What is a Medical Secretary?

A medical secretary, also known as a medical administrative assistant, is responsible for performing clerical duties and is knowledgeable about procedures unique to a medical office. Read on to learn more about the job duties, training and economic outlook for these professionals.

Job Duties

Medical secretaries support clinical health care professionals by handling office duties such as welcoming patients, organizing paperwork and electronic files, processing bills and operating office equipment. These professionals are expected to perform the following specific duties:

Greet patients and help them complete intake forms and medical histories
Process medical insurance claims
Manage databases
Maintain patient files and charts
Handle phone calls, e-mails and business correspondence
Schedule appointments and phone in prescription refills for patients
Transcribe dictation

Important Facts About Medical Secretaries

On-the-Job Training	Post-educational professional training will be required
Key Skills	Customer service oriented, reading comprehension, social awareness, time management, clear writing and speaking ability, critical thinking, problem solving
Professional Certification	Voluntary; Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA) available through the National Healthcareer Association
Similar Occupations	Medical records and health information technicians, receptionists, information clerks, license clerks

Education and Training Requirements

A high school diploma is generally all that is needed to become a medical secretary, and these professionals are often trained on-the-job. To improve their chances of being hired, some prospective medical secretaries obtain general office experience first.

In addition, some technical schools and colleges offer a certificate program or a 2-year, associate degree program that provides specialized training. The course topics covered in these programs include:

Medical machine transcription
Anatomy and physiology
Medical database management
Business communication
Medical keyboarding
Health insurance claims
Medical office procedures
Medical terminology
Business mathematics
Human relations
Pathophysiology
Business software applications

Places of Employment

A medical secretary may work at a variety of health care-related worksites. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), www.bls.gov, notes that most of these professionals worked for offices of physicians in May 2018, other places of employment included:

Health practitioners' offices
Outpatient care centers
General medical and surgical hospitals
Grantmaking and giving services
Insurance carriers
Scientific research and development services

Employment Outlook and Salary Information

The BLS reported that medical secretaries would experience much more employment growth than other types of secretaries and administrative assistants over the 2021-2031 decade. While growth for secretaries and administrative assistants in general is expected to decline by 8%, medical secretaries are expected to have an employment growth of 8%, which is faster than average.

The average salary for medical secretaries was $39,740 as of May 2021, reported the BLS. Among the top employers, those working for physicians' offices made the highest average salary of $38,130. Medical secretaries working for general medical and surgical hospitals earned $40,450 on average, while those working for dentists' offices averaged $43,170.