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Major · Health Professions

A hybrid medical-admin and clinical-assistant umbrella CIP

Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist (CIP 51.0711) blends medical-office management with clinical-assistant training. About 458 students complete it across 18 institutions, with bachelor’s grads earning $60,828 and associate’s grads earning $40,664 — a $20,000 split that reflects two different products under one CIP.

Schools offering
18
Annual completions
458
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$50k

About this major

Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist (CIP 51.0711) is a hybrid CIP that prepares you to work under physician or nurse supervision in two overlapping lanes: medical-office or facilities management, and one or more clinical allied-health specialties at the assistant level. The CIP definition spans health-care management, medical-office administration, medical law and regulations, professional ethics, and hands-on training in diagnostic, treatment, therapy, or laboratory tasks. In practice, that means programs in this code vary considerably — some lean toward medical-assistant clinical training (vitals, phlebotomy, EKG, patient prep), some lean toward medical-office management and revenue-cycle work, and some genuinely teach both.

This major fits students who want healthcare exposure without committing to nursing or a four-year clinical degree. It rewards comfort with documentation, regulatory detail (HIPAA, payer rules, OSHA), patient interaction, and steady operational work. Day-to-day looks like running a front desk, processing intake, scheduling and billing, taking vitals or drawing blood, supporting providers during exams, and managing supplies and records. Students who like structure, procedure, and direct contact with people but don’t want bedside nursing tend to land here.

A grounded scale signal: 458 students complete this CIP across 18 institutions — modest, because most students who would fit this profile end up in adjacent named CIPs like Medical/Clinical Assistant (51.0801, 4,799 completions) or Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant (51.0716, 3,317 completions). The earnings split is striking — $40,664 at the associate’s level versus $60,828 at the bachelor’s level. The associate’s tracks Medical Assistant ($44,200) and Medical Secretary ($44,640) entry roles; the bachelor’s reflects supervisor and operations-coordinator work, with mid-career paths reaching First-line Office Supervisor ($66,140) or Administrative Services Manager ($108,390) after years of experience.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers $66k -0.3% High school diploma or equivalent
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants $45k +4.2% High school diploma or equivalent
Medical assistants $44k +12.5% Postsecondary nondegree award
Administrative services managers $108k +4.6% Bachelor's degree
Healthcare support workers, all other $46k +3.5% High school diploma or equivalent
Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other $64k +3.6% Postsecondary nondegree award
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$50k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$41k

Bachelor's

$61k

Who this major is for

Good signs this major fits: you want healthcare work without nursing’s clinical demands or a pre-med commitment, you’re comfortable balancing patient interaction with paperwork-heavy administrative tasks, you’re willing to stack certifications (CMA, CCMA, RMA, CPC) on top of the degree, and the program you’re considering teaches the lane you actually want — clinical-assistant work, medical-office management, or both. The 12.5% projected growth for medical assistants and durable retail-clinic and telehealth hiring give the entry tier a real labor-market floor.

Reasons to pause: this is a bundled CIP and program content varies considerably — confirm the syllabus before assuming you’ll get clinical training, especially when adjacent named codes (51.0801 clinical-only, 51.0716 admin-only) might fit your goals more cleanly. Routine medical-billing and scheduling work is being automated quickly, so a program weighted heavily toward back-office administration without clinical training is more AI-exposed than a clinical-assistant-leaning track. Reaching the management roles in the packet — Administrative Services Manager at $108,390 or Medical and Health Services Manager territory above $100,000 — typically requires a Health Services Administration bachelor’s (CIP 51.0701) plus 5-10 years of experience, not this credential alone. NUC University produces 184 bachelor’s completions of the national 458 — a single-institution concentration worth noting when comparing programs.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
NUC University Bayamon, PR 0 184 184
Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis, IN 128 0 128
Brookline College-Phoenix Phoenix, AZ 42 0 42
Arizona College-Glendale Glendale, AZ 35 0 35
Widener University Chester, PA 0 18 18
Career Technical Institute Washington, DC 11 0 11
Henry Ford College Dearborn, MI 9 0 9
Fortis Institute Houston, TX 8 0 8
Trinidad State College Trinidad, CO 7 0 7
College of Our Lady of the Elms Chicopee, MA 0 7 7
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Health/Health Care Administration/Management

