The Bureau of Labor Statistics has some pretty exciting statistics for medical administrative assistants: they’re earning about $2.00 more than the national hourly average for healthcare support occupations and about $4,500 over the national average for yearly salary within the same category¹.

The medical administrative assistant career also stacks up well against other careers in the allied health field:

Growth in the medical administrative assistant field is also strong, expected to grow by 27% in the next eight years².

The Bureau of Labor statistics remains the definitive source for an accurate snapshot of employment and earning in the U.S. today, but for our working medical administrative assistants: how do these numbers compare to what you’re currently experiencing in your workplace?

¹ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
United States, May 2009 Edition: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#29-0000

² U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos151.htm

When Healthcare Management Consultants was founded in Ohio back in 1949, it was one of very few healthcare management consulting companies in America. Today, members of two professional organizations for healthcare consultants (The American Association of Healthcare Consultants and The National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants) can be found in every state in the nation.

Why has the business of medical practice consulting grown? There are a few reasons:

Running a medical practice has become more complicated. There are many reasons, including:  the increasing complication of filing insurance claims, the need to manage accounts receivable, the need to comply with OSHA and other regulations, and the necessity of keeping liability insurance coverage in place.

It has become more difficult to focus on the quality of patient care. Medical practice consultants can help busy medical offices preserve the quality of the relationship between caregiver and patient.

Physicians have learned that they can earn more money when their practices deliver care to more patients. This can involve: hiring additional front-desk staff, adding additional care rooms, and hiring support specialists to take blood pressure, do cardiograms, and perform other functions that may not require direct physician care. Medical practice consultants can analyze a medical practice and recommend which of these changes to apply.

And medical practice consultants can review office operations in other ways too. Here’s a list of services offered today by Healthcare Management Consultants Inc. (partial listing):

-  Billing Systems

-  Front Office Training

-  Interim Management

-  Managed Care Systems

-  Management Reorganization

-  Medical Practice Development and Management

-  Operational and Quality Improvement

-  Organization, Administration, Management, and Governance

-  Patient Care Delivery Systems Development

-  Patient Safety Training

-  Regulatory Compliance

-  Revenue Cycle Management

-  Strategic Planning and Marketing

So, where do medical administrative assistants fit in the delivery of those services?  The answer is, just about everywhere. As medical offices become more efficient, the demand for medical assistants seems sure to rise. It’s another reason why the outlook for the profession looks so strong today.

In Getting to Yes, his classic book on negotiating, Roger Fisher writes: “Like it or not, you are a negotiator. Negotiation is a fact of life. You discuss a raise with your boss. You try to agree with a stranger on a price for his house. . . . Everyone negotiates something every day.”

Fisher, who founded the Harvard Negotiation Project, was right. When you stop and think about it, you realize that you are probably negotiating for something every day . . .

-     Can you work on a flextime basis, instead of logging in and logging out at regular hours?

-     Would your company consider setting up an in-house daycare center for employees’ children?

-     Will your husband or wife cook dinner for your family tonight, so you can go to the gym on the way home?

-     Can you take on a bigger job – the one that a departing colleague just vacated?

When you are about to discuss questions like those, it is tempting to think that you are about to enter into conflict, not into conversation. According to Fisher, that is a mistake. He writes that it is better to practice something that he calls Principled Negotiation – an approach in which both parties look for areas of mutual gain.

Here are the four principles of Fisher’s approach . . .

-     Separate the people from the problem. For example, set aside the fact that you don’t like your office manager and that you want to score a win against her. Remember that when you negotiate, you will come to a better agreement if you focus on issues, not personalities.

-     Focus on interests, not positions. Instead of saying, “I need flextime, period,” discuss your underlying reasons for needing it and invite the other side to express its interests too. When you strive to make a situation better for both sides, you are more likely to make progress toward your goals.

-     Generate a variety of options before coming to an agreement. Yes, it is tempting to seize upon the first agreement that you and the other party find. But is it really the best solution? According to Fisher, you need to do the hard work to develop several solutions to any negotiating problem – and then pick the best of them. After all, it is possible that the third solution you hit upon will be the best.

