Frequently Asked Questions

Virtual medical assistants (VMAs) can work for numerous physicians simultaneously because they are supported by a team. The Medical Virtual Assistant is the face and voice of your practice, but they work with a team that consists of support workers, IT specialists, and others that assist with all business-related responsibilities. As a business owner, you may like to know who is attending to the requirements of your patients. We become an extension of your office at this point. We can do more for our clientele than just billing and scheduling because we have a complete crew working tirelessly on their behalf.

Here are several benefits of employing a Virtual Medical Assistant for your practice: Cost savings With flexible scheduling and remote office access, Virtual Healthcare Assistants are able to work more hours per week than regular employees. This means that you will save money on employee perks and payroll taxes and keep more of your earnings! Better time management Virtual medical assistants may devote more time to their duties, which include assisting doctors and patients with administrative responsibilities such as answering phones, filing paperwork, making appointments, and organizing charts, without having to commute or take lunch breaks daily. This means that regardless of how busy your practice becomes, you have one less thing to worry about!

When you collaborate with a virtual medical assistant, they will be trained to understand your practice and the needs of your patients. They will also learn how to communicate with your patients and work with your team. Your remote medical assistant can interact with patients via your website, social media platforms, and in person. They are able to answer queries regarding appointments and provide informational materials on issues such as flu shots and immunizations.

Our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants successfully handle medical reception (supporting the phone lines), appointment management and scheduling, insurance authorization, insurance verification, medication refills, medical records management, billing, collections, and other tasks. They can even help you with personal matters if you wish.

Absolutely. Our Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants can work in practices of all sizes and specialties.

Yes, all of our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants are healthcare professionals based in the Philippines. Most are Registered Nurses with four years of rigorous nursing school and clinical experience. They thus bring valuable familiarity with healthcare terms and procedures to their positions.

We invest a lot of time, money and effort into our recruiting and vetting processes to ensure we provide high-quality talent. We have a highly experienced recruitment team on the ground in the Philippines that is constantly sourcing talent. Our extensive vetting screens for communication skills, attitude, aptitude, work ethic, dedication, coachability, integrity, commitment, consistency, and reliability. We personally talk to potential Virtual Assistants’ past employers and assess them on a variety of tests, including personality, to make sure that they meet our standards.

Each of our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants undergoes our founder-designed intensive training process so that they’re familiar with common EHR/EMR systems, HIPAA compliance, security protocols, and best-practice remote working procedures. This is, of course, in addition to their healthcare education and experience. Most of our Virtual Assistants are Registered Nurses, though some have other healthcare degrees. Once hired, you’ll need to train your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants on the specific workflow to which they will be assigned in your office, the same way you’d need to train any new in-house employee who comes with a solid professional foundation.

We mostly recruit Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants from the Philippines. The country has a combination of factors that make it the ideal location: 1) English is the first language taught in school and the country’s official language 2) The Philippines is home to world-class nursing and medical talent 3) A strong work ethic is embedded in the culture. Your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants will be highly motivated to impress you, as you are giving them a tremendous opportunity. While the wage we pay may seem modest by Western standards, MEDVA’s pay and benefits are industry-leading and are above what our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants could earn in their local economy. 4) Since US companies and US based healthcare companies are a major employer in the Philippines and are important to the Philippines’ economy, the Philippine government strictly enforces laws prohibiting Philippine citizens from disclosing confidential information in order to make US businesses feel secure employing Philippine citizens

We allow our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants to work from the comfort of their homes. This allows us to attract the best talent regardless of location and is an incentive for highly talented professionals to join MEDVA.

The Philippines is home to the third-largest English-speaking population in the world, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. English is the first language taught in school and is the official language of the Philippines.

While the age varies, most of our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants tend to be in the 25-35 age range.

Absolutely! Reach out to our team, and we can schedule a discovery call at your convenience.

Our flat rate offers you up to 70% savings relative to the cost of an in-house employee once you factor in minimum wage, payroll taxes, and cost of office space. When you work with MEDVA’s Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants, you will also avoid the significant legal liability that comes with hiring an in-house employee in certain states. Additionally, using a virtual medical or dental receptionist to answer your phone lines means that potential patients calling into your practice won’t go to another provider simply because they could not get through to you. For doctors using our scribe/transcription service, the time saved by not having to update your EHR/EMR will allow you to see more patients per day.

We take great pride in successful client outcomes and providing world-class customer service. While the integration of a Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant is seamless and clients rarely need to ask for our guidance, we are happy to provide any assistance you’d like. Our team has great expertise into how your office can best use your Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants, and we are available to guide you with best practices during the Medical Virtual Assistant onboarding process and beyond.

