Staffing For Doctors · For your practice
Costs
Virtual Medical Assistant Costs by Practice Type
At Staffing For Doctors, dedicated full-time virtual medical staff cost a flat $14 per hour across practice types. One role scheduled for 40 hours per week costs $29,120 over 52 weeks, or approximately $2,427 per month on an annualized basis. Dental, primary care, and specialty practices differ mainly in task mix, software access, training, oversight, and how many roles they need, not a specialty surcharge in our hourly rate.
Last Updated: October 20, 2026
Separate the staffing rate from your practice's total budget
A useful staffing budget starts with the work you want covered. Identify one role, its schedule, and the systems it needs before comparing prices. A medical receptionist handling calls is not interchangeable with a billing specialist working denials or a scribe documenting visits. An apparently low quote may cover fewer responsibilities or require your existing team to finish more work. Compare the same scope across providers.
For Staffing For Doctors, calculate the base staffing budget as $14 multiplied by scheduled hours and the number of dedicated roles. One full-time role uses 2,080 scheduled hours in a 52-week model. Actual invoices follow your arrangement rather than an invented fixed number of days per month. Our 2026 pricing guide explains the wider pricing context; this article focuses on differences in practice workflows.
Dental virtual assistant costs depend on the workflow you assign
A dental office may need support for appointment confirmations, recall calls, insurance eligibility, and treatment-plan scheduling follow-up. Define which queue is most important before combining all those duties into one role. The assistant must learn your appointment types, approved wording, and handoff to the clinical or financial team. Software familiarity helps, but a candidate who recognizes Dentrix still needs training on your actual office rules.
The base rate is still $14 per hour, not a separate dental premium. Additional practice costs may include an authorized software seat, phone access, and manager time for supervised onboarding. Physical check-in, chairside work, and clinical explanations remain with appropriate onsite or licensed staff. See the dental virtual receptionist service for the administrative scope to discuss during a staffing consultation.
Primary care and specialty practices need different staffing plans
Primary care often combines substantial call volume with appointment coordination and routine administrative messages. Specialty practices may have more complex authorization, referral, imaging, or procedure-scheduling work. Those differences affect training and the number of separate roles needed. They do not mean every specialist needs more staff, or that every primary care queue is simple. Measure your actual work before making either assumption.
The examples below describe possible assignments, not promises that one person can complete every listed task. Each row assumes one full-time role and the same 2,080-hour annual model. If your billing queue and phone queue both need continuous attention, evaluate separate assignments rather than using the flat rate to justify an overloaded combined job.
| Practice type | Example administrative focus | Base cost for one full-time role | Budget separately where applicable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dental | Recall calls, scheduling, and eligibility | $14/hr; $29,120/year | Dental software access and office-specific training |
| Primary care | Patient calls, appointment coordination, and administrative follow-up | $14/hr; $29,120/year | Phone access, EHR permissions, and message-routing training |
| Specialty practice | Referral coordination, authorization tracking, or specialty scheduling | $14/hr; $29,120/year | Payer systems, procedure rules, and specialist supervision |
Include software, training, and oversight without double counting
List costs your practice actually expects to incur rather than applying an unexplained percentage to every virtual role. Confirm whether an existing software license permits another authorized user and whether a phone extension requires an additional subscription. Budget manager time for orientation and initial quality review. Keep one-time setup separate from recurring costs so the second-year estimate is not inflated by repeating onboarding charges.
For a broader checklist, use virtual medical assistant cost drivers and the true cost of hiring a virtual medical assistant. These guides complement this practice-type comparison rather than changing the flat staffing rate. Ask for written clarification of any unfamiliar fee before comparing totals. Do not assume that every vendor includes the same services or uses the same billing model.
Compare in-office and virtual costs using transparent assumptions
Here is a hypothetical planning example, not a statement about your local wages or guaranteed savings. Two in-office staff at $22 per hour for 2,080 hours cost $91,520 in annual wages. Adding an assumed 30% for taxes, benefits, and PTO gives $27,456, plus an assumed $16,000 in total workspace, equipment, and turnover costs. That model totals $134,976. Replace each assumption with figures appropriate to your practice.
Two full-time virtual staff at $14 per hour have a base staffing cost of $58,240 in the same hours model. The difference is $76,736, approximately 57% of the modeled in-office total, before any additional virtual-specific practice costs. These figures do not establish equivalent scope or replace onsite coverage. A mixed team may be the right choice when physical check-in and clinical responsibilities cannot move into a remote administrative role.
Build a role-specific quote before adding headcount
Bring a patient-free queue inventory to your consultation: incoming work, completed work, unresolved exceptions, and the hours when coverage matters. Identify the person who will teach local processes and approve access. That gives you a better basis for deciding whether you need a receptionist, authorization specialist, billing role, or another focused position. Avoid buying a second role before checking whether unclear instructions are creating the backlog.
Review dedicated virtual medical staffing, browse the Client Marketplace, and Book a Free Demo with your task list. Staffing For Doctors can discuss full-time staffing at $14 per hour and candidate matching for your practice type. Placement can be as quick as 48 hours; your practice still needs to complete access setup, workflow training, and supervision before the role is fully productive.
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