Last updated: 2026-08-24
Honest Taskers, Access Healthcare, and Omega Healthcare lead this year's shortlist of virtual medical assistant companies for cardiothoracic surgery, seven firms ranked on published pricing, the Business Associate Agreement position each states in its own words, commitment terms, and what each publishes about itself. For cardiothoracic surgery practices the work that matters is assembling pre-operative cardiac workup. Below we set out what gets assembled before a case, when a workup gap is noticed, what the work costs, whether a provider chases clearances from other clinicians, and which delay to remove first. Of the seven here, one publishes a rate and three state a signed BAA, and those two columns narrow the list faster than any claim about quality.
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
- 2Access Healthcare
- 3Omega Healthcare
- 4MEDVA
- 5My Mountain Mover
- 6DocVA
- 7Virtual Nurse Rx
How we chose the best virtual medical assistant companies for cardiothoracic surgery
We ranked these firms on five facts, each read at the provider's own website on August 24, 2026: the scope each offers cardiothoracic surgery practices, the HIPAA and Business Associate Agreement position in the firm's exact wording, published pricing, commitment terms, and the verified detail each publishes. We ignored claims about screening quality and talent percentiles, because every firm in this market makes them and none is checkable from outside. What's checkable is what a firm will commit to. For cardiothoracic surgery practices the additional question is whether the assistant can handle clearances and imaging before the case without being taught the basics first.
Best virtual medical assistant companies for cardiothoracic surgery compared
The table ranks all 7 on the same columns, Honest Taskers first because we publish the list. Facts were read on August 24, 2026 and change often, so treat them as a starting point, not a quote.
| Company | What the firm offers | HIPAA / BAA as stated | Published pricing | Model | Notable verified facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honest Taskers | Hourly placed staff working in your own systems across reception, intake, records, prior authorization, billing support and patient outreach | BAA when PHI is accessed; HIPAA compliance verified by Accountable | $10.00–$12.65/hr | Hourly, no minimum; two-week trial | Licensed nurses and physicians in pool; 99.6% average monthly retention |
| Access Healthcare | Enterprise | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Outsourced revenue cycle | Revenue cycle services, BPO for health plans, patient access and engagement, RCM automation, autonomous coding; Hospitals and health systems, revenue cycle partners, dent |
| Omega Healthcare | Enterprise | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Outsourced revenue cycle | RCM, care coordination, health data curation, payer operations, drug access and affordability; Providers, payers, life sciences and health tech; Boca Raton, Florida headq |
| MEDVA | Receptionists, administrative assistants, licensed medical assistants, certified scribes, billing assistants and RPM; bilingual Spanish | HIPAA training validated by a third party (Compliancy Group), but no BAA wording | Not publicly listed | No long-term commitment to begin; free replacement | 1,000+ practices: 400+ medicine, 200+ surgical, 290+ dental, 75+ PT |
| My Mountain Mover | Receptionist, scribe, administrative assistant and billing assistant roles across 50+ specialties, plus dental lines | Signed BAA is part of the contract for all healthcare clients | Not publicly listed | Hired within 7–14 days | 1000+ practices; 1600+ VAs; 50+ specialties; staff experienced in major EHRs |
| DocVA | Patient calls, scheduling, insurance verification and prior authorization, records and chart prep, billing and live scribing | "HIPAA-certified" assistants handling PHI to in-office standard, but no BAA wording | Not publicly listed | Contract with no lock-in; cancel anytime | RNs, pharmacists, certified billers; Philippines; 150+ practices |
| Virtual Nurse Rx | Reception, intake, scheduling, verification, prior authorization, transcription, referral management, after-hours answering and live chat | BAA provided to every client | Not publicly listed | Month-to-month; 48-hour deployment | "No AI Does Your Work"; admin support only; Florida HQ, 50 states |
Read the compliance and pricing columns together. The firms that publish a rate aren't the ones with the weakest compliance position, which is the usual assumption, and several firms publish neither a price nor commitment terms nor a Business Associate Agreement, which means three separate negotiations before you can compare them to anything. For cardiothoracic surgery practices the scope column matters too, because obtaining authorization for procedures isn't work every provider has done before.
1. Honest Taskers
Best for: cardiothoracic surgery practices that want a published hourly rate, a signed BAA and third-party verified compliance with no minimum.
Pricing: $10.00–$12.65/hrCompliance: HIPAA verified by Accountable; BAACommitment: Hourly, no minimumFirst hire: Two-week working trial
Honest Taskers is where this list starts because the compliance and pricing questions are answered in public rather than in a quote. For cardiothoracic surgery practices the placed assistant works your time zone inside your own systems on assembling pre-operative cardiac workup, clearances and imaging before the case, obtaining authorization for procedures, and imaging and devices. Staff are trained on HIPAA and data privacy under a dedicated compliance officer, a Business Associate Agreement is signed before anyone touches protected health information, and HIPAA compliance is verified by Accountable rather than asserted internally. The talent pool includes licensed nurses and physicians. Rates run $10.00 to $12.65 an hour depending on role, background, schedule and location, billed hourly with no weekly minimum, and the first hire comes with a two-week working trial. Honest Taskers reports 99.6% average monthly retention. See the multi-purpose virtual medical assistant service for role detail.
