A medical assistant is almost like the swiss army knife of a medical office. They are able to perform all sorts of tasks to help the office run better.
Below we take a look at how much is a medical assistant program as well as some other helpful info.
How Much Is a Medical Assistant Program
So, how much will it cost you to enter a medical assistant program?
The exact costs will be tricky to compute. But to give you an idea, a medical assistant program can run from $600 to $10,800.
This is because there are many factors that can affect the overall cost of a medical assistant program. The biggest being whether you get a full on degree (ie an Associates degree) or do a certificate or diploma program.
If you are looking to enroll in a training school, then you can expect to pay somewhere from $1,200 to $4,200.
If you want a certificate’s degree or a diploma, enrolling in a certificate program runs from $2,500 to $10,000. This is usually a one-year course, but the length will still vary depending on the college or university.
The average cost of enrolling in a certificate program at a community college is $5,000, and it takes 9 to 18 months to complete.
Enrolling in an online medical assistant degree may cost somewhere from $1,000 to $3,500, and courses at this price range take only 6 weeks to 3 months to complete.
There are also online certificate programs for medical assistants that take 6 to 12 months to complete, but they are more costly.
Enrolling in an associate’s degree program may cost $600-$5,400 per year for students who are residents and $5,490-$10,800 for out-of-state students. An associate’s program takes two years to complete. To be a Medical Assistant, you’ll want to look for an Associate of Applied Science program.
Enrolling in an associate’s public school program costs $8,000 and some private schools may cost $30,000 or more. An online associate’s degree program may range from $4,800 to $19,808 per year, and they also take two years to finish.
Factors That Affect the Cost of a Program/Degree
Some factors that may affect the cost of your training school include the following:
- Degree/Certification Type
- Online vs in-person classes
- Length of your class, which can take from a few weeks to a year.
- The number of classes included
- The length of the internship
What Does a Medical Assistant Do?
Their duties include many things ranging from preparing patients for medical exams, administering medications if requested by the patient’s physician, changing the patient’s wound dressing, to managing certain paperwork.
When it comes to paperwork, medical assistants manage a variety of records. These include medical records, billing, coding, appointment schedules, and recording a patient’s medical history.
Medical assistants also tend to their patient’s needs. Because of this, they know how to use certain noninvasive medical equipment.
Medical assistants can use needles, blood pressure units, penlights, stethoscopes, ear scopes, syringes, and more. But aside from using them, medical assistants also sterilize medical equipment.
Steps To Becoming a Medical Assistant
The first step is to enroll in a medical assistant program and earn a degree. You can either earn a MA certificate or an associate’s degree. Next, you will want to find an internship or an externship to gain clinical experience. Lastly, once you completed your internship or externship, you will need to take an exam to be certified.
