Geriatric Care Managers Are Losing Billable Hours to Administrative Work
The Aging Life Care Association's 2024 member survey found that independent geriatric care managers — also known as aging life care professionals — reported spending an average of 28% of their working hours on tasks that could be delegated to administrative support. These tasks included scheduling comprehensive geriatric assessments, following up on insurance pre-authorization requests, updating care plan documents after assessments, and returning family inquiry calls.
For a practitioner billing at $120–$200 per hour, 28% of time in administrative tasks represents $25,000 to $45,000 in lost annual revenue — per practitioner. For small aging life care practices with two to five care managers, the aggregate lost revenue compounds quickly.
The CMS 2024 Administrative Burden in Healthcare Report identified pre-authorization delays as one of the top three causes of delayed care plan execution in elder care settings. That delay often falls on the care manager's office to resolve, consuming staff time that should be focused on the client.
What a VA Handles for Geriatric Care Managers
Client assessment scheduling involves more complexity than a standard appointment. A comprehensive geriatric assessment typically requires coordinating availability across the client, one or more family members, and sometimes a physician liaison. It also involves sending preparation instructions, confirming transportation arrangements for the client, and ensuring the assessment location has the necessary documentation on file. A VA manages this multi-party scheduling process end to end, including confirmation calls and follow-up after the assessment is complete.
Insurance pre-authorization follow-up is one of the most time-consuming administrative functions in geriatric care management. When a care manager's recommendations require approved services — home health, adult day services, durable medical equipment — the pre-authorization process with Medicare Advantage plans or Medicaid managed care organizations can take days or weeks. A VA tracks each open pre-authorization request, follows up with payers on outstanding approvals, and notifies the care manager when authorization is received or when an appeal is required.
Care plan documentation is a clinical responsibility, but the administrative layer around it — formatting, version control, distribution to family members, updating records after status changes, and filing in the client management platform — is a task a VA can own. Whether the practice uses CareManager Pro, Cerner, or a custom documentation system, a VA maintains the documentation workflow so care managers are not spending an hour after every assessment entering data.
Family liaison calls represent a high-volume, often emotionally demanding communication function. Families of elderly clients frequently call to ask about care plan progress, upcoming service changes, or billing questions. A VA manages the routine inquiry queue — fielding questions that do not require clinical judgment, scheduling family update calls with the care manager, and sending written summaries after care conferences.
Building a Sustainable Geriatric Care Practice
The Aging Life Care Association projects that demand for geriatric care management services will increase by 35% over the next decade as the 65-and-older population grows. Independent practices that want to capture that demand without burning out their care managers need administrative infrastructure that scales with caseload.
A virtual assistant is that infrastructure. For the cost of part-time administrative support, geriatric care managers can recover significant billable hours, improve client communication, and reduce the documentation backlog that creates compliance exposure.
Stealth Agents provides geriatric care management virtual assistants familiar with aging life care workflows, pre-authorization processes for Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care, and care plan documentation platforms used by independent and group practices.
Sources
- Aging Life Care Association (ALCA), 2024 Member Practice Survey
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024 Administrative Burden in Healthcare Report
- Aging Life Care Association, Workforce and Demand Projections, 2025