13,592 completions/yr

Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller

5,266 completions/yr

Medical/Clinical Assistant

4,799 completions/yr

Health Information/Medical Records Technology/Technician

3,421 completions/yr

Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

3,317 completions/yr

Hospital and Health Care Facilities Administration/Management

2,279 completions/yr

Health and Medical Administrative Services, Other

1,950 completions/yr

Medical Insurance Coding Specialist/Coder

1,539 completions/yr

Considering this direction?

We've taken a hard look at the debt, earnings trajectory, and degree-level tradeoffs for the Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist field. Read our verdict before you commit.

Is Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist worth it? Read verdict
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does this CIP actually cover, and how is it different from Medical/Clinical Assistant (51.0801)?
CIP 51.0711 prepares you to perform medical-office or facilities-management work plus one or more clinical allied-health specialties at the assistant level. That’s deliberately hybrid. CIP 51.0801 (Medical/Clinical Assistant) is the named clinical-assistant credential alone — vitals, EKG, phlebotomy, patient prep — and produces 4,799 completions a year nationally. CIP 51.0716 (Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary) is the named admin-side credential. 51.0711 sits between them, which is why the syllabus matters more than the code.
Do I need a bachelor’s, or is an associate’s enough?
Most completions in this CIP are at the associate’s level — Ivy Tech (128), Brookline College-Phoenix (42), Arizona College-Glendale (35) all produce associate’s degrees. The packet’s $40,664 associate’s median tracks medical-assistant and medical-secretary entry roles. The bachelor’s is the right credential if you want to ladder into office or practice manager work; the $60,828 bachelor’s median reflects that. NUC University in Puerto Rico is the outlier producing 184 bachelor’s grads — a different product than the AAS-level community-college tracks.
What jobs do graduates actually land?
The packet names six occupations. The hot lane is Medical assistants ($44,200 median, 12.5% growth) — clinical work where typical entry is a postsecondary nondegree award. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants ($44,640) is the admin counterpart. First-line supervisors of office and admin support workers ($66,140) and Administrative services managers ($108,390, bachelor’s-typical) sit at the management end of the ladder, but those are mid-career destinations after years of experience. Two SOC codes — Healthcare support workers all other ($46,050) and Healthcare practitioners and technical workers all other ($64,030) — are residual catch-alls.
How competitive is the medical-assistant job market?
BLS projects 12.5% growth for medical assistants over the decade — among the faster-growing occupations in this packet. Demand drivers are aging-population care needs, ambulatory-care expansion, and retail-clinic models (CVS HealthHub, Walgreens, Walmart Health) hiring at scale. The market is competitive on credentials more than headcount: employers prefer CMA, CCMA, or RMA certification on top of the AAS or postsecondary award. Telehealth back-office hiring at Teladoc, Included Health, and similar platforms has been durable.
How exposed is this work to AI automation?
The exposure is split. Routine medical-billing, coding, scheduling, and patient-intake paperwork is being automated quickly — that’s pressuring the admin side of the CIP. Hands-on clinical-assistant work — taking vitals, drawing blood, running EKGs, prepping patients, sterilizing equipment, assisting with minor procedures — is durable because it requires physical presence and licensed-provider supervision. If you can choose your program’s emphasis, the clinical-assistant track is more AI-resistant than the pure medical-office-administration track.
What’s a common next step after this degree?
Three common ladders. First, certification stacking: CMA, CCMA, or RMA on top of the degree, then add CPC or CCS for medical billing/coding through AAPC or AHIMA. Second, EHR-analyst pivots: Epic or Cerner credentials open revenue-cycle and clinical-systems analyst roles paying $60,000-$90,000. Third, the management ladder: bachelor’s in Health Services Administration (CIP 51.0701, 13,592 completions nationally) plus 5-10 years of experience to reach Medical and Health Services Manager work — that occupation isn’t in this packet but maps to the realistic mid-career ceiling at $90,000-$150,000.