Medical Office Specialist Schools

Last Updated April 12, 2022

Medical office specialist schools help caring people like you acquire administrative skills that make it possible to build a stable and enjoyable career.

It's true: Medical office pros are in demand. So you can benefit from an increasing number of employment opportunities. By training at a medical office specialist school, you'll be on your way to experiencing the satisfaction that comes from a growing and fulfilling career. That's because the tasks performed by people in this field are vital to the successful operation of medical offices. As someone with the right skills, you can help people stay healthy by making sure their medical care is efficient and organized. And, thanks to the general reliability of this career, one of the rewards of helping others is that you also end up helping yourself.

So take the first steps toward an in-demand healthcare career by finding medical office specialist schools in your area. Just enter your zip code into the following search tool!

Questions About Medical Office Specialist Careers

Medical Office Specialist Schools

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4 Questions About Medical Office Specialist Careers

Do you want to play an essential role in clinics, hospitals, physicians' offices, or other healthcare settings? It's achievable. With so many workplace options, it's not surprising that there are plenty of opportunities for getting an education for medical assisting and medical office roles.

1. What Training Is Needed to Become a Medical Office Specialist?

The path to becoming a medical office pro tends to be shorter than what most other careers in the medical field require. That's good news if you want quick entry into an occupation with a lot of opportunities. In fact, many medical office specialist programs can be completed in under a year.

But even though these programs are short, they still cover a lot of material. You can learn about:

• The many administrative tasks that take place in a medical office
• The business side of healthcare, such as dealing with insurance companies and billing patients for appointments and procedures
• Office tasks such as answering the phone, scheduling appointments, greeting patients, and doing some basic accounting
• Medical coding and healthcare regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

These programs can prepare you to enter the workforce, and additional training can help you get ahead. For example, medical office specialists don't necessarily have to be professionally certified, but acquiring certification can lead to higher pay and more opportunities. There are a few different options for certification, and the right choice will depend on your career interests. The National Healthcareer Association offers three different certifications that can benefit a medical office specialist:

• Certified Medical Administrative Assistant
• Electronic Health Record Specialist
• Billing and Coding Specialist

Thanks to the versatility of medical office specialist programs, it's also possible to use your training as a stepping stone toward a more specialized career in healthcare administration. For example, you could go on to become a healthcare records technician.

2. What Does a Medical Office Specialist Do?

As a medical office specialist, you could work in a hospital, home care organization, outpatient medical clinic, doctor's office, medical lab, mental health facility, long-term care center, or even a school. That's because almost any setting that offers medical care can benefit from someone who works to keep the business side organized and efficient.

Depending on your workplace, your duties could include:

• Interacting with insurance companies and billing patients
• Managing and organizing patient records
• Welcoming patients and checking them in
• Scheduling patients' appointments
• Gathering patients' case histories by asking them questions
• Entering patient information into electronic healthcare records systems
• Performing basic accounting and bookkeeping duties
• Communicating with other healthcare professionals about procedures such as patient referrals or tests
• Answering the phone and transferring calls

Keep in mind that "medical office specialist" is a broad job title. After completing your education, you might focus on a particular area of the healthcare sector, which could lead to a different job title and duties that are distinct to that area. For example, if you work for a dentist, your job title and duties might be different than they'd be if you worked for a family physician.

3. How Much Do Medical Office Specialists Earn?

For a career with a relatively short training period, there is a lot of potential to earn a good salary. Medical office specialists earned a median annual wage of $37,450 in 2021.* The top 10 percent of earners made $53,630 or more. And if you advance to a management role, your salary could be even higher. In 2021, the median annual salary for health and medical services managers was $101,340.

4. What Are the Job Prospects Like for Medical Office Specialists?

The number of job opportunities for medical office specialists is anticipated to grow by eight percent from 2021 to 2031.* That number is over the predicted U.S. average of five percent for all careers.

So, what's behind the increase in jobs? Some of this job growth will happen because of the fact that the number of Americans who are older than 65 is expected to increase from just over 49 million in 2016 to 77 million by 2034. After all, older people tend to need more medical care. So plenty of medical office pros will be needed to manage all the administrative tasks that will accompany keeping this aging population healthy.

As well, new discoveries in medical technology will continue to create work in medical offices since patients will be able to have medical procedures without going to the hospital. That means even more opportunity for medical office specialists.

Find Your Place in the World of Healthcare

Are you ready to benefit from the boom in healthcare jobs? Medical office specialist schools can help you start taking advantage of the many opportunities that involve helping patients and other healthcare professionals. Now is the perfect time to make your next move. Just enter your zip code into the search tool below to get started!

* Unless otherwise noted, salary information is based on May 2021 data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. Job growth estimates are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are for the 2021 to 2031 period.