Administrative Medical Assistant

Role Distribution In The Front Office

 The doctor is in ultimate charge of the entire medical office team; that's every staff member that works under his/her employ. He/she has the ultimate say when it comes to hiring and firing and is also ultimately responsible for the entire practice. Next is the senior medical office manager who oversees all hired medical office staff in the front and back; then there is the administrative medical office supervisor who oversees the front office's clerical and secretarial and receptionist staff.

 Administrative medical assistants employed in a large group practice shared by several doctors often have to deal with ALL the patients that call and come in, whereas their clinical medical assistant counterparts in the different clinical areas only take care of the patients of the doctor he/she is directly working under for THAT group.

Administrative Medical Assistant

Administrative medical assistants register new and check in existing patients, help them with registration form completions, health insurance verification, verify and accept copayments credits and schedule follow-up appointments. The front office medical assistant is the first and last person patients see as they come and go for their appointment. In addition, they enters patient data and demographics into the medical record files computer databases, perform various typing requests, call patients with appointment reminders, route incoming and outgoing phone calls and take messages, call the pharmacy for prescription order refills and arrange for a patient's hospital admission if so ordered by the doctor. They also make copies of lab tests and other diagnostic results and medical notes which need to be mailed to other doctors, or patients, while all along meeting deadlines and handling various other critical tasks. 

Think about it! The healthcare industry is booming and you want to land a better job… but with a large number of other medical assistants applying for the same jobs and competing with you, you HAVE to your part to set yourself apart from the rest, or otherwise you may quickly find yourself left behind.

Bookkeeping Skills

 Typing, keyboarding, computer skills and knowledge of Corel or Microsoft Office applications, thorough knowledge of medical terminology, efficient filing skills, basic grammar, spelling and arithmetic, knowledge of the scheduling, registration, and admission process, bookkeeping, accounting, payment processing, financial management and excellent customer services skills are essential. Desktop computers, laptops, software and computerized healthcare information systems are used in the performance of many of the above listed record- and bookkeeping tasks.

File Management

Health Insurance Plans and HIPAA

All front office administrative medical office staff members must be familiar with a plethora of health insurance plans and HIPAA laws. HIPAA, known as the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, requires the establishment of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans and employers to assure the security and privacy of health data.