Medical Office Professional, AAS

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Medical office professionals perform office managerial tasks. They work with electronic health records software to schedule appointments, submit claims to insurance, and bill patients. They also utilize customer service, communication, and computer skills to work with customers and potentially oversee other staff. Carl Sandburg College offers an associate’s degree program designed to build on the medical office assistant certificate. Courses in medical coding; insurance and billing; anatomy and physiology; biomedical ethics; and diversity are completed during the remaining two semesters.

Medical Office Professional AAS program goals

This degree is designed to prepare the graduate for a position in a medical office. In addition to general office skills, a graduate will acquire expertise in medical coding, insurance and billing, transcription and electronic health records. Upon completion of this certificate the program completer will be able to:

Be prepared for career opportunities within a medical office,
Understand medical coding principles using the most current versions of ICD and CPT,
Understand how to arrive at the correct coding assignments for both diagnosis and in-patient procedures,
Understand medical terms from roots, combining forms, prefixes and suffixes,
Be prepared to appropriately code procedures to medical records as well as assign any modifiers using the CPT book and concepts,
Utilize skills in using software to record health records in a medical office, and
Transcribe medical documents using transcription equipment and computers.

Working conditions

Most medical office assistants work in comfortable office settings. Virtual assistants typically work from a home office.

Employment

Graduates are qualified for office positions in a clinic or hospital, for positions as assistants in a medical office or medical billing/insurance assistants.

Admission to the program: Open

See the admissions & registration page for steps to enroll.

Department of Career & Technical Education

2400 Tom L. Wilson Blvd.
Galesburg, IL 61401
309.341.5216

For additional information contact:

The Welcome Center
Phone: 309.345.3500
admissions@sandburg.edu

For graduation requirements:

See the graduation policies and procedures page for details .

Degree requirements

First year

Fall semester

AOP 100 - Careers for the Office Professional Credit(s): 1
AOP 101 - Keyboarding & Formatting 1 Credit(s): 3
AOP 130 - Electronic Health Records Credit(s): 2
BOC 120 - Customer Service Credit(s): 2
MDT 100 - Medical Terminology Credit(s): 2
ACC 100 - Procedural Accounting Credit(s): 3
or ACC 101 - Principles of Financial Accounting Credit(s): 3
ICT 120 - Computer Information Systems Credit(s): 3

Spring semester

AOP 102 - Keyboarding & Formatting 2 Credit(s): 3
AOP 201 - Business English Credit(s): 2
AOP 231 - Advanced Electronic Health Records Credit(s): 3
BOC 106 - Business Records Management Credit(s): 3
SPE 110 - Interpersonal Communication Credit(s): 3
or SPE 120 - Introduction to Public Speaking Credit(s): 3

Second year

Fall semester

AOP 203 - Office Procedures Credit(s): 3
BIO 111 - Anatomy & Physiology Fundamentals Credit(s): 4
BOC 102 - Business Communications Credit(s): 3
MDC 102 - Medical Coding Cpt Credit(s): 3
PSY 101 - Introduction to Psychology Credit(s): 3
or SOC 101 - Introduction to Sociology Credit(s): 3

Spring semester

MDC 101 - Medical Coding Icd Credit(s): 3
PHL 103 - Biomedical Ethics Credit(s): 3
SOC 203 - Introduction to Diversity Credit(s): 3
AOP 234 - Insurance & Billing in the Medical Office Credit(s): 3
AOP 291 - Professional Internship 1 Credit(s): 3
or AOP 292 - Professional Internship 2 Credit(s): 3

Total semester hours: 61

Faculty

Ellen Burns
Dean of Career and Technical Education

Galesburg campus

Carthage campus

Annex

Medical Office Professional, AAS