What this article helps with: A plain-language overview of Lia: what Lia does on a case, how the pieces fit together, where your team stays in control, and where to go next.
Who this is for: Everyone at your firm who touches client communication or medical records, including case managers, paralegals, intake staff, office managers, and firm admins.
When not to use this article: This is an orientation, not step-by-step instructions. If you already know what Lia is and want to set something up, jump to one of the articles linked at the bottom.
Key Terms
Key Terms
What do you mean when you say...
Lia = your case liaison. A case agent that works the case alongside your team.
Skill = a package of work Lia can take on, like Care Coordination or Provider Liaison. Skills are turned on per firm.
Enrollment = putting a client on Lia. Until a client is enrolled, Lia does nothing for them.
Escalation = Lia handing something back to a person, with the reason and the specific ask spelled out.
Agent Settings = the firm-wide page where you teach Lia about your firm and turn skills on or off.
Live preview = a safe way to test Lia against your own phone, without involving a real client.
Overview
Lia is your case liaison. A case agent that works the case right alongside your team, and takes the mundane communication off their plate so they can spend their time on the strategic work a case actually needs.
Think about what a case manager's day is really made of. The reminder before Thursday's appointment. The third text asking whether a client made it to physical therapy. The second email to a clinic that never sent the bill. The check-in on someone who has gone quiet. None of it takes judgment. All of it takes time, and it is the first thing to slip when the caseload grows.
Lia does that work every day, on every enrolled case, and brings your team in when something needs a person. Your client just gets texts, from the same firm number they have been talking to your team on all case long. Your team gets a case that stays current, and their afternoon back.
Lia lives in your left-hand navigation in Hona.
How Lia is put together
Lia is not one switch. There is Lia Respond, always working once a client is enrolled, plus skills that your firm turns on for the specific work you want handled.
Lia Respond
Always on for enrolled clients. Lia answers client texts, handles the questions your firm has written FAQs for, and escalates to your team on anything that should not be answered by an agent. This is the layer everything else runs on.
The skills
Each skill is a body of work Lia takes over, with its own settings and its own instructions in your words.
Skill | What Lia takes over | Who Lia talks to |
Care Coordination | Appointment reminders, post-treatment follow-up, and periodic check-ins while a client is in treatment. | Your client, by text |
Provider Liaison | Emails your client's providers for appointment attendance, bills, and records, and keeps following up until the office answers. Appointment scheduling is in early access. | Provider offices, by email |
The two are independent. Provider Liaison is not a subfeature of Care Coordination, and you can run either one without the other.
Chat with Lia, for your staff
Chat with Lia, for your staff
Everything above is Lia working on its own. There is also a private side your team can use directly.
Inside a two-way conversation, an AI bar above the message composer opens a drawer where a case manager can ask Lia about the case, have a reply drafted, or hand over a task in plain English. It is labeled Chat with Lia (private), and it is exactly that: what you type goes to Lia, not to your client.
Nothing proposed in that drawer reaches a client without a person pressing approve.
Chat with Lia is enabled separately from the rest of Lia. Ask your account team if you want it on.
Where your team stays in control
Lia is built to work hand in hand with your staff, not around them. Four things make that concrete.
Your team writes the playbook. Firm context, the introduction clients get, the FAQs Lia answers from, the escalation rules, and the follow-up cadence for each skill are all yours to set in Agent Settings, in plain language.
Lia escalates instead of guessing. Anything outside what an agent should answer becomes an escalation assigned to the case owner, with the reason and the specific ask spelled out. Not a vague "needs attention".
Everything is visible and reviewable. Client conversations, provider email threads, and every open request sit on the case for anyone working it, plus firm-wide views for the people who manage the work.
Pause is real, and it is granular. You can pause Lia for one client without touching anyone else, or firm-wide from Agent Settings. Pausing stops outbound messages, and the work in progress is kept rather than thrown away.
What a case with Lia looks like
You enroll a client. Lia sends an introduction that names your firm and the people on the case, explains what it will be doing, and asks about their next appointment and current providers.
The thread stays alive. A reminder before a visit. A neutral check-in afterward to find out how it went. A periodic "how are you feeling?" between visits. One question at a time, never a wall of text.
What Lia learns lands on the case. A new provider the client mentioned, an appointment date, an attendance status. It goes on the file instead of into someone's memory.
The provider's office gets chased. With Provider Liaison on, Lia emails for the bill, the records, and whether the client showed up, then follows up on a schedule until the office answers.
Your team gets the part that needs a person. A frustrated client, a question that needs a real answer, an office that will not respond. Each one arrives with context and a clear ask.
Why firms use Lia
The follow-up actually happens. Every reminder, every check-in, every second email to the clinic. Lia does not get busy and does not forget.
Gaps in care get caught while they are still fixable. A client who stops treating rarely calls to say so. Lia is the one asking.
