A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Andrews Medical Admin Asst - Deb

Posted: Jan 04, 2015

Different Deb here (not Deb0515). I'm on the fence about this course. It would likely help me move from MT (now unemployed) into a medical office job. Just about all medical admins need to know a lot about insurance and it's possible Andrews covers this well. OTH, the course looks like it contains a lot of modules that I've got under my belt just from transcription. Not only that, I don't need classes in communication and how to act at work. Is anyone enrolled in this and would you mind sharing your thoughts? Thank you.

Thoughts on that - sm

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I am not enrolled in it, but I can tell what it contains from their website. Hopefully, someone will come along who is taking it, but I have not heard anyone here mention it.

You have already been working in healthcare, so you have a lot of that material under your belt already. What you do now is part of what a medical administrative assistant would do.

As you noted, medical assistants need to know about insurance, which includes basic coding and billing. Since those are the areas you need, you might consider taking just that alone. That is in their medical billing course. Don't be put off by the course title...admin assistants do need to know billing.

As they note, with your experience, you can probably complete it in record time, since you have the basics.

Their billing course is just $900. To me, that seems to be a very reasonable investment. It would make you widely marketable.

You would be better off to take a course at a college. - Thorough training, local contacts for jobs. SM

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If you're going to shell out money for classes, may as well get the full spectrum of it. You may know a lot, but employers want the most up to date training they can get in a candidate.

Most employers I know of would prefer a candidate trained in a school, rather than some online course.

The flaw in that logic - Good grief!

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The first flaw in that logic is that there are few "real" colleges that teach medical administrative assistant. Or billing, for that matter. The majority that do are for-profit diploma mills, i.e., "career colleges" that exist to suck up student loan eligibility from folks who don't know any better, i.e., the kind who can't tell the difference between a real college and a diploma mill. Across the country, they are actually under investigation for the kind of training and job assistance they provide.

The second is that real colleges teach online now and usually cannot provide local job support, if they ever did.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Andrews, though. They have an excellent reputation for providing some of the best training in the industry. Their students get jobs, too, because Andrews focuses on working skills and their students pass the most rigorous certifications ... the ones offered by the AAPC and AHIMA, not the fake ones set up by diploma mills.

I don't know where you got your information. There are quite a lot of jobs for medical admin assistants. I don't think the OP needs to take most of it, but the billing option sounds good.

Colleges don't teach dead careers, that's why they don't offer it. nm - IMO

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xx

colleges MOST CERTAINLY DO teach dead careers!!! - the brick and mortar I went to

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still teaches MT!!

I think you might be correct about the - Deb

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billing course. Thanks for your reply.

Just say no. Don't pay money to that school for that course sm - IMO

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You'd do better taking a real college course in your area. There really are very few openings for this "medical admin assistant" job. You won't be qualified to be an office manager and you still wouldn't even be qualified to do any medical assisting. The best you could do is be a receptionist/appointment scheduler.

There is actually a large number of - Deb

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medical administrative assistant jobs in my area; there are four hospitals within a 15 mile radius and innumerable practices. I wouldn't expect to be an office manager right out of the gate, but the insurance knowledge and perhaps basic knowledge of coding and billing would open up opportunities in insurance companies, assisted living facilities, as well as nonprofits. That being said, I'm going to explore other training ops in addition to Andrews. The billing course does look better than the admin course. My local community college programs don't look that attractive for the money, which is >$1k per course.

The Andrews School - OKMT

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The Andrews School is one of the most respected schools around for MT, coding, and billing. Linda Andrews has been in business for as long as I can remember here in Oklahoma. In fact, I plan to take their coding course so by the time I finish, I'll be ICD-10 trained and ready to sit for my CCS credentialing exam. This is not a fly-by-night found on the back of a comic book school. I've even thought about taking the billing course after I finish coding just to make myself more marketable. I wish you luck in your new career! I wish I'd started last spring when I first thought about it. Oh well!