-     Make sure that your agreement is based on objective criteria. You will stick with your flextime schedule after a month of evaluation to make sure your productivity remains strong, for example. Or your promotion will become permanent if you improve your department’s output by 10 percent. When you develop objective ways to evaluate the results of your agreement, you make it more attractive for the other side to agree to what you want – and you keep the door open for later negotiations of the agreement does now work out as well as you hoped it would.

Medical Administrative Assistant Blog is sponsored by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a healthcare career school. UMA has campus locations in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, as well as a national online program.  For more information about UMA please visit our website at www.ultimatemedical.edu

You have to get down to work. You have to sit down to study. But instead, you make another a cup of tea, chat with a friend, or shop online.

We all do it, because procrastination is one of life’s guilty little pleasures. But if procrastination becomes a habitual pattern, it can add a lot of stress to our lives.

So, do you procrastinate? According to the book Good Stress, Bad Stress, these could be the underlying reasons:

Cumulative procrastination – If you’ve let your work pile up, it becomes harder and harder to attack it.

Perfectionism – If you’re worried that you cannot handle certain tasks well, you tend to avoid them.

Conflict avoidance – If you fear that tacking a certain project will trigger disagreement with your boss or a colleague, you tend to avoid it.

Here are some procrastination-fighting techniques for medical administrative assistants recommended by Barry Lenson, author of Good Stress, Bad Stress:

Tackle unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning. If you’ve been delaying a touchy conversation with your boss or a colleague, have it as soon as you arrive at work. Tackling dreaded tasks first gives you energy that can boost your productivity through the day.

Say, “I’ll work on it for just five minutes.” This tactic works especially well if you have let work pile up. When you make just a small commitment to start on a backlog of work, you break the logjam and get going.

Work with a partner. Take a batch of work, divide it up with a colleague, and get started. (And offer to share his or her work in the same way.) When you cooperate on a body of work, you stand a better chance of whittling a pile of work down to size. Cooperation is fun and energizing.

Have you found strategies for fighting procrastination? If so, why not take a moment and share them here with other readers of Medical Administrative Assistant Blog?

In the field of Medical Assisting we talk a lot about HIPAA.  Many call it “the privacy act” or “security rule”.  Its true intention is the portability of the insurance coverage in order to provide continuity of coverage for workers and their families when they lose or change jobs.

The law covers several items related to safety and security of a patient’s information – things like responsibilities, verification, validation and training, amongst others.

One area that is worth  mentioning is Safeguards; this is the ensuring that confidential information remains secure.

All entities must have in place appropriate safeguards to ensure the protection of a person’s confidential information.  These security measures as described by HIPAA include administrative, technical and physical safeguards.  And many times we assume these are taking place. But do we really focus and protect our patient’s information on a continual basis?

Administrative safeguards require us to verify a patient and or their due representative.

Do we have signatures on file? Do we verify these every time we’re asked to provide information to persons other than the patient? A good idea would be to include in the patient’s record a photocopy of their identification; this ID should be state issued.

Technical safeguards require us to use user names and passwords on computers containing patient information.

Do you always log-out when you walk away from your computer? Remember, only persons who need to should be seeing a patient’s information.  Also remember to perform hardware backups in order to not only protect the information, but also to have it available in the event of a system malfunction.

Physical safeguards require us to keep physical records in a locked (preferably fireproof) area and are designated for the storage of paper records.

To ensure their security, you should have to go through two locks to get to the records.

Remember that safeguarding information is important in the daily operations of every healthcare facility.

Be Safe, Be Aware

Medical Administrative Assisting Blog is sponsored by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a leading healthcare career school. UMA has campus locations in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, as well as a national online program. For more information about UMA please visit our website atwww.ultimatemedical.edu

According to Randall S. Hansen, founder of QuintCareers, cold calling potential employers can be a highly effective way to discover unadvertised jobs and get interviews with employers. “Cold calling, or uninvited job-hunting, is a proven method of finding employment,” writes Hansen on his blog. “When you consider that four-fifths of the job market is `closed,’ meaning you can’t find out about available job openings unless you dig for them – prospect for them – this method of job-hunting takes on great importance.”

From mistress_f on Flickr

Hansen recommends using cold-calling as one part of this job-hunting strategy:

First, identify potential employers in your area.

Second, call those employers and ask the person who answers the phone for the names of managers who hire people for the kind of job you are seeking.

Third, send a strong cover letter and resume to each of those hiring managers.

Fourth, call those managers to ask for an informational interview – not a job interview. In an informational interview, you ask general questions about gaining an entrée into the profession or about other potential employers in the area. Hanson explains, “Even if the majority of them say there are no current openings, interviewing with them gives you the opportunity to dazzle them – and then ask for referrals to other employers who might have job openings available.”

Medical Administrative Assisting Blog is sponsored by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a leading healthcare career school. UMA has campus locations in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, as well as a national online program. For more information about UMA please visit our website at www.ultimatemedical.edu

Are you currently working or planning to work from home? Are you concerned about the huge amounts of data that are piling up on your home computer? Here are a few of the best ways to backup your work:

Photo by shanghai daddy on Flickr

Mozy – This is an online backup service that takes your data and stores it somewhere “off-site”. Off-site means that the data is backed up somewhere away from your computer. The benefit of this is that no matter what happens to your electronics or your living space (theft, fire, etc), your data is still protected. Mozy offers 2 GB of storage for free, which is usually sufficient for your word documents and other essential files. There is also an unlimited service that costs $4.95 per month.

Other online storage services to consider: Carbonite, VaultLogix, Data Deposit Box

CrashPlan – Crashplan is a service that backs up all of your data to another personal computer. The service is free and is another great option to get your data off-site. You can backup your data to any computer as long as they agree to accept it. As the website says, “Back up to as many destinations as you want: in your house, across town or across the country!”

External Hard-Drives – These serve as extensions of your computer’s hard drive and are available in a variety of sizes and prices, depending on how much data you need to backup. Depending on the speed of your computer, and the size of your hard drive, backing up your data could be a time consuming process. Also, if you lose the hard drive – which can be as small as a wallet – all your data will be gone. Check out Deal News for weekly specials on external hard-drives.

CD/DVD – This is the cheapest available option, and since most PCs are now equipped with CD burners, there are few obstacles in getting started. Since this is the cheapest option, however, there are some concerns; it can take considerable time and discs to backup large drives, and CDs can be easily scratched and ruined without proper caution. If you only need to backup a little bit of crucial data, and are confident in your care for the discs, then CD/DVD may be your best option for data backup.

Do you have any advice on the best data backup options? Please leave us a comment and let us know what has worked for you!

Medical Administrative Assisting Blog is sponsored by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a leading healthcare career school. UMA has campus locations in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, as well as a national online program.  For more information about UMA please visit our website atwww.ultimatemedical.edu

Note: This post was originally posted on our Medical Billing and Coding Blog. Check it out for more information!

“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back…”

- Maya Angelou, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Is it possible to manage workflow that comes to you from two, three or more bosses?

It can be done, but it can also be a challenge. Consider these words from a medical biller and coder who works for a small group of physicians:

“Each doctor thinks that his or her work is priority one,” she states. “And since I am not really in a position to say no to any of them, I feel like I am being pulled in all directions while my in-basket piles higher and higher.”

So, how can you manage workflow from multiple bosses? Here are some suggestions from a variety of experts.

Suggestion One: Let Your Bosses Decide what Comes First

Get conflicting bosses into one room and let them help set your priorities. But don’t use this tactic if both bosses are already fighting aggressively for your time – you could end up with an even bigger pile of work and no resolution.

Source: Adapted from the book Managing Multiple Bosses: How to Juggle Priorities, Personalities & Projects – and Make It Look Easy by Pat Nickerson (AMACOM books, 1998).

