how come any place i apply at its either 7:50 or 8 bucks an hr? i though i was supposed to get at LEAST 10 bucks an wh

one doctor was suprised he couldnt pay 5:15 anymore

did i pick the wrong job to get into

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? no

Yes,we all did. Medical assisting is one of the most easiest programs to get into. Many schools will accept any student,no matter what their intelligence is. It's also one of the most deceptive. This is a field that will promise anyone interested that it's the "fastest growing field" and that doctor's offices have a shortage of MAs,so that there are plenty of jobs. There's the line about being as close to a nurse as you can get,and that MAs were overtaking LPNs,as if all these LPNS were going to be kicked out of their jobs to make way for MAs. The pay is a lie,all students are told there are no jobs that pay out less than $10 an hour. There is never any talk about having a loan hanging over your head for years and years and how there are some that don't have a prayer of ever getting a job in this field since they have the reading ability of a second grader. Yet they were allowed to enter the program and were passed along. That in itself is an outrage and the reason so many of these schools should be shut down. All they are doing is taking advantage of a lot of people.

You need to say which state are you from so that others who are in it and see your post and are wondering if they should get into one of the many programs there are out there will know that those that get a good paying MA job,much less a job,are the EXCEPTION and NOT the rule.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Trained and certified,for nothing

Are You Still In School? No,and I thank God each day

Are You Working? Take a guess

before leaving for nursing school and after working in the same place for five years I was only making 9/hr without benifits. Its not the feild to go into it make a lot of money, or really any money. My friend worked at the bank and made $5 more an hour than me.

Don't know where you guys live but I STARTED no exp. @ 10$ per hour, benefits after 6 mos & paid vacations after 1 yr. The doctor is send ing me to school to be a polysomnography tech (sleep tech). He buys everyone in the office their scrubs & we get a spa treatment every 6 mos.

It really depends on where you live/work, I guess.


LOVE my job but am moving on because it IS a bad field of work.... God for someone 21 yrs old or so... not good for a mom or someone who has lots of bills. pay is low & it tops off...

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes

i live in Michigan its terrible for M.A's here M.A schools keep cutting each other down and i even spoke with a girl at a dr office makeing 6.95 hr

just sick

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? no

Where at in Michigan? I have NEVER heard of an MA getting paid 6.95/hr here. What school do you go to? I go to a community college, where you HAVE to pass a math exam (or take a math class) and pass an english exam (or take a class) in order to get into the program. Anything below a 75% is considered failing, and an "A" is 93% or higher. My school doesn't let idiots in...

Most of the girls from my school work at the major hospitals, making anywhere from 12/hr up to 18/hr.

You get what you pay for. Along with the liability, and costs of constantly retraining replacements, they get what they pay for in the long run.

6.95 is well below the Oregon min. wage. If you, as an employer, are prepared to pay such a low wage you are also prepared to train the next person and the replacements. Respondeat superior res ipsa loquitur.

Consider the job interview an educational experience for the prospective employer, if you have the opportunity highlight the depth of your training do it. Maybe if they hear it enough times they will wise up and pay someone to stick around.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: SMA

Are You Still In School? yes

Are You Working? no

Oh...by the way....Mininum wage in Michigan is $7.15 an hour. Either your story is off, the MA is working under the table, or the MA lied to you.

I live in the Detroit area and i see it for myself VERY low pay (i did see that min wage is 7:15 when i spoke to this person it was under 7 last summer)

but still 6 months later i doubt anything has changed

alot (i hate to say this) Arabic doctors pay very low

this needs to change

Being half Arabic myself, I can say, YES, they do pay low, lol. Many of my friend's fathers are doctors and they've all said what cheap-o's their dads are. (I live in East Deaborn, by the way).

Have you tried looking into any of the major hospitals? You might not get a job as an MA, but many of them will hire you for Lab Assistant work, Patient Care Techs, etc. Oakwood is a good place to look,I know right now they're hiring for lab assistants.

If you don't mind me asking, which school did you go to?

I went to Ross medical in Warren

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? no

Ahh...that's where my boyfriend's aunt went. You might know her. She's working for a peds clinic now, I think she's only making $10/h, though...

its just sad i think Mi with all its problems somewhat keep wages for M-A 's down but mostly i think its just the doctors that think its a blow of job so y pay anything

what is the average pay in other states for M-A's?

