Medical Office Assistant Salary: Is It Enough?

Ah, the question that boggles the mind of every aspiring healthcare information management professional will finally be made to rest. Can a medical office assistant salary see you through?

Medical office assistants are tasked to maintain and organize patient records in hospitals and clinics. They also assist doctors and nurses in taking patient histories and assessing the patient’s health, giving them injections and prepping them up for lab tests. Medical office assistants also deal with insurance forms and performing data entry tasks that require them to be familiar with standard healthcare codes.

As you can see, it can be a busy job depending on the time of the day or scale of healthcare services your employer offers. At times, the medical assistant may be requested to work on rotating shifts or weekends as well. So, for the volume of work involved, is the salary actually worth it?

BLS Figures

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2010 median pay for medical office assistants averages for $28,860 annually. As far as hourly rates go, medical office assistants can earn $13.87 per hour. Indeed.com, on the other hand, forecasts a higher rate for medical assistants, ranging between $36,000 and $45,000. These rates go higher depending on the job title, seniority level, place of work and state.

Rates are also bound to increase as the job outlook for medical office assistants gets better. As of 2010, there are 527,600 medical office assistants employed in the US. The profession is also expected to grow by 31 percent in this decade, which is deemed by experts as much faster than the average.

Factors that Influence Salary Rates

The ability to maximize one’s salary as a medical office assistant will depend on cost of living of the state, one’s spending habits and number of dependents. At $28,000 or more though, a medical office assistant would be capable of paying for their bills and supporting a family of four. Not bad for a starting salary. Single individuals, of course, would not have a problem with this running rate.

MOA Training

A medical office assistant course can provide aspiring assistants the necessary training they need to perform the job. Meditec, a popular MOA training provider based in Texas, offers competitively-priced courses for allied healthcare professional training.