Medical administrative assistants help manage the daily workflow of healthcare offices and clinics. They perform front-desk tasks and help keep medical teams organized and on schedule. 

You may also hear them called medical office assistants or medical receptionists, depending on the job setting.

Where Medical Administrative Assistants Work in Michigan

Medical administrative assistants in Michigan can be found working in:

• Hospitals and Large Health Systems: Major employers like Corewell Health and Michigan Medicine rely on admin assistants in many departments.
• Specialty Clinics: Clinics focusing on fields like pediatrics, cardiology, or women’s health often need trained administrative support.
• Private Practices: Small offices and group practices need medical administrative assistants to manage front-office operations.
• Outpatient Centers and Community Clinics: These settings offer a range of services and often need skilled admin support for scheduling and billing tasks.

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These roles are especially common in Michigan’s metro areas, like Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Ann Arbor, where healthcare services are concentrated.

A medical administrative assistant’s daily tasks may vary depending on the workplace, but typically include:

• ‍Scheduling appointments: They are responsible for confirming, canceling, and rescheduling appointments.‍
• Maintaining patient records: It is important to keep medical records up to date so that patients can receive the best care possible. ‍
• Making and answering phone calls: They are usually the first people that patients speak to when calling a medical office. ‍
• Directing patients in the waiting room: This helps ensure proper patient flow in the waiting room and throughout the clinic.‍
• Communicating with patients: They are involved in communicating important information to patients, such as billing and scheduling details. ‍
• Working with billing and insurance: Paying for healthcare is often a complicated and stressful process for patients. Administrative medical assistants can help patients understand what their insurance plans will and will not cover.‍
• Keeping the office organized and stocked: Not having adequate supplies can be inconvenient and, in some cases, disastrous, so this is a more important job than it might seem.‍
• Helping patients fill out paperwork: Sometimes, patients have trouble filling out all the required paperwork during their visit, and a good medical administrative assistant can help.

Michigan does not require certification to work as a medical administrative assistant, but getting certified makes you a stronger candidate and may help you earn more.

According to NHA, 84% of employers require or encourage certification.

To be eligible for the CMAA exam, you need to meet these conditions:

• Have a high school diploma or GED
• Have completed a medical administrative assistant training program like Stepful’s within the past 5 years

or

• Have at least 1 year of supervised work experience in the field within the last 3 years, or 2 years of experience within the last 5 years