Clinic Manager Job Description

Salary Range

$94,700 - $166,100

Experience

Mid-level, with healthcare office experience

Work Environment

Medical or veterinary clinic office

What Does a Clinic Manager Do?

When a patient books a visit, the way a clinic is run can decide whether they spend the morning in the waiting room or whether they are seen on time and billed correctly. Clinic managers handle that side of care, running staffing, scheduling, billing and compliance for physician practices, student health centers, urgent care sites and veterinary hospitals. Clinicians can then focus on patients.

Also known as: Veterinary Hospital Administrator

Other Job Titles for This Work

Workers in this occupation report titles such as Cancer Center Director, Clinical Director, Health Information Management Director (HIM Director), Health Information Manager (HIM Manager), Healthcare System Director, Medical Records Director, Medical Records Manager, Mental Health Program Manager.

Clinic Manager Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of a clinic manager include:

• Hire, schedule and evaluate front desk staff, medical assistants and nurses.
• Set clinic hours and provider templates to keep wait times short and schedules full.
• Prepare and monitor the clinic budget, including payroll, supplies and equipment.
• Review billing, coding and insurance denials with the billing team and fix recurring errors.
• Enforce HIPAA privacy, OSHA safety and infection control rules across the clinic.
• Handle patient complaints and follow up until each one is resolved.
• Maintain licenses, accreditation files and inspection records for the practice.
• Negotiate with vendors for supplies, lab services and equipment maintenance.
• Track patient volume, no-shows and revenue and report trends to physicians or owners.
• Coordinate electronic health record updates and train staff on new workflows.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To succeed as a clinic manager, you will need the following skills and qualifications:

• Electronic health record systems such as Epic or athenahealth
• Medical billing, coding and insurance basics
• HIPAA and OSHA compliance
• Budgeting and financial reporting
• Staff scheduling and supervision
• Calm problem solving with patients and providers
• Excel for tracking volume and revenue
• Certified Medical Manager (CMM) credential, valued by some practices

Education and Training

Most clinic managers qualify through a bachelor's degree in health administration or business, but some start out by working as medical assistants, nurses or billing staff and moving up. Larger health systems often prefer a master's degree. Veterinary hospitals look for the same skills, and some of their administrators come up through veterinary technician work.

Salary and Job Outlook

Employment of medical and health services managers should grow about 24 percent from 2025 to 2035, according to BLS projections, a strong rise tied to an aging population and the shift of care to outpatient clinics. The group should see roughly 62,300 openings a year. Many clinic posts sit at the smaller end of this group, so their pay may run below the figures here, which also cover hospital department heads and executives.

Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, Medical and health services managers.

Clinic Manager Pay Range

Highest-Paying States for Clinic Managers

The states with the highest median pay for this occupation are New York ($164,120), District of Columbia ($155,140), Hawaii ($147,630), New Jersey ($145,650), Washington ($145,290). Pay is lowest in Mississippi ($98,160), Alabama ($97,790), Arkansas ($94,340).

What the Work Is Like

O*NET surveys people who work as medical and health services managers about their daily conditions. Of those surveyed:

• 100% use email every day
• 100% say teamwork is very or extremely important in their job
• 96% work indoors in a climate-controlled space every day
• 93% are on the phone every day
• 89% say being exact and accurate is very or extremely important
• 79% spend more than half the workday sitting
• 50% usually work more than 40 hours a week

Education Workers Say the Job Needs

Tools and Software Clinic Managers Use

Tools and equipment

• Desktop computers
• Laptop computers
• Personal computers
• Scanners

Software

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Adobe Acrobat
• Apache Hadoop
• Apache Maven
• Autodesk Revit
• Cisco Webex
• eClinicalWorks EHR software
• Epic Systems
• Facebook

Is This Job a Good Fit for You?

People who do well in this job tend to enjoy leading, persuading and making business decisions as well as organized work with data, records and clear procedures.

Skills O*NET rates most important: Speaking, Critical Thinking, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Writing, Monitoring.

Knowledge areas used most: Administration and Management, English Language, Customer and Personal Service, Personnel and Human Resources, Education and Training.

Preparation: O*NET places this occupation in Job Zone 4 of 5, which means considerable preparation.

Related Careers

These jobs use similar skills, according to O*NET's related-occupation data:

• Chief Medical Technologist job description
• Public Health Officer job description
• Health Promotion Director job description
• Nursing Supervisor job description
• Physical Therapy Manager job description
• Radiology Manager job description
• Health Educator job description
• Business Analyst job description

Applying for a Clinic Manager Job

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