Medical assistant certification in Iowa

Under Iowa Code 148C.8, a physician can pass medical tasks along to aides and assistants who work with the physician's supervision or direction. Assistants doing only those delegated tasks aren't required to meet physician assistant qualifications.

What you can do depends on the tasks delegated to you and the supervision or direction you work under.

When you help an RN or LPN, the state's nursing rules treat you as an unlicensed assistive person. That's a person trained to carry out nursing care a nurse delegates. The nursing rules place limits on what a nurse may delegate:

• The nurse must confirm you're properly educated and trained and have shown you can handle the task.
• The work can't involve judging a patient's condition, reading results, or making nursing decisions on your own.
• The task can't exceed what a licensed practical nurse may do.

Operating x-ray equipment on patients in Iowa requires a current Iowa permit covering that type of x-ray. One permit for this is the limited radiologic technologist permit.

This permit is divided into five areas: chest, spine, extremities, shoulder and pediatric. You're limited to x-raying within the areas printed on your permit. Chest or extremity x-rays for patients 36 months old and younger fall under the pediatric category.

Applying the first time costs $100, and you won't get that money back.

Passing the ARRT limited scope exam takes a score of 70 percent or higher on the core section and on every category you sit for.

Iowa HHS provides online limited radiography courses priced at $200 per category. The Core category is required for all students.

Iowa doesn't require a medical assistant credential, but training can help you prepare for the tasks an employer may ask you to do. The site counts 1,094 medical assistant programs nationwide, with 484 holding CAAHEP or ABHES accreditation.

These are middle figures, so about half of programs cost less. Career school programs run from 2 to 32 months, and most take 7 to 9.

With online programs, coursework happens through distance education, though supervised clinical practice happens in person.

Across the U.S., medical assistants had median earnings of $45,690 per year as of May 2025, which works out to $21.97 hourly. Nursing assistants made $42,260 and phlebotomists made $45,230. Licensed practical nurses made $64,400.

The state program pages let you select one accredited program and fill out the "Request information" form. The form asks for your name, email, phone, ZIP code and when you'd like to start, and that school receives your request. Ready to start? Choose an accredited program on the Iowa program page and send that school the short form today to ask about start dates and costs.