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Medical Secretary job description

A complete, ready-to-post description for our practice. Add your business name, hours and pay range below, tick the duties that apply, and copy it into Indeed or your careers page.

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243 words
Medical Secretary

ABOUT THE ROLE
[Company name] is looking for a medical secretary to run the administrative side of our practice. You'll manage the clinicians' schedules, answer and route calls, keep patient records and correspondence accurate, handle insurance details and refill requests, and prepare reports and letters. The clinicians rely on this role to make sure nothing administrative reaches them that shouldn't.

WHAT YOU'LL DO
• Answer and route incoming calls
• Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
• Greet visitors and sign them in
• Take accurate messages and pass them on
• Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email
• Verify insurance and collect co-pays
• Maintain patient or client records
• Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
• Maintain filing and document systems
• Relay prescription refill requests and clinician instructions to patients
• Transcribe dictation and prepare medical reports and correspondence

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
• Administrative experience in a medical office or similar setting
• Accurate with records, correspondence and scheduling
• Familiar with electronic health records and practice software
• Understanding of patient privacy obligations and the discretion to apply them
• Clear, professional written communication

NICE TO HAVE
• Knowledge of medical terminology
• Experience with medical transcription or insurance paperwork

DETAILS
• Employment type: Full-time

TO APPLY
Send your résumé and a short note about why this role suits you to [Company name]. We read every application and reply to all of them.

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What does a medical secretary do?

We're looking for a medical secretary to run the administrative side of our practice. You'll manage the clinicians' schedules, answer and route calls, keep patient records and correspondence accurate, handle insurance details and refill requests, and prepare reports and letters. The clinicians rely on this role to make sure nothing administrative reaches them that shouldn't.

Medical Secretary duties and responsibilities

  • Answer and route incoming calls
  • Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
  • Greet visitors and sign them in
  • Take accurate messages and pass them on
  • Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email
  • Verify insurance and collect co-pays
  • Maintain patient or client records
  • Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
  • Maintain filing and document systems
  • Relay prescription refill requests and clinician instructions to patients
  • Transcribe dictation and prepare medical reports and correspondence

Requirements

  • Administrative experience in a medical office or similar setting
  • Accurate with records, correspondence and scheduling
  • Familiar with electronic health records and practice software
  • Understanding of patient privacy obligations and the discretion to apply them
  • Clear, professional written communication

Nice to have

  • Knowledge of medical terminology
  • Experience with medical transcription or insurance paperwork

Medical Secretary skills to screen for

Medical terminologyRecords accuracySchedulingCorrespondenceConfidentialityCall routing

Be honest about the phone

Much of a medical secretary's day is deciding which calls should reach a clinician and which shouldn't. Pharmacies, other practices, patients chasing results — they all arrive by phone, often while a report needs finishing.

Worth writing into the description rather than leaving as a surprise. Candidates who are good at it will recognize the description and apply; the ones who would have quit in month two will screen themselves out, which is the cheapest screening you will ever do.

What the hire actually covers

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median wage for medical secretaries and administrative assistants at $45,930 a year as of 2025, before employer payroll taxes, benefits and paid time off. Source.

Either way you get 40 of the 168 hours in a week. The remaining 128 — evenings, weekends, lunch cover, sick days, holidays — are hours our practice still takes calls, and nobody is on the desk for them.

Hire the person. Just budget for the gap too: the employee cost calculator shows what the hire really costs once taxes and benefits are in, and the missed-call cost calculator shows what the uncovered hours cost.

Medical Secretary FAQ

  • What does a medical secretary do?+

    Handles the administrative work of a practice: scheduling, answering and routing calls, keeping patient records and correspondence accurate, preparing reports and letters, and dealing with insurance details and refill requests. It's less front-of-house than a receptionist and more document-heavy.

  • Medical secretary vs medical receptionist — what's the difference?+

    A receptionist owns the front desk and patients in person. A secretary owns the paperwork and the clinicians' schedules, and usually works further from the waiting room. In a small practice one person often does both, which is worth saying in the posting.

  • Does a medical secretary need medical terminology?+

    It helps a great deal, because accurate letters, reports and messages depend on it. Many practices hire for organization and accuracy and teach the terminology, but candidates who already have it get up to speed much faster.

The other 128 hours

Make the hire. Cover the rest of the week.

RingOwl answers the calls your front desk can't — after hours, at lunch, and on the second line when the first one's busy. It books appointments into your calendar, takes messages, and emails you a summary of every call.

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