through EHR integrations. TriFetch doesn't need one.
Sully.ai lists integrations with a long list of EHRs, including Epic, athenahealth, NextGen and AdvancedMD, and says "one secure integration powers scheduling and notes."
TriFetch takes a different approach. Linda logs into your systems with her own credentials and works on the same screens your staff use. If your EMR runs in a browser, including NextGen, eClinicalWorks and athenahealth, she can work in it. There's no integration project and no migration.
How fast can you go live, and what does it cost?
TriFetch goes live in one week and publishes its pricing. Sully.ai says "most programs launch in 2–3 weeks" and doesn't publish pricing.
TriFetch usually starts with the workflow that costs you the most, like a referral fax backlog or a prior auth queue.
TriFetch publishes its pricing. Custom plans start at $5,000 per month and are priced on the work Linda does: which workflows she runs, how much volume each one handles, and how many provider schedules are set up. Adding staff never raises your price. Every plan includes HIPAA compliance, SOC 2 certification, a signed BAA and a 30-day opt-out period. See the pricing page for details, or estimate your savings with the ROI calculator.
Smaller clinics that need just one workflow can join the waitlist for TriFetch's self-serve plan, coming in early 2027. It's built for practices with fewer providers and lower patient volume, with one standard workflow and quick self-guided setup.
For a real example: a multi-provider GI practice on eClinicalWorks used TriFetch to clear a backlog of 767 referrals in two weeks, with no added headcount. Thirty-seven patients moved toward procedures, and the practice saw a 5.4–6.6x ROI in 14 days on its own numbers. Read the GI case study.
Which one should your clinic choose?
Choose TriFetch if
- Referral faxes, prior auths or denials are your bottleneck
- You want calls, referrals, auths and appeals in one agent
- You want to go live in a week with no EMR integration
- You want pricing you can see up front, tied to work done
Sully.ai may fit if
- You want AI help with clinical notes and coding as well as phones
- Your front desk mostly needs call coverage and scheduling, and another team handles referrals and prior auths
When TriFetch isn't the right fit
TriFetch's custom plans are built for multi-provider clinics automating several workflows. If you're a smaller practice that only needs help with one thing, like phones or prior auths, a custom plan may be more than you need today. The self-serve plan coming in early 2027 is designed for you: one standard workflow and a quick self-guided setup. Join the waitlist on the pricing page, or email inquiry@trifetch.ai with "Self-serve waitlist" in the subject.
TriFetch also doesn't write clinical notes or suggest billing codes. If that's what you need most, a scribe or coding tool is a better fit. And if your EMR only runs as installed desktop software rather than in a browser, talk to us first so we can check how Linda would work with it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between TriFetch and Sully.ai?
- Both answer patient calls 24/7 and book visits into your EHR. TriFetch also reads referral faxes, verifies eligibility, submits prior authorizations and appeals denials, so a referral is carried from the fax to an approved visit. Sully.ai also offers clinical tools, like an AI scribe and medical coder.
- Is TriFetch a Sully.ai alternative?
- Yes, for front-desk work. Clinics comparing AI receptionists often look at both. TriFetch fits when referrals, prior auths and denials are what's slowing your staff down.
- Does Sully.ai do prior authorizations?
- Sully.ai's website says its AI Nurse coordinates prior-auth requests, but it doesn't describe submitting them to payers, tracking them or appealing denials, as of November 2026. TriFetch does all three.
- Does Sully.ai read referral faxes?
- Fax intake isn't described on Sully.ai's website as of November 2026. TriFetch reads referral faxes and enters them into your EMR the same day.
- Which is faster to set up, TriFetch or Sully.ai?
- TriFetch goes live in one week, with no EMR integration. Sully.ai says most of its programs launch in 2–3 weeks, through its EHR integrations.
- Does TriFetch need an EMR integration?
- No. Linda logs into your browser-based EMR with her own credentials and works on the same screens your staff use.
- How much does TriFetch cost?
- Custom plans start at $5,000 per month, priced on the volume of work Linda handles, not per seat. Book a demo for an exact quote. Sully.ai doesn't publish pricing.
- Is there an option for smaller clinics?
- Yes. A self-serve plan for smaller clinics that need one workflow is coming in early 2027. You can join the waitlist on the pricing page.
The Bottom Line
Sully.ai and TriFetch both answer patient calls and book visits. Sully also offers clinical tools, like an AI scribe and medical coder. If the harder part of your front desk is the paperwork behind the visit (referral faxes, prior auths and denials), TriFetch is built to carry the referral through to an approved visit, inside the EMR you already use.
See how Linda handles a referral and a prior auth in your workflow. Book a 30-minute demo.
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