Practice staffing · Healthcare remote teams
Portiva
Portiva provides remote virtual assistants for medical, dental, and veterinary practices covering phones, scheduling, and back-office admin. It is a staffing company, not an EHR.
Strong fit
- Small medical, dental, or veterinary practices that want remote admin help, which Portiva lists from about $10 an hour
- Offices that know which tasks (phones, scheduling, billing follow-up) they will hand off
- Buyers comparing long-running healthcare remote staffing firms, not only firms founded in 2024
Weak fit
- Buyers who need top-tier SOC 2 or secured facility proof from day one
- Teams that want the deepest specialty team coaching among these firms
- Anyone looking for an EHR, an AI scribe, or a telehealth care network
Bottom line
Portiva is worth considering for small medical, dental, and veterinary practices that want low-cost remote staff for straightforward admin work. It suits practices that will check current service quality themselves. Practices that need stronger compliance proof may prefer MEDVA or DocVA.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Portiva is a remote healthcare staffing company in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, that places virtual assistants with medical, dental, and veterinary practices.
Founder and CEO Sanju Zachariah started it in 2009 for back-office support. It later added virtual medical assistants for phones, scheduling, and billing work, and its prices often start near $10 per hour.
It is a small company, and it is staffing, not an EHR.
Results are believable for simple admin coverage. But public proof of results and compliance depth is thinner than at MEDVA, and its brand is smaller than HelloRache.
Getting started means a standard staffing onboarding.
Among the practice staffing firms we review, Portiva ranks fifth. It will stay there until stronger independent proof of results appears.
MEDVA and DocVA suit practices that need stronger compliance or the same dedicated assistant over time. HelloRache suits heavy charting help at a low posted hourly rate.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| MEDVA | 7.8 | 7.4 |
| DocVA | 7.6 | 7.8 |
| HelloRache | 7.5 | 7.6 |
| Physicians Angels | 7.5 | 7.4 |
| ScribeEMR | 7.4 | 7.2 |
| My Mountain Mover | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| GMVA | 7.1 | 7.0 |
| Staffing For Doctors | 7.1 | 7.3 |
| Staffingly | 7.1 | 7.2 |
| Portiva | 6.9 | 7.0 |
| Cool Blue VA | 6.8 | 7.0 |
| CareVMA | 6.6 | 7.0 |
| MedGather | 6.6 | 7.1 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Hourly virtual assistants for medical, dental, and veterinary practices, with prices often starting near $10 an hour. |
| What usually drives cost | Hours, role (phones, scheduling, billing support, executive assistant), and field (medical, dental, or veterinary). |
| What to ask before you buy | Confirm the current hourly rate for your mix of roles, the BAA and device controls, and replacement terms in the first 90 days. |
| Published pricing | Portiva lists rates from about $10 per hour. |
Portiva lists virtual assistants from about $10/hr. Confirm a current quote.
Prerequisites for purchase
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What you need to get Portiva to function | |
| A named practice owner or office manager to work with the assistant | Assistants with no one in charge drift off task and leave. |
| A written task list for phones, scheduling, charting, billing, or prior authorizations | A vague request to help with everything fails. |
| An agreed plan for EHR and practice management access and the business associate agreement | Assistants cannot work without secure access to your systems. |
| HIPAA and privacy training confirmed with the vendor | Handling patient information safely is required. |
| Hours, overlapping time zones, and rules for urgent issues written down before day one | Work that piles up unnoticed brings back the staffing gap. |
| What will maximize your value | |
| Measure answered calls, charting delays, or prior authorization turnaround every week for 90 days | Having someone in the seat is not a result. |
| Keep one assistant on the same tasks for the first month | Rotating assistants wipes out training. |
| Stop the old workarounds (personal phones, after-hours charting) after one week of both | Running both hides whether the assistant is working. |
| Review unfinished work with the assistant every day in the first week | Problems hide in inboxes. |
| Write down the EHR steps and templates the assistant must follow | Knowledge that lives only in staff heads does not get passed on. |
| Deal-breakers | |
| You need an EHR or patient engagement product, not a person. | |
| No one on site will train or check the assistant's work. | |
| Your lawyers will not sign a business associate agreement or allow remote access to patient data. | |
| You expect clinicians who prescribe or treat patients, not administrative staff. | |
| Leaders will not decide which tasks move away from the office staff. | |
Value creation time frame
| # | Stage | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Define the role and match | 3-10 days. Set the role, hours, and specialty, and narrow the candidates. |
| 2 | Access and agreements | 1-2 weeks. Set up logins, VPN and EHR access, and privacy paperwork. |
| 3 | Training alongside staff | 1-2 weeks. The assistant works alongside a practice trainer. |
| 4 | Routine | 30-60 days. Review the numbers, then add tasks or replace the assistant. |
Leadership
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.