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Key Takeaways
- Virtual assistants in optometry are real people who can use AI-enhanced tools to improve efficiency while preserving human interaction.
- Teem’s AI phone coaching tool can help virtual optometry assistants and team members improve patient communication, information gathering, and conversion.
- AI-supported analysis of denied claims can help team members identify potential problems faster and improve revenue cycle workflows.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing healthcare, but for optometrists and practice owners, the biggest opportunity may not be replacing people. It may be helping good people perform their jobs better. That distinction matters especially as virtual assistants grow in optometry and eye care.
That idea shaped a recent Defocus Media conversation between Dr. Darryl Glover and Corey Pinegar, CEO of Teem, about human virtual assistants, artificial intelligence, phone coaching, denied claims, staffing, and the operational pressures facing eye care practices. Rather than positioning AI as a substitute for practice staff, Pinegar described a model in which technology enhances real people’s capabilities.
Teem provides human virtual assistants who support practices with administrative responsibilities, using AI-enhanced tools to improve how they perform certain tasks. Two examples stood out during the conversation: an AI phone coaching tool designed to help team members improve patient conversations and a claims copilot that can help employees analyze denied claims.
For eye care professionals, that distinction matters. Virtual assistants in eye care are people—not AI bots replacing the practice team. When those people have the right AI tools, they may work more efficiently, improve consistency, and reduce the administrative burden on doctors and in-office employees.
The bigger question for practice owners is no longer simply, “Should the practice use AI?” It is: How can people use AI to solve real problems without sacrificing the human experience?
What Are Virtual Assistants in Optometry?
Virtual assistants in optometry are remote human team members who support administrative and operational responsibilities within an eye care practice. Depending on the role and the practice’s needs, they may assist with patient communication, scheduling, insurance-related tasks, recare, claims support, and other nonclinical responsibilities.
That definition is important as AI becomes more prominent. An optometry virtual assistant does not necessarily mean an AI chatbot or automated system. In Teem’s model, the virtual assistant is a person. Artificial intelligence is a tool that can help that person perform certain responsibilities more effectively.
For Pinegar, the opportunity begins with a problem familiar to many practice owners: staffing has become difficult. Hiring, retaining, and training employees requires significant time, while the administrative responsibilities of running a practice continue to grow.
Teem’s model gives practices access to remote human talent that can take on some of this work. But the conversation with Glover went beyond traditional virtual staffing. Pinegar explained how Teem is layering AI tools onto its virtual assistant model to help good team members become even more effective.
The opportunity is therefore not simply moving a task from someone inside the practice to someone working remotely. It is identifying repetitive, time-consuming work and giving the person responsible better tools.
For optometrists already balancing patient care with payroll, staffing, insurance, scheduling, training, and other business responsibilities, this can have implications far beyond convenience.
How Are Virtual Assistants in Eye Care Helping Optometry Practices?
Virtual assistants in eye care can help practices manage administrative responsibilities without keeping every task in-house. When paired with appropriate AI tools, human virtual assistants may also be able to complete certain processes more efficiently and consistently.
Pinegar described the economic challenge facing practices as a widening gap between the cost of operating a business and what practices are able to collect for services. Historically, one response has been to increase patient volume. But continually adding patients without improving the systems that support those visits can put more pressure on doctors and staff. Burnout then becomes more than a doctor problem.
Front-desk employees answer calls throughout the day. Team members verify insurance, manage schedules, work denied claims, handle recare, collect information, and respond to patient questions. When someone leaves, the practice has to recruit and train a replacement while remaining employees absorb additional responsibilities. That instability eventually reaches the doctor.
Human virtual assistants in optometry provide another way to distribute that workload. Teem’s approach adds a second layer: equipping those people with AI-supported tools that can help them improve specific areas of performance.
The goal is not simply doing more work. It is creating a better operating model around the work that already needs to be done.
Will AI Replace the Human Connection in Eye Care?
