Chapter 1
The discovery call
Answer first
A psychology practice had new patients waiting weeks because intake paperwork piled up faster than the front desk could process it. On the discovery call they asked what a dedicated intake person would actually do day to day. The answer: chart creation, portal setup, form bundles, demographics, insurance and card on file, and follow up until every portal task is complete.
Discovery call · transcriptanonymized
PS
Practice
We have new patients waiting weeks just to get their paperwork processed. The clinicians are full and the front desk is fuller.
S
Staffingly
So just to give a little background, we’re about eight years in business, around 500 agents, about 800 providers in our network. Intake is bread and butter work for our teams. That’s the exact problem we solve.
PS
Practice
What exactly would your person do?
S
Staffingly
New patient chart creation, portal setup, form bundles, demographics, insurance and card on file, then follow up until the portal tasks are complete. No magic here. It’s really the same process, just that you have dedicated staff taking care of it.
PS
Practice
Our EMR is a bit niche. That’s usually where these things fall apart.
S
Staffingly
We work inside whatever you already use. You name them. First week is setup and our internal trainings, so we know exactly what we’re looking at.
PS
Practice
How much volume can one person realistically take?
S
Staffingly
One VA can easily handle 70, 80 encounters per day. Each person works 45 hours a week, which includes lunch breaks. And every staff member we deploy, we also train one floater. No expense to you, just in case.
The call ended the way most of ours do: a summary of the meeting and the deck went out the same day, and the practice agreed to a two-week risk-free pilot. What we found when we opened the intake pile is Chapter 2.
Chapter 2
Research and findings
Answer first
Before anyone went live we walked the intake pile end to end. The finding was human, not technical: intake only moved when the front desk had a free moment, and a busy psychology practice does not produce free moments. Packets aged, portal invitations sat unsent, and the first-appointment date drifted further out with every new referral. The fix was structural: a dedicated seat whose entire job is moving intake the day it arrives.
What the walkthrough showed. In a psychology practice the intake backlog is not just an administrative queue. It is people who finally decided to seek care, waiting. Every aging packet was a patient in limbo: no chart, no portal access, no insurance on file, no first appointment. Some gave up and went elsewhere. Some arrived at their first visit with paperwork still incomplete, which turned the first ten minutes of a therapy hour into clipboard time. And because insurance was captured at the window instead of ahead of the visit, coverage surprises landed on exactly the patients least equipped for one more source of stress.
What we proposed. One dedicated intake specialist working inside the practice’s own EMR under role-based access: new patient chart creation the day the referral arrives, portal invitation and credentials the same day, form bundles sent and chased until complete, demographics and insurance captured with card on file, and a follow-up loop that does not stop until every portal task is done. A trained floater behind the seat, a BAA from day one, nothing stored on our side. This is patient intake outsourcing the way we run it everywhere: the practice keeps its systems and its clinical judgment, and the paperwork stops waiting for a free moment.
The practice’s leadership reviewed the plan in one sitting. The question that closed it was not about process. It was about pricing, and the answer was the same one we give everyone: $399 flat per week per dedicated specialist, no setup fees, no percentage of revenue.
Chapter 3
Training and onboarding
Answer first
Week one was setup: BAA signed, role-based access provisioned inside the practice’s own EMR, the intake packet learned form by form, and the specialist trained to 80 to 90% ready before touching live work. A floater trained alongside them at no cost to the practice.
Onboarding call · transcriptanonymized
S
Staffingly
First week is pretty much setup and our internal trainings to make sure they’re at least 80, 90% ready before they go live. Each practice’s workflows are different, so we need to know exactly what we’re looking at.
PS
Practice
And if the person you assign is not a fit for us?
S
Staffingly
If you don’t like the staff member, unlimited replacements. It doesn’t usually happen that way, but if that’s a requirement, we handle it. And we do a weekly 15-minute standup call just to make sure everything is going well.
What onboarding actually covered. The specialist learned the practice’s intake packet form by form: which consents psychology requires, which assessments go out before the first visit, how the portal invitation flow works, and what a complete chart looks like before a patient sits down with a clinician. They learned the insurance side too, including the behavioral-health carve-outs that decide whether the mental-health benefit lives with the medical plan or a separate administrator, the detail that had been producing coverage surprises at the window.
By the end of the week the practice had a definition it had never written down: what “intake complete” actually means, form by form and field by field. That checklist became the specialist’s daily standard, and it is the reason the backlog, once cleared, stayed cleared.
Chapter 4
Going live: the pilot
Answer first
Week two the specialist went live under the two-week risk-free pilot, working the backlog oldest packet first while keeping same-day pace on everything new. Patients who had been waiting on paperwork got portal access and a first appointment on the books.
- Day 1 liveThe oldest packets in the pile moved first: charts created, portal invitations sent, forms bundled and chased. Patients who had waited longest got called back first.
- Same-day intake beginsEvery new referral started moving the day it arrived. Chart, portal, forms, insurance and card on file, all in motion before the packet could age.
- First standupThe 15-minute weekly call walked the intake list end to end: what cleared, what was waiting on the patient, what needed a clinical decision. The practice manager saw the whole pipeline in one view.
- The backlog clearsBy the end of the pilot the aging pile was gone. New patients were arriving at their first visit with paperwork done, portal live, and coverage confirmed ahead of time.
- Decision pointDay 14, the go or no-go review. The practice converted from pilot to the standard engagement without changes.
Nothing in the pilot was magic, and that is the point of these memoirs. It’s really the same process, just that you have dedicated staff taking care of it, the day it arrives, and never putting it down.
Chapter 5 · Current
Where it stands today
Answer first
The engagement runs today as a steady operation: a dedicated intake specialist on the queue, a trained floater behind them, same-day movement on every new referral, and a 15-minute standup each week. As the practice adds clinicians, their intake folds into the same pipeline during onboarding.
The operating rhythm now. Every referral gets a chart, a portal invitation, and a form bundle the day it arrives. The follow-up loop chases incomplete paperwork so the front desk does not have to, and insurance is on file with card captured before the first visit instead of at the window. The “intake complete” checklist written in week one is still the daily standard. When the assigned specialist is out, the floater steps in the same day. The weekly standup is the only recurring meeting the relationship needs.
What changed for the practice. The wait between “I need help” and a first appointment stopped being a paperwork problem. Clinicians start first sessions with complete charts instead of clipboards, and the front desk gives its attention to the people in the waiting room. The engagement continues on the standard flat weekly fee, and this memoir grows with it: new entries are added as the work happens.
About this engagement
| Shelf | Memoir (delivered engagement) |
| Specialty | Psychology / counseling practice |
| Services | New-patient intake, chart creation, portal onboarding, insurance and card on file, follow-up loop |
| Model | Dedicated intake specialist + trained floater, $399 flat per week |
| Compliance | BAA from day one, HIPAA-trained staff, SOC 2 Type 2, $5M cyber liability |
| Systems | The practice’s own EMR and portal, role-based access, nothing stored on Staffingly systems |
| Status | Active and growing. Entries added as the engagement continues. |