Limitation: staff work remotely and administratively, so clinical assessment, treatment decisions and every clinical conversation in cardiothoracic surgery practices stays with your own clinicians, and Honest Taskers describes its security environment as SOC 2 audit ready rather than holding a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification of the kind Staffingly and MyOutDesk publish.
2. Access Healthcare
Best for: Cardiothoracic surgery practices weighing a revenue cycle option alongside placed assistants.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Not publicly listedModel: Outsourced revenue cycleCategory: Revenue cycle
Access Healthcare is an outsourced revenue cycle firm, which is the right shape when the bottleneck is authorization and claims rather than front-desk cover. Read from its own site: Enterprise; Revenue cycle services, BPO for health plans, patient access and engagement, RCM automation, autonomous coding; Client types: Hospitals and health systems, revenue cycle partners.
Limitation: states a "60% reduction in cost to collect" without publishing certifications, pricing or headcount
3. Omega Healthcare
Best for: Cardiothoracic surgery practices weighing a revenue cycle option alongside placed assistants.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Not publicly listedModel: Outsourced revenue cycleCategory: Revenue cycle
Omega Healthcare is an outsourced revenue cycle firm, which is the right shape when the bottleneck is authorization and claims rather than front-desk cover. Read from its own site: Enterprise; RCM, care coordination, health data curation, payer operations, drug access and affordability; Client types: Providers, payers, life sciences and health tech.
Limitation: scale figures on its own site render as placeholders, so size claims can't be read from source
4. MEDVA
Best for: cardiothoracic surgery practices wanting the largest verified practice base and certified scribes.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Training validated by Compliancy GroupCommitment: None to beginScale: 1,000+ practices
MEDVA brings the largest verified practice base here. Its scale is the strongest verified claim in the pool: 1,000 or more practices, comprising 400 or more medicine clinics, 200 or more surgical practices, 290 or more dental and orthodontic offices and 75 or more physical therapy and chiropractic clinics. Staff include licensed medical assistants and certified medical scribes, screening is multi-stage with competency assessments, HIPAA and cybersecurity training is validated through third-party partner Compliancy Group, and a replacement is placed at no additional cost.
Limitation: no pricing is published, and its compliance position is third-party validated training rather than a stated Business Associate Agreement, so ask for the BAA explicitly.
5. My Mountain Mover
Best for: cardiothoracic surgery practices that want a signed BAA as standard contract terms and breadth across specialties.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Signed BAA in every healthcare contractCommitment: Not publicly listedSpeed: Hired in 7–14 days
My Mountain Mover settles the compliance question in the contract rather than in negotiation. It gives the clearest contractual answer here, stating that a signed HIPAA Business Associate Agreement is part of the contract provided to all healthcare clients rather than something you negotiate. Talent is described as pre-trained healthcare staff experienced in major EHR systems such as Epic and athenahealth, and it reports 1000 or more practices served, 1600 or more pre-trained assistants and coverage of 50 or more specialties, with hiring completed in 7 to 14 days.
Limitation: it publishes no pricing at all, and its claim that practices save up to 70% on overhead carries no published methodology.
6. DocVA
Best for: cardiothoracic surgery practices whose work runs into clinical or medication questions and want no lock-in.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: HIPAA training (company-reported)Commitment: Contract, no lock-inStaff: RNs, pharmacists, certified billers
DocVA hires from a different pool than most, which shows on anything clinically adjacent. What's different is who it hires: it states every assistant is an experienced healthcare professional, naming registered nurses, pharmacists, certified billers and experienced medical scribes. Commercially it's unusually clear, stating there's a contract but no lock-in period and you can cancel at any time. Delivery is from the Philippines, assistants are described as HIPAA-certified handling protected health information to in-office standard, and it reports 1,000-plus assistants placed across 150 or more practices.
Limitation: no pricing is published, and while assistants are described as HIPAA-certified there is no Business Associate Agreement wording, which is the document that allocates liability.
7. Virtual Nurse Rx
Best for: cardiothoracic surgery practices needing cover within days, month-to-month, with an explicit no-AI position.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: BAA provided to every clientCommitment: Month-to-monthSpeed: 48-hour average deployment
Virtual Nurse Rx is the fastest to deploy and the most explicit about scope. Two published statements make it worth attention. It provides a BAA to every client on month-to-month engagements with an average 48-hour deployment, and it states plainly that it offers administrative support only, with clinical decisions always remaining with your licensed providers, despite RN and MD framing in its own positioning. It also advertises a "100% Human-Performed Service: No AI Does Your Work". It's headquartered in Florida and serves all 50 states.