Suggestion Two: Keep a Time Log

Simply keep a calendar for three or four days where you log exactly what you worked on, in 15-minute increments. If certain bosses are claiming an unbalanced share of your time, your time log should provide documentation that things are not being handled fairly.

Source: Adapted from the book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein (Signet, 1989).

Suggestion Three: Schedule Individual Meetings with Your Bosses

Schedule time with each one. Explain that you want to handle everyone’s work more effectively, explain the workload you are dealing with, and ask them to make suggestions. Asking for help in this way is more effective than saying no to new work.

Source: Management consultant Jennifer B. Kahnweiler writing on AMANET.com.

Suggestion Four: Ask Your Bosses to Assign a Number Priority to Each Piece of Work

If you get your bosses to assign a priority rank to each piece of work they give you, you then have a system in place that helps you first tackle the work they say is most important.

Source: Advice on Monster.com’s AdminSecret blog.

Suggestion Five: Make It All Visible

Set up a different inbox where each of your supervisors should place work that is being delegated to you. Make sure to set up this area so that all delegators can see how their demands compare to those of other delegators.

Source: Barry Lenson, contributing editor to this blog. Barry was senior editor at the National Institute of Business Management for more than 10 years.

And another tactic . . .

Saying “can you help me set priorities for the work you are giving me?” can be a subtle, yet effective, way to get your bosses to accept the fact that not every piece of work they give you is your #1 priority. As Maya Angelou implies in the quote that opens this post, you sometimes have to set up boundaries on the work that others give to you.

Medical Billing and Coding Blog is sponsored by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a leading healthcare career school. UMA has campus locations in Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, as well as a national online program.  For more information about UMA please visit our website at www.ultimatemedical.edu

It’s easy to find ourselves stuck in the grind of everyday, especially when working or taking classes from home. We get into the same weekly routine and take little time to think about what we are actually doing. Are you growing? Are you pushing yourself? There is a question that I ask myself at the end of every week. It is simple:

What did I learn last week?

The secret to moving forward, in life, in school, in a job, anywhere, is that you have to be constantly learning and growing, and be aware of that learning and growth. Some things to think about when you ask yourself this question:

1. Internalize information.

Picture by Jorge Franganillo on Flickr

2. Find learning in unexpected places.

Think of every experience as an opportunity to learn about yourself. Sometimes we learn the most when things go wrong. Instead of complaining about it (and wasting energy), ask yourself, “What have I learned about myself from this experience?” and move on.

3. Don’t over-think.

Don’t stress over whether you are absorbing every concrete detail of your work. It is impossible to be fully engaged 100% of the time. Instead of stressing over little details, take a look at the big picture. What are you learning from your experiences? Be aware of your growth and set goals so that you know you are moving in the right direction.

So, what did you learn last week?

“Top 10 Unbelievable Interview Blunders,” an article on CareerBuilder.com, tells some really funny stories about blunders that job-seekers have committed in interviews. There was the man who asked his interviewer to leave her own office so he could have a “private” conversation on his cell phone.  And the candidate who asked his interviewer for a ride home after the interview. And the man who told his interviewer that he was “a people person, not a numbers person” – even though he was applying for an accounting job.

Job-seekers with common sense would never make mistakes like those. But the problem is, even smart people can make small blunders that tarnish their images.  The most common mistakes seem to be scuffed shoes, stained ties and excessive jewelry.  But other problems can be overlooked by smart job-seekers too. Here are some basic points to cover, adapted from “Dressing for Success”, an article by Alison Doyle on About.com.

Women’s Interview Attire . . .

• Moderate shoes
• Limited jewelry
• Neat, professional hairstyle
• Tan or light hosiery
• Sparse make-up and perfume
• Manicured nails
• Portfolio or briefcase

Men’s Interview Attire . . .

• Dark socks, professional shoes
• Very limited jewelry
• Neat, professional hairstyle
• Go easy on the aftershave
• Neatly trimmed nails
• Portfolio or briefcase

Have you made mistakes in interview that you would like to help other job-seekers avoid? If so, please take a moment to tell us about them on this blog.

Note: This post was originally published on Medical Billing and Coding Blog.