Last updated: 2026-08-21
Honest Taskers, Hello Rache, and MedStar BTR lead this year's shortlist of companies to hire a medical virtual assistant from the Philippines, seven firms ranked on whether they state that their talent is Filipino, what they charge, how they cover US hours from a time zone twelve hours away, and what protects patient data under both HIPAA and Philippine law. Talent location is the whole premise here, so we only listed firms that say where their people are. Below we set out why the Philippines is the default, whether an individual can be HIPAA-certified, what the rate is and what moves it, what happens during a typhoon, and which hours you need covered in Manila time.
Disclosure: Honest Taskers publishes this list and appears at position 1. We're judged on the same five published criteria as every other company here.
At a glance
- 1Honest Taskers
- 2Hello Rache
- 3MedStar BTR
- 4Portiva
- 5VA MASTERS
- 6DocVA
- 7Cloudstaff
On this page
- How we chose these companies
- Companies compared
- The 7 companies
- Why is the Philippines the default for a medical assistant?
- Can an individual assistant be HIPAA-certified?
- What does a Filipino medical assistant cost, and what moves the rate?
- What happens to your assistant during a typhoon or an outage?
- Which hours must the assistant cover, in Manila time?
- Methodology and sources
How we chose these companies
The first filter was unusual and it eliminated several well-known firms. If a company doesn't say where its staff are, it can't appear on a list about hiring from a specific country. Plenty of good medical VA companies publish rates, roles, and compliance claims while never stating a talent location, and we left them out rather than guess. So we compared five things across every firm that passed that filter, which are stated talent location, published pricing, the roles each company names, how US-hours coverage works, and HIPAA posture including whether a BAA is signed.
The Philippines earns its position in this market for reasons worth naming. English is an official language and the country produces far more nursing graduates than its own health system employs, which is why so many Filipino medical assistants arrive already fluent in clinical vocabulary rather than learning it on your charts. Hourly rates sit well below US wages, and the outsourcing sector is mature enough that firms have real recruitment and training pipelines instead of a spreadsheet of freelancers.
The trade-off is the clock. Manila is UTC+8, so covering a US morning means an overnight shift for your assistant. Every firm here will tell you they cover US hours; the question worth asking is what their retention looks like on permanent night shifts, because that's where continuity breaks. Data protection is also doubled up rather than replaced, since HIPAA applies to your practice while the assistant also works under the Philippines Data Privacy Act of 2012. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sets out what a business associate arrangement requires.
Companies compared
| Company | Talent location (as stated) | Published pricing | Roles named | US-hours coverage | HIPAA posture (as stated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honest Taskers | Philippines, Latin America, India and Pakistan recruiting; US clients | $10.00 to $12.65/hr | VMA, receptionist, biller, coder, scribe, care coordinator | Works your hours | Verified by Accountable; BAA signed when handling PHI |
| Hello Rache | Philippines | $9.50/hr flat | Scribing-led, plus records and admin | Not publicly listed | HIPAA-trained; background checks |
| MedStar BTR | Philippines | Not publicly listed | Receptionist, administrative assistant, biller as named roles | Not publicly listed | Required privacy training |
| Portiva | Philippines | $10/hr | Medical VA, front office | Not publicly listed | HIPAA-trained |
| VA MASTERS | Philippines | $6.50 to $10.00/hr | Receptionist and practice-manager tasks | Not publicly listed | Practice sets the data policy |
| DocVA | Operates under the Philippines Data Privacy Act of 2012 | Not publicly listed | Phones, scheduling, prior auth, records, billing, live scribing | Not publicly listed | States VAs are "HIPAA-certified"; no BAA stated |
| Cloudstaff | Philippines, Colombia, India and Kenya | Not publicly listed | Healthcare as an expertise area, roles not itemized | Not publicly listed | HIPAA compliant; ISO 27001, ISO 9001, PCI-DSS, GDPR |
1. Honest Taskers
Best for: practices that want a Filipino assistant working their own business hours, with a published rate and a trial.
Pricing: $10.00–$12.65/hrLocation: PH, LatAm, India and Pakistan recruitingModel: Managed staffingFirst hire: Two-week working trial
Honest Taskers recruits in the Philippines, Latin America, India and Pakistan and places healthcare-trained staff with US practices, which means you can ask for a Filipino assistant specifically rather than accepting whoever the bench offers. The role covers the full administrative load, including patient calls, scheduling and confirmations, insurance verification, prior authorizations, records, refill coordination routed to your clinicians, and billing support, inside your own EHR. Assistants work your hours rather than a generic offshore shift, staff train on HIPAA and data privacy under a dedicated compliance officer, a Business Associate Agreement is signed where they'll access PHI, and HIPAA compliance is verified by Accountable. Rates run $10.00 to $12.65 an hour, the first hire comes with a two-week working trial, and the company reports 99.6% average monthly retention, which is the number that matters most when the role involves night shifts. The talent pool includes licensed nurses and physicians, which is where the Philippines' nursing surplus shows up in practice.