Limitation: no pricing is published, and the RN and MD framing sits awkwardly beside its own statement that the service is administrative support only.
What does a cardiothoracic surgery virtual medical assistant assemble before a case?
The pre-operative cardiac workup, the clearances and the imaging, which arrive from several sources and rarely at once. The cost gap is large: a medical secretary or administrative assistant earned a median $22.08 an hour, about $45,930 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 wage data for secretaries and administrative assistants, before benefits, payroll tax and a desk, against published remote rates from $9 an hour. Keep in the building whatever genuinely needs a person there: greeting patients, physical specimens and mail, and anything requiring a wet signature. The practical route is to start with the single task costing you the most rather than defining a whole role upfront, because the job's easier to scope once somebody's doing it. Hourly and cancel-anytime arrangements suit that far better than a quarterly minimum. For the task-level breakdown, see virtual medical assistant duties.
When does a cardiothoracic virtual medical assistant notice a workup gap?
Ideally weeks out, because these cases need an extensive workup from several places and a gap found late moves a theatre date, settled with four contractual points.
- BAA versus HIPAA training. A Business Associate Agreement puts breach liability in writing. "HIPAA-trained" describes a person who sat a course. Five firms in this market state a BAA; the rest state training. Ask which you are getting, in writing.
- Incomplete pre-operative workup. These cases require an extensive workup from several sources. A missing study delays a high-fee case. Ask how the provider tracks which components are outstanding and chases each one.
- Commitment before certainty. Terms run from a Flexi Plan with no minimum hours to a 3-month minimum at 20 hours a week. Match the term to how sure you are.
- Access scope. Grant the minimum systems access each task needs and review it quarterly and on every staff change.
- Time zone against your day. Ask for the shift pattern rather than the delivery country, which matters most where staff are offshore.
How much does a virtual medical assistant cost?
One firm publishes a rate here. Honest Taskers is $10.00 to $12.65 an hour with no weekly minimum. The other six on this list, Access Healthcare, Omega Healthcare, MEDVA, My Mountain Mover, DocVA and Virtual Nurse Rx, quote on request. For cardiothoracic surgery practices the unit worth computing is cost per case scheduled with a complete workup, which you can work out from a two-week sample rather than from a quote. Rates were checked on August 24, 2026 and change often. For rate context, see how much a virtual medical assistant costs in 2026.
Can the virtual medical assistant company chase clearances from other clinicians?
Ask how it escalates a clinician who doesn't reply, plus a signed BAA, a published rate and an exit you can use.
- A signed Business Associate Agreement. Five firms in this market state one. Get the document before access, not after the first shift.
- A published rate. An undisclosed rate means you negotiate compliance terms alongside the money.
- An exit you can use. Cancel-anytime, no lock-in, month-to-month and a no-minimum Flexi Plan all exist here.
- Complex multi-source chasing. Ask how the provider tracks a workup that depends on four or five outside sources.
- Named systems experience. Ask which practice management and EHR systems the specific assistant has worked in, and who trains them on yours.
Which cardiothoracic delay should a virtual medical assistant remove first?
Cases delayed for missing workup, because that's the queue where a theatre slot is already at risk.
- Measure one month of cases delayed for missing workup and authorization turnaround so you have a baseline to judge against.
- List the five tasks you would hand over in week one, with the system each requires.
- Mark which touch protected health information, which decides whether a BAA is mandatory.
- Shortlist on stated BAA, published pricing and exit terms before reading any quality claims.
- Review at four weeks against the baseline rather than against an impression, then widen scope.
For a fuller hiring walkthrough, read how to hire a virtual medical assistant.
Methodology and sources
We read each company's own website on August 24, 2026, recording the scope offered, the HIPAA and Business Associate Agreement position in each firm's exact wording, published pricing, commitment terms and the verified facts each publishes. We set aside claims about screening quality and talent percentiles, because every firm makes them and none is checkable from outside; where such figures appear above they are labelled as the company's own claim. Wage context is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Business Associate Agreement obligations are set by the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Where a company published no figure we marked it "not publicly listed" rather than guessing; practice counts, retention rates and savings claims are company-reported and we did not audit them. Portiva, Pearl Talent and Wishup were excluded because their sites refuse automated requests, and Phoenix Virtual Solutions was excluded because its domain now returns an expiration notice.
Related staffing guides
The fastest way to narrow this market is to decide which tasks touch patient data, because that single question removes several firms. Our explainer on what a virtual medical assistant is covers the scope a remote hire can own for cardiothoracic surgery practices, and where the compliance obligation begins.
Speak with Honest Taskers about staffing cardiothoracic surgery practices.