Wyoming's Best Medical Assistant Programs: Online & Campus

Inside Online Medical Assistant Programs in Wyoming

Your success as a medical assistant in Wyoming starts with choosing the online or hybrid program that suits your distinctive academic needs and career goals. Must-have items on your list include proper accreditation, study flexibility and convenience, affordability, and a curriculum that provides the skills you’ll need to stand out in the MA field.

Medical assistant programs can lead to a diploma or an associate degree. The associate degree takes longer, so a diploma program might be your best bet if you’re eager to get into the workforce. However, if you’re able to spend some more time in school, having that associate degree can prepare you for more responsibility.

Whatever you choose, be sure your program qualifies you to obtain one or more of the important medical assistant professional certifications that employers want.

FAQs for Wyoming Medical Assistant Students

It’s not unusual to still have questions even after you look at some standout medical assistant programs, as there’s a lot to consider when making this important choice. The questions and answers below are what prospective students typically ask, so they’re equipped to choose the program that’s right for them.

Why should my MA program be accredited?

Accreditation provides a way for you to be sure that a program meets important standards of academic quality. Also, most medical assistant professional certifications require completion of an accredited MA program. The two basic forms of accreditation are institutional and programmatic. Institutional accreditation has to do with the academic quality of the postsecondary institution as a whole, and programmatic accreditation focuses on the academic quality of a program in a specific discipline. The two organizations that oversee the accreditation of medical assistant programs in the U.S. are the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools and the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.

How much does a medical assistant program cost?

The costs of campus and online medical assistant programs in Wyoming vary, sometimes substantially, depending on the specific credential awarded and whether the school is public or private. You’ll find that MA programs offered by Wyoming community-college-system schools all charge the same state-mandated per-credit tuition rates: $105 for Wyoming residents, $158 for Western Undergraduate Exchange program students, and $315 for all others. This makes their certificate programs among the most affordable in the state. If you are opting for a more expensive program, you can significantly reduce the cost by taking advantage of financial aid resources available to students.

What are some examples of certified medical assistant exams?

The medical assistant field offers a number of professional certifications, each with its own specific education and experience requirements, and the most popular one is from the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). Most accredited medical assistant education programs give you the skills you need to pass the certification exam, but you’ll still need to spend some time and effort preparing for the exam on top of completing your Wyoming online MA program. The AAMA and NNAAP offer test prep resources including practice exams, textbooks, and review courses.

Can a medical assistant program be entirely online?

Yes, there are fully online programs such as the self-paced course at Casper College. However, it’s more common for programs to require an in-person lab or externship. As discussed in the spotlights, NWC’s CMA program requires on-campus attendance for two of the certificate’s eight required courses. And although Herzing University’s features 100% online academic coursework, students must still complete lab and externship requirements in person at a program-approved medical facility in the state.

What kind of work is available for MAs in Wyoming?

In the simplest terms, medical assistants do exactly what the job title says: They assist physicians, nurses, and other licensed medical team members in providing patient care and treatment. They’re employed in hospitals, outpatient clinics, physician’s offices, urgent care clinics, palliative care facilities, and virtually everywhere healthcare services are practiced. MAs are also employed in non-treatment settings such as diagnostic labs, medical research facilities, insurance companies, and health-services-related administrative agencies. Medical assistant job duties and responsibilities fall into two general categories: clinical and administrative. According to the AAMA, Wyoming MAs can perform any task that a licensed medical provider delegates to them, as long as they have learned those skills.

Certifications and Continuing Education in Wyoming

Wyoming is a state that does not require certification, registration, or licensing to practice as a medical assistant. Still, it’s not a bad idea to get certified, since employers are more likely to hire MAs if they’ve taken and passed a national exam to prove their skills in this profession.

There are several tests you can take for MA certification, and they all feature material you learned in your MA program. The CMA exam from the AAMA costs $125 for members of the association and $250 for everyone else. The National Healthcareer Association also has a test and it ranges from $155-$165.

If you do decide to certify, you will need to take continuing education credits before you have to renew the certification. For instance, the AAMA requires that you complete 30 hours of CE courses a year, with two hours of ethics classes as part of that effort.

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