VIRTUAL SOLUTIONS FOR PROVIDERS, TOO
Rural providers are a crucial part of our nation’s healthcare ecosystem, serving roughly 20% of the population, but with shortages in doctors and funding, what support is available to sustain this critical point of care?
In our last installment of our rural healthcare blog series, we explored the lack of funding threatening the rural healthcare landscape. This financial pressure exacerbates pre-existing challenges in rural care, chief amongst them a shortage in care providers. Providers are more likely to serve in rural communities if they come from one. Still, enrollment for rural medical students is low, further drying up the pipeline of providers for more remote areas.
The aid rural healthcare requires must be affordable, flexible, accessible, and must directly alleviate the burden placed on providers. Telehealth solutions have been leveraged to help address the challenges of rural care by bringing providers directly to patients, but inconsistent internet bandwidth has made this a hit-or-miss solution. What deserves more attention is the use of virtual resources delivered to directly support rural providers, instead.
THE NECESSITY OF MEDICAL ASSISTANTS
An American Medical Association (AMA) survey recently found that 26.5% of responding physicians cited short staffing as a key stressor in their work (Berg). This challenge is especially prevalent in rural settings.
Shortages in funding and doctors leave rural physicians wearing a multitude of hats when serving their patients. One of the greatest burdens to providers is the administrative workload that comes with patient care. In fact, 13.8% of physicians in the same AMA survey reported excessive administrative tasks as a source of stress. And in a 2023 survey, when asked why they didn’t delegate administrative tasks, more than 50% of providers responded that they didn’t have enough medical assistants or nurses on staff to do so (Berg).
A study, “Primary Care Practice Characteristics Associated With Medical Assistant Staffing Ratios,” published in Annals of Family Medicine last year, found that the best ratio for care teams was at least two medical assistants to each primary care clinician (Rodriguez et. al).
“Adequate medical assistant staffing is needed to support the delivery of patient-centered, high-quality primary care. Medical assistants increasingly provide direct patient support, including health coaching to help patients with managing their chronic conditions and conducting patient outreach activities to ensure the reliable provision of evidence-based and recommended care,” said lead author Hector P. Rodriguez (“Study Reveals Inadequate Levels of Medical Assistant Staffing in US”).
HOW VIRTUAL MEDICAL ASSISTANTS TACKLE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDENS
The need for more care team members is obvious, but how can rural healthcare utilize a resource they simply do not have? Virtual solutions can bring care team members to providers as easily as it can bring providers to patients, and virtual assistants can tackle a large portion of the administrative burden. Remote support is also more flexible and cost-efficient than full-time, on-site staff.
When providers have the benefit of a fully-staffed team, they can delegate the administrative tasks that hold them back. When the American Medical Association asked physicians which tasks were frequently completed by someone other than them (when they could delegate), they responded:
- Prior authorizations
- Initial triage of patient portal and inbox messages
- Tracking follow-up visits or referrals
- Conducting medication reconciliation with the patient and comparing with the medical record
- Helping to process prescription requests
- Entering orders for follow-up visits or referrals
- Communicating test results to patients outside of regular office visits
- Entering orders for diagnostic tests into the computerized order system
Not only does this list tell us what can be handled by other team members (and thus are below the physician’s license level of work), but also what should be handled by other team members when the staffing allows for it. Additionally, every one of these tasks can be completed remotely by a virtual medical assistant. Adding virtual assistants to rural care teams would allow physicians to focus on patient care, working at the top of their license, while administrative tasks like those above are handled by medical assistants.
Virtual medical assistants meet every one of the needs we’ve outlined for rural physicians. They are an accessible, flexible, and lower-cost solution to staffing shortages. Physicians and studies alike have cited the need for more medical assistants on their teams to help empower providers to work top-of-license. Tasks that providers find themselves routinely handing off to other team members, when they have the staff to do so, can all be handled remotely.
It is clear that virtual medical assistants can provide the relief that rural healthcare desperately needs right now.
Want to learn more about virtual medical assistants? Contact us.
Berg, Sara. “Strong Care Teams Are Key to Boosting Physician Well-Being.” American Medical Association, 9 Sept. 2025, www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/strong-care-teams-are-key-boosting-physician-well-being.
Euhus, Rhiannon, et al. “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Coverage for People Living in Rural Areas.” KFF, 11 Aug. 2025, www.kff.org/medicaid/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-coverage-for-people-living-in-rural-areas/.
Rodriguez, Hector P., et al. “Primary Care Practice Characteristics Associated with Medical Assistant Staffing Ratios.” Annals of Family Medicine, The Annals of Family Medicine, 1 May 2024, www.annfammed.org/content/22/3/233. “Study Reveals Inadequate Levels of Medical Assistant Staffing in US.” UC Berkeley Public Health, 14 May 2025, publichealth.berkeley.edu/articles/spotlight/research/study-reveals-inadequate-levels-of-medical-assistant-staffing.
