Studying medical office management requires strong attention to detail and flexibility.
Medical office managers are professionals who organize, direct and monitor health care services in a medical office. Aspiring medical office managers should complete two-year associate degree or four-year bachelor's degree programs in areas such as health care administration and business administration. Employment of medical office managers is projected to increase 16 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Medical office managers in 2011 earned between $30,922 and $47,316, reports PayScale. Several tips can help you to succeed while in school for medical office management.
Medical Terminology
While in school for medical office management, master medical terminology. Know the anatomy and physiology of the human body, which will help you to better understand various procedures that your medical office's doctor decides to perform or recommend to patients. In addition, study pharmacology so that you understand common drugs and their uses. Learn about common illnesses and prevent various types of disease, because you will interact with patients with different medical conditions on a daily basis.
Communication Skills and Ethics
Practice speaking to others correctly. As a medical office manager, you must know communicate effectively with patients, fellow front-office employees and doctors. You also must know motivate individuals. Get a grasp of health care legalities and ethics as well, which includes keeping patients' information private under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. In addition, learn human resources tasks such as hiring employees and handling employee compensation, as you might be required to perform these duties as a medical office manager. Ask questions of your instructor if you are confused about something you are covering in class, and do not hesitate to visit your instructor outside of class for further clarification or guidance. This, too, will help you to improve your personal communication skills.
Software
Spend time learning keyboarding and word processing skills, as you will regularly be using a computer when in a medical office management position. In addition, try to master your school's medical software program because more medical offices are using electronic medical patient records. Learn complete medical coding and billing procedures as well as accounting, health care reimbursement and health insurance policies and procedures. Also, practice interpreting data -- a chief component of a medical office manager's role.
Experience
Complete an internship in the medical office management field. Any real-world experience you can gain while in school is vital and actually might be considered in lieu of your level of education when you begin to look for medical office manager jobs. Most employers actually require medical office manager applicants to have two to five years of related work experience, according to Education-Portal.com. Your college should be able to connect you with a local site at which you can intern and hopefully land a job.
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