In this episode of Beyond Bitewings, Ash welcomes Beth Lachance, CEO of Global Medical Virtual Assistants and shares the journey of her company and how virtual assistants can become a critical component for managing administrative work in dental and medical practices. She recounts how her medical background and a chance involvement in virtual assistance for the real estate sector led her to realize the vast potential for similar services in healthcare. Beth outlines various roles that virtual assistants can occupy, from handling front desk duties to managing complex administrative tasks like insurance verifications and revenue cycles.

Ash and Beth discuss the challenges faced by dental practitioners, especially those juggling clinical and administrative responsibilities. They also discuss the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of virtual assistants, especially as practices contend with fluctuating staffing needs in the post-COVID era. Beth also breaks down the financial advantages, explaining how their services are a fraction of the cost compared to traditional staff.

To learn more, visit: https://globalmedicalva.ph/

If you have specific questions about embezzlement or if you'd like to have another question answered on a future podcast, please reach out to the Edwards & Associates team. (https://www.EandAssociates.com)

Key Topics Discussed:

Administrative roles for virtual assistants

Challenges of managing a dental practice

HR and workforce management post-COVID

Cost-effectiveness of virtual assistance

Proven success of virtual staffing solutions

Detailed cost comparison and savings

Enhancing existing staff and practice management

Welcome to Beyond by Wings, the business side of dentistry, brought to you by Edwards and Associates, PC. Join us as we discuss how to build your dental practice, optimize your income, and plan for your future. This podcast is distributed with the understanding that Edwards and Associates PC is not rendering legal, accounting, or professional advice. Listeners should consult with their business advisors before acting on any of the information that is shared. At Edwards and Associates, P. C, our business is the business of dentistry. For help or more information, visit our website at enassociates.com. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Beyond Bitewings.

In today's episode, we have a very special guest. Her name's Beth. She's with the Global Medical Virtual Assistance Company. She's a founder and the owner, and it is with great pleasure that I welcome her to our episode today. Hi, Beth.

Hi. Thanks so much for having me, Ash.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you. The pleasure is all mine. And, honestly, you know, this is something when when I saw what your company does, I felt like, okay, we really need to have her on our podcast and talk a little bit about it. Because I feel like not just our clients with the firm, but also our listeners would love to hear more about this. Because this is something they've been considering, but sometimes they tither because this is not the model that they've heard of a lot, or you know, this is something they have a lot of friends that have dived into already. So, you know, it'll help with someone like you to share, a little bit about what it is and how it may actually help our clients, especially the the, business owning clients and listeners that we have.

Absolutely. No. My pleasure. It's it's definitely it's definitely the the a new way and a new wave of how to have remote staffing and and being able to either scale a practice very easily and or just help alleviate some of the, you know, the the very hardworking staff members they already have, but they don't want them to leave. So we need to add additional staffing to help them.

That's correct. Yes. So tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you came about this company.

Yeah. I actually was thrown into this. I came from a medical background. I have been in the medical space and the pharmaceutical industry and also the specialty pharmaceutical and, pharmacy space and then surgical devices. And I had a spouse at the time that was doing virtual assistance for real estate, and through a bad partnership breakup, we I immediately quit my job, jumped in with him to help him with the real estate side. And because of my medical background, I knew that this would be a really great adventure and a and a great business and definitely fulfilling a need. And I paid attention while I was in all of those medical practices and in the hospitals for 20 some odd years. I paid attention to everything that was happening around me, and so I knew all the different potential where virtual professionals could fit in.

And so that was the the launch of this brand and this company was, you know, 6 years ago and has been an exciting exciting way to go. So, yeah, so that's kind of how how I got started. I'm aging myself, but I've been in the medical industry for, you know, for 25 years, and it's been an exciting ride. But most definitely to be on this side of things in terms of really, really helping care. It's it's been really, really, really a super fulfilling role and company to work with and to grow.

Amazing. Okay. And and you you actually mentioned something there. So it's basically administrative assistance for practice owners.

Yes. Yep. Absolutely. Everything and anything administrative work and administrative care around patient care is what we can do and what we can handle. And so how kind of how I describe what we do, just to simplify it, because we do hundreds of different types of tasks for medical practices.

I see.

But just to kinda break it down, I kinda break it down to 3 legs of a stool, and the 3 legs of a stool is your front desk front front office desk. So remote reception work, being able to handle every and all calls coming in, patient scheduling, full new patient intakes, that sort of thing for special for specialties. So that front desk all can be done, and a lot of what what can be done can be done remotely. So that's one leg of the stool. Another leg of the stool is some of the the administrative work like insurance verifications and prior authorizations. This is heavy, heavy lifting now that needs to be done in medical practices and or hospitals that is really bogging down and bottlenecking up patient care in the practices. So your mid level practitioners, even your medical assistants, they are the ones that are typically doing those insurance verifications or prior auths while they're also trying to put patients in a room, while they're also having to work directly with the physicians. So that is really where our where our specialties specifically really lies, and a lot of the heavy lifting, is devoted, to our team, to getting that done.

So that's that's another, you know, another leg of the stool. The 3rd leg of the stool is revenue cycle. Everything and anything back office billing. So when you're talking about, you know, claims, denied claims, redoing them, resubmitting claims for appeals, and also patient billing for collections and beyond. So everything and anything within the revenue cycle. So that's that third leg of the stool just to kinda break it down. But there's hundreds of other tasks that we that we do, but just for simplification, that's the best way to describe what we do.

I see. I see. Yeah. And and I know you cater to basically the majority of the medical world, but since our podcast is specifically focused on the dental world, I'm assuming you also cater to the the the dentists out there. Right?

Absolutely. I mean, a lot of the dental practice run exactly like a typical medical practice. So you're still dealing with patient care. You're still dealing with that front desk with patient scheduling, patient appointments, consultations, and beyond. So and there's still insurance verifications that need to be done and, and and and and beyond, right, that has to happen. So there's a lot of administrative work around patient care and dental practices.

Right. Right. Right. Right. And it's interesting that you mentioned all these things. Like, as you were listing them, I'm like, yes, there's a need for that. Yes. There's a need Yes, there's a need for that.

Oh, my goodness. Yes, there's a need for that. It almost sounds like, you know, it's it's a one package kind of deal because I'll I'll be honest with you. I speak with my clients, I don't know, 4 to 5 times at least per day and out of those times, majority of the times, they're complaining about having difficulties with the front desk, responsibilities. So, one, you know, the the the scheduling, the calling, the recall program, and then, of course, with the clients that are accepting PPOs, you know, the insurance filings, those claims, and then, of course, the revenue cycle that you were talking about, you know, taking into the accounts receivables. How much is there? Is it growing? What do we have between 0 to 30 or 30 to 60, and how do I manage it? And oftentimes, what I hear from my clients is that, you know, Ash, I never thought that I would have to spend so much of my time and energy into managing the front desk area. I always thought, you know, I went to dental school. I'm a clinician.

I'll probably spend just a small amount of my time managing the practice and the rest of the time doing what I love, but it's actually the opposite.

Absolutely. I I mean, it's a business, and a lot of physicians or dentists are not trained on being businessmen or businesswomen women.

Correct.

They're trained on, you know, within medicine. I mean, that's what they specialize in and that's what they think their focus is gonna be. But if they're going to be in private practice, that means they're really spending probably 60% of their mind space will be on running the business. And so medicine, dental practices, and medical practices are it's a business. And so there's a lot of management that has to happen in terms of it's not just patient care. It is, you know, work force management. It is software management. It is paying the bills, keeping the lights on, management.

All of those things have to happen.

Right. And I think the biggest headache is the HR piece of it, is managing the team that they have.

Yeah. You know, what used to be, oh, the angry patient or the irate patient or the complex patient used to be the focus, now it's the irate front desk manager or or receptionist or, you know, just the daily headaches of really trying to manage people. And so that has really, especially our workforce has drastically changed during COVID and now post COVID, it is such a different beast.

Mhmm.

And so that's you know, we're we're all dealing with this in every industry, but but, specifically, the medical industry is also taking a major hit on this Mhmm. Because business can't flow down. There's still patient need. There's still emergencies. So it's it's a tremendous amount of workload that has to continue to happen regardless of whether or not you have you're properly staffed.

Right. Right. And I I also want to mention something here. You know, piggybacking off of what you said, you're right. These, clinicians, when they went to school, they were not trained enough on the business side of what they will be doing, and that is the initial struggle. Right? And then what happens is once their business gets to a point where, you know, they're hiring more and more people to run their practice, the front desk area specifically, gets neglected. I feel like, oftentimes I've seen clients where they're looking at the numbers. They're like, oh, you know, this is the amount of money I can spend towards hiring someone new.

