Medical assisting is a multifaceted career. As such, a person in that career may be required to take on many duties in the medical office that are administrative in nature. The medical office has customers who have various payment arrangements, such as third-party payers (usually insurance carriers) and payment plans, and who may also have large outstanding balances. A proper understanding and administration of billing—for both third-party payers and patients—as well as payment collection methods is therefore required.