Limitation: it recruits across four regions, so confirm your hire comes from the Philippines if that's what you're buying.
2. Hello Rache
Best for: practices that want clinical-background Filipino staff at the lowest flat rate here, with no contract.
Pricing: $9.50/hr flatLocation: PhilippinesModel: Dedicated assistantTrial: Not publicly listed
Hello Rache is Philippines-only and built its business on healthcare documentation, recruiting people who already have clinical backgrounds rather than training generalists into medical work. The rate is a flat $9.50 an hour with no contracts, no setup fees, and cancellation any time, which is the simplest commercial arrangement on this list and useful for a practice testing whether offshore support works at all. It also runs a dedicated veterinary program overseen by an in-house Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, which tells you something about how it structures clinical oversight generally. Assistants complete background checks before placement.
Limitation: built around scribing and documentation, so confirm depth if you need front-desk or billing work as the main job.
3. MedStar BTR
Best for: practices that want a specific role rather than a general assistant, staffed by certified people.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: PhilippinesModel: Trained placementTrial: Not publicly listed
MedStar BTR trains and places Filipino graduates of allied and non-allied healthcare programs, working toward US administrative standards, with certifications including Certified Medical Office Administration and Certified Billing and Coding Specialist. What distinguishes it is that roles are named and separate, covering receptionist, administrative assistant, and biller, so you hire for the gap you have instead of a generalist you hope covers it. Every placement completes privacy training before starting. For a practice that knows exactly which seat is empty, that specificity is worth more than a broader offering.
Limitation: no rate is published, so pricing takes a quote before you can compare it against the others here.
4. Portiva
Best for: practices that want a simple published hourly figure from a Philippines-only provider.
Pricing: $10/hrLocation: PhilippinesModel: Dedicated assistantTrial: Not publicly listed
Portiva staffs from the Philippines at a published $10 an hour, covering medical virtual assistant and front-office work, with HIPAA training for its assistants. The appeal is straightforwardness, since there's a stated country, a stated rate, and no tiering to interpret, which is more than several better-known firms manage. For a single-clinician practice adding fifteen or twenty hours a week of administrative help, that clarity removes most of the negotiation from the decision.
Limitation: offshore-only from a single country, so there's no onshore fallback if you later need US-based cover.
5. VA MASTERS
Best for: practices on the tightest budget that can carry training and supervision themselves.
Pricing: $6.50–$10.00/hrLocation: PhilippinesModel: Recruitment placementTrial: No payment until you approve a candidate
VA MASTERS recruits Filipino virtual assistants and publishes the lowest range on this list, $6.50 to $10.00 an hour, or roughly $1,040 to $1,600 a month at 160 hours, against local staff it puts at $3,500 to $5,500. It runs a six-stage vetting process, charges no upfront recruitment fee, and takes no payment until you approve your candidate, so the financial risk of a poor match is close to zero. The tasks it describes are the ones an in-clinic receptionist or practice manager would otherwise cover.
Limitation: it's recruitment rather than a managed service, and it puts data-handling policy on the practice, so you own training, supervision, and compliance design.
6. DocVA
Best for: practices wanting one provider covering scribing, billing, and clinical-background staff, with no lock-in.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Philippines Data Privacy Act jurisdictionModel: Offshore staffingTrial: Contract with no lock-in period
DocVA has the broadest role list here, covering phone handling, appointment scheduling, insurance verification and prior authorization, medical records and chart preparation, billing and collections support, live medical scribing, and patient follow-up, and it names registered nurses, pharmacists, certified billers, and scribes among its people. Commercially it's flexible, describing a contract with no lock-in period and cancellation at any time, and it frames cost as half of an in-person hire or less. It states its assistants handle PHI to the same standard as in-office staff.
Limitation: it never states the talent country in plain words, only the Philippine privacy law it operates under, and its "HIPAA-certified" wording is a company phrase rather than a recognized individual certification, so ask for the BAA in writing.
7. Cloudstaff
Best for: larger practices or groups that need documented security certifications and multi-country options.
Pricing: Not publicly listedLocation: Philippines, Colombia, India, KenyaModel: Managed offshore teamsTrial: Not publicly listed
Cloudstaff is the enterprise option here and the strongest on documented security, stating HIPAA compliance alongside ISO 27001, ISO 9001, PCI-DSS, and GDPR, plus a 99.99% security score from SecurityScorecard. It sources talent in the Philippines, Colombia, India, and Kenya, so a group can consolidate several regions with one provider, and it reports serving over 1,000 companies with a 99.5% monthly staff retention rate and a candidate network above a million. It puts typical savings for a team of five to ten remote staff at $150,000 to $450,000 a year.
Limitation: healthcare is one vertical among many and no medical roles are itemized, so clinical depth needs testing in the interview rather than assumed.
Why is the Philippines the default for a medical assistant?