To train your Medical Virtual Assistant and Dental Virtual Assistants, we recommend using the recording feature on any HIPAA compliant video-conferencing software such as Zoom or Skype. For ongoing communications, we recommend phone calls, texts, email, your EHR/EMR and video-conferencing as you see fit. If your office uses a traditional analog phone system, we recommend that your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants download an app onto their smartphone/personal computer that functions as an American phone number from which they can receive incoming phone calls or make outgoing phone calls using a phone number that can be linked to your practice. If your office is using a VoIP/digital phone, your Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant can simply download your VoIP/digital phone provider’s application onto their smartphone/computer and use it as an American phone number. We also recommend you provide your Medical or Dental Virtual Assistant with an official clinic email address from your practice so that they can email your office staff, your patients or other healthcare offices as necessary.

We install sophisticated time-tracking software onto their computers. This software allows our internal staff to carefully monitor their web activity/mouse movement during work hours you’ve set for them to ensure they are being productive. We can provide you with summary activity reports from the time tracking software should you desire. Your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants only gets paid and you only get charged when they’re logged into the time-tracking software. Needless to say, we have high expectations of our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants in terms of reliability and performance. We vet for work ethic, and we expect our Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants to be committed to delivering the performance you deserve every day.

Our Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants are all certified in HIPAA training. At onboarding, our staff checks that their computer hardware and anti-virus software meet our specifications. Clients should have their Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant(s) sign Business Associate Agreements. Our company does not need to sign a BAA since we don’t have access to Patient Health Information. Our Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants are located in the Philippines (except for Spanish-speaking virtual assistants available upon request who are located in South America), where many of the country’s citizens are employed by US companies, especially US-based healthcare companies. Since US companies and US-based healthcare companies are major employers in the Philippines and important to the Philippines’ economy, the Philippine government has passed strict laws prohibiting Philippine citizens from disclosing confidential information in order to make US companies feel secure doing business there. In particular, the Philippine government passed the Data Privacy Act of 2012, similar to the United States’ HIPAA law. The Data Privacy Act of 2012 provides coverage protection to US entities working with Philippine workers while severely punishing any Philippine citizens who intentionally compromise Patient Health Information of US entities. Please see here for more information about the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

Despite the time difference between the US and The Philippines, your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants will work your office hours or whatever hours you need them to work.

Most clients hire their Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants work 40 hours per week. We ask that our clients employ their Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants full-time. We find that the most talented/sought-after employees are looking for full-time employment of at least 40 hours per week; however, we also have some VAs that are open to part-time at a high hourly rate. In terms of a maximum, there is no hard-and-fast rule. Clients are welcome to ask their Virtual Medical Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants to work beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week, within reason. As long as the Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants are willing to work extra, which is true in most cases, that is fine with us. No matter how many hours your Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants work, the rate stays at the same low price.

Yes, the all-in cost for our Medical Virtual Assistant and Dental Virtual Assistant services have exceptionally low hourly rates and that includes everything. There are no set-up fees or other hidden costs that you’d have to pay MEDVA. The fee is the same regardless of the tasks that your Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant is doing. Clients will be charged twice a month for services rendered the two weeks prior. Clients are charged via a credit card that is left on file.

Since our Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants do not live or work from within the United States, your local state and federal labor laws and employment protections do not legally apply. This means that you do not have any legal liability towards the Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant and need not be worried about frivolous employment lawsuits, since the Medical and Dental Virtual Assistants cannot sue you. However, clients are expected to treat their Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant with dignity and respect. We encourage clients to give the Medical and Dental Virtual Assistant two paid 15-minute breaks per day and an unpaid lunch break.

Medical Virtual Assistants and Dental Virtual Assistants are fully dedicated to and specifically hired by your practice. We encourage you to think of your Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant as your own employee for all intents and purposes. It’s going to be the same person every day. This allows the Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant and the doctor/in-house staff to develop an ever-stronger work relationship and allows the Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant to become a master of the practice workflow.

We are very confident that you’ll be happy with our services, but if for any reason it’s not working for your office, you can swap your Medical or Dental Virtual Assistant or cancel the service altogether whenever you’d like. Our no-contract policy means that our company and our Medical Virtual Assistants have to earn your business every day, which is the way we want it to be. Working with a MEDVA virtual assistant is simply a no-risk situation.

Integrating medical reception is seamless as we have seen it done time and again with our clients. By having your Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant download a “digital phone app” (the fancy lingo for such an app is VoIP) on their smartphone and/or computer, your Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant will have an American phone number from your local area code that will be linked to your practice. This will allow the Medical Virtual Assistant or Dental Virtual Assistant to perform receptionist duties, and receive incoming and outgoing calls and no one can tell the difference.

Step 1: You tell us your needs. Step 2: We will send you an email with a number of candidates suited especially for your needs. The email will contain the resumes and one-minute video introductions of these candidates. Step 3: You are then welcome to interview the candidates(s) of your choosing and decide who to hire.