Medical assistant certification in Wisconsin

The state has no licensing, certification, or registration process for medical assistants at all. Under Wis. Stat. § 448.03, the Medical Practice Act allows patient services without a license when a physician directs, oversees, and checks that work.

State law also sets no required exam, course, or fixed number of hours for medical assistants. Your supervising physician decides which tasks you are prepared to handle.

When a physician hands a task to you, that task is called a delegated act, done under the physician's supervision. The Medical Examining Board rules say the physician must be able to perform that task and must have reasonable proof that you can do it at least at a basic competent level.

This protects the physician too. If a Wisconsin physician does not properly supervise unlicensed staff, that can be treated as unprofessional conduct, so proof of your skills matters.

If a registered nurse delegates tasks to you, the nursing rules require the nurse to match each task to your education and shown abilities, then observe and monitor your work.

It is. Under Chapter 462, anyone taking x-rays in this state needs either a full radiographer license or the more limited X-ray machine operator permit. A limited permit allows x-rays of only certain body areas, and it may include 1 or more of these:

• Chest, lungs and ribs
• Arms and legs, except for the hip and pelvis
• The lower leg, ankle, and foot
• The spine

Working under a physician does not remove this requirement. Only certain people are excused from it: doctors, physician assistants, students in radiography programs, and staff supervised directly by a chiropractor, dentist, or podiatrist, as long as they satisfy the conditions set by those boards.

Even with a permit, you take a diagnostic x-ray only after an authorized practitioner has ordered it.

The Radiography Examining Board issues this permit once you satisfy four conditions:

1. Be 18 or older.
2. Hold a high school diploma or its equivalent.
3. Complete a suitable course of study.
4. Pass the exam the board requires.

To keep the permit, plan on 12 hours of ARRT-recognized continuing education during each 2-year cycle.

A physician has to be confident in your skills, and finishing a training program is one straightforward way to prove them. An accredited program has been checked by an outside organization, in this case CAAHEP or ABHES, against that group's standards. Of the 1,094 programs we list, 484 are accredited by CAAHEP or ABHES.

At career schools, the typical program takes 9 months and has a median published price of $17,257 for tuition, fees and books. Public colleges charge a median of $4,346 in tuition and fees for a year of full-time study, according to IPEDS.

Online programs deliver classes through distance education, while supervised clinical practice still happens in person. Our site lists 30 programs like this, and 14 are accredited.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports these national median yearly wages, current as of May 2025.

That works out to $21.97 an hour for medical assistants. Ready to start? Pick an accredited program on our Wisconsin programs page and send that school the short Request information form below its program table.