Let’s talk about the difference between certified vs non-certified medical assistants. The differences come in many forms, from the roles you’ll be responsible for to the salary you’ll be eligible to receive at the start of a new job.
Career prospects for certified medical assistants are bright.
Certified medical assistants enjoy several advantages in the job market. Many employers, particularly larger healthcare organizations, prioritize hiring them because they have training in clinical procedures and administrative tasks and are fluent in medical terminology.
Certification often allows CMAs to perform more advanced clinical tasks, such as administering injections or assisting in minor surgical procedures.
Comparing salaries and wages for certified vs non-certified medical assistants.
Certified medical assistants typically earn higher wages than their non-certified counterparts. In the state of Texas, salaries for certified medical assistants are about $25 per hour compared to $17 per hour for non-certified medical assistants.
The gap in wages is probably related to the value-add that certified medical assistants offer. Essentially, certifications verify the expertise and ability of candidates to take on complex tasks.
In general, certified medical assistants are more likely to receive benefits such as paid time off, health insurance, and opportunities for career advancement.
Where can non-certified medical assistants find employment?
Non-certified medical assistants can still find employment in the healthcare field, particularly in smaller clinics, private practices, or in underserved areas where the demand for support staff is high.
Rather than performing patient work-ups, non-certified medical assistants are typically assigned administrative tasks like scheduling appointments, managing patient records, and answering phones. In other words, they perform less specialized tasks and lack the clinical depth of positions available to medical assistants with certifications.
Is a certificate in medical assisting worth it?
The short answer is “maybe.” It depends on where you are in your life and what you expect to achieve in your career—perhaps even why you want to achieve a certain level of success, as we call it.
If you can live comfortably on $17 per hour and enjoy the predictability that comes with clerical work, then a certificate and, by extension, our entire training program is simply not worth it. However, if you do end up changing your mind and do not have a certification, it will be very challenging to compete for positions in hospitals or specialty clinics, where certification is often a prerequisite.
A certificate is absolutely worth it if you need a starting salary of, say, $25 per hour and want to work with patients in more dynamic environments. Is training a time commitment? Yes. Is it an expense? Yes, though NTX is affordable compared to colleges and other institutions.
Think about it: By the time you finish your first year of employment at $25 per hour, you’ve earned back the expense of training and built the foundation for a larger career.
Start Medical Assistant Training at NTX Training Institute.
We provide training over a four-month period and offer certification testing at the end of that period. You only need to be 18 years old and have a high school diploma or GED to get started, so enroll in our training program today!
