Medical assistant in Tennessee: licence, certification and what employers require (2026)

Tennessee does not license medical assistants; no state licence; employers ask for a national certificate (CMA from AAMA, RMA from AMT, CCMA from NHA). This page says what a medical assistant licensed or working in another state has to do to work in Tennessee, in the order to do it, and what goes wrong when the order is reversed.

How the transfer works

No state licenses medical assistants, so there is nothing to transfer: your national certificate is valid in Tennessee as it is. What changes is what Tennessee lets a medical assistant do, especially around medication and injections, which is set by the state medical board and followed by employers.

What to have ready before you move

• Your national certificate and its renewal date
• Documentation of any skills ${STATE} regulates (injections, phlebotomy)

Start the paperwork before you give notice. There is no Tennessee licence to wait for, so the only clock is the employer's.

What people get wrong

• Letting the national certificate lapse during the move; renewal needs continuing education
• Assuming scope of practice is the same; it is set per state

Who hires medical assistants in Tennessee

Medical assistants in Tennessee are hired by physician practices, urgent care, hospital outpatient departments and specialty clinics. The metros with the most of that work are Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are on the Tennessee openings page.

For the money side: the median medical assistant in Tennessee earned $38,150 a year ($18 an hour) in May 2024 across 19,940 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Tennessee has no state income tax on wages. What that leaves you after tax is its own page.

Everything about Tennessee, on one page

The Tennessee page has the registries and boards, the income tax table, the programs that pay you to come and the openings filed this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Tennessee employers hiring from out of state.