American Association of Medical Assistants history

The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) was founded in 1956.

1957 Maxine Williams, CMA-A (KS), was elected <strong>the</strong> first <strong>AAMA</strong> president.

1959 <strong>AAMA</strong> was incorporated in <strong>the</strong> state <strong>of</strong> Illinois as a not-for-pr<strong>of</strong>it pr<strong>of</strong>essional organization.

1960 Tri-level membership in <strong>AAMA</strong> was voted as mandatory.

1961 The Certifying Board was established.

1962 A sample examination for Certified <strong>Medical</strong> <strong>Assistants</strong> (CMAs) was given at <strong>the</strong> convention with no credit given.

The keynote speaker was AAMA Founding Member and Past President (1963) Alice Budny.

To simplify this, and make certification a nationwide standard, a special committee was created in 1966 to create a set of standards for the field of medical assistant training.

1968 The <strong>AAMA</strong> Endowment was established as a public foundation for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes.

In 1972, a committee created by the AAMA created a certified guided home-study course.

By 1976, the AAMA also accepted international members.

The AMA's CAHEA approved the 1991 Essentials and Guidelines for an Accredited Education Program for the Medical Assistant.

A slide presentation of the past 50 years of AAMA activities was prepared and presented by AAMA Past President (1992) Mary Lou Allison, CMA-C.

To be made effective January 1, 1995, a change in recertification was determined to be implemented:

The National Board of Medical Examiners completed the 1996 Occupational Analysis on Medical Assisting.

In 1998, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs was established.

The AAMA Endowment approved the 1999 Standards for a Medical Assisting Program.

The Certifying Board established mandatory recertification as follows: "Beginning January 1, 2003, all CMAs currently employed or seeking employment as medical assistants must have current status in order to use the CMA credential."

Health care provider level CPR was determined as mandatory for CMA recertification, effective January 2005.

The president, vice president, and speaker of the house represented the AAMA as exhibitors at the 2008 annual meeting of PAHCOM.

The president and vice president were authorized to represent AAMA as exhibitors at the 2009 annual meeting of the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management (PAHCOM).

Legal Counsel Balasa co-presented "The New Haven Firefighter Decision: What Impact Will It Have?" at the April 2010 Annual Association Law Symposium in Chicago.

The AAMA Facebook page reached 5,000 members in March 2011.

The AAMA Certifying Board determined that, beginning June 1, 2013, current, provider level CPR certification no longer is required for recertification of the CMA (AAMA) credential.

The 58th AAMA Annual Conference was held in St Louis, Missouri, October 17-20, 2014.

The 2015 Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in Medical Assisting of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) were approved.

The 2016 AAMA House of Delegates approved no Resolutions.

The 2017 AAMA House of Delegates approved no Resolutions.

At the annual meeting of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) held in Louisville, Kentucky, April 15–16, 2018, CEO Donald Balasa, JD, MBA, was elected to the CAAHEP Board of Directors.