Hi

Yes, Medical assistants are generally paid low wages because the job was designed to save the physician money. Docs realized that it was more cost effective to hire someone with just enough experience to be able to do certain routene tasks that the docs are needing to have done while in the office setting. They don't need a fully licenced RN to perform some of these routene duties, and they discovered that by taking people and training them with just "enough" knowledge to get by in the office, they can substitute RNs and even LPNs with MAs and save themselves a ton of money by doing so. THIS is why you will not get rich being an MA. the position was created simply to be a cost effective position and not much more.

I think when it comes to pay, this should be where MA's need to force the market upwards by not taking positions that don't pay at least double digits. I moved to fla where the income is WAY lower than it was in CT. (Where I came from.) In the end, I did take a 50% pay cut now that I live in fla, however, I accepted an offer of 12.50 an hour.
I did hear that the MAs where I work have NEVER started at that amount, however, I must have interviewed well, I neogiated my worth upwards, and I had some previous work experience where I made about 20.00 an hour (as a medical assistant, yes you CAN do it) as clout.
as with anything, I think you must be your own advocate and sell yourself well. Hold out for the money and if more MAs will hold out for more money, the market will be forced to change and change in our benefit...
Take care
Lynne

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA,

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes

I am so tired of ads for medical assisting jobs paying $8 hr. I live NY and the minimum wage is $7.15 and everyone knows NY is one of the most expensive places 2 live. I dont understand how they expect us to live off that pay. I am a CNA and i've gotten minimum $10hr and the most $13. I agree with the person that said all medical assistant are being lied to. We are not taking over LPN's. In the next 10 years, there are going 2 be more elderly person than ever and LPN's are going 2 be in demand. For all the MA'a out there i suggest if u cant find the jobs w/ the pay you want in the area you live in MOVE. I know its hard for people w/ families but you might have to take the sacrifice. Just move to a different area of your state. Sometimes the difference in pay from county to county and state to state are dramatical different. Im considering going to florida myself to get a job while going for my RN

Your Professional Title/Credentials: HHA, CNA, MA

Are You Still In School? NO

Are You Working? NO

could not have said it better
i do feel though if we all push the market up it could back fire and something new might be invented by Dr's to save money

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? no

I don't know about that. I cant imagine the medical assistant field will go away. There is an assistant of every position in the medical field. Then there's alot of assistants for the assistants. Doctors are always going to need medical assistants but they need to realize how valuable we are. You get what you pay for. If pay lousy, you get a lousy worker. Even the most dedicated and loyal worker is going to get fed up after a while and they going to leave. My Suggestion to every MA is to advance your career. Become a RN or something like surgical assistant or pharm tech. As long as you have something else under your belt. That's why i became a MA cause im a CNA and i wanted to advance my career an education but ready to go back to school. I just finished and now finding out about the lies i've been told. I just want to be medical field any way i can

Your Professional Title/Credentials: HHA, CNA, MA

Are You Still In School? NO

Are You Working? NO

I agree with some of the posts I've read thus far. Doctors are worried about their bottom line. They are not going to pay MA's a large salary when the field is loosely regulated and they can hire some one off of the street at a ridiculously low wage to do the job. MA's have replaced RN's in medical office practices because RN's cost to much. Would you pay an RN $30.00/hr or an MA $12.00/hr. If its my practice I am going to lower costs by paying the least amount in salary that I can legally get away with. Of course you cant do that with Physicians ASSISTANTS as their education level and worth to the doctor is much higher than the Medical ASSISTANTS. If you dont believe this, or think you, as an MA, are just as valuable to the practice as the other "ASSISTANTS", find out how much the Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner are being paid. I an willing to bet that these ASSISTANTS are paid a hell of a lot more than the Medical ASSISTANT. This is the main reason I left the MA field. In the eyes of the doctors we are not worth much. I am basing this statement on the compensation paid to MA's. Just my humble opinion.

