Q: How much does a virtual medical assistant for general surgery practices cost?

Four firms publish rates: Care VMA Health starts at $9 an hour, Hello Rache is $9.50, Honest Taskers is $10.00 to $12.65, and HelpSquad Health is $8 to $10 for back-office work or $10 to $13 for patient-facing. Staffingly is $399 a week for 45 hours. A US medical secretary earned a median $22.08 an hour in May 2025 by comparison.

What does a virtual medical assistant do for general surgery practices?

The work is administrative: assembling pre-operative clearances; imaging and consents before the case; obtaining authorization for procedures and imaging; coordinating surgical scheduling with facilities and anesthesia. Clinical judgement, assessment and anything requiring a license stay with your own clinicians.

Do these companies sign a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement?

Some do and some state only HIPAA training, which is not the same. My Mountain Mover states a signed BAA is part of every healthcare contract, Virtual Nurse Rx provides one to every client, HelpSquad Health includes it in the rate, Staffingly reports a signed BAA alongside SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and Honest Taskers signs one before PHI access.

How quickly can an assistant start?

Virtual Nurse Rx reports an average 48-hour deployment and Care VMA Health advertises 48-hour matching. My Mountain Mover states hiring within 7 to 14 days and Rockstar Global reports a 7 to 14 day implementation. Most of the elapsed time is your own onboarding, so preparing system access and a task list shortens it.

Can I try one without a long commitment?

Yes, Hello Rache states cancel anytime with no long-term commitment, Care VMA Health offers no long-term contracts and a Flexi Plan with no minimum hours, DocVA states a contract with no lock-in period, Virtual Nurse Rx is month-to-month, and Honest Taskers provides a two-week working trial on the first hire.

Will the assistant know general surgery practice workflows?

Ask rather than assume. My Mountain Mover states pre-trained healthcare talent experienced in widely used electronic health records across 50-plus specialties, MEDVA names its practice-type breakdown, and DocVA states its assistants are experienced healthcare professionals. Request the specific assistant's background in general surgery practices and who trains them on your systems.

What should a general surgery practice delegate first?

Pre-operative packet assembly and authorization. Both are document-heavy, both determine whether a case proceeds, and both currently interrupt clinical staff. A dedicated owner chasing clearances several days ahead prevents most same-day cancellations.

Can an assistant coordinate with surgical facilities?

Yes, and it is a separate skill. Facility schedulers, anesthesia groups and implant representatives all have their own processes, and an assistant who has worked with them before is materially faster than one learning from scratch. Ask about that experience specifically.

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Last updated: 2026-08-24

Honest Taskers, Omega Healthcare, and Sagility lead this year's shortlist of virtual medical assistant companies for general 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 general surgery practices the work that matters is assembling pre-operative clearances. Below we set out what's on the checklist the week before a case, what a morning cancellation costs, what the work costs, whether a provider checks consents as well as clearances, and which cancellation to eliminate first. Of the seven here, two publish 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
2Omega Healthcare
3Sagility
4HelpSquad Health
5MEDVA
6My Mountain Mover
7DocVA

How we chose the best virtual medical assistant companies for general surgery

We ranked these firms on five facts, each read at the provider's own website on August 24, 2026: the scope each offers general 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 general surgery practices the additional question is whether the assistant can handle imaging and consents before the case without being taught the basics first.

Best virtual medical assistant companies for general 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.

Virtual medical assistant companies for general surgery compared on the criteria stated below, read at each provider's own site.
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
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
Sagility	Enterprise	Not publicly listed	Not publicly listed	Outsourced revenue cycle	Claims and membership management, payment integrity, provider network operations, payer clinical services, denial reduction; Payers primarily; states "7 of 10 top health
HelpSquad Health	Patient-facing voice work priced separately from back-office digital work (billing, claims, AR, data entry); live chat available	BAA and virtual desktop included in the rate; individual HIPAA certification per assistant	$8–10/hr back office; $10–13/hr patient-facing	20 hrs/week minimum; 3-month rolling term	US-based and US-managed; $0 upfront, setup and replacement
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

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 general surgery practices the scope column matters too, because obtaining authorization for procedures and imaging isn't work every provider has done before.

1. Honest Taskers

Best for: general 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 general surgery practices the placed assistant works your time zone inside your own systems on assembling pre-operative clearances, imaging and consents before the case, obtaining authorization for procedures and imaging, and coordinating surgical scheduling with facilities and anesthesia. 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 general 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. Omega Healthcare

Best for: General 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

3. Sagility

Best for: General surgery practices weighing a revenue cycle option alongside placed assistants.

Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Not publicly listedModel: Outsourced revenue cycleCategory: Revenue cycle

Sagility is an outsourced revenue cycle firm, which is the right shape when the bottleneck is authorization and claims rather than front-desk cover. From the company's own material: Enterprise; Claims and membership management, payment integrity, provider network operations, payer clinical services, denial reduction; Client types: Payers primarily.

Limitation: payer-weighted, so a provider organization is buying from the smaller half of its business

4. HelpSquad Health

Best for: general surgery practices wanting a full published rate card with the BAA and secure desktop built into it.

Pricing: $8–10/hr digital; $10–13/hr voiceCompliance: BAA and virtual desktop includedCommitment: 20 hrs/wk, 3-month termSetup: $0 upfront

HelpSquad Health publishes the only full rate card in this market. It is the only firm in this pool publishing a full rate card, separating back-office digital work at $8 to $10 an hour from patient-facing voice work at $10 to $13, with shared live chat from $185 to $600 a month. The rate includes a HIPAA BAA and a virtual desktop, and it states individual HIPAA certification for every assistant. It is US-based and US-managed with $0 upfront, implementation and replacement costs.

Limitation: the 20 hours a week minimum on a 3-month rolling term is the least flexible published commitment here, so it suits a settled need rather than a trial.

5. MEDVA

Best for: general 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.

6. My Mountain Mover

Best for: general 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.

7. DocVA

Best for: general 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.

What is on a general surgery virtual medical assistant checklist the week before a case?

Clearances, imaging and consents, all of which arrive from elsewhere and none of which needs anyone in theatre. 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.

What does a case cancelled on the morning cost, and can a virtual medical assistant prevent it?

A room, a slot and a staffed team, and yes, because an absent clearance or consent is knowable days earlier, settled with four contractual points first.

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.
Same-day cancellations for missing paperwork. A case cancelled on the morning for an absent clearance or consent wastes a room, a slot and a staffed team. Ask how the provider confirms the packet is complete two or three days ahead.
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?

Two firms publish a rate here. Honest Taskers is $10.00 to $12.65 an hour with no weekly minimum. HelpSquad Health is $8 to $10 for back-office work and $10 to $13 for patient-facing, with a BAA and virtual desktop included but a 20 hours a week minimum on a rolling 3-month term. The other five on this list, Omega Healthcare, Sagility, MEDVA, My Mountain Mover and DocVA, quote on request. For general surgery practices the unit worth computing is cost per case scheduled with a complete packet, 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.

Does the virtual medical assistant company check consents as well as clearances?

Ask, because consents are the item people assume somebody else has, 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.
Facility coordination experience. Ask whether the assistant has scheduled with surgical facilities and anesthesia groups before.
Named systems experience. Ask which practice management and EHR systems the specific assistant has worked in, and who trains them on yours.

Which general surgery cancellation should a virtual medical assistant eliminate first?

The same-day one, because it's the most expensive hour your theatre loses and the easiest to see coming.

Measure one month of same-day cancellations 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.

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 general surgery practices, and where the compliance obligation begins.

Speak with Honest Taskers about staffing general surgery practices.

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