Medical assistant certification in Michigan

Michigan's Public Health Code allows a licensed doctor to pass certain tasks along to an unlicensed person. That individual needs the right education, training or experience for the job, and everything happens under the doctor's watch.

This process of passing tasks along goes by the name delegation. The law describes it as a licensed professional giving permission so another person can perform work that would otherwise be against the law for someone unlicensed.

Michigan's Department of Education puts this plainly in its guidance to schools. Unless a doctor supervises a medical assistant and delegates tasks to them, that person counts as a lay person.

When a task calls for the doctor's own level of education, skill and judgment under accepted practice, the doctor can't delegate it. Work like that remains the doctor's responsibility.

Procedures that use surgical instruments can be delegated only to licensed people. The exceptions are narrow, covering things like enrolled students and facility-qualified surgical technologists while the doctor is physically present.

Licensing boards may also write rules that restrict particular tasks or demand tighter supervision. A board takes that step when it believes patients could be harmed.

The answer is no, not always. Michigan's general definition of supervision does not require the doctor to be on site.

What is required is that the doctor can be reached for direct communication at all times, phone included. Your work also has to get regular review, with set procedures and a drug protocol handed to you ahead of time. A drug protocol is written instructions for handling medications.

The state of Michigan doesn't issue x-ray permits to individuals. Its radiation rules do stop a registered x-ray facility from employing someone for x-ray work when that person doesn't meet the operator requirements, unless they're exempt or hold the department's written approval.

Limited diagnostic x-rays are basic images of areas like the chest, limbs, spine, skull and sinuses, or feet. Taking them calls for finishing an approved program or completing at least 40 hours of classroom and clinical training. After qualifying, you must earn 12 continuing education credits every 24 months.

Michigan has proposed changes to these rules, and a public hearing is scheduled for October 20, 2026. Under the proposal, limited x-ray work would not include fluoroscopy.

Even though the state doesn't require it, the law only lets doctors delegate to people who are qualified through education, training or experience. A program builds that education for you, along with supervised clinical practice, ahead of your first job.

Career school programs usually run about 9 months, though a few are as short as 2 months. When a program is listed as online, the classes are taught through distance education while the clinical hours happen face to face. CAAHEP or ABHES reviews accredited programs, and our list includes 484 of them across the country.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical assistants earned a national median of $45,690 a year in May 2025, which works out to $21.97 an hour.

You'll find schools near you on our Michigan medical assistant programs page, and accredited programs are marked. Pick one accredited program there and send the short Request information form with your name, email, phone, ZIP code and start time, and your request goes to that school.