Career Description
Central Lakes College Medical Administrative Secretaries perform office duties that use their knowledge of medical terms and procedures. The medical office is a complex operation. Patients come in and out all day. Phones must be answered; doctors and nurses need charts pulled and refilled. Charts have to be updated and maintained. Bills must be processed. Medical Administrative Secretaries perform a variety of tasks needed to run a medical office.

One of the duties may be to transcribe dictation. Secretaries must listen to doctors’ recorded information and type the information using their medical terminology, computer, grammar, and problem solving skills. Medical Administrative Secretaries may also choose to work in the insurance, billing, and coding departments. They must be willing to attend workshops to keep up with insurance and billing changes.

Another area that the Medical Administrative Secretary may want to pursue is in organizational skills, interpersonal skills, empathetic traits and a genuine liking for people. They also must possess a good work ethic including accuracy, thoroughness, dependability, efficiency, flexibility, good judgment, honesty, self-motivation, tact, initiative, punctuality, assertiveness, and the willingness to be a member of the team by demonstrating professionalism, confidentiality, and problem solving skills.

Program Information
Both the 32-credit diploma program and 64-credit AAS degree program at our college prepare the graduate to provide patient service in the healthcare setting. Instruction provides the full complement of courses to instill the knowledge you need. We teach you anatomy terminology as well as office procedures, records management, and machine transcription. The one-year program equips you with the tools to be an effective receptionist, efficient insurance claims processor, accurate biller, and organized patient file-keeper. The two-year graduate gets deeper into the skills and adds general education knowledge to add value to one’s academic foundation. The degree establishes your credibility for consideration in a supervisory position or specialization in focus jobs requiring expert transcription or management proficiency. It also puts you on the launch pad for a higher degree for coding and health management.

Admissions
The Medical Administrative Secretarial program is offered as a full time program. Students can start at the beginning of either Fall or Spring semester.

Employment Opportunities
Employment opportunities exist in hospitals, medical clinics, chiropractic offices, optical clinics, specialty clinics, nursing and rehabilitation facilities, public health departments, social services, insurance offices, and medical supply firms.

Career Titles
Medical Secretary, Medical Transcriptionist, Data Transcriber, Medical Administrative Specialist, Medical Biller, Medical Office Secretary, Patient Accounts Manager/Assistant, Medical Office Specialist, Medical Terminologist Department Supervisor, Patient Account Representative, Verification Specialist.

Medical Administrative Secretary, AAS - Program Planning Form (pdf)

Medical Secretary, Diploma - Program Planning Form (pdf)