Medical Administrative Assistant Programs in Kentucky
If you like the idea of office work and would like a fast-paced and challenging job with lots of human interaction, medical administrative assisting is a career with a high job demand that may appeal to you. There are many changes occurring in the healthcare field because of advances in medicine, drugs and technology. The patient population is also changing: more older people; more obesity and related problems; more complications and chronic medical conditions. New federal laws are also bringing millions of new insurance holders to seek medical help.
The result is that hospitals, physician’s offices and medical services will likely be looking for new graduates with up-to-date training in medical administrative assisting. If you are ready to look into your options for medical office assisting programs in Kentucky, contact the schools you see below to get started.
What Do Medical Administrative Assistants Do?
The medical administrative assistant is the person who greets the patients arriving at a medical office. In this receptionist role, you will perform the intake of patients and all other front desk functions. Other major activities include updating and maintaining patient records, preparing and processing insurance forms, operating computer software and office equipment, and ordering and maintaining supplies.
The administrative med assistant generally works in larger medical offices and hospitals, or in places such as insurance companies or government agencies, where the volume of office or administrative work is separated from the clinical part of medical assisting. Medical assistants in a physician’s office or smaller medical services usually do both office assisting and clinical assisting.
Medical Administrative Assistant Education and Certification in Kentucky
The standard KY medical assisting program trains you in both administrative functions and clinical assisting and leads to an associate’s degree. On the clinical side, you will be taking science courses and learning lab techniques and clinical procedures, whereas the administrative side covers the office procedures.
Although most of the Kentucky colleges offer a full medical assisting program, you can find several schools that will list medical administrative assisting as a separate diploma program. Notably, the community colleges under the Kentucky Technical and Community College system offer a diploma program for Medical Administrative Assistant under their Medical Information Technology division. This is a two-year 49 credit program that ends with an internship or capstone course. Nine month diploma courses are also available at other colleges.
The state of Kentucky does not require medical administrative assistants to be certified. However, a student who has graduated from a program may wish to get a National Healthcareer Association (NHA) Certified Medical Administration Assistant (CMAA) certification to improve chances for better salaries or promotion.
Kentucky community colleges have an open admissions policy which admits all students who have a high school diploma or a GED. Other private schools may require test scores such as the ACT or SAT. The admissions process usually includes a personal interview for academic advising.
Applying for financial aid is part of the admissions process. The school will provide information on federal or private loans and other sources of financial help. Scholarships are generally limited to degree applicants.
In this program, you will be taking courses such as the following:
- Medical office procedures
- Medical terminology
- Medical insurance
- Basic anatomy and physiology
- Keyboarding
- Word processing
- Medical office software
- Fundamentals of accounting
- Electronic records management
- Introduction to billing and coding
- Medical law and ethics
Job Outlook and Salaries for Medical Office Assistants in Kentucky
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the job outlook for Medical Assistants at 29 percent and for medical secretaries at 36 percent, both faster than average, between 2012 and 2022. On February 3, 2015, Jobs.net listed 435 medical assistant jobs in Kentucky, 225 of which were located in Louisville. A number of these jobs were for the administrative side of medical assisting such as for medical office assistant and receptionist. All of this means that the job prospects for medical administrative assisting is excellent in Kentucky.
Here are the 2013 average annual salaries in Kentucky and in the country as a whole for occupations related to medical administrative assisting. Medical assistants earned $27,640 in Kentucky and $30,780 in the nation. The figures for medical secretaries were $28,700 and $33,140, respectively.
Medical administrative assisting is an occupation that can bring satisfaction at the end of each day when you have helped to create a relaxed and efficient medical office for the benefit of patients and your healthcare coworkers. Contact the schools on our site to learn more about becoming an admin med assistant in Kentucky today.