Recognized Skill Standards
July 19, 2011
Background
These skill standards were developed as part of a Type 2 Curriculum Development Project under the auspices of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in which education applicants develop and achieve recognition for skill standards and meet the requirements for program recognition in order to qualify for an award of $20,000 from federal Perkins Leadership funds.
Development
With the participation of a statewide panel of subject matter experts, a job analysis was conducted in March, 2011, which resulted in the creation of a DACUM chart of duties, tasks, skills, and tools. The skill standards developed in this project used the resulting DACUM as the job analysis method, as suggested in the Guidelines for Development, Recognition, and Usage of Skill Standards.
Staff worked with industry subject matter experts to develop skill standards elements based on the DACUM, and coordinated online surveys to engage subject matter experts to complete and validate the resulting skill standards.
The Medical Office Manager Skill Standards contain seven critical work functions in the areas of managing policies and procedures, coordinating information technology resources, managing practice operations, billing, human resources, and managing the financials of a practice, such as budget development, evaluating revenue, and processing payroll.
Importance to Texas
With the advent of sweeping changes, including legislative and technological changes, in the health care delivery system, the pressure on small practice medical providers to be efficient and responsive is growing. A medical practitioner can no longer care for patients and manage a well-run office simultaneously. Small medical practices increasingly rely on trained medical office managers to keep a practice running smoothly so that medical staff can focus on patient care.
Texas Workforce Commission data projects statewide employment of medical office managers to increase by almost 25% between 2008 and 2018. The average hourly wage for this occupation is just over $40.00.