Last updated: 2026-08-24
Honest Taskers, AnswerConnect, and Specialty Answering Service lead this year's shortlist of virtual medical assistant companies for partial hospitalization programs, 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 partial hospitalization programs the work that matters is verifying benefits and obtaining authorization for this level of care. Below we set out how many resubmissions there are, what filing a continued-stay document late loses, what the work costs, whether a provider meets a deadline it did not set, and which review to prepare first. Of the seven here, one publishes a rate and two 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
- 2AnswerConnect
- 3Specialty Answering Service
- 4Carenet Healthcare
- 5DocVA
- 6Virtual Nurse Rx
- 7VMeDx
How we chose the best virtual medical assistant companies for partial hospitalization programs
We ranked these firms on five facts, each read at the provider's own website on August 24, 2026: the scope each offers partial hospitalization programs, 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 partial hospitalization programs the additional question is whether the assistant can handle tracking continued-stay reviews against attendance and clinical documentation without being taught the basics first.
Best virtual medical assistant companies for partial hospitalization programs 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 |
| AnswerConnect | Dental, general | Not publicly listed | $350/mo | Answering service | "Real people, not automated voices", receptionists distributed across the US; published tiers $350/mo (200 min), $395/mo (300 min), $575/mo (400 min); overage $1.85–$2.50 |
| Specialty Answering Service | Live operators 24/7/365 | States no BAA | $44/mo | Answering service | Not publicly listed; From $44/mo; States it is a HIPAA compliant medical call center; no BAA described on the page |
| Carenet Healthcare | Virtual care and nurse triage at scale | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Managed clinical program | Combines patient-engagement staff and registered nurses with physician e-consults for a triaged virtual care experience; offers after-hours clinical support and nurse tri |
| 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 |
| VMeDx | Reception, prior authorization, remote scribing, RPM, billing and administrative support; separate dental and veterinary lines | "HIPAA-trained"; follows HIPAA-compliant processes, but no BAA wording | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Prior auth, scribe, RPM, dental, vet; top 3%; 24/7; Nashville TN |
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 partial hospitalization programs the scope column matters too, because managing daily attendance records and same-day absence follow-up isn't work every provider has done before.
1. Honest Taskers
Best for: partial hospitalization programs 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 partial hospitalization programs the placed assistant works your time zone inside your own systems on verifying benefits and obtaining authorization for this level of care, tracking continued-stay reviews against attendance and clinical documentation, managing daily attendance records and same-day absence follow-up, and coordinating intake and transitions from inpatient care. 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 partial hospitalization programs 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. AnswerConnect
Best for: Partial hospitalization programs weighing a answering service option alongside placed assistants.
Pricing: $350/moCompliance: Not publicly listedModel: Answering serviceCategory: Answering service
AnswerConnect is an answering service rather than a placed assistant, so it covers the phone rather than the workflow sitting behind it. From the company's own material: Best fit: Dental, general; Verified facts: "Real people, not automated voices", receptionists distributed across the US; published tiers $350/mo (200 min), $395/mo (300 min), $575/mo (400 min).
Limitation: HIPAA is an option you switch on rather than the default, and bilingual support is not stated
3. Specialty Answering Service
Best for: Partial hospitalization programs weighing a answering service option alongside placed assistants.
Pricing: $44/moCompliance: States no BAAModel: Answering serviceCategory: Answering service
Specialty Answering Service is an answering service rather than a placed assistant, so it covers the phone rather than the workflow sitting behind it. On its own site: Live operators 24/7/365; Operator location: Not publicly listed; Published pricing: From $44/mo; HIPAA / BAA (as stated): States it is a HIPAA compliant medical call center.
Limitation: the lowest entry price here buys few minutes, so overage terms matter more than the headline
4. Carenet Healthcare
Best for: Partial hospitalization programs weighing a care management option alongside placed assistants.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: Not publicly listedModel: Managed clinical programCategory: Care management
Carenet Healthcare supplies clinical care management rather than administrative staff, so it answers a different half of the problem than a placed assistant does. What the site publishes: What it is: Virtual care and nurse triage at scale; Verified facts: Combines patient-engagement staff and registered nurses with physician e-consults for a triaged virtual care experience.
Limitation: its own outcome figures are company-reported, and no pricing is published
5. DocVA
Best for: partial hospitalization programs 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.
6. Virtual Nurse Rx
Best for: partial hospitalization programs 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.
7. VMeDx
Best for: partial hospitalization programs wanting reception, prior authorization and scribing from one vendor.
Pricing: Not publicly listedCompliance: HIPAA-trained assistantsCommitment: Not publicly listedBase: Nashville, Tennessee
VMeDx covers the widest span of adjacent roles under one vendor. Its role list is among the broadest here, covering virtual medical assistant, receptionist, prior authorization specialist, remote scribe, billing assistant, remote patient monitoring and administrative assistant, plus dedicated dental and veterinary lines. Training is stated in electronic medical record systems, medical coding and billing and US healthcare regulations, candidates are screened to what it calls the top 3%, availability is 24/7, and it is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Limitation: it publishes neither pricing nor commitment terms nor any BAA wording, and states no delivery location for its staff.
How many times must a virtual medical assistant resubmit for partial hospitalization?
Frequently, because this level of care is reviewed on a short cycle, with benefits and level-of-care approval underneath it. 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 virtual medical assistant lose by filing a continued-stay document late?
The authorization, because review here depends on documentation arriving on time rather than eventually, 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.
- Continued-stay documentation deadlines. Partial hospitalisation authorization is reviewed frequently and depends on documentation arriving on time. A late submission converts covered days into unpaid ones.
- 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, AnswerConnect, Specialty Answering Service, Carenet Healthcare, DocVA, Virtual Nurse Rx and VMeDx, quote on request. For partial hospitalization programs the unit worth computing is cost per program day attended and authorized, 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 meet a documentation deadline it did not set?
Ask what it does when a clinician is late, 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.
- Review-date tracking. Ask to see the report showing upcoming continued-stay reviews against current census.
- Named systems experience. Ask which practice management and EHR systems the specific assistant has worked in, and who trains them on yours.
Which partial hospitalization review should a virtual medical assistant prepare first?
The next one due, because a lapsed continued-stay authorization ends a program a patient is part-way through.
- Measure one month of continued-stay authorizations lapsed and same-day absence follow-up 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 partial hospitalization programs, and where the compliance obligation begins.
Speak with Honest Taskers about staffing partial hospitalization programs.