How does a MEdical Assistant move up the career ladder?

Nothing as noted by Diane. Even after years of experience, it does not allow you to really run the clinic either. In a larger clinic (and especially at a major healthcare company), a nurse may oversee nursing staff, but they usually have a master's degree in nursing (MSN), to manage a department. To manage a clinic (the medical side of it), they usually have a physician to do that.

If you have an AA from a legitimate university (not a career or tech college), then your credits from the AA should transfer as GE classes. If you took classes that cover the prenursing, the will fill those needs, assuming they haven't expired. There is no MA to RN bridge. The only educatonal advantage you have is the actual AA classwork, not the MA classwork. The only way for an MA to "work their way up the career ladder" is to move to the admin/management side. It's possible that if your current practice will allow you to train as a biller, accounts person, or assistant manager, you could transfer that to other clinics and eventually be a small practice manager. However, larger practices and hospitals will require a Bachelor's degree, minimum, to be on the management side. A small practice is happy with experience - and they will pay you accordingly, meaning less than a large group and less than a manager with a BBA or MHA.

Unfortunately you would have to do 4 years of college to get a bachelors, even with a associates degree. The good news is if you want to get in nurses there are many accelerated nursing programs that cut that time in half.