A group of five smiling medical professionals standing together in a lobby

MEDICAL OFFICE PROFESSIONS

Patiently Supervise

Allied healthcare industry workers must possess a higher level of thinking and skills set than ever before. The medical office professions program prepares students for careers as administrative or clinical medical assistants and medical insurance billers and coders.

Learn More. Earn More.

Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical tasks that keep the offices of physicians, chiropractors, and other healthcare practitioners running smoothly.

The duties of a medical assistants varies from office to office and includes administrative and clinical tasks. The administrative tasks include answering the telephone, making appointments, collecting co-pays, filing, calling pharmacies for prescription refill, etc. The clinical tasks include rooming patients, taking a patient’s medical history, taking vital signs, giving injections, etc. Medical assistants report directly to an office manager, physician, or other healthcare practitioner.

Medical insurance billers and coders are responsible for billing a patient’s correct insurance company, investigating denied claims, and assigning codes to a physician’s diagnosis for insurance billing.

Career Options

The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics has placed medical offices and healthcare facilities among the top ten industries expected to generate the largest number of new jobs. Employment in healthcare services will grow quickly during the coming decades because of the expanding healthcare needs of an aging population. Few fields are as immune to recession as healthcare. Potential employers include, but are not limited to, hospitals and doctors’ offices, clinics, urgent care, outpatient surgery, insurance companies, skilled nursing facilities, state and federal health agencies.

Career options available for the medical assistants and medical insurance billers and coders include administrative or clinical medical assistant, medical secretary, medical transcriptionist, medical records clerk, medical records coder, medical records technician, health insurance specialist, medical biller, medical office manager, quality assurance specialist, and medical interpreter. Some careers require a certificate of achievement and most require an associate in science degree.