The healthcare industry is one of the fastest growing industries, but it also one of the industries undergoing the most change.
That growth and change mean employers are looking for relevantly trained professionals for a variety of healthcare careers, including positions as a medical assistant.
Here are 4 reasons why medical employers are looking for medical assistants with professional training.
- Need for efficiency
“The healthcare system is continuously evolving,” reports the research firm Triple Tree. “The landscape is shifting to address escalating reimbursement and regulatory issues that require tighter budgets in an increasingly uncertain environment. Health reform and government mandates are fundamentally impacting how healthcare is accessed, delivered, and paid for. Operating and growing in this rapidly changing environment is challenging for all types of healthcare organizations.”
The push for efficiency means employers are looking for medical assistants who understand the need for efficiency and are trained in relevant computer programs and other programs that increase the efficiency of a medical facility.
- Need to meet regulations
Healthcare employers are looking for medical assistants who understand the importance of following rules as an increase in regulations is holding medical facilities to higher standards.
“A broad set regulations and self-imposed programs have been introduced, including initiatives related to pay-for-performance, ICD-10 conversion, and fraud, waste, and abuse,” Triple Tree reports. “These reforms are increasing accountability for payers and providers with a cascading effect on the entire healthcare delivery system.
“Hospitals and care delivery systems are evolving to establish clinically integrated models with a more coordinated view of the patient across the system. Health insurance carriers, seeking to align incentives with improved care coordination, while reducing cost and generating better outcomes, continued to research, develop and test new payment methodologies tied directly to physician and hospital reimbursement.”
- Need for technological understanding
Technology is also increasing in the healthcare industry and that means employers need medical assistants with experience in the new programs and systems being used.
- Customer Focus
“Other large trends impacting the landscape include increased consumer engagement and technology adoption,” Triple Tree reports. “Consumers and patients are increasingly becoming engaged across the care continuum to participate in the decision making for all aspects of their healthcare.”
Triple Tree adds that customers are “demanding more transparency regarding cost and care options, driving many healthcare providers and insurers to begin to design consumer-focused products and services that are more personalized. The adoption of new products such as health savings accounts (HSAs) and defined contribution plans continued to grow as the responsibility for healthcare costs shift from employers to employees. In addition, the adoption of consumer technology and information services, while still nascent in the healthcare market, continued to grow across all healthcare organizations driven by compelling incentives and mandates.”
If you have always had an interest in working in the medical field, then becoming a medical assistant could be the right fit for you and there has hardly been a better time to seek professional medical assistant training from a school like a Technical College than right now. A Technical College’s medical assistant training program teaches students the ins and outs of the profession, including assisting with examinations, obtaining vital signs, performing office laboratory procedures and a variety of other tasks today’s healthcare employers require from medical assistants.
Healthcare employers are looking for medical assistants who have up-to-date training an understand the new processes and systems that the industry requires. Many medical assistants work in administration and the new RCM systems are changing the way medical assistants are required to do their job.
A Technical College’s medical office professional training program is one of the best ways to secure a career in the healthcare industry with relevant and up-to-date training and experience. However, medical assistants are required to possess a lot of different skills ranging from administrative oversight to specific clinical administrative tasks, and those skills are changing every year as the medical industry continues to change. These positions require workers that are experts on patient data and can communicate effectively with doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers.