ROI: Virtual Medical Assistants
What does an hour of your time cost you?
A scribe returns the time you spend documenting. A Virtual Medical Assistant returns that plus the time that never appears on a schedule — the in-basket, the prior authorizations, the phone calls, the paperwork you take home. The published research puts numbers on how much time that is.
Where a working week actually goes.
Documentation is the part a scribe covers. The other three are what a VMA adds.
1Sinsky, C., Colligan, L., Li, L., Prgomet, M., Reynolds, S., Goeders, L., Westbrook, J., Tutty, M., & Blike, G. (2016). Allocation of physician time in ambulatory practice: A time and motion study in 4 specialties. Annals of Internal Medicine, 165(11), 753–760. https://doi.org/10.7326/M16-0961
2Arndt, B. G., Beasley, J. W., Watkinson, M. D., Temte, J. L., Tuan, W.-J., Sinsky, C. A., & Gilchrist, V. J. (2017). Tethered to the EHR: Primary care physician workload assessment using EHR event log data and time-motion observations. Annals of Family Medicine, 15(5), 419–426. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2121
3American Medical Association. (2026). 2025 AMA prior authorization physician survey. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/prior-authorization-survey.pdf
Work it out for your own practice
We do not publish a single price, because a provider working a 40-hour week and one working ten do not need the same engagement. What we can do is show you the shape of the calculation and let you put your own numbers in.
1. Count the hours you would hand over
After-hours charting, in-basket time, prior authorizations, patient calls. The research above suggests seven to fourteen hours a week for a full-time provider.
2. Decide what an hour is worth to you
For some practices that is another patient seen. For others it is leaving at five. Both are real returns; only one shows up in the billing system.
3. Ask us what that engagement costs
Scoped to the hours and the work you actually want covered. Ask for a quote and we will price it against your specialty, EHR and volume.
4. Compare the two numbers
That is the return. We would rather show you an honest calculation for your practice than a headline figure that fits nobody.
Already know your numbers?
Our Impact Calculator models the documentation side using our scribing data. It is a good floor for what a VMA returns, because it counts documentation time only — not the in-basket or the authorizations.