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Medical Assistant Certifying Bodies

Rules and regulations vary significantly from state to state. In most cases medical assistants are not required to be licensed, certified, or registered by their state or any professional healthcare organization.

Get this FREE  Career Information Kit As you already know, working medical assistants, as well as recent graduates from vocational training programs should seek certification as soon as possible to succeed!

 

The AAMA's Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) DOES NOT require an Associates degree in medical assisting. Their requirement is that you graduated with a valid diploma from a properly accredited and approved vocational training program.

karmaadm shared the following with us:
Re: RMA vs CMA (AAMA) - One better than the other?

  I have an associates degree, and I'm RMA. As far as employers: those who know that different agencies (AAMA, AMT) know that the credentialing exams are different. For example: the RMA focuses a lot on lab and technical aspects of MA. Many of my employers have preferred RMAs, instead of CMAs. And some vice-versa. Also, some employers don't even recognize a difference between the credentials: with either agency, you're still CERTIFIED...

The AMT's Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) (who is certified as such!) also has certain educational requirement, or at least 5 years of continuous experience through employment in the field.

*** Our heartfelt advice: KNOW your options. One easy way is to contact these associations and request their information - free.