Case study
How an ABA Therapy agency hired bilingual admin support in under two weeks
A growing home-based ABA agency streamlined insurance authorizations and client follow-ups by onboarding a dedicated Spanish-speaking administrative assistant from Latin America, at a fraction of the cost of a domestic hire.
Overview
A US-based Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) agency that provides in-home therapy for children was experiencing a surge in incoming leads from its marketing efforts. The agency’s clinical team was strong, but every new patient meant a cascade of insurance authorization paperwork, platform data entry, and follow-up calls, administrative tasks that were consuming the founder’s time and slowing down intake.
Hiring a local administrative assistant with bilingual skills and familiarity with ABA workflows would have cost $3,500-$4,500/month in the US. Instead, the agency turned to Global Squirrels and onboarded a full-time, Spanish-speaking administrative professional from Mexico in under two weeks, at a total monthly cost of approximately $1,500-$1,700 plus a flat platform fee, representing roughly 55% savings against a comparable domestic hire.
The problem
The agency’s growth was outpacing its operational capacity. Marketing campaigns were generating a steady stream of new patient inquiries, but converting those leads into active patients required significant back-office labor that only the founder was handling. Three core issues stood in the way:
- Insurance authorization bottleneck: Every new patient required authorization through the Ability platform, a multi-step, detail-heavy process that consumed 90% of the admin workload. Without a dedicated person handling it, intake stalled, and leads went cold.
- Bilingual communication gaps: A significant portion of the agency’s patient families spoke only Spanish. Without a Spanish-speaking admin, follow-up calls to complete intake forms and confirm appointments were delayed or ineffective, directly impacting patient onboarding.
- Domestic hiring economics didn’t work: Bilingual administrative assistants with healthcare experience command $3,500-$4,500/month in the US. For a small, growing agency investing heavily in marketing and clinical staff, that overhead was prohibitive, especially when the work was primarily repetitive platform-based tasks, not complex decision-making.
- No infrastructure for international hiring: The founder recognized that Latin America offered the right combination of Spanish fluency, time zone proximity, and competitive rates, but had no mechanism for cross-border contractor management, payroll, or compliance.
How it worked
After a platform walkthrough with Global Squirrels, the agency’s founder selected the Contractor Plan focused on Latin America. Three aspects sealed the decision: zero cost until a hire was confirmed, transparent salary-plus-fee pricing, and end-to-end contractor management, including payroll. Here’s how the engagement played out:
1. No financial commitment during evaluation
The agency signed up, submitted a detailed job request through the online dashboard, specifying ABA experience, Ability platform familiarity, Spanish fluency, and a 40-hour weekly commitment, and began receiving candidate profiles. Resumes, cover letters, and itemized cost breakdowns (in local currency and USD) arrived within 3-5 business days. No payment was due until a hiring decision was made.
2. Staffing needs fulfilled under the Contractor Plan
Global Squirrels matched the role to its Contractor Plan with candidates sourced primarily from Mexico, aligning with the agency’s language, time zone, and budget requirements:
Role | Administrative Assistant (Full-Time) |
Primary Tasks | Insurance authorizations via Ability platform (90%), client follow-up calls (5-10%) |
Language | Spanish (fluent) + English |
Source Region | Latin America (Mexico) |
Weekly Hours | 40 hours (full-time) |
Monthly Salary | $1,500-$1,700 USD |
Platform Fee | $1.99/hour |
Hiring Model | Contractor Plan: Recruitment, payroll, and HR included |
3. Coordinated interviews and seamless onboarding
Global Squirrels handled interview scheduling, candidate confirmations, and logistics. Once the agency selected its hire, the platform generated a customized offer letter detailing pay, duties, work hours, and start date, ready for the founder’s approval. Equipment requirements were verified, and the new assistant was operational within two weeks of the initial request.
4. Hands-off payroll, hands-on management
Post-onboarding, the agency directs the assistant’s daily workload, assigns tasks through the Ability platform, and manages performance directly. Global Squirrels processes monthly payroll, handles contractor compliance, and provides ongoing HR partnership. The agency pays one prepaid monthly invoice, salary plus the per-hour fee, with no hidden charges or surprise line items.
What changed
Within the first 60 days, the hire transformed the agency’s intake operations:
~55% Cost reduction | All-in monthly cost of approximately $1,800-$2,020 (salary + platform fee at 40 hrs/week) compared to $3,500-$4,500 for a comparable bilingual admin hire in the US, saving the agency roughly $20,000-$30,000 annually. |
Insurance backlog cleared | With a dedicated person handling Ability platform authorizations full-time, patient intake processing times dropped significantly. Leads that previously waited days for authorization now move through within hours. |
Bilingual patient communication restored | Spanish-speaking families now receive prompt follow-up calls for form completion and appointment confirmations, eliminating the communication gap that was causing patient drop-off during intake. |
Under 2 weeks, request to start | From the moment the job request was submitted to the assistant’s first working day, the elapsed time was under two weeks, including candidate sourcing, interviews, offer letter, and onboarding. |
Growth pipeline unlocked | With the administrative bottleneck resolved, the agency is actively planning to scale to 4 additional hires as patient volume grows, using the same Contractor Plan and recruitment workflow already in place. |
What sets Global Squirrels apart
This engagement demonstrates the platform’s value for small healthcare businesses that need specialized, bilingual remote staff without the complexity of international contractor management:
- Zero cost to explore: The agency submitted requirements, reviewed candidate profiles, and conducted interviews without paying a dollar. Charges only began after a hire was confirmed.
- Line-item cost transparency: Every candidate profile included a granular pay breakdown, local currency salary, USD conversion, hourly rate, and platform fee, so the agency knew exactly what each hire would cost before committing.
- Contractor Plan for Latin America: Purpose-built for nearshore hiring with Spanish fluency, time zone alignment, and competitive rates. The plan includes recruitment, payroll processing, and HR partnership as a bundled service.
- Industry-filtered candidate sourcing: Global Squirrels didn’t deliver generic admin candidates. Profiles were filtered for healthcare administrative experience, ABA workflow familiarity, and insurance platform proficiency.
- Scalable from day one: The same dashboard, workflow, and pricing structure the agency used for its first hire is ready to support the next 4 hires as patient volume grows, no renegotiation or new contracts required.
- Alternative plan available: For future roles where the budget allows, the agency was also introduced to the Employee Plan sourcing from the Philippines and India at $1,000-$1,200/month, giving it flexibility as hiring needs evolve.
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