Comparison · NZ allied health

Vocara vs general AI scribes for NZ ACC work

General AI scribes, Heidi included, are very good at turning a conversation into a clinical note. The comparison that matters in New Zealand starts after the note is written: the ACC45, the ACC32, the session allocations, and the invoice, which is the half Vocara was built for.

The short version

Any good scribe writes the note. Ambient recording, structured SOAP or DAP output, editing before you sign. Vocara, Heidi and others all do this well.

Only Vocara then lodges the ACC paperwork. The ACC45 is drafted from your signed note and lodged with ACC from inside Vocara, and the claim number comes back into the record. ACC32 treatment extensions are drafted from the clinical record and submitted to ACC the same way. With a general scribe, that paperwork still has to be prepared and lodged through your usual channels by hand.

Vocara holds ACC production access, granted after ACC's own compliance verification. Your practice connects with its own ACC digital certificate, and every submission is made under your practice's identity and confirmed by the treating practitioner. Nothing is ever sent automatically.

Feature by feature

For NZ allied health	Vocara	General AI scribes (incl. Heidi)
Ambient recording to a structured note	✓	✓
SOAP, DAP, BIRP and custom formats	✓	✓
You review, edit and sign before anything is final	✓	✓
ACC45 drafted from the note and lodged with ACC	✓	-
ACC32 extension requests submitted to ACC in-app	✓	-
READ code suggestion from the session itself	✓	-
Funded session allocations tracked and warned	✓	-
ACC invoicing prepared from the signed note	✓	-
Cliniko and Nookal: patients in, signed notes back	✓	varies
Equine and canine assessment formats	✓	-
Built and supported in New Zealand	✓	-
Coverage beyond allied health (GP, hospital, psych)	-	✓

Judged on NZ and ACC practice specifically. General scribes are excellent tools in their own right; the rows above are about the ACC half of the job, which they do not attempt.

When a general scribe is the better pick

You work outside allied health, in general practice, hospital medicine or psychiatry, where the big global scribes have deep coverage.
Your caseload has no ACC component, so the paperwork half of Vocara would sit unused.
You want a free tool and are happy building and maintaining your own templates.

If that is you, Heidi and its peers are good software. Vocara is deliberately narrow: NZ allied health, ACC-native, monthly billing with no lock-in.

When Vocara is the better pick

You are a physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath, podiatrist, acupuncturist or occupational therapist working in New Zealand.
ACC claims are part of your week: ACC45s, ACC32s, session allocations, invoices.
You run Cliniko or Nookal and want patients synced in and signed notes filed back automatically.
You want notes an ACC reviewer can follow, with the accident and causation story captured on every visit. Vocara never writes the causation judgement for you: that is yours, and the note holds you to it.

What Vocara refuses to do

Some of the comparison is about restraint. Vocara never submits anything to ACC without the practitioner reviewing it and pressing send. It never writes clinical causation on your behalf. It never uses its own credentials for your claims: your practice's ACC identity is the only one your submissions ever carry. Audio is deleted immediately after transcription, and every note is transcript-only: nothing is inferred, nothing is invented.

See the whole flow in one sitting

The demo runs a real appointment end to end: note, ACC45 lodgement, ACC32, referral.

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