The Challenge
The practice grew. The capacity didn't.
Dr. Daljeet Saluja built Saluja Medical Associates into a 16-physician primary care practice in Baltimore through clinical reputation alone — zero advertising budget, every patient earned through word of mouth. But the operational cost of that growth was compounding quietly.
450 inbound calls a day. A 75–80% answer rate. Patients who couldn't get through. Insurance verified reactively at check-in. Claims rejected on the back end. Physicians running behind because the team around them was stretched past capacity.
The work that builds a practice — proactive patient outreach, clean revenue cycles, same-day access — was being sacrificed to keep up with the work that just keeps the lights on.
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Without adequate staffing, it affected our flow, our physician satisfaction, and our patient satisfaction," recalls Dr. Daljeet Saluja.
The Hesitation
He'd already been burned — twice.
Dr. Daljeet Saluja didn't find Edge first. He spent three to four years with two other virtual medical assistant providers. Both were cheaper. Neither could handle the clinical complexity his patient population demanded — an older, geriatric panel with multiple chronic conditions who needed more than someone reading from a script.
He also carried every objection you're probably carrying right now:
- Will HIPAA and patient confidentiality hold up under scrutiny?
- Can my patients actually communicate with someone who isn't local?
- How do I manage a team I can't see every morning?
- After two failures, is it worth paying more for another attempt?
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I tried cheaper twice and it didn't work out," Dr. Daljeet Saluja explains. "
You get what you pay for."
If you've considered global team support and talked yourself out of it — or tried a cheaper version and been disappointed — you're standing exactly where he stood.
Why Edge Was Different
The talent wasn't just trained. They were clinicians.
Every Edge team member assigned to Saluja Medical is a licensed physician or pharmacist. Not a generalist retrained for healthcare. Not a call center agent following a decision tree. Actual clinicians — capable of hearing a patient's symptoms, recognizing urgency, and escalating with judgment.
Dr. Daljeet Saluja interviewed every candidate personally. Edge's months-long training process meant they arrived ready — for U.S. patient communication, HIPAA protocols, and the clinical thinking his practice required.
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You're getting a physician or a pharmacist for less than what you pay a stateside medical assistant," Dr. Daljeet Saluja notes. "
That has value in itself."
Edge also stayed involved after the hire — operational support, regular check-ins, and a signed Business Associate Agreement that gave him the compliance foundation to move forward with confidence.
For specialty practices managing complex scheduling, surgical coordination, and insurance pre-authorizations, that clinical caliber isn't a nice-to-have. It's what makes the model work.
The Results
90%+ call answer rate. 96–97% insurance verification before patients walk in. Zero turnover.
Saluja Medical started with 4 Edge team members answering phones. Within 18 months, the scope expanded to 9 team members handling insurance verification, proactive outreach through Maryland's CRISP system for ER and hospital follow-ups, clinical triage support, and transition-of-care coordination.
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Patients are shocked," Dr. Daljeet Saluja reports. "
They're still in the hospital and our office is already calling them for a follow-up."
What changed:
- Call answer rate: ~80% → 90% + (95–96% including call-backs)
- Insurance verification: reactive at check-in → 96–97% resolved before arrival
- Increased patient volume per clinician from 18 patients to 22 patients per day
- Claims rejections: dropped significantly
- Same-day appointments: captured consistently instead of missed
- Collections on co-pays and deductibles: improved
- No additional office space, equipment, or phone lines required
To replicate what 9 Edge team members handle today, Dr. Daljeet Saluja estimates he'd need 8–9 U.S.-based RNs or LPNs — at significantly higher compensation, plus overhead his office physically cannot accommodate.
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On economic value alone, it's much more valuable than having people stateside."
The Recommendation
From skeptic to advocate — in 18 months.
Dr. Daljeet Saluja doesn't call his Edge team "staff." He calls them employees. Some, he calls family. Physicians who joined his practice in 2025 are shocked by what the team can do.
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They were by far more professional and more dedicated to providing care to our patients. There was no comparison."
That's not a marketing claim. That's a practice owner who failed twice, carried every reasonable objection, and came out the other side telling his peers to stop hesitating.
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Healthcare is challenging. There are a lot of moving parts — and I think we deserve to take some of that off of us and put it in the hands of smart, capable, hardworking people."
Still Skeptical?
That's exactly where Dr. Daljeet Saluja started.
He questioned HIPAA. He questioned accents. He questioned whether a team he couldn't walk past every morning could meet the standard his patients expected. Two cheaper alternatives confirmed his fears before Edge resolved every one of them.
If your practice is losing surgical follow-ups to phone tag, burning physician hours on admin work that should be handled before the day starts, or rejecting claims that should have been clean — the bottleneck isn't your team's work ethic. It's the operating model around them.
The practices that scale from here won't be the ones that hire more locally. They'll be the ones that build the right clinical infrastructure around the team they already have.
Ready to Take Back Your Time?
See how Edge helps specialty practices restore capacity, protect revenue, and build dedicated clinical teams that operate as true extensions of your practice.
[Download the Saluja Medical Case Study]
