Medical assistant certification in Tennessee

In a physician office, the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners views medical assistants as people doing work the physician passes to them. This is called delegation, and it is covered by Tenn. Code Ann. 63-6-204(b).

Under that law, the physician answers for the care you give. They may assign only tasks you studied or trained for and can do well now. If the board ever asks, the physician has to show written proof of what qualifies you, like diplomas, certificates, watched performance or credentialing.

Delegated work must be routine and technical, not work that calls for a physician's special skill. The board's delegation policy names examples such as:

• Checking vital signs
• Recording patient histories
• Helping with minor procedures
• Handling patient phone calls

You may do this work only when the physician is on site or reachable immediately, such as by phone or video. For anything past routine tasks, the physician needs written protocols kept on site. Protocols are step-by-step directions for doing a task, and they need updating every 2 years.

Yes. A 2021 law created standards for certified medical assistants working in clinics and physician offices that a hospital owns and runs. It does not cover staff whom a physician employs in other places.

To work as a certified medical assistant in one of these clinics, you must hold certification or registration from one of these organizations:

• AMT
• AAMA
• NCCT
• NHA
• NAHP

The clinic also has to train you and verify your skills, with added medication training when the role calls for it. Legislators dropped a proposed Department of Health registration from that 2021 bill, so Tennessee has no state registry for medical assistants. Hospital clinics want one of these credentials, so choose an accredited program and ask the school which one it prepares you for.

House Bill 2044, signed April 13, 2026, allows a physician assistant, along with a physician or licensed nurse, to hand medication duties to a certified medical assistant. It also widened the kinds of medication covered.

In a hospital-owned outpatient clinic, a certified medical assistant may give an ordered medication only if it comes ready as a single dose or the ordered dose can be taken from a multi-dose package without a calculation. Permitted types are injections into the muscle, into the skin or just under the skin, as well as vaccines.

Some medications stay off limits for certified medical assistants: IV drugs, blood products, chemotherapy or trial drugs, insulin, controlled substances, contrast dyes, allergy antigens and any drug where you'd have to work out the dose.

You need the state's own x-ray certificate before you can take x-rays in a physician's office. 2023 House Bill 1388 put the Board of Medical Examiners in charge of issuing these certificates, and the Department of Health counts x-ray operators in doctors' offices as one of the jobs it certifies.

A limited certificate lets you image bone density, the chest, arms and legs, the skull, sinuses and the spine. The full certificate is meant for those who already carry an active national credential, like ARRT.

Across the programs the site lists nationally, the median career school program takes 9 months to finish. Most run 7 to 9 months, while a few wrap up in 6 months or sooner.

Remote programs teach their classes online, while the supervised clinical practice, usually known as an externship, is in person. Nationally, median annual pay in May 2025 was $45,690 for medical assistants and $42,260 for nursing assistants.

Accreditation means an outside organization, CAAHEP or ABHES, has reviewed the program. Across 50 states and DC, the site lists 1,094 programs, and 484 are accredited; our Tennessee programs page shows the ones in Tennessee. Compare accredited programs on our Tennessee programs page, then pick one and send the short Request information form below the program tables. It goes straight to that school, so you can ask about start dates and costs.