Medical Administrative Assistant

Hours: 265 / Access Length: 12 Months / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced

Course Overview:

Administrative Medical Assisting is one of the fastest growing careers in the health care industry today. The need for professionals that understand how to utilize computerized medical office software and perform administrative office procedures is growing substantially. Physician practices, hospitals, chiropractic practices, and other health care providers all depend on administrative professionals for day-to-day-support. In the Administrative Medical Assistant course you will learn medical terminology, patient confidentiality, scheduling, customer service, basic patient documentation, and basic billing as well as other administrative duties required by front office personnel. 

This course prepares the student to take the following certification exam:

• National Healthcareer Association (NHA) Medical Administrative Assistant

Curriculum Developer Biography:

Willow Nolland is an expert in education and eLearning, with more than ten years of experience in curriculum development and instructional design. She has worked in higher education for over twelve years, and has developed numerous courses and has been involved in curriculum development across disciplines. She has experience with academic program development and coordination, curriculum development, student learning outcomes, educational partnerships, and student development. In addition, she has developed and administered professional development programs for various groups, including teachers, counselors, healthcare workers and members of private industry. She is a certified Quality Matters Reviewer and has taken graduate courses in online course development. She designs and teaches online courses at the college level and is proficient in a variety of course management systems. She has helped educators redesign their courses to transition them from a face-to-face format to an online format, and has provided course editing assistance to others. As a freelance instructional designer and curriculum developer, her projects have included course editing and redesign of online continuing education courses for nurses, CEU curriculum development for healthcare workers and teachers, and course review and editing for various colleges and universities.

Students will:

• Identify parts of the human body.
• Describe the basic function of each body system.
• Utilize medical terminology in written and spoken communications.
• Define medical terminology commonly found in the medical record.
• Prepare and maintain the medical record.
• Prepare and maintain the appointment schedule.
• Demonstrate proper telephone handling techniques.
• Compose and prepare medical correspondence.
• Transcribe a dictated medical report.
• Manage incoming and outgoing financial transactions for the medical practice.
• Complete basic insurance forms, including the use of ICD-9 and ICD-10.
• Assist with office emergencies.

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Medical Assisting

Lesson One, Introduction to Medical Assisting will introduce medical assisting, the history of medicine, corresponding job descriptions, healthcare facilities, processional behaviors in the workplace, and therapeutic communication.  Patient education will be covered in depth due to the critical interactions between healthcare professional and the patient.  Medical law and ethics will round out the introduction lesson covering both classifications of the law, medical liability, and making reputable, ethical medical decisions.

Lesson 2: Ambulatory Care Administration

Lesson Two, Ambulatory Care Administration, will cover the administration of ambulatory care  which includes technology and written communication, telephone techniques, scheduling appointments, patient processing, daily healthcare office operations, types of health records, key information and ownership of health records, and a light introduction to the principles of pharmacology.

Lesson 3: Coding and Medical Billing Procedures

Lesson Three, Coding and Medical Billing Procedures, reviews the basics of diagnostics, coding and billing including the history of medical coding, guidelines, the basics of procedural coding, key steps in the medical billing process, and the introduction and organization of the CPT Manual (Current Procedural Terminology).  Basics of health insurance will also be covered which includes the purpose, contracts with patients, and benefits.

Lesson 4: Medical Office Administrative Functions

Lesson Four, Medical Office Administrative Functions, details the administrative functions of patient accounts, collections, banking services and procedures, including practice management.  Supervision, Human Resource Management, and Medical Practice Marketing will also be covered which includes running a successful medical office, marketing needs of a healthcare facility, and providing high quality customer service.

Lesson 5: Assisting with Medical Specialties

Lesson Five, Assisting with Medical Specialties, details safety in the healthcare facility including dealing with hazardous waste, emergency preparedness, assisting with medical emergencies, and general rules and procedures for dealing with said emergencies. 

Lesson 6: Career Development

Lesson Six, Career Development, covers the basics of career management including developing career objectives, finding a job, developing a resume, creating a cover letter, completing online job profiles and applications, and interview tips and techniques.

All necessary materials are included.

Certification(s):

This course prepares the student to take the following certification exam:

• National Healthcareer Association (NHA) Medical Administrative Assistant

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.