What to hand off first to a virtual medical assistant, and why

Start with the patient interactions and your messages

What clinics ask for most is to hand off the patient interactions, the intake process, message triage and the administrative tasks. Message triage here means sorting what comes in and routing each message to the right person on your team. Your clinicians still make the clinical decisions.

A virtual medical assistant who handles your messages and your front and back-end activities helps you run the clinic, and leaves you more time for your patients.

Why these first

• They never stop. Messages and patient requests arrive all day, and every one pulls someone away from the patient in front of them.
• They are easy to define. You can write down what each kind of message needs and who handles it, so the assistant can start from a clear list.
• Patients feel them first. A request answered promptly and an intake finished before the visit are the first things a patient notices about your practice.
• Language. Many patients speak Spanish. Our candidates speak both English and Spanish, so messages, calls and intake can be handled in the patient’s own language.

Then insurance and prior authorizations

Insurance verification is mostly automatic now, through electronic integrations with your EHR, so it is rarely the first thing to hand off. It is still an easy task to teach, along with prior authorization submissions, appeals and gathering the information they need. Hand these over once the first work is running smoothly.

A simple order

1. Messages and patient requests.
2. New-patient intake and registration.
3. The administrative work around them.
4. Prior authorization submissions, appeals and information gathering.
5. Insurance verification, taught when you need it.

What stays with you

Clinical decisions stay with your providers. A virtual medical assistant is a support role: they take on requests, intake and administrative work so your clinical team can stay with patients. They do not treat patients.

What to tell us when you ask for one

Which focus areas you need, your EHR and tools, your hours and your specialty. If your patients speak Spanish, say so. The medical assistant role page lists the four focus areas and what Entry and Experienced mean for this role.