Virtual medical assistants: what they do, what they cost, and how to keep patient data safe

Most small practices don’t have a doctor problem. They have an admin problem.

The phones ring through lunch. Coverage checks happen the morning of the visit, or not at all. Prior authorizations sit in a pile. And by 7pm the doctor is still finishing paperwork that someone else could have done.

A virtual medical assistant is one way to take that work off your team. This article explains what one actually does, what it costs, and what to check before you let anyone near patient data.

The numbers behind the admin load

Prior authorization alone eats a working day and a half every week. In the AMA’s survey of 1,000 practicing physicians in December 2025, practices handled an average of 40 prior authorization requests per physician each week, and spent 13 hours of physician and staff time on them. 40% of physicians said their practice employs staff who work only on prior authorization.

Then there’s the cost of hiring locally. These are national averages from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025):

Role	Average US salary	With benefits and payroll taxes
Medical secretary and administrative assistant	$46,800	about $66,857
Receptionist	$39,460	about $56,371

The second column divides the salary by 0.7, because wages make up roughly 70% of what an employer actually pays for a worker, according to the BLS. That’s before recruiting time, training, or covering the seat when someone leaves.

What a virtual medical assistant actually does

“Virtual” only means the person works remotely. A good one works like a member of your staff: full time, in your hours, logged into your systems.

Typical work includes:

• Phones and scheduling. Answering calls, booking and moving appointments, reminder calls.
• Insurance verification. Checking each patient’s coverage and benefits before the visit.
• Prior authorizations. Submitting requests and chasing payers until they’re approved.
• Intake and records. New patient forms, referrals, faxes and record requests.
• Billing support. Charge entry and patient balance calls, if they have billing experience.

You’ll usually find these people in 3 ways, and each has a trade-off.

A freelancer is the cheapest to start. But you do the screening, you carry the risk if they disappear, and a business associate agreement with one person overseas is hard to enforce.

A large outsourcing company handles hiring for you. The catch is that your work may be split across a pool of people, and you rarely choose who does it.

A staffing partner finds and tests candidates, you interview and pick one, and that person works only for you. That’s the model we use. It costs more than a freelancer and less than a local hire.

Where the money leaks

Admin work sounds like overhead. It’s actually the start of your revenue.

Every visit runs along the same chain: the patient books, coverage is checked, the authorization is approved, the visit happens, the claim goes out, the payment comes in. When the front of that chain is rushed, the cost shows up weeks later as a denied or unpaid claim.

The leaks we see most often:

• Missed calls. A new patient who reaches voicemail often books somewhere else.
• Coverage not checked. A lapsed or wrong plan becomes a denial 30 days later.
• Authorizations late or missing. Visits get pushed, or the claim is denied for no approval.
• The doctor doing admin. Every hour spent on paperwork is an hour not seeing patients.

None of these show up as a line on your profit and loss. That’s why they’re easy to ignore.

Keeping patient data safe

This is the first question most doctors ask, and it should be. Under HIPAA, your practice stays responsible for how a business associate handles patient information. So before anyone remote sees patient data, check 5 things:

1. A signed business associate agreement (BAA). With a company you can hold to it, not a promise in an email.
2. A confidentiality agreement signed by the person doing the work.
3. HIPAA training completed before day one.
4. A controlled device. Work on a managed laptop, not a personal computer at home.
5. Access you control. They log into your systems with their own account, and you can remove it any time.

If a provider can’t answer these clearly, don’t hand over patient data.

Where Benchwell fits

Benchwell finds and tests full-time remote staff for US practices. Our assistants, receptionists, insurance verification and prior authorization coordinators cost $1,900 a month, which is $22,800 a year.

Against the average medical administrative assistant at about $66,857 a year with benefits and taxes, that’s about $44,057 less.

How it works:

• You tell us the job: the tasks, your software and your hours.
• We test candidates on real work: a skills test, a live English phone call, an interview with us and reference checks.
• You meet the strongest few, with our written notes on each. Nobody joins unless you pick them.
• Before anyone sees patient data, we sign a BAA. Every hire signs an NDA, completes HIPAA training and works on a company-managed laptop.

What we don’t do: we don’t run your practice software, and we don’t promise results we can’t measure in your practice. Our people work in your systems, under your direction.

If billing is the bigger problem, we can also run your billing for you, priced as a percentage of what we collect after a free billing review.

You pay nothing until you pick someone. There’s no setup fee, a free replacement if someone isn’t right, and 30 days’ notice to stop.

Want to see what this would look like for your practice? Tell us the job and we’ll send a free hiring plan within 48 hours: what the role needs, what it would cost in the US, and when you’d meet candidates.

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Sources: AMA 2025 Prior Authorization Physician Survey, as reported by Physicians Practice (May 2026). US salaries: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national mean. Wage share of employer cost: BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation.