Edge vs. VA Companies

Most VA companies find you a person who works from home; you handle training, equipment, compliance, and replacement. Edge is a managed talent platform: you get a pre-certified professional in a secured campus on company equipment, with HIPAA, a dedicated RM, and a replacement guarantee built in.

Because you're buying fundamentally different things. A $10/hour VA gives you a person working from their home on their laptop with their WiFi. Edge's $2,000/month includes: a professional certified on your systems through Edge Edu, enterprise equipment, secured campus with biometric access, HIPAA compliance infrastructure, benefits and competitive compensation, a dedicated relationship manager, IT support, and a replacement guarantee. When you add the hidden costs of a cheap VA — equipment ($100/mo), compliance ($200-500/mo), your management time ($800-1,600/mo), and annualized replacement costs ($250-400/mo) — the $10/hour VA actually costs $2,600-$3,900/month. Edge costs less for dramatically more.

You were probably burned by the VA model itself, not the individual person. Work-from-home, no equipment, no training, no compliance, no management support, no retention infrastructure — that setup fails. Edge fixes every one of those failure points: campus (not home), enterprise equipment (not personal laptop), Edge Edu certification (not generic onboarding), HIPAA compliance (not a checkbox), dedicated RM (not self-management), competitive benefits (not just hourly pay). The 97% retention rate at 12 months tells you the model works.

Some VA companies claim HIPAA compliance, but it usually means they had the VA sign a BAA and complete an online training module. That's documentation, not infrastructure. Real HIPAA compliance for a remote healthcare worker requires: controlled physical environment (no family members seeing screens), enterprise equipment with endpoint management, encrypted connections, secure data handling, and ongoing training. Edge provides all of this through secured campus facilities. Most VA companies don't — because they can't control a worker's home environment.

Some can, many can't. The VA industry casts a wide net — the same firm might place someone doing social media management, bookkeeping, and medical billing. The skill level varies enormously. Edge exclusively serves healthcare, dental, and insurance industries. Every Edge professional is certified through Edge Edu on your specific EHR/PM system, with a 2-4% pass rate. You're not getting a generalist who claims billing experience — you're getting a certified specialist.

With most VA companies: you start over. New search, new person, new training, lost productivity. Average time to replace: 2-4 weeks. With Edge: guaranteed replacement at zero cost, 7-day average turnaround, structured knowledge transfer from outgoing to incoming professional. And with 97% retention at 12 months, it rarely happens.