Because English is an official language, the country trains far more nurses than it employs, and the outsourcing industry is old enough to have real recruitment and training rather than gig-economy churn. English is an official language, the country trains far more nurses than it employs, and the outsourcing industry is old enough to have proper recruitment and training rather than gig-economy churn. For documentation and general administrative work it's usually the strongest choice, and the rates here bear that out.
Latin America wins on two specific things. The time zones overlap US business hours naturally, so your assistant works days rather than nights, and Spanish comes as standard rather than as a rarity. If your patient base is substantially Spanish-speaking, or if night-shift retention worries you, that combination matters more than a dollar an hour.
India and Pakistan compete on billing and revenue cycle work specifically, where the industry is deep and long-established, rather than on front-desk or scribing roles. And a US-based hire remains the answer when the work has to happen in the building, when state licensure is required, or when patients react badly to an offshore accent on a first call. None of that makes the Philippines the wrong answer; it just means the answer depends on which of those things you're buying.
Can an individual assistant be HIPAA-certified?
No. Individuals cannot hold that status, so the phrase used loosely is a signal about the provider rather than about the person, and it heads these risks.
- Night-shift burnout. Covering US mornings means working overnight in Manila, so ask specifically about retention on those shifts rather than overall.
- Location claims you can't verify. Several firms never state where staff are, and a US business address is not a talent location.
- No BAA in place. Some providers describe HIPAA training without ever mentioning the agreement.
- "HIPAA-certified" used loosely. Individuals cannot hold a HIPAA certification, so treat the phrase as marketing and ask what training happened.
- Typhoon and power interruption, which is a real operational risk in the region. Ask about backup connectivity and cover.
- Recruitment models that leave training and compliance design with you.
- Clinical scope creep, since a nurse doing administrative work may be asked for advice they shouldn't give.
- Public holidays differing from yours, which quietly removes cover on days you didn't plan for.
What does a Filipino medical assistant cost, and what moves the rate?
Between $6.50 and $12.65, and what moves it within one country is the model rather than the geography. Published rates on this list run across that range. VA MASTERS posts $6.50 to $10.00, Hello Rache charges a flat $9.50, Portiva states $10, and Honest Taskers runs $10.00 to $12.65. MedStar BTR, DocVA, and Cloudstaff quote on request, and Cloudstaff frames value as $150,000 to $450,000 of annual savings for a team of five to ten rather than an hourly figure.
What moves the number within one country is the model rather than the geography. A recruitment placement is cheapest because you absorb training, supervision, and cover. A managed service costs more and absorbs those for you, including replacement when someone leaves, which matters more on night shifts than most buyers expect. Certification adds a little, and clinical background adds a little more, though a nurse who already knows the vocabulary usually costs less in practice once you count the corrections you're not making. Rates move, so treat these as dated readings and confirm before you commit.
What happens to your assistant during a typhoon or an outage?
Ask for the backup connectivity arrangement by name, because the answer is a real operational difference here and it sits at the head of this list.
- A stated talent location, in the company's own words rather than inferred from a currency or a law.
- A signed BAA, not just HIPAA training.
- Retention on the shift you need, which is usually the US morning.
- What happens during a typhoon or an outage, including backup connectivity.
- Whether the assistant works in your EHR or a separate system.
- Replacement terms and how fast cover arrives.
- Whose public holidays apply.
- A written clinical boundary, in particular if the assistant has a nursing background.
Which hours must the assistant cover, in Manila time?
Convert them before you shortlist, because a shift that reads as reasonable in your time zone may be the middle of the night in theirs, and that is where retention fails.
- Write the task list, separating administrative work from anything clinical.
- Decide the hours you need covered, and check what that means in Manila time.
- Shortlist two or three firms that state a Philippines talent location.
- Get the BAA and the rate in writing before the sales conversation goes further.
- Interview the candidate, not the account manager, and listen for clinical vocabulary.
- Ask about night-shift retention and replacement cover specifically.
- Start with a narrow scope, usually phones and scheduling, then widen.
- Review at two weeks and 60 days on coverage, accuracy, and hours your team recovered.
Methodology and sources
We verified each company at its own website on August 21, 2026, recording stated talent location, published pricing, the roles each company names, how US-hours coverage is described, and HIPAA posture including whether a BAA is stated. Business associate requirements come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rates are volatile and were captured as dated points rather than quotes, so re-check before you buy. Facts a company didn't publish are marked "not publicly listed", and self-stated claims are labeled company-reported. Companies that do not state a talent location were excluded from this list even where they are strong providers, because a country-specific comparison cannot rest on an assumed location. DocVA is included on the basis of its stated operation under the Philippines Data Privacy Act of 2012, with that reasoning noted in its entry rather than presented as a plain claim about staff location.
Related staffing guides
If you're weighing regions rather than firms, our comparison of virtual staffing companies for general veterinary practices shows how the same providers position themselves when the setting changes.
Deciding what the role should cover first, our multi-purpose virtual medical assistant page explains how one hire can absorb several administrative gaps at once.
Speak with Honest Taskers about hiring a medical virtual assistant.