Are You Still In School? No

good luck finding an MA to work for you than schools might actually get you to close your doors if you pay that low

I worked with a PA that made $80/hr working in the ER. A PAs education is insurmountable compared to a MA. And PAs are not Called Physicians Assistants; they are called Physician Assistant; they do not assist the physicians they see their own patients write thir on Rx and do their own in office procedures (in fact they even have MAs assisting them), they just have to have MDs sign off their charts. The only way they assist physicians is by helping with the work load (they tend to do a lot more colds, flus, paps ect so the MDs can do more of the bigger stuff)

I was not referring to a single PA, thus I stated Physician Assistant's. And obviously there is no comparison in the level of education between the two assistants. But not so long ago PA programs were at the Diploma and Associate degree level. In fact in California and other parts of states the country there are still a few Diploma and Associate degree PA programs that have survived. Becoming a PA has evolved into a financially rewarding career and maybe one day becoming an MA will also.

Are You Still In School? No

I doubt that (about the AS and Diploma) in california...what schools are these? they do not even have diploma nursing schools anymore. California is one of the strictest places to get a medical degree.

What do you mean the difference between single PAs and more than one, either way they are not doctors assistants....in a group or on their own, they are conditered mid-level practitioners.

PA Programs
California Physician Assistant Programs
Accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education
(ARC-PA) for the Physician Assistant, Inc.

Credentials Awarded
C - Certificate of Completion
A - Associates's Degree
B - Bachelor's Degre
M - Master's Degree

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science - C, B
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California- M
Loma Linda University - M
Riverside County Regional Medical Center/Riverside College - C, A
Samuel Merritt College - M
San Joaquin Valley College - A
Stanford University School of Medicine - C, A
Touro University at Mare Island College of Health Science - B, M
University of California, Davis - C
Western University of Health Sciences - M


Applicants may apply to multiple programs with a single application through CASPA, the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants, a new Web-based application service, at Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA).


Location/Contacts

Charles Drew University
Physician Assistant Program
1731 East 120th Street
Los Angeles CA 90059
(323) 563-5950
Email: caspauld@cdrewu.edu
Loma Linda University
School of Allied Health Professions
Physician Assistant Program
Loma Linda, CA 92350
(909) 558-4599 or (800) 422-4558
Email: sahp.pa@llu.edu



Riverside County RMC PA Program
16130 Lasselle Street
Moreno Valley, CA 92551
(951) 571-6166

Samuel Merritt College
Masters Physician Assistant Program
Admissions Department
450 30th St.
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 869-6623
Email: admission@samuelmerritt.edu





Stanford University Medical Center
Physician Assistant Program
1215 Welch Road
Module G
Palo Alto CA 94304
(650) 725-6959
Email: pcap-information@lists.stanford.edu
Touro University-California
Physician Assistant/MPH Program
College of Health Sciences
1310 Johnson Lane
Vallejo, California 94592
Information: (888) 652-7580
Interim Program Dir: (707) 638-5457
Fax: (707) 638-5445
Email: lpadilla@touro.edu



UC Davis Medical Center
Department of Family Practice
Physician Assistant Program
2516 Stockton Boulevard
Suite 254
Sacramento CA 95817
(916) 734-3551
Email: fnppa@ucdavis.edu
Keck School of Medicine of the
University of Southern CA
Nancy Salem,
Admissions Counselor
Physician Assistant Program
1000 S. Fremont Ave
Unit 7, Bldg A-6, 4th floor, Rm 6429
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 457-4270 (Ms. Salem's)
(626) 457-4240 (main)
Email: nsalem@usc.edu





Western University
309 E. Second Street
Pomona, California 91766-1854
(909) 623-6116
Email: admissions@westernu.edu
San Joaquin Valley College
A Primary Care PA Program
8400 West Mineral King Avenue
Visalia, CA 93291
Phone: 559/651-2500 ext. 351





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There are still a few PA programs that are certificate or Associates degree in Ca and other parts of the country (Miami Dade Community College). And there are still a few Diploma programs (nationwide) and 30 unit obtion programs in California. Not trying to play tit for tat with you nor get into a ******* contest with you. Just going by what I have read and investigated.

That is such BS!!! I want to become a CNM and they are trying to pass a law that makes CNM and FNPs have to have their masters to APPLY meaning that they have to have a Doctrine when they graduate and start to practice to be effective by 2015.....the scope of an FNP and a PA is VERY similar (the only difference I understand that there is the boards they are certifed/lisenced under and that PAs have to have their charts signed off). I hope they change the requirments for PAs, thats just shocking!

Nothing against you, just shocked by your information (the BS was that that still goes on,not what you were telling me or in your dirction in anyway)