Introduction
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Introduction
Welcome to the Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA) study guide. This study guide helps
you prepare for the National Healthcareer Association’s CMAA certification exam. CMAAs qualify for
employment in a variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, and physicians offices. As a CMAA, you
will not provide direct patient care. You will provide administrative support to make sure other health
care providers can promptly and efficiently deliver patient care. As a CMAA, you have an array of duties.
One of your responsibilities may be managing and overseeing the basic financial aspects of your clinic or
office, and you’re often the most visible representative in your workplace. You constantly interact with
other businesses, health care professionals, and health care agencies that are directly or indirectly
involved with patient care. You also schedule appointments; help register patients; and speak with
health insurance companies, laboratories, pharmacies, and other clinics, hospitals, and physicians’
offices. As a CMAA, you interact with patients and clients face to face, over the phone, through the mail,
and email. Chapter 1 presents an overview on scheduling. You’ll get a brief overview of all the
administrative tasks that a CMAA performs. These include greeting patients, obtaining and entering
basic information into a patient’s medical record, answering the phone, updating medical records, and
handling different types of correspondence. Chapter 2 focuses on patient demographics, verifying
insurance information, making sure that patient forms are all up-to-date, making sure that the
encounter form is prepared for the visit, and preparing charts. Chapter 3 teaches you about office
logistics. Because medical practices are so busy, it’s always important to stay organized. You’ll learn
about paper and electronic filing systems, how to determine patient fees, and basic bookkeeping. In
addition to discussing how you sort and deliver mail, this chapter also details the different classes of
mail. These include first-class, registered, and certified, plus private companies such as FedEx. In chapter
4, you’ll learn about how HIPAA protects a patient’s privacy. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) enforces laws to keep the workplace safe. This chapter also teaches you about
preparing paperwork for Medicare and Medicaid claims to prevent fraud. In chapter 5, you’ll learn about
the Patient’s Bill of Rights. This document has eight points that you need to understand: information
disclosure, choice of providers and plans, emergency services, participation in treatment decisions,
respect and nondiscrimination, confidentiality and health information, complaints and appeals, and
consumer responsibilities. Also in this chapter, you’ll learn what responsibilities a patient with insurance
needs to follow. These include understanding terms and the ability to meet obligations. Lastly, chapter 5
discusses your responsibility to explain medical procedure preparation to patients. Chapter 6 gives you