AI should not replace the human connection in eye care. Its strongest applications may involve improving the processes surrounding patient care so doctors, virtual assistants, and in-office team members have greater capacity for meaningful human interactions.
Pinegar used commercial aviation to illustrate the concept. Modern airplanes contain extensive automation, yet pilots remain essential. Technology handles portions of the process, while people provide judgment, oversight, communication, and intervention when something unexpected happens. Healthcare carries a similar lesson.
Patients still want someone who listens when they call. They want a team member who understands their concerns. They want an optometrist who can interpret information, communicate recommendations, and build trust. As Pinegar explained:
“Human work that is important should be left to human beings.” — Corey Pinegar
That philosophy helps define how Teem approaches virtual assistants in eye care and AI. Rather than pushing artificial intelligence into every patient interaction, Teem uses technology behind the scenes to coach people, analyze information, improve processes, and reduce repetitive administrative work.
The patient can still interact with a human. AI simply gives that person another tool.
How Can Teem’s AI Phone Coaching Tool Improve Patient Calls?
Teem’s phone coaching tool uses AI to analyze completed calls and provide feedback that can help human virtual assistants and other team members improve future patient conversations. This was one of the most practical examples discussed during the podcast.
After a new-patient, existing-patient, outbound, or recare call, the tool can analyze the recording or transcript. The phone coaching tool can evaluate whether the employee performed appropriate discovery, developed warmth and rapport, collected and clarified necessary information, and moved the conversation toward the appropriate outcome.
That creates an entirely different approach to staff development.
Rather than using AI to replace the person answering the telephone, Teem uses AI behind the human interaction. The patient still speaks with a person, but technology can help that person communicate more effectively.
This distinction matters most for practices evaluating virtual assistants in optometry. Hiring a virtual assistant can provide additional capacity, but coaching and developing that employee remains important. AI creates an opportunity to make that coaching more consistent and measurable.
Why Phone Coaching Matters for Optometry Practice Growth
The telephone remains one of the most important conversion points in an eye care practice.
A practice can invest in its website, Google presence, social media, referrals, and advertising, but those efforts lose value if a prospective patient calls and has a poor experience. Glover captured that opportunity during the conversation:
“We all know the money's in the phone, right? The calls.” — Dr. Darryl Glover
A prospective patient may have questions about insurance, appointment availability, contact lenses, symptoms, or what type of appointment to schedule. Answering the call is only the beginning.
Did the team member listen? Did they understand why the person called? Did they establish rapport? Did they collect the information required for insurance verification? Did they confidently guide the patient toward the appropriate next step? Practice owners cannot personally listen to and coach every conversation.
A phone coaching tool enables a more consistent feedback loop. A human virtual assistant can complete a call, receive structured feedback, identify opportunities for improvement, and apply those lessons to future conversations.
Pinegar gave the example of moving new-patient conversion from 64% to 68%. Four percentage points may seem modest in isolation, but across hundreds of prospective-patient calls, incremental improvements can become meaningful.
This is where Teem’s combination of human virtual assistants and AI phone coaching becomes especially relevant. The technology is not replacing the employee who speaks with the patient. It is helping that employee improve.
How Can Teem Use AI to Help With Denied Claims?
Teem is also developing AI-supported claims tools designed to help human team members understand denied claims and identify information that may require correction or clarification.
Denied claims represent a very different challenge from patient phone calls, but they illustrate the same AI strategy: use technology to help a person solve an administrative problem more effectively.
When a claim is denied, someone must determine why. That can involve reviewing the denial, comparing it with the original claim, identifying missing or incorrect information, correcting documentation, and resubmitting the claim.
Pinegar described a claims copilot that can analyze information from a denied claim and compare it with what was originally submitted. The tool can help identify potential problems, such as a narrative requiring clarification or documentation that may need to be reattached.
Importantly, the Teem tool described in the conversation is not automatically resubmitting the claim. Humans remain part of the process.
