Medical Assistant Career Overview

Medical assistants are crucial to any healthcare facility, whether a physician’s office or a hospital. They help with both clinical and administrative duties in a healthcare setting. Responsibilities such as scheduling appointments, taking patient histories and vital signs, explaining medication, and filling out insurance forms allow medical assistants to help patients and doctors, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Becoming a medical assistant provides many job opportunities, and it’s also easier to kickstart your career in the healthcare industry, as you only need a post-secondary education.

Getting certified is an option, and a specialized training program will take another one to two years.

Our career guide answers common questions and explains the duties, work environment, salaries, and how you can become a medical assistant.

What Do Medical Assistants Do?

Medical assistants doctors, nurses, and patients with administrative and clinical tasks.

Clinical responsibilities include taking patient histories, monitoring vital signs such as blood pressure and electrocardiograms, preparing samples, and caring for wounds.

Administrative tasks may include registering patients, helping them with insurance forms, and updating records.

Work Environment

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 50% of medical assistants work in physician offices; hospitals employ around 15% of the workforce, and outpatient care centers and other health practitioners employ the rest.

Jobs are typically full-time, with working days from Monday to Friday. However, in cases of emergencies or if the medical facility is open for extended hours, you may have to work on weekends or evenings.

As an administrative medical assistant, you will spend most of your time at a computer, managing records and coordinating with doctors and patients. Clinical assistants spend most of their working hours on their feet standing, walking, and helping the doctors with various tasks.

How To Become A Medical Assistant

Educational Requirements

It is easier to start your career as a medical assistant, as you do not need specialized training. You can start looking for job opportunities after completing your post-secondary education. Once you get hired, you will be trained as per the needs of the doctor or the hospital.

Specialized Training Programs

However, a better approach would be to get specialized training that can take six months to two years. For that, you must select a community college or trade school near you that is accredited by the Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) or the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education School (ABHES).

These training programs cover topics related to medical terminology, basic health and nutrition, administrative work, and other medical assisting skills.

Some programs can be done online, while others require in-person training.

On-the-Job Training

The colleges that conduct training programs usually help you find externships to practice your skills and get more hands-on experience. This helps boost your confidence, and employers prefer candidates with field experience in the respective area.

Depending on the type of course you have taken and your interest, you will hone your skills as a medical assistant in the specific area. It can be administrative, clinical, or a combination of both skills.

Certification

Certification is not required to become a medical assistant, but it gives employers confidence that you have completed an appropriate training process.

Some states require certification, so even if your state does not require you to be certified, having certifications can create job opportunities in other states. If you ever need to relocate to a different state, maintaining certification allows for flexibility.

The three most popular certifications for medical assistants are the CMA, CCMA, and RMA.

Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA)

To obtain a CMA certification you must take the specialized training program from any accredited school nearby. After passing the program, you take a 200-MCQ test to get certified. Certification lasts 5 years, after which you must renew it.

Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) by the National Health Career Association

CCMA certification is more focused on the clinical skills of a medical assistant. You need to have a high school education and complete training programs from accredited colleges. You also need to have one year of on-the-job experience. The required test is 50 scored questions and 15 pretest questions. This certification renews after two years.

Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) by the American Medical Technologists

If you have completed a formal medical assistant training program from an accredited college, a US Armed Forces training program, or have five years of medical assisting experience you can take a certification test for RMA. The test has 210 questions. Upon passing, you gain RMA certification for three years before a renewal requirement.

If you are curious about which certifications are best, know that all these certifications are widely recognized, and employers nationally accept them. Obtaining any of the above-mentioned certifications will give you an edge when seeking jobs and salary increases.

Duration

Completing medical assistant training takes a year or two, and it is quicker and easier than other careers in the medical field.

Salaries And Job Outlook

Job Outlook

The demand for medical assistants is growing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it will grow by more than 15% in the next 10 years. This is obvious because the number of outpatient care clinics is increasing, more older adults need to be cared for, and technology is improving. The nation needs more medical assistants to assist with these new technologies efficiently.

Salaries

According to the BLS, medical assistants earn an average of $37,190 annually. The lowest is $29,070, and the highest is $48,170 annually. Alaska has the highest average salary of $47,400 annually, close to the highest in other states. In Alabama and Arkansas, it is $29,290 per year on average. In Arizona, the median salary is a little higher at $37,390; in California, the median salary is $38,780.

Increasing your Earnings

If you want to increase your earnings and be among the top 10% of medical assistants who take home around $47,000 to $60,000, you must consider the location and the types of work you specialize in.

Medical assistants working in outpatient care facilities earn the most, on average, $44,680 annually. Then, there are the hospitals, which pay an average salary of $39,550. Assistants at doctors’ offices earn an average of $37,610, and other medical assistants at other establishments earn about $33,710.

If you can choose the state, BLS recommends Alaska, Washington, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Oregon, Hawaii, California, Connecticut, and New York, as the medical assistants there earn a better average by comparison.

Lastly, you will earn more than an administrative assistant if you are skilled in clinical tasks. Combining both skills can help you become a top-earning medical assistant.