Medical Assistant Salary

Making a career in the medical field demands good education, years of hard work and a decent budget. Medical jobs, mostly reciprocate the efforts put in the studies and hard work by giving job security and decent pay packages. A career in health care units is always on demand in United States owing to the growing health concerns of the population. Increasing complexities in hospital management has led to the need of qualified and skilled medical assistants. Young medical aspirants now have more career opportunities in terms of medical jobs that are available, both at the grass root level of hospitals and at even at high posts. Students aspiring to be medical assistants might not be very cheerful with respect to the medical assistant average salaries as these are not very high. However, salaries in the starting phase of career must not be the sole criteria for medical aspirants. Mobilizing the efforts to gain expertise in the corresponding field is what gives the aspirants a strong platform to scale new heights in their chosen field.

Medical Assistant Job Description

As the name itself suggests, medical assistants are trained assistants to the physicians, senior doctors, and medical experts, and help them in the management of their official and clinical work. This hospital job offers myriads of challenges and it is expected that the person or aspirant have good multitasking skills. The administrative medical assistant salary range in the recent years has been found to be between USD 50,000 to USD 75,000.

Medical Assistant Administrative Duties
The medical assistant salary depends on various factors, and one of the factors among them is the type of job. Whether the medical assistant works in administration of the hospital or a doctor's office, or in the clinical department, decides the medical assistant salary. The duties of a medical assistant are as follows:

• Helping the doctor in maintenance of medical records.
• Scheduling appointments, answering phone calls and data entry operations related to the job.
• Helping the patients in sorting out issues related to the medical insurance claims.
• Helping the medical practitioner in providing medical billing services to the patients.

Medical Assistant Clinical Duties
The clinical duties of medical assistants are as follows.

• Assisting the patient in infection control.
• Assimilating the important points from patient's medical history and submitting it to the physician.
• Providing first aid care to patients.
• Giving vaccinations, and advice on simple problems and actively participating in works related to patient care.

Educational Requirements for Medical Assistants

A high school degree in medical subjects, including sciences, is an essential prerequisite for someone to become a medical assistant. The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) is an organization that gives accreditation to the colleges giving degrees to medical assistants. To become a medical assistant one needs to obtain a degree in Associate of Applied Science by some college accredited by CAAHEP. Moreover, to become a full-time and professional certified medical assistant, it is mandatory to pass the certified medical assistant exam.

Medical Assistant Salary Range

The medical assistant salary range depends on the job, location of the hospital or the health care unit, work experience, and educational qualifications of the aspirant. Some medical assistants are paid on an hourly basis, as they work in part-time shifts, while some work as full-time medical assistants. The starting medical assistant salary is up to USD 25,000. For people between 1 to 3 years of work experience, the medical assistant salary range is between USD 25,000 to USD 27,000. Further, the medical assistant salary for people with more than 8 years of experience ranges between USD 30,000 to 35,000.

With many hospitals and health care units coming up, the career development path for this stream is excellent. The rich work experience one gets in the job as medical assistant will surely help him to move on to larger roles in the hospital management. The medical assistant salary and other factors mentioned in this article must have given you some clue about this medical career.Wishing you luck for a flourishing career!