For practices using virtual assistants in eye care, this represents an important example of what AI enhancement can look like. Instead of expecting someone to manually work through every element without assistance, technology can organize and analyze the information so the team member can determine the appropriate next step.
Why Do Denied Claims Matter to Optometry Practice Owners?
Denied claims are ultimately a cash-flow and operational-efficiency issue. When a legitimate claim remains unresolved, the practice waits longer to collect revenue for services it has already delivered. Repeated denials compound the problem.
A team member may correct a claim, resubmit it, wait for another response, and discover that additional information is still required. Each cycle consumes employee time and delays payment.
For an optometry business owner, improving that process can affect more than the billing department. Revenue cycle performance ultimately affects cash flow, staffing, profitability, and the practice’s overall financial health.
There is also a patient-experience component. Administrative problems can eventually become patient problems when someone receives an unexpected or confusing bill.
A Teem virtual assistant supported by AI tools for denied claims represents one model for approaching this workflow. AI can help the employee analyze the information while the human remains responsible for evaluating and acting on it.
The philosophy is consistent with the phone coaching application: AI amplifies the person rather than replacing the person.
How Should Optometrists Evaluate AI Tools and Virtual Assistants?
Optometrists should begin with a business problem, not an AI product. Pinegar acknowledged that earlier in his entrepreneurial career he sometimes chased new ideas because they were exciting. That experience shaped a more practical approach to technology: determine whether it actually solves a problem or improves performance.
Practice owners can apply the same thinking when evaluating virtual assistants in optometry, virtual assistants in eye care, and AI tools.
If prospective patients are calling but not scheduling, examine the phone process. If managers do not have enough time to coach staff consistently, an AI phone coaching tool may be worth evaluating. If employees spend too much time understanding denied claims, claims-support technology may add value. If the front desk is overwhelmed by repetitive administrative responsibilities, a human virtual assistant may provide additional capacity. The technology should follow the problem.
This is also why Teem’s approach matters in the broader AI conversation. Instead of treating artificial intelligence as one giant solution, AI is being applied to specific workflows real people perform.
Practice owners can then evaluate meaningful outcomes: Did phone conversion improve? Did team members collect better information? Are denied claims easier to analyze? Is administrative work becoming more efficient without sacrificing quality? Are doctors and in-office employees spending less time correcting preventable operational problems?
Those questions are far more useful than simply asking whether a practice “uses AI.”
Can Virtual Assistants in Eye Care Help Reduce Burnout?
Virtual assistants in eye care may reduce burnout by providing additional human support for repetitive administrative tasks, while AI tools can help those assistants work more efficiently.
Burnout in optometry is often framed around the doctor, but Glover and Pinegar emphasized the need to consider the entire team.
A front-desk employee managing nonstop phone calls can become overwhelmed. A billing employee repeatedly working denied claims can become frustrated. A practice manager dealing with constant turnover can spend more time filling staffing gaps than developing the team. Eventually, those problems affect the optometrist.
Pinegar described a sustainable business as requiring balance between employees, customers, and healthy economics. If employees are not supported, turnover can increase. If the patient experience deteriorates, patients may not return. If the business cannot generate adequate profit, maintaining the first two becomes increasingly difficult.
Teem’s human virtual assistant model, enhanced with AI tools, is designed to address part of that equation. The virtual assistant provides the human talent; AI adds capabilities that help that person perform certain responsibilities more effectively.
It doesn’t promise that technology will eliminate burnout. It is a strategy for reducing some of the operational friction that contributes to it.
The Future of Virtual Assistants in Optometry Is Human-Led
Virtual assistants in optometry and virtual assistants in eye care represent a growing opportunity for practices that want to improve efficiency without losing the human connection.
No one knows exactly how artificial intelligence will reshape optometry over the next decade. What is becoming clearer is that practices do not necessarily have to choose between people and technology.
