For years, practices looking for extra support faced a real tradeoff. Bring in people who understand patients, who can hear when something’s wrong in a patient’s voice and adjust on the spot. Or bring in software that moves fast and handles volume but misses the context that makes healthcare different from almost every other industry.
We don’t think that’s a real choice, and it’s exactly why we adapted the tools our remote workers use every day, so they can work faster and smarter with AI.
What’s new is that Teem’s remote workers now work with practice-approved AI tools built directly into their daily workflow, covering scheduling, insurance verification, phone coverage, and clinical documentation, so that work gets done faster and with more consistency.
Where Each Approach Falls Short
Software is fast and handles volume well, but healthcare runs on judgment calls that go beyond a script: noticing a shift in a patient’s tone, catching that something feels off with a familiar face, adjusting a conversation in the moment. That’s still work a person does best.
At the same time, hiring the right person is only half of it. Without ongoing training and the tools to back them up, even a strong hire can find it hard to keep pace as best practices and technology evolve. That’s less about the person and more about the system built around them. Nationally, a growing share of practices now need multiple administrative staff per physician just to keep up with payer rules and paperwork, according to MGMA’s 2026 Regulatory Burden Report.
Our model closes that gap. Practices shouldn’t have to choose between a human and a system. You need both, working together, and that’s exactly how a healthcare virtual assistant operates today at Teem.
How Teem’s Virtual Assistant Use AI Day to Day
With practice approval, our remote front desk specialists, clinical scribes, insurance coordinators, and scheduling staff now have AI built into their daily workflow. AI doesn’t replace judgment here. It sharpens it, drawing on real practice data and industry best practices so the person doing the work gets better at their job every single day, a pattern that lines up with recent MIT Sloan research showing AI tends to complement human work rather than replace it.
The AI doesn’t talk to your patients and it doesn’t make decisions on its own. What it does is watch the patterns in your practice’s own data and coach the person doing the work in real time, the way a good trainer reviews game film and flags what to adjust before the next play.
A remote team member on a call might get a real-time flag that a patient mentioned an insurance change that hasn’t been logged yet, so nothing slips through during verification. A virtual assistant handling recalls might see which patients are most likely to book this week versus next, based on your own practice’s history. A clinical scribe might catch a missing detail in a chart note before it ever reaches your provider for review.
The AI becomes part of the coaching and support Teem’s remote worker already gets, so it fits naturally into how they already work and grow in the role. On your end, working with Teem stays exactly the same: you get a dedicated, supported person on your team, while we take care of what’s running behind the scenes.
How This Fits into How Teem Already Works with Healthcare Practices
All remote workers we source and place with practices are Teem employees, not contractors or direct hires, so they never count against your headcount or payroll. Once they’re placed, they get ongoing access to Teem University, our training platform included in your monthly investment, where they build skills through courses your practice assigns and courses we keep adding. Performance Tracker keeps you connected to how they’re doing along the way.
AI now runs inside both, sharpening the coaching a virtual assistant gets through Teem University and adding more detail to what you see in Performance Tracker. There’s nothing new for you to log into or manage; it’s built into the partnership a practice already has with us.
Results From Remote Teams Alone
These numbers come from remote teams working the way they already do, before this AI update ever entered the picture. Las Vegas Eye Docs, a 15-location optometry group, cut labor costs across supported functions by 40 to 50%, reclaimed more than 120 hours a week across its teams, and cut patient wait times in half. Focal Optometry, a single-location practice in San Diego, grew total revenue by nearly 38% and saw new patient growth jump from 2% to over 15% year over year, with their clinical scribe alone saving an estimated 15 to 20 hours a week.
The results Teem clients have achieved with remote teams alone illustrate what that foundation makes possible. AI is the next layer we’re adding on top of it.
50%
Reduced Staffing Costs
120 hours
Reclaimed
per Week
Quick Answers for Practices
Do I have to manage or approve the AI tools myself? Your practice approves the AI integration before it’s turned on and Teem manages it day to day from there. Whether you already have a Teem remote team member or you’re just getting started, there’s no dashboard to learn and no new vendor relationship to maintain.
Does this cost extra? No. Whether you’re an existing client or considering Teem for the first time, the AI is part of the ongoing training and support already built into every placement, not a separate line item.
Will a real person still be the one talking to my patients? Yes, always. That’s the whole reason we built this the way we did.
What This Means for Your Practice
Cory Pinegar, Teem’s founder, put it simply: the best AI in the world still can’t calm a nervous patient or make a judgment call in the moment that matters. That takes a person. What AI can do is pull from best practices across the industry and help our people get sharper every day.
That’s the idea behind this update, and it’s already live across Teem’s remote teams today. If you want to see what human-led, AI-amplified support looks like inside your own practice, our team can walk you through it.
Talk to our team to see AI-amplified remote support in action.
