Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Health ScienceO*NET 43-6013.00United States
Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties may include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence.
- Median annual earnings
- $45,926
- Projected change
- +8.5%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 979.15K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
53% of the workforce
Growing to 1.06M by 2035
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These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What medical secretaries and administrative assistants do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Answer telephones and direct calls to appropriate staff.
- Schedule and confirm patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations.
- Complete insurance or other claim forms.
- Receive and route messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff.
- Greet visitors, ascertain purpose of visit, and direct them to appropriate staff.
- Maintain medical records, technical library, or correspondence files.
- Transmit correspondence or medical records by mail, e-mail, or fax.
- Interview patients to complete documents, case histories, or forms, such as intake or insurance forms.
- Operate office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and use word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records.
- Perform bookkeeping duties, such as credits or collections, preparing and sending financial statements or bills, and keeping financial records.
- Perform various clerical or administrative functions, such as ordering and maintaining an inventory of supplies.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $35,922
- 25th percentile
- $38,563
- 50th percentile
- $45,926
- 75th percentile
- $50,586
- 90th percentile
- $60,528
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $45,926 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+8.5%faster than average
2025979,150 jobs
2035 projected1,062,300 jobs
83,150 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 53%
- Associate degree
- 26%
- Certificate
- 19.9%
- Some college
- 1.2%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Medical Receptionists16,451 postings
- 02Dental Receptionists4,908 postings
- 03Unit Secretaries4,415 postings
- 04Medical Front Desk Receptionists3,265 postings
- 05Medical Secretaries1,640 postings
- 06Dental Front Desk Receptionists1,317 postings
- 07Front Desk Receptionists939 postings
- 08Dental Front Office Coordinators886 postings
- 09Medical Front Office Receptionists846 postings
- 10Front Desk Coordinators805 postings
- 11Clinic Receptionists745 postings
- 12Dental Office Receptionists723 postings
- 13Medical Screeners - Reception Technician638 postings
- 14Dental Treatment Coordinators565 postings
- 15Clinical Receptionists540 postings
- 16Bilingual Medical Receptionists444 postings
- 17Veterinary Receptionists368 postings
- 18Medical Front Office Coordinators362 postings
- 19Medical Front Office Specialists353 postings
- 20Hospital Unit Secretaries349 postings
Top employers
- 01CSL631 postings
- 02Trinity Health564 postings
- 03Robert Half492 postings
- 04NYU Langone Health445 postings
- 05TEKsystems296 postings
- 06Sage Dental258 postings
- 07Aya Healthcare220 postings
- 08HCA Healthcare219 postings
- 09Advanced Dermatology And Cosmetic Surgery203 postings
- 10American Family Care203 postings
- 11CenterWell Home Health177 postings
- 12Centerwell Limited Partnership174 postings
- 13WS Audiology Denmark165 postings
- 14Pediatric Associates164 postings
- 15RadNet163 postings
- 16Hackensack Meridian Health156 postings
- 17Heartland Dental155 postings
- 18PetCo154 postings
- 19Ascension153 postings
- 20CityMD149 postings
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