Difference in Medical Assistant Pay

Why Primary Care Pays Less than Specialty Care

One important factor when it comes to take home pay is where the medical assistant works, regional labor market conditions and for whom they work! Medical assistants in large metropolises, employed by a medical specialist, specialty physician, or in large group practice earn by far more than those working in a small rural family physician's office (small offices tend to pay lower wages although it doesn't necessarily mean less work).

Difference in Pay for Medical Assistants

Wages are commensurate with skill level, responsibilities and years of experience, however, there often are significant differences in pay depending on the type of office and specialty. Although medical assistants working in a primary care HMO with a family care physician and other allied health professionals use by far a wider range of clinical skills and deal with a much wider range of different patients and situations than their counterparts in specialty care, they usually receive considerably less pay. Reason: primary care physicians receive less money for their services than specialty doctors, which directly affects the pay rate the doctors are able to offer their staff.

Why the Difference in Pay?

Doctors who have specialized in a certain field, such as cardiology, hematology, or surgery can bill insurance companies and patients much more for their services than family physicians, they can also afford to offer higher pay and better benefits packages to their staff.

Sybil, a recent medical assistant school graduate told us:
Mar 20th, 2008 - 10:19 AM

• Oakwood starts their MAs off at $12.00/h
• Henry Ford Hospital starts their MAs off at $15.00/h
• University of Michigan Hospital start their MAs off at $16.00/h

REMEMBER:
Fringe Benefits are Good to Have!

If you are looking for work and you are offered a job that pays a little less than elsewhere you have seen in the paper, but offers fringe benefits, you should strongly consider it! Fringe benefits are valuable privileges provided by the employer in addition to salary and is to be regarded as "compensation" in lieu of cash. What are such possible fringe benefits?

BEST OF ALL: Some benefits, for example, accident and health insurance plans, or group-term life insurance, to name a few, may be excluded from the employee's gross income and therefore, are not subject to federal income tax.