CAAHEP 

CAAHEP is the official accreditation agency, while MAERB is the Committee on Accreditation (CoA) that conducts the processes and forwards the recommendations to CAAHEP for formal approval.  CAAHEP is recognized by the Council of Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), and that recognition gives it the authority to grant programmatic accreditation. 

CAAHEP works with over 25 Committees on Accreditation (CoA) serving over 30 allied health professions.  In belonging to the CAAHEP community, CAAHEP-accredited medical assisting programs benefit from the interaction amongst the allied health professions, finding strength in the commonalities, while encouraging innovation through the differences.  

Sponsoring Organizations

CAAHEP works with a multi-tiered system in which every Committee on Accreditation (CoA) has sponsoring organizations—professional associations, credentialing and educational organizations, and workplaces. The system of sponsorship ensures that CoAs are responsive to and informed about their various communities of interest who are served by the accreditation.   Sponsoring organizations strengthen the CAAHEP brand, expand the communities of interest, and enhance the specific CoA’s realm of knowledge.

MAERB has three sponsoring organizations, and there are several mutual benefits: broader representation of the professional community in addressing the education of a profession; inclusion of additional stakeholders in defining educational needs; and identification of areas where collaboration may benefit the educational process. 

The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) is MAERB’s primary sponsoring organization, as it originally founded the accreditation branch for the medical assisting profession in 1969 by creating curriculum items and standards. In 2018, MAERB acquired two other sponsoring organizations, American Medical Technologists (AMT) and the National Healthcareer Association (NHA).