This post provides exhaustive information on the medical administrative assistant job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.
What Does a Medical Administrative Assistant Do?
The medical administrative assistant job description entails conducting consultations, reviewing patient records, and recommending treatments.
It also involves answering questions about insurance coverage, service charges, and payment options.
Medical administrative assistants are responsible for the health and wellness of their patients.
They discuss the progress of care with patients after surgery or an extended hospital stay.
Medical administrative assistants work with surgeons in preparing for surgeries by prepping the operating room and collecting supplies that are needed before the operation begins.
They record information accurately in charts such as patient’s vital signs, medical history, allergies, medications taken at home, etc., to assist doctors with diagnoses and treatment plans.
The medical administrative assistant job description entails accepting patient transfers and emergency room visits.
It also involves performing emergency room and emergency response procedures, including providing assistance to other departments as needed.
This position ensures that all staff members are informed of safety and security procedures to follow during an emergency, such as drills and fire drills.
It is the duty of the medical administrative assistant to communicate effectively with patients and co-workers about the patient’s medical condition, treatment plans, progress, and recovery timeline.
Another duty of the medical administrative assistant is equipment maintenance in their department, such as cleaning instruments, keeping supplies ordered correctly, and disposing of expired medications correctly.
Medical administrative assistants help to create policies and procedures which are custom to the department they work in.
They may be expected to make general arrangements for doctor’s appointments, such as arranging radiology imaging services and scheduling pediatric and obstetric care.
More on Medical Administrative Assistant Job Description
The medical administrative assistant may have the responsibility of keeping nurses and other departments informed about current treatments and results of tests performed by their co-workers.
For example, if a patient is unresponsive after suffering a stroke or heart attack, then information needs to be relayed that way she can provide support when needed.
It is also the responsibility of medical administrative assistants to assist nurses in all areas of patient care.
A key part of what medical administrative assistants do is assisting the physician in other departments, such as radiology, respiratory therapy, and physical therapy.
They help in ordering supplies and equipment if needed.
The medical administrative assistant may assist doctors with charting patients’ progress, including office visits, hospital stays, and follow up visits and treatments.
These are necessary to keep a patient in optimal health.
Medical administrative assistants administer intravenous solutions such as antibiotics and other medications during a hospital stay or nursing home stay (which includes hospital pharmacy services).
Medical Administrative Assistant Job Description Sample/Example/Template
The medical administrative assistant job description involves the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:
- Answers phones, receives and forwards calls and messages for the receptionist or administrator
- Maintains patient records and contracts
- Assists with tracking and billing customer accounts, including insurance payments
- Processes personnel information, employee benefits and payroll documentation
- Compiles invoices and payments
- Handles general administrative duties
- Maintains computerized records and files
- Prepares and delivers employee health benefits information to employees and customers in a timely manner
- Issues and receives supplies and materials, such as new patient forms, scrubs, gowns, gloves, instruments, etc., on behalf of the administrator or receptionist
- Sends faxes or emails when requested by the administrator or receptionist
- Maintains inventory of equipment, supplies and equipment manuals
- Orders office supplies, such as printer paper, pens, folders and other materials
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Medical Administrative Assistants Job Description for Resume
If you are making a new resume or CV as someone who has previously worked as a medical administrative assistant, then you can enhance the effectiveness of your resume by showing that work experience in the Professional Experience section of your resume.
You can create a compelling Professional Experience section for your resume by applying the duties and responsibilities from the medical administrative assistant job description above.
This will show that you have been successful performing the medical administrative assistant role, which can boost your chances of being hired, especially if the new job that you are seeking requires someone with some work experience as a medical administrative assistant.
Medical Administrative Assistant Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success
Here are major requirements you may be expected to meet to be hired for the medical administrative assistant role:
- Possess a high school diploma or its equivalent
- One year of full-time entry level experience in an office environment, for example: clerical, receptionist, or administrative assistant
- Possess good ability to type at least 25 words per minute at an average rate of 90 wpm or faster
- Ability to be on call or required to be on call to work during the entire period of employment
- Ability to work flexible schedules, including nights, weekends, and holidays
- Strong ability to lift at least 25 pounds without assistance
- Ability to sit comfortably for up to eight hours at a time
- Possess ability to speak clearly and carry on a regular conversation
- Ability to stand and walk for up to six hours at a time
- The ability to lift objects weighing between 25 and 50 pounds repeatedly, including but not limited to boxes, files and other supplies, with or without assistance, repeatedly during the workday for an extended period of time (three months or more)
- Possess ability to make quick decisions from written material with or without adequate support from others (approximately 60 seconds per page).
Medical Administrative Assistant Salary
The average salary for a medical administrative assistant is $37690 (glassdoor.com) and $39,429 (indeed.com).
According to indeed, the top paying cities are: Boston, MA, $50,669; New York, NY, $44,472; San Diego, CA, $41,983; Phoenix, AZ, $40,812; and Philadelphia, PA, $39,228 per year.
Reports by zippia.com show that there are currently around 666,385 medical office administrative assistants working in the United States.
Women make up 89.4% of all medical administrative assistants, while 10.6% is men.
An employed medical office administrative assistant is 36 years old on average.
White (55.8%) is the most frequent ethnicity among medical office administrative assistants, followed by Hispanic or Latino (21.3%), Black or African American (10.9%), and Asian (8.3%).
Women were projected to earn 98% of what males would earn in 2021.
Conclusion
This article is helpful to individuals interested in the medical administrative assistant career.
They will be able to learn all they need to know about the duties and responsibilities of medical administrative assistants so as to make the best decision about the career.
It is also useful to recruiters/employers in making a detailed job description for the medical administrative assistant position in their organizations.