School of Continuing Education Medical Assisting Program Is Not What It Is Presented To Be Anaheim California

I was referred to the School of Continuing Education (SCE) by Cypress College when inquiring about training in Medical Coding in 2011.  Instead of being offered medical coding per se, I was steered to a Medical Assisting program.  I enrolled based upon full faith in the local colleges and upon the belief that the School of Education's privately and federally funded program was fully accredited.  The externship program also appealed to me.

I would learn after the fact from Dr. Cynthia Alberto who taught Introduction ot Medical Assisting that the certification we needed to be viable in the Medical Assisting field was a CMA(AAMA) which is bestowed by either the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) or Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) accrediting body.  Only these 2 programs are recognized by the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA). Dr. Alberto's words rang true and honest.  I began to question whether the School of Continuing Education actually met these standards.

As it turned out, their accreditation is far inferior.  This program is accredited by National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT) in Overland Park KS.  When I questioned the Director of the department regarding this, she admitted that they are at the level of NCCT but do not have the means to be fully accredited by CAAHEP or ABHES.

Looking at what schools did provide such instruction I found the program at Orange Coast College.  It's ran an Associate Degree program. that included the full study of Anatomy and Physiology (8 units), Medical Insurance Coding, and a lot more.  The School of Continuing Education ran a pass/fail system that included Introduction to Medical Assisting, Medical Insurance Billing, Introduction to Electronic Health Records, Front Office Assisting, 2 sections of Medical Assisting-Back Office, and Medical Terminology.  A course in Phlebotomy was also about to be offered.  These courses were actually geared to remedial students and were not applicable to college credit outside an "articulation agreement" with Cypress College.

After that first quarter I was seriously losing confidence in the School of Continuing Education

I left the School of Continuing Education with a Front Office certificate and took the exam with NCCT, gaining certification with flying colors.  I then tried to get into the Health Information Technology program at Cypress College.  When with counselor Denise Do, I mentioned the articulation agreement with SCE.  The counselor flatly denied that any articulation agreement existed with the School of Continuing Education but that they only had such an agreement with the Regional Occupational Program (ROP).  I was sent to the HIT department head, Rosalie Majid, RHIA for approval for SCE's courses.  As it turned out, she was entirely unfamiliar with the work of SCE's Medical Assisting program and had some very pointed questions about what they were doing with their Medical Terminology and Medical Insurance Billing courses.  She signed her approval with reservations.

I was never able to get into an HIT class because of positions in the registration system.  But worse yet, I never got so much as a single interview anywhere with my SCE Front Office Certificate and NCCT certification.  I believe the examples given of poeple who went on to the work force as medical assistants after graduating SCE more likely had other credentials from elsewhere to help them.  There were practicing Medical Assistants who were taking courses to provide a basic certification.  But I am convinced that if you are just starting out, forget about getting into Medical Assisting with a certificate from SCE.

At the time ICD-9 diagnostic coding was about to give way to ICD-10.  Today the European Union has graduated to ICD-11.  But ICD-10 requires much more than what SCE offers to its students, both in facilities and in curriculum.  To build up a proper program they will need to set up a lab suitable for teaching Anatomy and Physiology.  Being housed at the former Martin Luther Hospital, there's no reason this cannot be done by a state run institution which SCE is.  NCCT was also completely unresponsive when it came to obtaining study materials for ICD-10.  After the implementation of ICD-10, I declined to recertify as a "National Certified Medical Office Assistant" (NCMOA) and have removed this acronym from my stationary altogether.  I have stopped looking for work in any allied health field and do freelance secretarial work in another sector.  Taking up this program was a complete waste of time and resources.

There should be no reason for the School of Continuing Education to not be upfront with people about their lack of credentials in Medical Assisting.  It wrong to say, "Yes, we are fully acredited," only to bring out after the fact that their "accreditation" is little more than what one might get from a Cracker Jack box.

Worse yet, why does the School of Continuing Education lie about their "articulation agreement" with Cypress College?  SCE advertised this agreement in print.  I found this to be gross misrepresentation on the part of SCE, demonstrated by what I found at Cypress College.

SCE is now one entity with whom I will not do business due to proven dishonesty. I urge anyone considering work in Medical Assisting to go to those schools that actually do have the proper accreditation and accept nothing less.  You will be cheated otherwise.  Public and private funders are also being cheated because what SCE does drives up false expectation in the public that this program brings down the societal unemployment rate.  This is not good citizenship.  Either this program should be upgraded to a proper level or it should be disbanded.