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Medical office administrative assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted experts
Jamie Myers,
Jamie Myers
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical medical office administrative assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for medical office administrative assistants based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 32.4% of medical office administrative assistant resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a medical office administrative assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 medical office administrative assistant skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use patients:
  • Verified and process patient insurance coverage and handled tasks related to insurance information of patients.
  • Provided front and back office support for surgeons by administratively managing and monitoring patients.

2. CPT

CPT is a medical term that stands for Current Procedural Terminology. Whenever a procedure like surgery or diagnosis occurs or some other medical service is rendered to a patient, it is reported to the concerned physician, insurance company, or organization. The aforementioned practice is widely referred to as CPT.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use cpt:
  • Take telephone encounters, schedule patient/ follow up appointments, Enter DX and CPT code for procedures/test being preformed.
  • Utilize ICD-9 and CPT codes to enter charges and bill for office visits and procedures.

3. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use patient care:
  • Assist a team of physicians and other assistants in ensuring optimal patient care and smooth daily functioning of the office.
  • Performed duties in patient care under the direction of nursing and medical staff in the state guidelines of North Carolina.

4. Patient Appointments

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use patient appointments:
  • Scheduled patient appointments, Confirm patient information, collected co-pays, and verified insurance information.
  • Scheduled patient appointments and updated patient information database.

5. Phone Calls

Phone calls are a wireless or wired connection made over a telephone or a mobile phone between two people. Two parties are involved in a phone call, the caller and the receiver. A caller dials the number of the one he wants to call, and the recipient hears a bell or a tune to which he picks up the call. The call establishes a connection between them through which they can communicate. The voice is converted into signals and is transmitted through wired or wireless technology.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use phone calls:
  • Oversee the front desk, which entails answering phone calls, membership questions, computer skills, and handling money.
  • Maintain all aspects of front office duties: Answering phone calls and directing them to proper parties.

6. Insurance Verification

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use insurance verification:
  • Facilitated daily administrative functions, including customer service, insurance verification, and inventory management.
  • Assist patients with booking appointments and insurance verification.

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7. HIPAA

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use hipaa:
  • Adhered to HIPAA compliance, Privacy Practices for confidential medical paperwork and billing.
  • Trained in HIPAA laws and practiced state and county level emergency preparedness.

8. Medical Terminology

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use medical terminology:
  • Performed medical secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology for Delaware Hospice Center.
  • Experience with medical terminology Efficient in Microsoft programs Experience with speech recognition

9. Front Desk

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use front desk:
  • Assisted the doctor with various procedures, filed paperwork, sent out specimens, handled front desk duties including patient check-in.
  • Provided coverage for all positions within the practice including, surgical scheduling, billing, reception and front desk.

10. Vital Signs

Vital signs are a set of values indicating different body systems' performance. They are measurements of the body's most basic functions. The four major vital signs used in medicine to assess a patient are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use vital signs:
  • Obtained vital signs and lab draws.
  • Check vital signs, administer injections.

11. Triage

Triage is a method of prioritizing a patient or a group depending on the severity, diagnosis, and condition of the disease needing immediate medical care. It is often to determine a condition and identifying the appropriate destination before assessing where the patient will be going. A triage nurse commonly performs it.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use triage:
  • Register, schedule, reschedule, verify insurance coverage, and triage patient calls.
  • Communicate patient problems to doctor and triage.

12. Patient Check-In

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use patient check-in:
  • Performed daily medical front office duties including appointment scheduling, patient check-in, co-payment collection and behavioral health record maintenance.
  • Processed referrals, scheduled appointments and managed patient check-in and check-out.

13. Patient Referrals

A referral patient is a written instruction from a primary care doctor to see a specialist for a specific medical service. In this case, a health worker at a level of the health system with insufficient resources - medicines, equipment, skills to cope with a clinical condition seeks help from a facility that is better equipped or has other resources to assist or take over the management of patient's case.

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use patient referrals:
  • Facilitated specialty referrals, authorized medication refills, and managed patient referrals with Worker's Compensation and other insurance companies.
  • Work in unison with referring physician offices for patient referrals or medical record information.

14. Appointment Scheduling

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use appointment scheduling:
  • Provided general office support including contacting pharmacy/renewing prescriptions, filing, faxing, stocking examination rooms and appointment scheduling and confirmations.
  • Provided general office support including contracting pharmacy/renewing prescriptions, filing, faxing, stocking examination rooms and appointment scheduling and confirmations.

15. ICD-9

Here's how medical office administrative assistants use icd-9:
  • Processed requisitions and verified correct ICD-9 specific to psychology and chiropractic care.
  • Verified insurance benefits with multiple insurance carriers and obtained authorizations, along with billing using ICD-9 and CPT coding procedures.
top-skills

What skills help Medical Office Administrative Assistants find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on medical office administrative assistant resumes?

Jamie Myers

Education Program Associate, Allied Health Coordinator, Pennsylvania State University - Hazleton

Bilingual, Phlebotomy, EKGs.

What soft skills should all medical office administrative assistants possess?

Jamie Myers

Education Program Associate, Allied Health Coordinator, Pennsylvania State University - Hazleton

Critical thinking, problem-solving, dependability.

What hard/technical skills are most important for medical office administrative assistants?

Jamie Myers

Education Program Associate, Allied Health Coordinator, Pennsylvania State University - Hazleton

Computer skills.

What medical office administrative assistant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Janice Noteboom, MHA/Ed., CMA (AAMA)Janice Noteboom, MHA/Ed., CMA (AAMA) LinkedIn profile

Faculty Coordinator of Allied Health/Medical Assistant Program Director, Midstate College

duties vary, depending on the medical office/hospital/urgent/specialty clinics
where they are employed. Below are some specific job duties that are very
common in the day-in-the-life of a Medical Assistant (these duties include, but
are not limited to the following):
 Greeting patients and checking them in at the Waiting room window
 Collecting vital signs from patients
 Answer phones as needed
 Assist with scheduling patient appointments
 Data entry of patient information in an electronic medical record (EMR)
 Using various computer applications
 Transmitting prescription refills
 Insurance coding & billing
 Obtain or completing procedures for preauthorizations/hospital
admissions/outside testing/etc.
 Collecting specimens for Point-of-Care testing or send outs to reference
labs
 Venipuncture/Examination Assistance to provider/other duties as needed

List of medical office administrative assistant skills to add to your resume

Medical office administrative assistant skills

The most important skills for a medical office administrative assistant resume and required skills for a medical office administrative assistant to have include:

  • Patients
  • CPT
  • Patient Care
  • Patient Appointments
  • Phone Calls
  • Insurance Verification
  • HIPAA
  • Medical Terminology
  • Front Desk
  • Vital Signs
  • Triage
  • Patient Check-In
  • Patient Referrals
  • Appointment Scheduling
  • ICD-9
  • Data Entry
  • Patient Flow
  • EKG
  • Exam Rooms
  • Medical Billing
  • Office Procedures
  • Phlebotomy
  • Test Results
  • Insurance Forms
  • Insurance Eligibility
  • Medicaid
  • Multi-Line Phone System
  • Patient Registration
  • Medical History
  • Patient Billing
  • EHR
  • Computer System
  • Hippa
  • Blood Pressure
  • Office Equipment
  • Health Insurance
  • Insurance Benefits
  • Insurance Coverage
  • Surgical Procedures
  • Insurance Claims
  • Prescription Refills
  • Lab Results
  • Medical Procedures
  • Patient Accounts
  • Word Processing
  • Patient Payments
  • Direct Calls
  • Insurance Payments
  • Medical Charts

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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