Independent practices lose measurable staff and provider hours to phone coverage gaps, prior-authorization paperwork, and front-desk turnover. Here is what published industry data says about where that time and cost goes, and where a trained remote support model can reasonably be expected to help.
These are third-party industry benchmarks, not a promise, guarantee, or claim about results for any specific practice. Your practice's actual costs, call volume, and administrative burden may be higher or lower. Sources cited below.
Prior authorization alone consumes an average of 13 hours of combined physician and staff time every week, according to the American Medical Association's 2025 Prior Authorization Physician Survey - and 40% of physicians surveyed employ staff dedicated exclusively to that task. That is before counting scheduling, insurance verification, referral follow-up, and inbox management. A trained Virtual Medical Assistant is scoped and trained specifically to take defined pieces of that administrative load off your team's plate, under the access and permissions you approve. Payers still make final authorization decisions in every case.
Administrative tasks that currently compete with patient care move to a team trained specifically for that scope.
Trained backup for calls, scheduling, and inbox management while your practice is open, without adding fixed in-house headcount.
A defined scope of work replaces the variable cost of overtime, temp staffing, and front-desk turnover and retraining.
Onboarding is scoped around your systems - not a multi-week search-and-train cycle for a new employee.
| Area | Typical In-House-Only Reality | With Virtual Medical Assistant Support |
|---|---|---|
| Front-desk coverage during peak call times | Limited to available in-house staff and their schedules | Trained remote support scoped to your defined call and scheduling workflows |
| Prior-authorization follow-up | Often absorbed by already-stretched front-desk or clinical staff | Handled within a defined administrative scope, with payers still making final decisions |
| Staffing cost exposure | Base pay plus payroll taxes, benefits, overtime, and turnover/retraining costs | A defined, scoped support arrangement instead of an added fixed headcount |
| Ramp time for new support | Typically weeks of hiring, interviewing, and training | Onboarding follows a defined five-stage process - see How Onboarding Works |
| After-hours or overflow messages | Risk of messages sitting until the next business day | Task and inbox management support scoped to your approved hours and workflows |
No. The figures on this page are third-party industry benchmarks, not a guarantee for any individual practice. Actual results depend on your practice's current staffing, call volume, payer mix, and which services you use.
The prior-authorization figures are from the American Medical Association's 2025 Prior Authorization Physician Survey. The front-desk pay range is from Payscale's 2026 compensation data. Neither source is affiliated with Virtual Medical Assistant or Mednex Group LLC.
No. Think of it as trained remote support that plugs into your existing systems and workflows under your practice's approval, not a replacement for your clinical staff or decisions.
Onboarding time depends on scope, access, training, and workflow complexity. Many practices are live within about 36 hours of completing their scope and access agreement, though this varies by complexity. See How Onboarding Works for the full process.
No. This page covers administrative and scribe-support ROI only. Billing, coding, and revenue-cycle management are handled by a separate Mednex Group brand, Practice Revenue Partners.
Sources: American Medical Association, 2025 Prior Authorization Physician Survey. Payscale, Medical Front Desk Receptionist - Hourly Rate, 2026 data.
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