And they're basically going off of the number and not by, let's say, you know, the quality of the experience that they bring. And then other times when they do focus on that, they're not focusing on the numbers and their margins shrink. And, you know, specifically with COVID, after COVID, I mean, you know, with the quote unquote great resignation, there's been a huge shift in this market. You know, finding people, quality people, good people, or even people in your field like hygienists, for instance, they're still a unicorn. Super hard to find. But, you know, again, I'm going off a tangent here, but coming back to the administrative side, the front desk side, that's still difficult. You know, the the clients are used to paying a certain amount of money to these people, on an hourly basis or on a salary, and then all of a sudden it literally shifted overnight. Now their reimbursement rates from the insurances, that hasn't changed.

So now they're trying to figure out, okay, how can I afford my increase in overhead by paying more? Do I do this or do I make cutbacks on other expenses? It's just chaotic. And the thing is, when this shift happens, some of my clients, you know, the more savvy clients, the ones that are more proactive or more eager to changes, they made the change. Right? Because the old business model is where you try to find good quality people, you hire them, you keep them happy, you maintain a culture, and then you just make sure they stay on board as long as they can so they can give you or provide you the help that you need. However, when that in itself, there's a rare rarity, right, like there's not enough people, the kind of people. So you have to look or think outside the box. And and and that's the era we're in. I call it the new era. And you honestly are part of the new era.

The virtual assistants, the front desk. See, considering that option because does it work? I know some of my people that are sicklers of, you know, not changing things. They are still a little skeptical about this. They're like, no. The human element, this and that. Well, it's not where and I know we're not saying that just completely get her to the front desk. You'll still have that point, one point person, but the rest of it, it might be more effective. It might be efficient.

It might be, cost effective, and you don't have to deal with the headache. Oh, no. Another one of my employees just said she's gonna go on maternity leave or, you know, take a break, and I don't have enough time to find a replacement. What am I gonna do? Working with the virtual company kind of negates all that. Right? Because you I'm sure you have a lot of people already on your, team where if somebody's off, somebody else will will cover that spot. So there's there's like a seamless, production or output from their end that can help the front desk area of these dental practices.

Yeah. I mean, and front desk is just a a tip of the iceberg, but most definitely, I think what we're finding is that peep you know, some of the practice owners, if they're unwilling to change and look outside of the box of how their their, you know, their staffing solutions have looked in the past Mhmm. If they're unwilling to look into another direction, what they will see is they will see a shrinking population of patients coming into their practice. They will also see a lot more of their internal staff members leaving. Either leaving for better opportunities or leaving because they're overwhelmed, and you need to find additional staffing. And as we just discussed, additional staffing is not so easy to come by.

Mhmm.

So then, of course, like, you know, not to, you know, not to circle back on this again, but with that, then there's less revenue coming in and then there's cutbacks, and all is going in the wrong direction of what was the what the initial intent was. So what we have found and which is really exciting is that virtual assistance and utilizing and these are live human beings. This is not AI. It's not a bot. These are live human beings, so that personal that personal interaction and personal touch in patient care still continues, which is critical. Right? And that's one thing that we wanna make sure continues and and happens in in patient care. But the wonderful thing is that we're able to really get virtual assistants to be widely utilized in the medical field where it wasn't utilized before. So, like, I I think I had had a earlier conversation with you about the fact that virtual assistants and virtual professionals have been utilized in other industries for number of a number of years, well more than a decade, widely used in other industries.

The medical field, the dental field just had not pushed forward yet with the thought process of, yes, this is possible. With COVID, COVID forced the hand of medical practitioners to understand and realize that telehealth is possible. Remote workers are possible. Remote staff is possible. And not only is it possible, you touched upon 2 other things. It's really critical as they can still be extraordinarily efficient, and it is extraordinarily cost effective if you've worked with the right company. So that's, you know, some of the the great things about the timing of all of this is that we're we are launching into something that is we know works. We we know it works in other industries, and now because of we've we've our hands have been forced in the medical industry, we now know it also works in the medical industry.

So, what's critical, and like I just touched upon, is that making sure that you are utilizing and working with the right company to be able to find the right staff.

Mhmm.

