Practice staffing · Dedicated VAs · published $/hr
DocVA
DocVA places dedicated virtual medical assistants with healthcare practices for phones, scheduling, charting support, prior auth follow-up, and related admin work at a published hourly rate. It is staffing, not an ambulatory EHR.
Strong fit
- Small and mid-size practices that want a dedicated healthcare-trained virtual assistant at a published hourly rate
- Offices that will actually hand off phones, scheduling, scribing, or prior-auth follow-up to one continuous remote teammate
- Buyers who prefer no long-term contract and same-week onboarding over an enterprise staffing RFP
Weak fit
- Health systems that require an Epic-approved secured offshore facility as a day-one gate
- Buyers shopping a full ambulatory EHR or consumer telehealth clinic
- Teams that only need a one-off temp desk without continuity
Bottom line
DocVA earns a Recommend and sits second on our practice-staffing landscape. The firm is a 2024 virtual medical staffing company led by founder and CEO Nathan Barz, with published marketing in the roughly $10 to $10.95 per hour range for dedicated healthcare-trained assistants and a dedicated-VA continuity model rather than a rotating marketplace. Outcomes look strongest when the practice assigns a real owner for onboarding and measures phone coverage, charting lag, or prior-auth turnaround after placement. Product depth is competitive with HelloRache and Staffing For Doctors on day-to-day admin and clinical-adjacent support; it trails MEDVA on SOC 2 and secured-facility marketing depth. Implementation is light for SMB clinics that will complete HIPAA and access setup. Corporate size notes cluster sub-$5M (Prospeo around $0.9M), clearly under the hard cap. Score sits under MEDVA on overall while leading the set on getting live and pricing clarity.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
DocVA (DocVA, LLC) places dedicated virtual medical assistants with U.S. and Canadian practices for phones, scheduling, charting support, prior authorization follow-up, and related admin work. Founder and CEO Nathan Barz started the firm in 2024 after a Wharton and investment-banking background; company materials emphasize dedicated continuity rather than rotating seats.
It is staffing, not software. Compare MEDVA when compliance tiers and scale matter more than a public rate card, HelloRache when charting-heavy coverage at about $9.50/hr is the buy, and Staffing For Doctors when specialty-pod experience is the differentiator.
Score reflects strong pricing clarity and ease of getting a practice live, with solid talent marks, just under MEDVA on the overall X-axis of our landscape.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| MEDVA | 7.8 | 7.4 |
| DocVA | 7.6 | 7.8 |
| HelloRache | 7.5 | 7.6 |
| Staffing For Doctors | 7.1 | 7.3 |
| Portiva | 6.9 | 7.0 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Published all-in hourly for dedicated virtual medical assistants; no long-term contract marketed on current pages. |
| What usually drives cost | Hours per week, role mix (phones, scribing, billing support, bilingual), and any add-on call-center or specialty scope. |
| What to ask in diligence | Confirm the current all-in hourly for your role, whether $10 or $10.95 marketing applies, and what onboarding or replacement terms look like. |
| Published pricing | About $10–$10.95 per hour all-in for dedicated VAs (company-published marketing as of research date). |
Company pages and comparison materials cite roughly $10/hr and $10.95/hr; confirm the live quote before contracting.
Prerequisites for purchase
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What you need to get DocVA to function | |
| Practice owner or office manager named for the VA relationship | Unowned placements drift and churn. |
| Written task list for phones, scheduling, charting, billing, or prior auth | Vague 'help with everything' fails onboarding. |
| EHR / PM access path and BAA timeline agreed | Assistants cannot work without secure access. |
| HIPAA and privacy training expectations confirmed with the vendor | PHI handling is not optional. |
| Hours, time zone overlap, and escalation rules written before day one | Silent queues recreate the staffing gap. |
| What will maximize your value | |
| Measure phone answer rate, charting lag, or prior-auth turnaround weekly for 90 days | Seat occupancy is not an outcome. |
| Keep one dedicated assistant on the same task set for the first month | Rotating seats erase training. |
| Retire the temporary workaround (personal cell, after-hours charting) after parallel week | Dual paths hide whether the VA worked. |
| Review incomplete work queues with the assistant daily in week one | Silent failure modes hide in inboxes. |
| Document EHR click-paths and templates the assistant must follow | Tribal knowledge does not transfer. |
| Deal-breakers | |
| You need an EHR or patient-engagement product, not a person. | |
| Nobody on-site will train or review the assistant. | |
| Legal will not sign a BAA or approve remote PHI access. | |
| You expect a prescribing or care-delivery network rather than admin staffing. | |
| Leadership refuses to define which tasks move off the in-office team. | |
Value creation time frame
| # | Stage | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scope & match | 3–10 days — Role, hours, specialty, candidate shortlist. |
| 2 | Access & BAA | 1–2 weeks — Credentials, VPN/EHR access, privacy paperwork. |
| 3 | Shadow week | 1–2 weeks — Parallel coverage with a practice trainer. |
| 4 | Steady state | 30–60 days — Metrics review; task expansion or replacement. |
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category actually buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.