Some practices do not need more billing capability. They need more hands on the administrative work that surrounds it: the phones, the recall list, the insurance cards nobody scanned, the claim status calls nobody has time to make. Our healthcare virtual assistant services put a trained remote staff member inside your practice management system, on your hours, doing a written list of tasks, under a business associate agreement and access you control.
What the role covers
Each assistant works a defined scope, not a general request queue. Front-office roles cover scheduling and reminders, working the recall list, filling cancellations from the waitlist, new patient intake and demographic entry, insurance card capture and document handling. Billing-support roles cover 270/271 eligibility checks ahead of the schedule, claim status checks and payer calls on a list handed over by your billing team or by our A/R follow-up service, and patient balance calls under your policy. Clinical roles such as scribing are scoped separately. The scope is written down before anyone starts, with the systems, the hours and the handoff points named.
Inside your systems, under your logins
Assistants work in your practice management system and EHR through your remote access, with a user account you issue and can disable in a minute. Access follows the HIPAA minimum necessary standard: a scheduling assistant sees the schedule and demographics and does not see the ledger; an insurance follow-up assistant sees claims and remittances and does not see clinical notes unless an appeal requires it. Nothing is exported to our systems. Activity is logged in yours, so you can see who did what and when, and a login is closed the day a role ends.
What a healthcare virtual assistant does in a typical week
A scheduling assistant confirms the coming days' appointments, works the recall list for annual wellness visits (G0438 and G0439 for Medicare) and preventive exams, fills openings from the waitlist and updates demographics as patients call. An intake assistant enters new patient paperwork, scans both sides of the insurance card, asks the Medicare Secondary Payer questions for Medicare patients and flags anything eligibility verification will need before the visit, because a member ID typed wrong at intake comes back six weeks later as a CO-16 with remark N382. An insurance follow-up assistant checks claim status, calls payers, records reference numbers and returns anything needing a corrected claim or an appeal to the billing team, with the CO-29 deadline noted. Each assistant keeps a daily log of what was completed and what is waiting on someone else, and the log goes to you at the end of the week.
Training and the first month
The scope document becomes a written procedure for your practice, screen by screen in your system. The assistant shadows the workflow first, then works it with your staff reviewing, then works it independently with spot checks. Payer-specific quirks, your provider preferences and your phone script are added to the procedure as they come up, so the second assistant, if you add one, starts from a document rather than from memory. Your named account manager is the escalation point for anything not done to the standard the scope sets, and the scope is reviewed at the end of the first month and adjusted.
Deciding whether you need staffing or billing help
The question to ask is where the work is piling up. If claims are going out late because charges sit in a queue, or denials are not being appealed before the window closes, the problem is billing capacity and the answer is claim submission or denial management rather than an assistant. If the phones are not being answered, the recall list is untouched and insurance cards are not being scanned, the problem is front-office hands and a healthcare virtual assistant is the right tool. Many practices need both, and they are scoped separately so you can take one without the other. The free billing audit often shows which one you actually have, because an A/R problem sitting behind clean claims is usually a staffing problem in disguise.
What it costs and how it is priced
Assistants are priced by role and by hours per week, as a flat monthly fee, not as a percentage of collections, because most of the work happens before a charge exists. A part-time scheduling role and a full-time insurance follow-up role are priced differently, and the quote names the hours, the tasks and the systems. There is no long-term commitment beyond the notice period in the agreement, and practices that also use us for billing get a combined rate. See pricing for the current structure or contact us to scope a role.
What Is Included
- Scheduling, recalls and appointment reminders
- New patient intake and insurance card capture
- 270/271 eligibility checks before the visit
- Claim status and insurance follow-up calls
- Works inside your PM and EHR under your logins
- Signed BAA, role-based access, weekly task log
| Business associate contracts | A covered entity must have a written business associate contract before a vendor creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information on its behalfSource: HHS, Business Associates |
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| Minimum necessary | The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires access to protected health information to be limited to the minimum necessary for the roleSource: HHS, Minimum Necessary Requirement |
Healthcare Virtual Assistants & Back-Office Staffing: Common Questions
No. This is staffing for defined administrative work, scoped and priced separately by role and hours. Some practices take an assistant for the front office and keep billing in house, and some do the reverse.
Every assistant works under a signed business associate agreement, through your remote access, with a login you issue and can revoke. Access is limited to the screens the role needs, activity is logged in your system, and no patient data is copied into ours.
Yes. Starting with a single defined role, usually scheduling or insurance follow-up, is the usual way in. It is easier to judge the fit and refine the procedures before adding hours or a second role.
The scope document is turned into written procedures for your practice, and the assistant follows the workflow in your system before working independently. Your staff review the first weeks of work, and the procedures are corrected as you go.
Hours are agreed in the scope and set to your practice's schedule and time zone, so the assistant is available when patients call and when your staff need a handoff rather than on a schedule that suits us.
Yes. Scope is reviewed with your account manager, and tasks can be added or removed as the role settles. Changes are written into the procedures so the assistant and your staff are working from the same description.