With our company, with Global Medical Virtual Assistance, we are I don't consider such a dirty word in the United States about outsourcing. Right? We're offshoring or we're outsourcing. That's not how I sell our services. That's not how I even look at our services because we truly are an extension of the practice. We have dedicated virtual assistants to dedicated practices. They're not working for, you know, doctor Smith and then doctor Adams in the afternoon. They are only dedicated to your practice or your your facility. They become working closely and work in tandem with the staff members in the practice.

So we're an extension of, not an outsource or an out an offshoring of of of, like, outsourcing tasks. That's not how we function, and that's what makes us work so incredibly well within the practices and makes it function and work incredibly well in terms of efficiency and making sure that the patient care still stays where it stays.

Mhmm.

We touched upon, like, that front desk and how critical it is that we have somebody really great at the front desk. And now what we've learned is that receptionists have now are demanding a lot more and they're demanding even when a nurse would be paid. Right? Or a technician in the back right? And so it's it's really strangling the business aspect. It's really strangling the budget. And so patients are expecting a white glove service. We need somebody really strong and really great at the front desk. We're a team at the front desk that has at at that caliber. So it's now it's a matter of rethinking, okay.

Can we have 1 or just 2 people at the front desk and then utilize remote receptionist to handle a room you know, to handle all the rest of it? And that's possible. We've we've proven it. So it's just another way of thinking and kinda thinking outside of the box where then you can still manage the budget appropriately. You can still pay a really strong receptionist to be live within the practice 1 or 2 or and then have additional staffing to support that with remote receptionists.

Mhmm. In fact, Beth, I would really appreciate it if you could take this moment to actually brag about how effective this is because I see it on my end. With my clients that have actually implemented it. I've seen the huge difference, but I'm basically wanting someone else to vouch for this as well with me. Yeah. And this really works.

And this might be something to look into. Passionate about it. Very passionate about it. So it's exciting for me. Of course, I I love to brag about this industry and what's amazing and what can be done. And I think one of the best ways that we have been able to have that proven success, right, is that we have had extraordinarily, extraordinary growth in our company, just extraordinary growth. And it's not because the industry is moving in this direction. It's not because we just had a great sales team and we're, you know, we're out, you know, at conferences and we're and we're, you know, beating down the doors of dental practices and and the hospitals and medical practices.

Mhmm. It's because our existing client base, they may start I've only started with 2 virtual assistants and then very quickly realized, oh my gosh. This is amazing. This is incredible. We love working with Global Medical. And so then they start adding on VAs. So 60% of our growth has been with their existing clients. So that means not only are we doing an amazing job, our virtual professionals are incredible.

Our our relationship with our client is with our clients are are fantastic, but they see the value. They see how it how incredibly how incredibly well it works. And so they immediately start diving into, okay, What other departments can we utilize medical virtual assistance? How can we grow within our practice utilizing this staffing solution? And so that's where so, I I mean, the proof is in the pudding right there just based off of our growth, off of our existing client base. So we've had some clients that started with 5 VAs and now have 50. We have some clients that started with 12 VAs and now have a 120. So I you know, those are obviously massive practice groups, but the proof is in the pudding right there. So that's exciting for me because then I know as a business owner, not only do these strategies work, but we're the right company to partner with to do it. And so we've, you know, we've really created amazing, amazing strategies to, to build those relationships and make sure that the virtual professionals that are assigned to the practices, they also come with a client service manager as part of our services.

So we have a full management team that's then also managing the VA's to make sure they're clocking in on time, they're logging in on time. When they take their lunch break, they're coming back from lunch on time. They're hitting the productivity levels and the KPIs that are set for them from the practice and the client service manager, and we're managing them. So we come with a full service management team as well. So that's, like, kind of like, you know, you wanted me to brag a little bit about I can brag about our company. I can brag about the industry. It's definitely, you know, we're a solution, which when we're a solution, that's a fun business to be part of. And so that's kinda where we found our niche.

Well put. Well put. You're absolutely right. I do feel like the industry you're in right now is definitely the solution. Now let's talk a little bit about numbers because we could talk about, you know, this is highly efficient and very cost effective. So and it's completely up to you if you want to share the exact numbers, or you could just give percentages. Let's say, you know, somebody were to hire a regular front desk person versus, you know, utilize, your services or a company of, of similar natures services to have a similar output. What would be the cost variation between that?

