National Healthcareer Association (NHA) celebrates awarding more than 500,000 certifications to health care professionals by making additional investments in the industry. From rebranding to proactive advocacy initiatives, NHA continues to elevate the quality of patient care through certification of skilled allied health professionals.

“This is an exciting time for our organization and the industry,” said Jessica Langley, Executive Director of Education and Provider Markets at NHA. “The activities we have planned around the company’s rebrand and our 500,000 certifications milestone align with our commitment to advocate, elevate and further develop the allied health industry. Our goal is to encourage allied health certification acceptance and regulation throughout the United States.”

NHA will initially focus on heightening the view of the allied health profession and improving regulation for the requirement of certification in various allied health professions – starting with medical assistants.

“We’re proactively working across several states to promote and affect allied health certification acceptance and regulation,” said Langley. “Employers rely on credentialed medical assistants to satisfy electronic health care record requirements, so we’re helping ensure that allied health professionals are ready to meet those needs.”

Marketplace demand for these professionals is at an all-time high. The number of medical assistant jobs is expected to increase by almost 15,000 jobs per year for the next decade, due to millions of newly insured people, an aging population and recent changes to health record maintenance.

In addition to its advocacy efforts, NHA will mark the 500,000 certification milestone with an external campaign focused on alumni. The campaign launching this summer encourages NHA alumni to share success stories and designate alma maters and future allied health care students as recipients of scholarships in their names.

“Employers, schools and students will notice some exciting new changes coming from NHA. However, our core vision remains the same,” said Langley. “We will continue to develop, advance and advocate for the frontline health care worker, in hopes of improving patient care.”