The Medical Assistant Job Description
When deciding whether to pursue a career as a certified CMA, one should always review a medical assistant job description to evaluate the nature of the job on a daily basis. Medical assistant duties can vary depending on the particular position and medical clinic, and generally fall into categories of back office administrative tasks along with direct medical assisting to health care professionals.
Core Administrative Responsibilities
A core part of the medical assistant training for CMAs is helping to ensure the back office, administrative tasks of health care institutions are taken care of. These tasks largely revolve around ensuring efficient provisioning of medical supplies and care, which requires frequent interfacing with insurance companies.
The filing procedures for working with insurance companies require familiarity with a variety of medical codes and software so that each patient's records are standardized for interface with insurance companies. For medical assistants working in smaller offices, the tasks vary more widely, as there are fewer specialists to handle administrative duties.
While hospitals will have dedicated office managers, CMAs will have to serve dual roles of handling the logistics of patient scheduling and correspondence, as well as working on the various bookkeeping tasks.
Working directly with doctors and patients
The medical assistant job description includes working in a clinical or patient facing capacity and will generally need to perform a variety of patient care and analysis duties. These tasks range from organizing medical records and directly measuring vital signs and patient status. Working directly with nurses and doctors, CMAs will often collect specimens for laboratory research, as well as ensuring proper conditions of medical materials.
Another duty of medical assistants is in interfacing with patients to discuss prescriptions as well as dietary restrictions. Many of the major tests required of patients, including x-rays and other tests are prepared by CMAs. Medical assistants who work with medical specialists such as optometrists may have more specialized tasks related to the care they provide.
For example, a ophthalmic CMA will often help patients understand their vision problems, as well as helping them get accustomed to new vision aids, such as contact lenses.
A wide variety of tasks
Individuals thinking about becoming a certified medical assistant should ensure that they feel comfortable with a wide variety of tasks including administrative and scientific. Operating a modern medical clinic requires many skills to help ensure quality patient care; certified medical assistants are called upon to perform nearly any task that is required to keep the clinic operating smoothly.
Because of this, CMAs are expected to work hard to meet the growing demands of patient health care, and are a crucial part of ensuring proper operations in today's health care industry. Often times, a medical assistant will be called upon to perform (non medical) tasks that extend beyond their direct training, so one should feel comfortable performing tasks beyond the normal medical assistant job description.
| 
