Medical Assistant Duties May Include:
Appointment scheduling over the phone
Patient reception and seating
Preparing patients for examination
Bookkeeping, and basic accounting
Dealing with insurance billing, and coding
Sorting, pulling, and filing medical records
Explaining treatment procedures
Assisting during the examinations
Administering medicatons to patients
Performing diagnostic screening tests
Changing wound dressings
Removing sutures
Collecting laboratory specimens
Guiding pharmacy reps through the office
Ordering and restocking supplies
A skilled medical assistant may qualify as the new medical office manager, or be offered a new position in the medical records office, the in-house clinical laboratory, the medical billing and coding department, or in transcription. Others, as they outgrow their role as a front or back office medical assistant may cross over into other related occupations, such as in the X-ray, or EKG department, a dentist's, or podiatrist's office, or become a phlebotomist.
A medical assistant that's experienced in all clinical, and administrative areas may be able to advance into higher positions, or transition into other related allied health careers. There are many interesting closely related allied health occupations that a medical assistant may be promoted or cross-trained into as they move on, and up, in the every growing health services industry.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assisting will be the 7th fastest growing occupation throughout the next decade! Currently, about 12 million people work in healthcare in the US, which includes approximately 800,000 physicians in ambulatory (primary), secondary (specialty), and tertiary care, 2.1 million RN's, and 500,000 medical assistants
The medical assisting career is a great field to enter into, especially because the need for trained medical assistant staff remains high and is expected to continue to grow at a much faster rate than all other health service occupations.
Medical assistants may qualify for a variety of other related administrative support occupations such as medical records clerk or medical billing and coding specialist. Some may become medical assisting instructors, while others may continue their own education and work on an associate degree in medical assisting