Satisfied grad of "That School" - CCS, CPC, great job

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Your antagonism toward "That School" is unusual. Gosh. Did you perhaps fail the entrance test?

I didn't need her school. I know of Linda Andrews sm - IMO

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and I have been an MT since the 1990s.

Linda Andrews is just making up courses now because her main source of money is drying up.

Who needs an online "course" on how to become a glorified secretary?

Two years in nursing school would be FAR better for a lasting and meaningful income. When you get a nursing job, much of the time your employer will assist with tuition to advance your degree for a higher level of nursing.

A much better use of your time.

Nursing school is a great option - Deb

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if you want to be a nurse! That's the last thing I want to be.

Don't want to be a nurse, that's fine, but by going to the sm - IMO

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field of "medical administrative assistant", you are really limiting yourself to a salary of between $30K and $40K, is this what you call progress?

For now, yes, it is a step up because it - Deb

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will make me more marketable. Are you the person who has medical assistant and medical administrative assistant confused?

No, that's not me, I know the difference. In fact, that's sm - IMO

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what I did before I did MT. There has been next-to-no salary growth for that job and in some areas of the country the salary has been cut or that position becomes eliminated and the duties are rolled into someone else's job at the same place.

You have to keep one thing in mind when you're choosing anything in the health care field. If you aren't making money for them, you are leaving yourself open to being eliminated/downsized. A nurse or a radiology tech makes them money. Any clerical position DOES NOT make them money and is something that can be eliminated budget-wise.

Radiology techs are now all pt or per diem - in-my-neck-of-woods

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--

Do you just want to argue? Regardless, they make money sm - IMO

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for any facility versus the "medical administrative assistant" or whatever they call it now, who is viewed by the administration as a giant black hole sucking up money.

The bottom line is--in order to find a health care career that lasts, it must be one where you are creating revenue and you need to be there in person to do.

Argue? I'm just sharing an observation - where-I-work

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Lighten up! Happy New Year!

agreed any sort of paper pusher takes money versus makes money - thats why coding is a good field

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you are making them big bucks so of course they are going to keep you!

agreed. For the time and money spent you arent getting - the most return possible

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and you can be so easily replaced by a lower wage employee or an automated system. Hope you think this through.

agreed. And a medical assisting degree is such a load of bull - see inside

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you are MUCH better off spending those 2 years getting an RN degree. I know medical assistants that either can't find a job or are making just above min wage.

Comments - Skeptical

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Medical administrative assistant and medical assistant are 2 different things. If a person wants to be a medical assistant, it is not possible to do it online because you have clinicals and need to work with live patients. In regard to medical administrative assistant, there are brick and mortar college programs. In some ways these are better because sometimes they provide internships or give people real world interaction in the workplace. I'm not questioning the integrity of Andrews; they seem to well known in the Southwest (Oklahoma, Texas) and seem to have a loyal regional following. In the Northwest where I live, no one has heard of them. Truthfully, most employers out here balk at hiring anyone who has done a "correspondence course." I would say to try to take a program from a nationally recognized school or university and attend classes on site if you can. Andrews is still teaching a medical transcription program, which tells me that they are in it for the buck, not for placing students in lucrative careers.

about Andrews transcription course - me

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I agree with you about the Andrews Transcription course. M-TEC was ethical and stopped with their transcription course years ago, when they realized medical transcription was on its last legs. I am very disappointed that one of the schools that is considered the best would not do the same...and not just take unsuspecting students' money for a dying profession.

I agree. I once regarded her in the highest esteem, but sm - IMO

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continuing to teach people a "field" that is a shadow of itself and is going the way of the dinosaur isn't ethical at all. The coding course I have no issue with, that is still a viable career. MT is not and to continue taking a significant amount of money from people for that "career" is a money grab. I wonder if she's trying to make it to retirement any way she can.

I think you are failing to see part of the story. - Judgemental much?

