What does a medical office assistant do?
A medical office assistant, or sometimes known as a medical administrative assistant, is an individual who performs administrative functions for a hospital or clinic. Medical office assistants are responsible for all office duties such as accounting, medical transcription, and filing insurance claims. They interview their patients about medical case history and critical information and must also compile their medical records. They must also possess knowledge in topics such as medical terminology and medical law and ethics.
Medical office assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical office assistant resumes:
- Experience with manage care, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial carriers.
- Communicate closely with patients to ensure they are managing their current medications properly, and maintain accurate, up-to-date medical records.
- Conduct preliminary patient screenings by assessing vital signs, recording patient information, preparing patient rooms, and performing EKG tests.
- Protect patients' rights by maintaining confidentiality of personal information follows policies and procedures including HIPAA regulations.
- Perform medical office duties including checking vital signs, history gathering, phlebotomy, and assisting physician with medical/neurological procedures.
- Implement a new EHR system; provide leadership and mentoring to staff and physician during transition.
- File all claims electronically & by HCFA; appeal & re-file claims with unpaid EOB's as needed.
- Receive and process citations, incident, and offense and accident reports, including subpoenas open records requests.
- Ensure all new-hire staff are properly train, then ready to navigate through the scheduling software and EMR systems.
- Coordinate off-site medical appointments, assembles medical records for DOP legal department and court proceedings in response to subpoenas.
- Update and verify CPT and ICD codes, information and demographics, upload and send complete charts to office weekly.
- Code all office visits for the highest possible reimbursement through CPT coding with special attention make to proper ICD-9 coding.
- Complete release of information forms, faxes for request records, and scan pertinent information into patient's EHR file.
- Perform reception desk duties; secure payments for services and scan in documents into the appropriate EMR patient's files.
- Learned about OB/GYN, abdomen, small parts, and vascular studies; also assist with biopsies and needle aspirations.
Medical office assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 24% of Medical Office Assistants are proficient in Patients, Patient Care, and Vital Signs. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Technical skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Medical Office Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 24%
Communicated closely with patients to ensure they are managing their current medications properly, and maintained accurate, up-to-date medical records.
- Patient Care, 11%
Coordinate patient referrals by obtaining all information, insurance verification and authorization required for accurate and timely coordination of patient care.
- Vital Signs, 7%
Front Office/Back Office/Referrals/Obtained authorizations/Obtained patients vital signs and roomed patients/Administered immunizations/Assisted doctor with routine exams
- Customer Service, 5%
Support providers by answering telephone calls, scheduling appointments, registration, processing referrals and providing excellent customer service to patients.
- Medical Terminology, 4%
Performed secretarial duties, utilizing knowledge of medical terminology, and clinic, and laboratory procedures.
- Phlebotomy, 4%
Performed medical office duties including checking vital signs, history gathering, phlebotomy, and assisting physician with medical/neurological procedures.
Most medical office assistants use their skills in "patients," "patient care," and "vital signs" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential medical office assistant responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a medical office assistant to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "medical assistants must be able to understand and follow medical charts and diagnoses." Medical office assistants often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "received, processed and filed internal paperwork, including data entry and basic data manipulation services where required. "
Technical skills. Many medical office assistant duties rely on technical skills. "medical assistants should be able to use basic clinical instruments so they can take a patient’s vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure.," so a medical office assistant will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways medical office assistant responsibilities rely on technical skills: "supported duties for diagnostic and technical treatment procedures, such as setting up and operating special medical equipment and apparatus. "
Interpersonal skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of medical office assistants is interpersonal skills. This skill is critical to many everyday medical office assistant duties, as "medical assistants need to be able to discuss patient information with other medical personnel, such as physicians." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "front desk registering, scheduling, and insurance handling skills used communicate written and verbal, interpersonal, organizational, detail oriented"
Detail oriented. medical office assistant responsibilities often require "detail oriented." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "medical assistants need to be precise when taking vital signs or recording patient information." This resume example shows what medical office assistants do with detail oriented on a typical day: "charted detailed patient demographics and performed vital signs. "
The three companies that hire the most medical office assistants are:
- Akron Children's Hospital432 medical office assistants jobs
- OSF HealthCare48 medical office assistants jobs
- Trinity Health33 medical office assistants jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable medical office assistant resume templates
Build a professional medical office assistant resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your medical office assistant resume.
Compare different medical office assistants
Medical office assistant vs. Medical clerk
A medical clerk works in the administrative area of a medical facility or hospital. The medical clerk collects all patient information and medical records. The clerk also does all the clinic or hospital paperwork and generates reports of all transactions that transpired in a day's work. The medical clerk also processes admission and discharge papers, medical charts, properly file and safeguard all patient records and secure them from unauthorized access. The medical clerk is expected to be highly organized, capable of handling pressure, and has good communication skills.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, medical office assistant responsibilities require skills like "customer service," "phlebotomy," "exam rooms," and "blood pressure." Meanwhile a typical medical clerk has skills in areas such as "appointment scheduling," "clerical support," "patient appointments," and "provide clerical support." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Medical clerks tend to make the most money working in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $35,578. In contrast, medical office assistants make the biggest average salary, $33,002, in the health care industry.medical clerks tend to reach similar levels of education than medical office assistants. In fact, medical clerks are 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Medical office assistant vs. Medical scribe
As a medical scribe, their main responsibility is to follow a physician's daily work and do charting of patient encounters in real-time by accessing their medical electronic health record (EHR). It is their duty to make sure the patient schedules are followed, generate referral letters for physicians and manage and sort medical documents within the EHR. Medical scribes can be held as data custodians, medical assistants, and nurses to focus on patient in-take and care throughout clinic hours. In addition, they manage patient flow through the clinic and increase productivity to cater to more patients.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real medical office assistant resumes. While medical office assistant responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "phlebotomy," "exam rooms," and "blood pressure," medical scribes use skills like "excellent organizational," "physician assistants," "strong work ethic," and "emergency medicine."
Medical scribes earn a lower average salary than medical office assistants. But medical scribes earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $29,968. Additionally, medical office assistants earn the highest salaries in the health care with average pay of $33,002 annually.medical scribes earn similar levels of education than medical office assistants in general. They're 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical office assistant vs. Doctor assistant
Student Medical Assistant Externship is a broad term for catering students for short, reliable, and practical work experience. Once you graduate, you can get a chance to meet contacts that may be useful for your career. You can have a better chance to work in a clinic, hospital, and any medical platform after going through this kind of externship.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, medical office assistants are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "patient flow," "phone calls," and "data entry." But a doctor assistant is more likely to have skills like "appointment scheduling," "dr," "cpr," and "emr."
Doctor assistants typically earn similar educational levels compared to medical office assistants. Specifically, they're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 2.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical office assistant vs. Student medical assistant-externship
Types of medical office assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
