Tag Archives: Medical Receptionist Salary

How To Earn A Higher Salary As A Medical Secretary?

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So you’ve achieved your goal of working as a medical secretary and you’re earning a decent wage. Now you’re ready to start working towards advancement. You could be earning more than you are. Read below for some tips on how to get ahead.

GET ACCREDITED

If you don’t already have accreditation, you should get it. With formal proof of your skills, you will be in a much better position to demand a higher wage. Evening and weekend courses will allow you to work and study at the same time. There are also an increasing number of online options, which will save you the time and expense of commuting to a campus.

GET (A VARIETY OF) EXPERIENCE

Don’t feel obliged to stay with your current employer. You may be comfortable where you are, but after a few years you’ll have learned everything you can from that job. Moving on to another office will give you the opportunity to learn new skills, since every employer does things a little differently. And with a letter of recommendation from your old boss, you’ll be able to look for something that pays a bit more, too.

JOIN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Professional Associations, like the American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP), offer opportunities to find new jobs, network with other professionals in your field, and participate in lifelong career training. Often what’s taught through the local branch of your association will be more immediately relevant to you than the general topics covered in post-secondary institutions. Additionally, professional associations almost always have volunteer positions that will make your resume look very impressive.

JOIN A UNION

Unions take all the work out of negotiating for a higher wage and better benefits. If you hear about a union forming in your field, consider supporting it. There are pros and cons to unionizing, of course. Unions may collect dues and require that their members purchase licenses to work, but the pros of unionizing usually outweigh the cons.

DO A GOOD JOB

Sometimes we get so caught up in achieving our future advancement goals that we forget to pay attention to our present performance. Your first priority should be to make sure that you’re doing the best job that you can do, every day. Any effort that you put into additional training or networking should come second.

ASK FOR A RAISE

This one may seem like it’s too obvious to mention, but often people seem to think that it’s somehow rude to ask for more money for doing the same job. But the fact is, the more experience you have in your field, the more valuable you are as a worker. If, after a year or more of consistently performing well, your boss doesn’t think that you’ve proven yourself to be a more reliable (and therefore more valuable) worker than some new hire, then that may be just the cue you need to start looking for a new position.

We all need goals to work towards if we don’t want to wind up in a rut. Set your sights high, and keep working towards your dream salary. You have opportunities all around you to advance, so grab one of them and achieve your career goals!

Medical Receptionist Salary

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As an entry-level position in the healthcare industry, medical receptionist is by far not the highest paying title available. Medical receptionist salary levels greatly range in direct correlation with education and experience levels. When comparing pay ranges, it is imperative to factor in location as an obvious influence on findings; salaries will vary tremendously across the nation. While certain locations tend to offer higher base rates, these sites often coincide with an area where the cost of living is quite high. Although many people entertain job offers from different cities and are more than willing to relocate, very few remember to properly research the effect such a major change will have on their overall finances.

Important Factors Used to Determine Pay Rate

Location, education level, and amount of experience were previously mentioned as great influences on the pay rate for medical receptionists. An often overlooked factor is the type of subcategories a medical receptionist is qualified in. Some licensures and certifications offer more than just the basics of medical knowledge and delve into more complicated professional arenas such as dental receptionist or medical assistant training. The broader an available skill set an individual possesses, the more valuable he becomes. In order to balance budgets and cut costs, medical offices are constantly looking for employees that can pull double duty. Since these individuals are qualified to handle a more difficult and varied work load, they command a higher salary.

Starting Medical Receptionist Salaries

Novices to the field of medical receptionist should expect wages to be low regardless of the region the job is located in. Often times a high school education is all that is required to get this position; this results in an inordinate amount of qualified applicants as compared to the number of openings available. Such a set-up mimics the commerce supply and demand law. Since supplies of qualified applicants are basically limitless and the demand for receptionist jobs is limited by economic factors, employers can benchmark pay at lower rates because the position is highly sought out. With such a high number of potential employees, employers know the odds of finding someone willing to work at or slightly above minimum wage are greatly increased. Expect entry level and low experience salaries to be in the neighborhood of $7.36 – $13.37 per hour.

Average Salaries as Related to Healthcare Sector

Assuming a full-time work schedule at 40 hours per week, the average medical receptionist earns somewhere between $9.37 and $16.21 per hour. Once the particular area of healthcare is specified, the natural variations in the price range are clarified. Medical receptionists employed by general physicians’ offices earned roughly $12.72 an hour which is quite similar to the overall average. Interestingly enough, medical receptionists employed by dentists, hospitals, and medical laboratories tended to have wages higher than average, while their cohorts employed by long-term care facilities, optometrists, and mental health practitioners reported below average wages.

It is highly regarded that education and occupation backgrounds are the greatest influences on medical receptionist salaries. While this is true, one must also consider location, industry, and certifications as equally important wage determining influences.