Medical Administrative Assistant Course (80 hrs.) 100% On-line Theory

Medical Administrative Assistant Course

Syllabus & Course Outline

Course Hours: 80

Instructional Mode: Distance Education

Textbooks / Learning Resources

1. Kinn’s The Administrative Medical Assistant: An Applied Learning Approach, Seventh Edition, Alexandra P. Young, Elsevier, textbook, and CD-ROM

2. Study Guide for Kinn’s The Administrative Medical Assistant, Seventh Edition, Alexandra P. Young, Elsevier

3. Virtual Medical Office for Young: Kinn’s The Administrative Medical Assistant, Seventh Edition, Elsevier; with CD-ROM

Course Description

This course prepares the student to perform the daily administrative functions and duties in a variety of medical facilities.

A medical administrative assistant is responsible for the basic office duties and is responsible for ensuring that the ambulatory medical facility is running smoothly.

Managing a wide array of responsibilities requires today’s medical administrative assistant to multi-task in a variety of duties and skillsets effectively.

Therefore, medical administrative assistants must be extremely detailed oriented and highly organized.

This course introduces students to the duties that medical administrative assistants commonly perform. Students will recognize the scope of practice in addition to the importance of the medical administrative assistant as a viable member of the healthcare team.

Students will recognize effective time management and problem-solving skills that will enable them to deal effectively with human behaviors in a medical environment.

During this course students will be trained to perform a variety of functions utilizing excellent oral and written communication skills, such as answering telephones, scheduling appointments, greeting patients, and obtaining basic registration information.

Students will be trained to develop proper techniques for scheduling surgeries, updating medical records, and handling any billing issues. Students will also be trained to enter patient and guarantor information into a computer and understand how to construct a patient’s chart.

Health information management and the role of the medical administrative assistant in records management will be reviewed in detail.

Students will become familiar with medical ethics and laws, such as HIPAA, and how these ethical issues affect the healthcare industry.

Additionally, students are trained to perform basic office accounting, filing procedures, banking services, practice finances, medical practice marketing, and customer service. Students will acquire an overview of procedural and diagnosis coding.

Students will review insurance claim forms and will recognize how to determine insurance coverage, professional fees, billing, and will be introduced to the collections process. Students will recognize the differences in paper and electronic charting and will review the recent changes to electronic health records and electronic medical records in the modern medical office. Through a virtual medical office experience, students will work with multiple patient simulations so that they can practice their skill sets that are essential for providing high-quality medical administrative assistance. Finally, students will recognize the importance of professional behavior to become an important part of the allied medical team. The course also contains an optional emergency medical preparedness training module as well as a module in career development and life skills.

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the importance of developing professional behaviors as a member of the allied health team.

• Identify the concept of critical thinking and its affect(s) on your actions.

• Utilize time-management strategies and effective study skills daily to make the most of your learning opportunities.

• Use problem-solving techniques to manage conflict and barriers to your success.

• Recall the history of medicine and how it has affected today’s medical industry.

• Differentiate among the types of healthcare facilities, professionals, and practices.

• Identify the scope of practice of a medical administrative assistant.

• Identify medical assisting professional organizations and resources.

• Specify the medical assistant credentialing requirements, the importance of credentialing, and the process of obtaining credentialing.

• Recognize the value of goal setting in achieving career success.

• Recognize the importance of effective communication and how to respond to verbal and nonverbal communications, especially with patients.

• Classify the basic principles of law and ethics in the healthcare professions.

• Identify how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to the medical assisting profession.

• Recognize the importance of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the need for confidentiality and identify why confidentiality is an ethical issue.

• Identify HIPAA regulations referring to use of computer in healthcare facilities.

• Identify how to establish and organize a patient medical record.

• Recall medical documentation guidelines.

• Differentiate between an Electronic Health Record (EHR) and an Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

• Recall applications of electronic technology in effective communication.

• Recall general medical office policies and procedures.

• Identify proper telephone techniques.

• Recall the types, parts, and functions of computer software and hardware used in healthcare.

• Perform basic clerical duties.

• Recall the guidelines for appointment scheduling.

• Differentiate among new patients, established patients, emergency patients, and special circumstances.

• Name common patient reception and processing procedures.

• Identify the need for safety and security in the medical office.

• Determine the importance of the healthcare standards in medical facilities.

• Identify common medical record management functions.

• Differentiate between procedural and diagnostic coding systems.

• Recognize the steps in ICD coding, CPT coding, and HCPCS coding.

• Recognize the maintenance of records for accounting and banking purposes.

• Identify the steps necessary in preparing payroll.

• Apply third party billing policies and procedures to complete and process insurance claims.

• Recall how to complete CMS-1500 claim forms accurately.

• Identify how to obtain managed care referrals and precertification.

• Recognize the importance of management in the medical office.

Grading/Evaluation Policy

Evaluation is linked directly to the course objectives.

Performance is measured by successful completion of 26 units including all reading assignments and study guide exercises, online lessons, and students must successfully pass Unit Exams, 1 Midterm Exam, and 1 Final Exam. The Final Exam is comprised of 100 multiple choice questions.

In order to pass Medical Administrative Assisting, a minimum passing score of 70% or better is required on all assignments.

Assessments with scores below the minimum requirements of 70% respectively must be retaken until the score meets or exceeds 70%. If you do not pass the final exam, you are allowed to retake it after a period of two weeks which will give you time to re-study.

Course Outline Hours

• Becoming a Successful Student 2.5
• The Healthcare Industry2.5
• The Medical Assisting Profession 2
• Professional Behavior in the Workplace1
• Interpersonal Skills and Human Behavior4.5
• Medicine and Ethics2
• Medicine and Law 3
• Computer Concepts 2
• Telephone Techniques 3
• Scheduling Appointments4
• Patient Reception and Processing2
• Office Environment and Daily Operations4.5
• Written Communications and Mail Processing4

Student Integrity and Academic Honesty Policy

Health Career Solutions strives to encourage a spirit of honesty and integrity. This policy was created to foster a climate that promotes the most stringent academic standards. Violations of this policy will be dealt with using fair and consistent methods. Committing one or more of the following actions is considered unacceptable and constitutes a violation of this policy:

• Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials in any academic exercise;

• Intentionally aiding or attempting to aid another student to commit any act of academic dishonesty;

• Bribing or attempting to bribe, or making threats against any individual, with the intention of affecting a grade or an evaluation of academic performance;

• Falsifying any documents;

• Accessing the institution’s computer systems or files without proper authorization.