No. Great. Thanks for asking. And, actually, you can find this information on our website as well. There's actually a tab that kinda goes to the cost effectiveness of this. But, you know, where we are, you know, about under $25,000 a year for a full time medical virtual assistant. Mhmm. That same position in a medical practice would usually cost double, if not more than that, depending on where you are in the country.

Mhmm. But for the most part, what we've done and continue to do more research, and we pull data obviously from from different areas and and within different practices, we try to pull data around the country to make sure that are we a great still a great staffing solution, and we are. And it's a it's it's such a massive difference. So our pricing is really straightforward. We are $525 a week per full time VA. That's it. There's no additional fees. There's no additional anything.

There we you know, all of that is part of that. So it's $525 per week per full time VA. That comes with our full team. That comes with our management team with a client service manager. That comes with our IT team. That comes with our HR team. All of that is covered. And our virtual professionals are just that.

They are professionals. They come to us. We recruit and only bring in virtual assistants that have a 4 year college degree. So they have a bachelor's degree. They either have a bachelor's degree in nursing or they have a bachelor's degree in something in the medical field, and they've worked within the medical field in some facet, some way or another. They have to have experience before we'll hire them. So I don't know where else, especially in the United States, where you would be able to get a college educated, college degree person to put at your you know, either in your reception area and or in your back office for under $25,000 a year. We are a fraction of the cost of what it would be to hire an you know, someone in the practice.

That is amazing. And you said something else, which is you said most of your staff are from the United States?

No. Our staff actually, our staff is entirely Philippine based.

I see.

We are in the Philippines, which is that's how we're able to offer, pricing that actually can work for a medical practice and or a dental practice. That's what makes us cost effective, cost efficient, and budget friendly for practices, and we're not a replacement of. That's one of the things that has been really exciting for me as a business owner. You know, I didn't launch the business for us to replace existing office staff. The idea is that it's the ability to be able to grow from your existing onshore staff that is in your practice now. It is not for cost savings to, oh, we have 2 receptionists now. We're gonna eliminate 1 receptionist and hire offshore. No.

That that that has not been the direction of what our practice at least what we have seen from the practices that partner with us. What we have seen is they really wanna hold on to their existing staff.

Mhmm.

We are to in order we are to enhance what they already are offering and or to take some of the load off of the existing internal staff because they're overwhelmed. They're overworked. They're overwhelmed, and they're on their morale is low, and they're on the verge of quitting.

Mhmm. I

see. Like you said, you know, there was the the great resignation. There's also something called quiet quitting. Yes. And so with yeah. And so with that, you know, you want to you wanna hold on to your really great staff members. So that's your opportunity to be able to have some of the one on one conversations with the staff with your internal staff to say, what do you love about your job? What could we get off your plate to delegate to someone else that would really make you the morale of our team go up, the morale of your of you on an everyday everyday basis go up and feel really valued and loved to come into work every day. And once you have those 1 on 1 conversations, there's a lot of there's a lot of clinical aspects that cannot be delegated to to someone else outside the practice, like a remote worker, like something like like what we offer, but most definitely, a lot of the administrative tasks that you are paying, you know, you're paying someone $45 an hour, but they're doing $10 an hour tasks.

That's those are the tasks that you can get off of their plate to delegate to the medical virtual assistants, and then that staff member or staff members are spending their time more with patient care, you know, more time directly with the physician to enhance the practice. So that's where the the difference are the differences can be where it's not just eliminate staffing Mhmm. To then replace with medical virtual assistants. It really is to enhance the practice and keep your staffing and be able to scale or try to help with the morale of your team to keep the great people that you already have.

Right. And let's not forget, the owner can actually focus more on the clinical side of business.

Absolutely. Without question. And, of course, that comes with having the right the right practice manager in the practice. And as soon as your practice manager in the practice also has the right staffing solutions, that immediately can elevate the physician or the practitioner out of some of those daily decisions that have to be done with running the business.

Mhmm. That's right. Well, thank you so much for being on our episode today, Beth.

Ash, I'm so glad you invited me on. It's always exciting to talk about this this this very fun staffing solution for practices.

I'm sure I can tell you're very passionate about it and, you know, you brought it through into our episode today, and I'm sure our listeners will be able to listen to it and feel it from their side.

Absolutely. Thanks for that.

Thank you.