How to Become a Certified Medical Assistant – CMA (AAMA)?

Principally, the CMA (AAMA) is well thought-out to be the gold standard of medical assistant occupation. This valuable certification corresponds to a medical assistant who has been licensed by the authorizing board of the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). The CMA (AAMA) offers a superior reputation among your co-workers as well as a superior job safety. The ‘National Board of Examiners’ who is in charge of a lot of nationalized examinations for many doctors and physicians acts as a test advisor for the CMA (AAMA) certification examination. Accordingly, the dependability, strength, and safety of the examination is of the maximum range.

A huge number of companies and employers have a preference (most of the cases insists) for medical assistants who has a CMA (AAMA) certification to hire. The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) employees receive more than hundreds of requests every day to authenticate whether present or upcoming medical assistant human resources hold a CMA (AAMA) title. Following are the basic 9-steps on how to become a Certified Medical Assistant CMA (AAMA):

1. Check whether you are qualified

Review the CMA (AAMA) certification (or re-certification) examination eligibility criteria to know whether you are eligible to attend the CMA (AAMA) certification exam.

2. Register yourself in a recognized medical assistant training program

Nowadays, innumerable training schools offers medical assistant training programs. Ensure that the training school you select is a recognized one.

3. Inquire about the training program

After you discover an accredited medical assistant training program or speak to the course administrator (or check the training school’s website) to get answers to your questions about the training program. Some of the important (mock-up) questions you might wish to raise are as follows:

• What is the total training cost?
• Is there any financial help alternatives?
• What are the edifying prerequisites?
• What is the course duration of the training program?
• What are the major topics that are covered in the program curriculum?
• What does the practicum session entail?

In addition to the major courses offered in the training program, you should also complete a practicum session. That is to say, a voluntary, administered on-site job experience in an ambulatory medical location. This practicum session is a major element of the training program.

4. Apply for the examination

Fill in the application form and submit the obligatory credentials and also the enrollment charge. The mandatory credentials depends especially on your enrollment grouping.

Getting a membership in the American Association of Medical Assistants will give you grand benefits that will lend you a hand on your occupation pathway. If you are an associate or a member of either the AAMA or ABHES/ CAAHE finishing student (or fresh graduate), your application fee would be $125. All the other non-members would pay $250. All these charges are non-transferable and non-refundable.

5. Mode of payments

AAMA does not accept personal checks. All the candidate fees should be paid through any of the following modes of payment:

• Credit card
• Debit card
• Money order
• Cashier’s check
• Qualified check
• Organization check

All the applications that are submitted without appropriate compensation or fee will hold up the scheduling of your examination appointment. At times, it may also be sent back to you due to improper enrolling fee or documentation. If all your official documents are proper, the certification unit of AAMA will notify about the status of your application within thirty days of the date you have mailed your application form.

6. Get an appointment for your examination

Once your application has been accepted, it will be processed. You will then receive an email that has complete instructions about your scheduling consent. This will be sent no more than twenty days before the beginning of your 90-days examination period.

What should you do after you receive the email?

• Go online and take a print out of the scheduling consent.
• Use this scheduling consent to make an appointment for your CMA (AAMA) exam.
• Carry the scheduling consent to your examination center.

7. Prepare for the exam

The most essential thing that you should do before your examination is preparing for it earnestly. You can go through the sources given below to get started:

• First, evaluate the content delineate for the exam. Keep this content delineate as a roadmap for finding out the examination topics that you should focus on. Refer to some of the recent medical assistant books that cover up areas such as, clinical and administrative procedures, physiology & anatomy, medical terms and expressions, medical rules & regulations and medical laboratory procedures. All these topics are very important to concentrate on.
• So as to gain confidence about the examination, you can attend the AAMA (practice) exams. This exam will help you evaluate your existing knowledge in the medical areas such as, physiology, anatomy and medical terms.
• If any recognized medical assistant program or a neighboring division of the AAMA offers a CMA (AAMA) examination assessment course in your region, you can attend that examination. Being a member of AAMA will help you become associated with several other medical assistant professionals and students. Also, you will be given mailings for neighboring proceedings.

8. Qualify the CMA (AAMA) certification exam

If you qualify the exam successfully, you will be given an authorized certificate and a ‘wallet’ license card as a proof. Both the certificate and license will stand for your position and tell the world that you have accomplished your CMA (AAMA) certification successfully. After receiving this, you will be able to include your name and the official documentation on your resume. On top, you can use the credential wherever you wish to apply for a medical assistant job all over the country. You can also direct your employer to the website of AAMA where he/she may verify your CMA (AAMA) title. In addition, you will also gain the superior confidence and a great feeling that you have acquired the health industry’s superior standard for the medical assisting career – the CMA (AAMA) title.

9. Update your CMA (AAMA) credential

In order to ensure your existing capability and skill and hence care for your patients, you are obligated to update or re-certify your CMA certification once in every 5 years. You can do this by taking an examination or by updating your education. Try to get familiarize yourself with re-certification conditions in order to maintain your credentials up to date.