The medical file builds as the case goes. Attendance, bills, and records come in as visits happen instead of in a scramble before the demand.
Your case managers get their time back for the work that matters. Your Lia dashboard shows a running time saved figure so you can see how much.
Nothing goes out that shouldn't. The introduction Hona ships tells clients they are talking to an AI assistant, and Lia respects contact hours, stops the instant a client opts out, and hands anything sensitive to a person.
What is and is not supported today
Supported
Texting your clients about treatment, appointments, and how they are doing
Answering routine client questions from FAQs your firm writes
Emailing provider offices for attendance, bills, and records, and following up until they answer
Pausing Lia for one client without affecting anyone else
Testing against your own phone with Live preview, without involving a real client
Firm-wide settings, plus per-skill instructions written in your own words
A private staff-side chat for asking questions and drafting replies, where a person always approves before anything sends
Not supported today
Phone calls. Lia texts clients and emails provider offices. It does not call anyone. Inbound calls are handled by Hona's AI Receptionist, which is a separate product.
Medical or legal advice. Lia notes what a client says and points them back to their provider or your team.
Choosing a provider for a client. Only providers your firm has marked Preferred are ever surfaced, and the client decides.
Rescheduling or cancelling a visit unilaterally. With Provider Liaison scheduling, Lia gathers times from the office and hands them to the client to pick.
Contacting anyone your firm has not put on file. Lia only emails providers in your Provider directory, on cases your firm has linked them to. The system enforces that, not just the agent's judgment.
Where to go next
Lia Respond: answering your clients' inbound questions: the reactive layer that answers whatever your clients write in, and the usual place firms start.
Getting started with Lia: access and permissions: who turns Lia on, which roles can do what, and the permission needed to enroll clients.
Agent Settings: teaching Lia about your firm: firm context, the introduction clients get, FAQs, escalation rules, and enrollment.
Testing Lia with Live preview: rehearsing against your own phone before a real client is involved.
Enrolling clients on Lia: putting a client on Lia, the In Treatment switch, and pausing for one person.
Care Coordination: reminders, follow-ups, and check-ins: the skill that handles a client while they are in treatment.
Provider Liaison: collecting attendance, bills, and records: how Lia works a provider's office until they answer.
The Provider directory: which providers Lia can contact: why an email address on the provider record is the setting that matters most.
Provider Emails: every conversation Lia has with an office: the firm-wide inbox, the status filters, and stepping in yourself.
Escalations and drafts: how Lia hands work back to your team: what arrives for a person, where it shows up, and who can clear it.
Chat with Lia: the staff-facing drawer: the private side your team drives, where nothing sends without approval.
Guardrails: what Lia will and will not do: identity, contact hours, opt-outs, HIPAA, and what pausing actually does.
Troubleshooting and FAQs: Lia: the fixes for the things firms actually run into.
FAQs
Do clients know they are texting an AI?
Do clients know they are texting an AI?
That is set by your introduction message, and the one Hona ships by default says so: it introduces the agent by name and states that it is an AI assistant. That introduction lives in Agent Settings and is yours to edit, so if your firm rewrites it, check that it still tells clients what you want them to know. We recommend keeping the disclosure in it.
Does Lia replace our case managers?
Does Lia replace our case managers?
No, and the product is not built that way. Lia takes the repetitive communication your team never has enough hours for, and routes everything that needs judgment back to a person. Firms use it to give case managers room for the higher-value work on a case, not to have fewer of them.
Can we try it before we put a real client on it?
Can we try it before we put a real client on it?
Yes. Live preview lets you enter a test phone number and play the client yourself. Same agent, same settings, no real client involved. Live preview refuses numbers that belong to actual clients, and each run starts clean.
Is Lia the same thing as the AI Receptionist?
Is Lia the same thing as the AI Receptionist?
No. Hona's AI Receptionist answers and qualifies inbound phone calls. Lia works the cases you already have, by text and email. They are separate products with separate settings, and having one does not give you the other.
What happens to our Engage messages when a client is on Lia?
What happens to our Engage messages when a client is on Lia?
There is a setting for exactly this. Under Company Settings → Project Types, the option to pause notifications for enrolled clients stops your Engage drips from double-messaging someone Lia is already talking to.
Can we stop Lia for one client without turning it off for everyone?
Can we stop Lia for one client without turning it off for everyone?
Yes, and there are two levels. The In Treatment switch on a client pauses the treatment-related messages for that person. The Provider Liaison switch in the case header holds provider outreach for that one client while the Liaison keeps running for everyone else. Firm-wide toggles live in Agent Settings.
Conclusion
Lia handles the communication your team does not have hours for, so they can put those hours somewhere that moves the case. If you have questions about how it fits your firm's process, chat with our support team or email [email protected].