A medical assistant career allows for fulfilling public service work through patient care and maintaining healthcare facility operations. Anyone considering a medical assistant program or responding to a job description should know what’s expected of their work within the law.
As a medical assistant works to provide patient care and carry out administrative tasks within a healthcare environment, they must adhere to established rules and regulations. Following these standards helps prevent potential legal issues in the future. Here, Prism Career Institute discusses the legal responsibilities medical assistants have while working.
Legal Standards for a Medical Assistant to Follow
As a medical assistant goes about their work, they must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which limits a healthcare provider’s ability to share patient information. All healthcare providers, health plans, or healthcare clearinghouses must follow HIPAA regulations. The law gives patients the ability to control medical information sharing or to reject record corrections. The privacy and security rules within HIPAA further layout standards for using or releasing protected health records, as well as technical guidelines for keeping electronic health data safe.
Medical assistants must also follow any other legal regulations established by a local government. Other legal responsibilities for medical assistants include:
Patient Care Tasks
Typically, medical assistants around the nation can legally provide care through actions such as:
- Aiding a physician during basic examinations or procedures
- Applying creams, gels, lotions, ointments, or patches to clean treated or wounded areas
- Collecting lab specimens
- Completing basic lab or screening tests
- Covering a patient with sterile sheets before a procedure
- Discarding contaminated materials properly
- Drawing blood
- Giving a patient a dose of medication through the mouth based on a physician’s instructions
- Going over a physician’s medication or treatment plan instructions for a patient
- Measuring a patient’s blood pressure, pulse, or temperature
- Removing stitches
- Running an electrocardiogram (EKG)
- Sanitizing examination rooms and medical equipment
- Talking to a patient about their medical history and recording information about it
Administrative Work
Common administrative tasks are also under regulation, including:
- Communicating with insurance companies and providers
- Gathering and preparing medical equipment before a procedure
- Handling billing and bookkeeping work correctly
- Making physician-approved prescription refill orders to pharmacies
Other Legal Considerations for Medical Assistants
Healthcare facilities need to adhere to their area’s medical assistant regulations to keep patients safe, preserve an ethics code within a work environment, and protect themselves from any legal issues. Each state has a set of legal standards for medical assistants. For example, New Jersey allows only certified medical assistants to perform injections. In Pennsylvania, a medical assistant can perform any task their provider assigns, but the state holds the provider responsible for the assistant’s actions.
Medical assistants should understand their legal obligations when it comes to the following:
- A commitment to ethical practices: Anyone working in a medical setting needs to follow any local, federal, and in-house regulations in their work with patients and colleagues.
- Patient privacy policies: A medical assistant should review HIPAA standards, so they fully know their responsibility to manage patient medical information ethically.
- Qualifications: Medical assistants should keep up with any certifications or training they require to perform their work.
- Safety standards: Providers need to make sure medical assistants adhere to all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protocols within the workplace.
Illegal Actions for Medical Assistants to Avoid
There are several actions medical assistants can’t legally perform. Providers should make sure a medical assistant understands their limitations within the law, while also not assigning them tasks they legally can’t perform. Common actions that medical assistants are forbidden to lawfully carry out include:
- Calling a patient to determine if they need to come in for treatment or not
- Developing a patient medication or treatment plan
- Diagnosing a patient
- Filling out prescriptions
- Making condition determinations based on data, test results, or other assessments
- Performing minor invasive procedures
- Using laser equipment
Prepare for Your Career’s Legal Obligations with Our Medical Assistant School
Learning ethics and legal standards is a central aspect of a student’s education to become a healthcare professional. Using the knowledge and practices they learn in medical assistant school will guide them as they lawfully provide effective patient care.
Anyone interested in a healthcare career should reach out to Prism Career Institute, with locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Hill and West Atlantic City, New Jersey. Our quality instructors give students the vital knowledge and hands-on experience they need to serve the public as healthcare professionals. We offer financial aid to those who qualify and provide career services to help you become successful in your path to employment. Apply online today or contact us for more information about our programs.