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Medical office assistant education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
2 min read
Usually, medical office assistants don't need a college education. The most common degree for medical office assistants is associate degree with 28% graduates, with only 22% medical office assistant graduates earning bachelor's degree. Medical office assistants who decided to graduate from college often finish University of Phoenix or Concorde Career College. Some good skills to have in this position include patients, patient care and vital signs.

Popular medical office assistant certifications include Medical Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA), or Nationally Certified Medical Office Assistant (NCMOA). To improve medical office assistant qualification and skills, we prepared some online courses to help in medical office assistant education paths.

What education do you need to become a medical office assistant?

What degree do you need to be a medical office assistant?

The most common degree for medical office assistants is associate degree, with 28% of medical office assistants earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are bachelor's degree degree at 22% and bachelor's degree degree at 15%.
  • Associate, 28%
  • Bachelor's, 22%
  • Diploma, 15%
  • High School Diploma, 14%
  • Other Degrees, 21%

What should I major in to become a medical office assistant?

You should major in health care administration to become a medical office assistant. 25% of medical office assistants major in health care administration. Other common majors for a medical office assistant include medical assisting services and business.

Best majors for medical office assistants

20 best online courses for medical office assistants

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1. Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation

coursera

In this course, you will develop the knowledge and skills to assess and stabilize certain types of patients for transport. By the end of this course, you will be able to: 1) assess a basic medical patient 2) describe general pharmacologic principles and the skills associated with medication administration, 3) explain airway physiology, the assessment of the airway and available interventions for airway management, 4) identify, assess and formulate a plan to stabilize a patient with a...

2. Operations and Patient Safety for Healthcare IT Staff

coursera

Now that you've been introduced to the world of Health IT and the important role played by electronic health records (EHRs), we'll focus on other technologies that play a role in maintaining ongoing operations in healthcare. Telemedicine, patient portals, barcode scanners, printers, and medical devices are just some of the technologies that impact providers and patients. As an IT support specialist, you’ll be asked to troubleshoot issues with a wide variety of tools. You'll see a scenario with...

3. Speak Medical Spanish to Your Patients and Clients

udemy
4.4
(591)

Spanish essentials for healthcare; program teaches correct pronunciation, pain management and medication, among others...

4. Understanding HIPAA for the Medical Office

udemy
4.4
(766)

A healthcare professional's guide to understanding the requirements HIPAA...

5. Medical Terminology

coursera

This specialization is intended for anybody that is interested in developing skills in medical language or preparing for further studies in the medical field. Learners will be able to identify common prefixes, suffixes, roots and abbreviations so they can recognize most medical terms used by medical professionals. Learners will also have an understanding of the structure of an electronic health record and extract vital information from it. Moreover, learners will gain basic knowledge of the...

6. Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale

coursera

Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome. The sooner the initiation of all these therapies the higher the clinical benefit. Thus, the organization of Stroke Code systems coordinated between emergency medical...

7. ICD 10 & 11 Medical Coding and Billing

udemy
4.4
(767)

Preparation for Medical Coding Certification Exam...

8. AMCI Introduction to Medical Coding (I2MC) Course

udemy
4.6
(444)

Introduction to Medical Coding (I2MC) Course...

9. Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes

coursera

COURSE 3 of 7. This course is designed to introduce you to critical office-based processes that a value-based practice must manage in the drive towards improved patient outcomes. In Module 2, we’ll focus on office-based and clinical patient-based supporting functions. At every level in healthcare, guidelines, processes, and functions exist to improve outcomes, and following a consistent process will return the best effect. Refine your understanding of value and learn strategies to provide real...

10. A Specialty Approach to Learning Medical Billing and Coding

udemy
4.6
(352)

Volume One: Medical Hematology...

11. Medical Coding: ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code Training

udemy
4.5
(645)

Learn medical coding and prepare yourself for today's healthcare workplace...

12. Medical Terminology

udemy
4.7
(3,688)

Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...

13. MS Office Course Bundle- Word , Powerpoint , Excel & Outlook

udemy
4.3
(319)

MS Office Learn and Polish the Most Desirable Office Courses at work , MS Word , MS Excel , MS Powerpoint and MS Outlook...

14. Ultimate Microsoft Office; Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Access

udemy
4.5
(11,600)

Learn basic to advanced Microsoft Office skills in this 9-course bundle for Office 365 or Office 2019...

15. Microsoft Office 365 Administration

udemy
4.5
(2,676)

Microsoft Office 365 Administration...

16. Introduction to Medical Imaging

udemy
4.5
(827)

Your guide to the history, science, math, and economics of medical imaging systems (e.g., X-ray, CT, MRI, Ultrasound)...

17. Deep Learning with PyTorch for Medical Image Analysis

udemy
4.6
(837)

Learn how to use Pytorch-Lightning to solve real world medical imaging tasks!...

18. MS Office Complete Training - Beginner to Expert Level

udemy
4
(311)

Complete Practical training in MS Office 2010 to 2019 and Office 365 in MS Excel, MS Word, MS Power Point and MS Access...

19. Microsoft 70-346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requ.

udemy
4
(385)

Microsoft 70-346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements...

20. The Ultimate Microsoft Office 2021/365 Training Bundle

udemy
4.5
(640)

Learn the essentials of Microsoft Office in this 6-course bundle for Office 365 or Office 2021 users...

Average medical office assistant salary by education level

Medical office assistants with a Master's degree earn more than those without, at $35,779 annually. With a Bachelor's degree, medical office assistants earn a median annual income of $34,079 compared to $33,991 for medical office assistants with an Associate degree.
Medical office assistant education levelMedical office assistant salary
Master's Degree$35,779
High School Diploma or Less$33,693
Bachelor's Degree$34,079
Some College/ Associate Degree$33,991

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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