Administrative Duties
Administrative Duties
The Administrative Duties domain tests the front-office and business tasks of medical assisting: scheduling, registration, medical records, HIPAA, insurance verification, billing, telephone communication, supplies, and office finance. Items often ask for the next correct action when a request conflicts with privacy or office policy.
Core rules
- HIPAA: release protected health information only with a valid written authorization unless the request is for treatment, payment, or health care operations, or is required by law. Use the minimum necessary information.
- Scheduling: match appointment length to visit type, reserve buffer slots for urgent visits, document cancellations, and follow the office recall system for follow-up.
- Medical records: document objectively, chronologically, and promptly. Correct an error with a single line, date, time, and initials; never erase, scribble out, or use correction fluid.
- Billing: verify insurance eligibility before the visit; collect copays and past-due balances according to policy; explain the difference between the provider’s charge, the allowed amount, and the patient responsibility.
Worked example
A patient’s attorney calls and asks for the patient’s office notes. The assistant should not read the record over the phone or fax it on request. Verify the caller, obtain a signed authorization from the patient that names the attorney and the records requested, confirm the authorization includes the patient’s signature, date, expiration, and right to revoke, then release only the authorized pages and document the disclosure.
Traps
Do not confirm to a caller whether a person is a patient. Do not leave detailed clinical information on voicemail. Do not release records to a spouse or adult child without authorization. Do not alter a record after a records request. Do not give a diagnosis to an insurance caller without verifying identity and limiting the information to the minimum necessary.