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I think your estimate of how packed that MT course is and how much money she is raking in is greatly exaggerated. And, frankly, the reason it is still on the website may be for nothing more than historical perspective. Graduates still need to reference it and will for years to come. I doubt if she encourages anyone toward it.

There is an unpleasant, sly tone to your posts. I think your comments are inappropriate.

Agree with "Skeptical" - sm

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I have never heard of Andrews except on this board and I by no means live a sheltered life. It is just that, a correspondence school. And that's not to down them in any way, but they do fit the definition.

Regarding the administrative medical assistant, I went to their website to look for their curriculum and see what it consists of for this program and I guess you must get the curriculum if you call and ask for it? It's not on their website and the course description really does not give enough information for me to me give much feedback.

I worked for a large multispecialty clinic for a while as a medical assistant and (clinical side/direct patient care) and I know at that clinic you would probably only likely get hired as a front office receptionist with slightly more pay than what they would typically start a front office person out with based on the fact you have taken this course. Do the medical billing as the above person suggested, it will add an additional marketable skill to your resume and that combined with your years of medical transcription would speak for itself on your resume. The administrative medical assistant and transcription combined really does not make you stand out, employers will look at your resume and see just another clerical worker, but having that billing experience will make you stand out at least.

Sorry for any typos, I didn't proofread and I'm typing in an awkward position right now.

The curriculum is in the catalog and it is - on the website.

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Looks clear enough to me.

Curious to know what your definition of correspondence is and why that is so important to you. If it isn't to "down them," why does it look so negative when you are pointing it out? Also curious as to how you are so sure it is correspondence if you know so little about it that you can't even find the curriculum.

To skeptical - Andrews grad

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Regarding your statement "Andrews is still teaching a medical transcription program, which tells me that they are in it for the buck, not for placing students in lucrative careers." While I might tend to agree with you that maybe it's time to stop teaching MT, although there is probably going to be a need for editors for quite some time, here's what I have to say about Andrews, particularly Linda Andrews:

Linda Andrews is one of the most honest and down to earth people I have ever known. I know for a fact that she tells potential MT students about the current situation of MT. Then, after discussing this with them (she is always willing to talk to anyone on the phone or by email), she leaves it up to them to choose. To me, this does not tell me that she is "in it for the buck." Of course, this is just my opinion.

Also in a position to know, and agree with that. - Also Andrews grad

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NM

You're confusing medical administrative - assistant

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with medical assistant.

so you need a degree to be a glorified medical secretary? please - there are much better ways to spend your

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time and money. Like the above-mentioned RN degree or computer information science. Why would you limit yourself to the medical field? It's just insanity.

Does Andrews offer a degree? - Nope

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.

Excuse me? Your post contradicts - itself.

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It looks as though you people just showed up to argue. Now we are back to another episode of let-me-tell-you-what-is-wrong-with-everything-you-want-to-do.

First you recommend nursing or computer information science. Then you say "why would you limit yourself to the medical field?" Huh?

That is not helpful advice. It is not healthy discussion. It is just being argumentative. It is just countering every statement with the opposite in order to gain the upper hand.

Medical Billing/Admin - Good Vibrations

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I went with the medical billing course where you can pay as you go. Sorry, that's all I can afford right now.

I'm leaning in the same direction, I think, as you are, as far as trying to get my foot in the door in a medical office.

I live in Atlanta area. What I am seeing is that the medical assistant positions also require some patient interaction, even to the point of being able to take blood, etc.

I am hoping to eventually get the billing and find a medical office job somewhere. Front office seems to be the one that requires the least amount of patient contact. Don't get me wrong, I used to love working with people, probably still do, but don't now want to also try to get certified as a lab technician.

Oh yeah, seems like everyone around here wants you to be bilingual, so now looks like I may have to take a Spanish as a second language course.

I'm just about ready just to hone my office skills and just go to standard business environment and throw in the towel altogether with medical.

Fortunately, things are going just fine where I am working now, but I just don't feel like I have any job security whatsoever.

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