How To Become A Medical Office Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a medical office secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

In a typical doctor's office, the medical office secretary is the person in charge of the majority of administrative tasks. Their daily tasks include sorting mail, answering phone calls, scheduling patient appointments, arranging referrals, billing patients, preparing medical reports, and more.

Another main duty of an office secretary is providing support to the physician, which means they may also be responsible for maintaining calendars, scheduling appointments (conferences, events, travel), and reminding the physician of their schedules. Their job scope may also encompass monitoring office equipment, maintaining the inventory of office supplies, creating database back-ups, and expanding their job knowledge through self-study.

Considering the multitude of tasks mentioned above, a medical office secretary needs to be on top of their game. Hence, they must have great skills in organization, multi-tasking, customer service, and time management. They must also be knowledgeable in basic computer programs, telephone operations, and any other front desk equipment that the office has.

At the very least, a medical office secretary needs to have a high school diploma or GED. Experience in front desk operations is a great advantage, especially if it is in the medical field. Moreover, familiarity with medical terminologies, insurance processing, and basic bookkeeping is also preferred by many employers.

What general advice would you give to a medical office secretary?

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Medical Assistant Program Director, Website

To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.

ScoreMedical Office SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $32,609

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.37%

Asian 3.77%

Black or African American 9.57%

Hispanic or Latino 11.96%

Unknown 3.77%

White 70.56%

Gender

female 90.21%

male 9.79%

Age - 51

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 51

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.3

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a medical office secretary

Explore medical office secretary education requirements

Most common medical office secretary degrees

Associate

29.4 %

Bachelor's

24.4 %

High School Diploma

20.0 %

Start to develop specific medical office secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	34.90%
Patient Appointments	12.95%
Front Desk	5.17%
Medical Terminology	4.69%
Check-In	3.67%

Complete relevant medical office secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical office secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a medical office secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical office secretary resumes.

Research medical office secretary duties and responsibilities

Evaluate all EOB's to insure accurate payment is received and when necessary will file appeals to achieve optimal payments.
Enter new patients confidential information into computer database also discharge patients and enter chart information containing ICD-9 and CPT codes.
Attend various billing, Medicare, Medicaid and HIPPA workshops to stay abreast of changing policies.
Greet patients -schedule appointments -Answered telephones and direct calls -obtain demographic and insurance information -collect co-payments -verify insurance coverage

Prepare your medical office secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical office secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a medical office secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable medical office secretary resume templates

Build a professional medical office secretary resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your medical office secretary resume.

Apply for medical office secretary jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a medical office secretary job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do medical office secretaries rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Medical office secretary reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Pros

Putting that patient/customet first and directing (directions) that person to their Doctors office and setting or cancelling their appointments, just helping people.

Cons

There's nothing to dislike.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019