Job Description for Medical Administrative Assistant
Training is essential for medical administrative assistants, as they must provide excellent confidential and efficient customer service to every patient, patient's family, and staff member to which they give administrative support. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JACHO) regulations have tightened and therefore medical administrative assistants must know these policies as part of their job is to access confidential information regarding medical appointments and procedures.
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Purpose
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The purpose of most medical administrative assistants is to provide administrative assistance to trained medical staff where basic medical terminology, billing and coding, handing electronic medical records, HIPAA requirements as well as general customer service is needed. The medical administrative assistant working at the front desk is in charge of orchestrating a physician's patient list so that he can see patients in an organized manner.
Function
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The function of a medical administrative assistant is to run the front desk area of a medical office, hospital or other medical facility. In many instances there is more than one administrative support personnel manning the station at any given time. This is common in a hospital or busy medical clinic setting where checking in patients in a timely manner is crucial and there are multiple phone lines that need to be answered.
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Benefits
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Often medical administrative assistants are also trained CNAs that can also take vital signs of incoming patients. In the instance of a convalescent or other medical facility, trained staff must often work in a variety of positions to relieve the doctor of smaller tasks so that she can spend more quality time with patients addressing bigger issues.
Patient Check-in
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Unlike other types of front desk administrative assistants, most medical administrative assistants must check in patients. During this process they must gather insurance and other payment information, verify appointment times and in some instances keep patients calm all while maintaining a professional demeanor and strict confidentiality. Asking personal questions or gathering private and intimate information from patients is part of the job and a medical administrative assistant must be personable, yet professional at all times.
Patient Check-out
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A medical administrative assistant checks out patients when they're ready to leave. During this process, the medical administrative assistant must access the patient's electronic medical records, read the doctor's notations and then reschedule the patient for a follow-up appointment, procedure or otherwise address their confidential situation. Before the patient leaves they need to know time, dates and locations (if they are needing laboratory work done) of their next appointments.
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References
- Photo Credit preparing the file image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
