Medical assistant certification in Massachusetts

Only one Massachusetts law mentions medical assistants, and it's about giving vaccines. That statute, M.G.L. c. 112, section 265, states outright that it creates no license for certified medical assistants.

So there is no state board that will sign you up or handle a license renewal. What you may do is set by the rule for each task and by the provider who employs you.

Section 265 allows a primary care provider to hand the task of administering an immunization to a certified medical assistant. The provider must specifically authorize the immunization and directly supervise you while you give it. To be eligible, you need to meet 3 conditions:

• Graduation from an accredited medical assisting program beyond high school
• Employment in the practice of a licensed primary care provider
• Specific authorization from that provider, plus direct supervision

An accredited program has been reviewed and approved by an outside organization. The law points to programs approved by CAAHEP's predecessor committee or by ABHES, along with any other program the public health commissioner signs off on. This law has been in force since November 8, 2016. The state's drug law was later revised to line up with it.

With direct supervision, the primary care provider must be in the facility and immediately available while you give the vaccine. Under the law, they do not need to be in the room while you do it.

In Circular Letter DCP 17-8-102, issued August 10, 2017, the Department of Public Health explained the ways a provider may qualify a medical assistant to give vaccines. You can qualify in 2 ways:

Whichever path applies, the provider must record it in your personnel file. If you are new to the field, training plus an exam is your way in, which makes a program's accreditation something to verify before you sign up.

Beyond vaccines, the Board of Registration in Medicine bars doctors from handing medical services to anyone not licensed to perform them in Massachusetts. Nurses may pass certain nursing duties to unlicensed staff, but administering medication is not among them unless the drug laws make room for it.

In day-to-day practice, vaccines are the main exception the law makes for certified medical assistants. That is why the program you choose matters so much.

Any person who performs the work of a radiologic technologist must be licensed by the Department of Public Health. Working as a medical assistant does not replace the radiography license.

DPH does, however, offer the Limited Scope of Practice in Radiography license. With it, you may take only certain kinds of X-rays, up to 2 of these: chest, extremities, skull and sinuses, spine, and podiatric. To qualify, you send in your program of study and pass the ARRT limited-scope test, or an equivalent exam from another approved board, at the Massachusetts passing score. Limited licensees may not perform fluoroscopy, give contrast media, or handle mobile and remote imaging.

Across the country, medical assistants earned a median wage of $45,690 a year as of May 2025, which works out to $21.97 an hour. Among the 378 career schools that report program length, the median is 9 months, and reported programs range from 2 to 32 months.

Nationwide we list 1,094 programs, and 484 of them carry CAAHEP or ABHES accreditation, the sort the vaccine law points to. Some programs let you study online, though the hands-on clinical part always happens in person.

Our medical assistant programs in Massachusetts page shows schools along with their accreditation. Pick an accredited school there and send the short Request information form below the program tables, so that school can tell you about start dates and get you on the path to giving vaccines.