undergradly.
Major · Health Professions

Running the business side of medical and clinical offices

Medical Office Management/Administration (CIP 51.0705) prepares you to manage the business operations of medical and clinical offices — financial record-keeping, scheduling, HR, public relations, and applicable healthcare law and regulations. About 1,034 students complete it across 123 institutions; bachelor’s grads earn $60,828 and associate’s grads $40,664 — a wide gap that points to the supervisory ceiling of the entry-level credential.

Schools offering
123
Annual completions
1,034
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$50k

About this major

Medical Office Management/Administration (CIP 51.0705) prepares you to manage the specialized business functions of a medical or clinical office. The CIP definition covers business-office operations, business and financial record-keeping, personnel supervision, medical and health-care policy administration, conference planning, scheduling and coordination, public relations, and applicable healthcare law and regulations. The credential is built around running the front-office and business operations of clinical practices — physician offices, clinics, dental offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and small specialty groups.

The major fits students drawn to the operational and people-management side of healthcare without a clinical-care role — those who want to keep practices running smoothly, manage front-desk and billing teams, navigate HIPAA and billing-compliance basics, and grow into practice-administrator and operations-manager positions. Comfort with detail, scheduling logistics, and difficult patient and staff conversations all help. The work rewards organization, communication, and the ability to keep multiple competing priorities — patient flow, staff scheduling, vendor management, regulatory deadlines — moving in parallel.

One grounded observation about scale and producer profile: 1,034 students complete this CIP across 123 institutions, with bachelor’s grads earning $60,828 and associate’s-only completers $40,664 — a $20K spread that reflects which doors open at hire (front-desk and billing-clerk roles vs. practice-administrator and operations-manager roles). The named SOC, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, pays $66,140 with -0.3% projected growth and a high-school-diploma typical entry. The producer list is heavily community-college and for-profit: Monroe University (127), Wake Technical Community College (76), Guilford Technical Community College (60), Fayetteville Technical Community College (53), and Valley College–Martinsburg (44) all anchor the top. The closely related parent worth-it page on health-administration is the right reference if outcome comparison across the broader admin family matters to you.

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
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-adjacent work without direct patient-care responsibilities; you’re drawn to operations, scheduling, billing, and people management — the unglamorous infrastructure that keeps clinics running; you’re organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable with regulatory frameworks (HIPAA, billing compliance, employment law); you want a relatively short associate’s-to-employment timeline with a clear bachelor’s upgrade path toward practice-administrator and operations-manager roles; and you’re willing to work in small-clinic and ambulatory-group settings rather than large hospital-system administrative offices.

Reasons to pause: the named SOC projects -0.3% growth, and the labor market lists high-school-diploma as typical entry — meaning the credential isn’t gating access to the named role, and degree-less candidates with experience often compete directly for the same supervisor seats. The associate’s-only earnings of $40,664 reflect front-desk and billing-clerk reality, not supervisor pay. If your goal is hospital, health-system, or health-plan administration, Health/Health Care Administration (CIP 51.0701, 13,592 completions) is the larger and better-positioned credential. If your goal is specialized billing-and-coding work, Medical Insurance Coding Specialist/Coder (51.0713, 1,539 completions) trains toward specific AAPC or AHIMA credentials. If you want a closely related credential with similar scope, Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant (51.0716, 3,317 completions) overlaps heavily.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Medical Office Management/Administration

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

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Monroe University Bronx, NY 127 0 127
Wake Technical Community College Raleigh, NC 76 0 76
Guilford Technical Community College Jamestown, NC 60 0 60
Fayetteville Technical Community College Fayetteville, NC 53 0 53
Valley College-Martinsburg Martinsburg, WV 44 0 44
Pitt Community College Winterville, NC 35 0 35
Plaza College Forest Hills, NY 28 0 28
West Virginia Junior College-Morgantown Morgantown, WV 23 0 23
Forsyth Technical Community College Winston-Salem, NC 21 0 21
Valencia College Orlando, FL 20 0 20
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

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

Health Information/Medical Records Administration/Administrator

1,511 completions/yr

Considering this direction?

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

Is Medical Office Management/Administration worth it? Read verdict
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does Medical Office Management actually train you for?
Coursework covers medical-office business operations, financial record-keeping, personnel supervision, healthcare policy administration, conference and meeting planning, scheduling and coordination, public relations, and applicable healthcare law (HIPAA, billing-compliance basics, employment law). The credential is built around running the front-office and business operations of clinical practices — physician offices, clinics, dental offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and small specialty groups. It’s not a clinical credential; you won’t be trained in patient care.
What jobs are realistic from this major?
The named SOC is first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($66,140 median, -0.3% projected growth, high-school-diploma typical entry) — meaning the labor market doesn’t require any specific credential to hire into this supervisory role. Realistic destinations include office manager at a private practice, billing-and-coding supervisor, front-desk lead, scheduling coordinator, and practice-administrator-in-training roles. Bachelor’s grads frequently move toward practice administrator and ambulatory-clinic operations roles, where the $60,828 bachelor’s figure aligns with mid-career pay.
Why is the associate’s-to-bachelor’s gap so wide?
The associate’s pays $40,664 and the bachelor’s pays $60,828 — a $20K spread that reflects two different trajectory ceilings. Associate’s-only completers typically land in front-desk, scheduling, and billing-clerk roles; the supervisor lift takes years of experience and often happens informally rather than through credential change. Bachelor’s completers tend to land in or move quickly to practice-administrator and operations-manager roles, particularly in larger ambulatory-care groups and hospital outpatient networks. The credential doesn’t change the job titles — it changes which doors are open at hire.
How does this compare to Health/Health Care Administration (CIP 51.0701)?
Health/Health Care Administration (51.0701, 13,592 completions) is the much larger and broader sibling — bachelor’s and master’s programs aimed at hospital, health-system, and health-plan administration with corporate-finance, strategy, and policy depth. Medical Office Management (51.0705, 1,034 completions) is narrower and more vocational, aimed at small-clinic and medical-practice operations. If you want hospital-system or health-plan careers, the named administration CIP signals better; if you want clinic-level office operations, this CIP fits the actual work.
Why do community colleges dominate the producer list?
Wake Technical Community College (76 completions), Guilford Technical Community College (60), Fayetteville Technical Community College (53), Pitt Community College (35), and Forsyth Technical Community College (21) all sit in the top, alongside small for-profits like Monroe University (127), Valley College–Martinsburg (44), and Plaza College (28). The pattern is heavy community-college and for-profit dominance for the associate’s-level credential, with very few large university bachelor’s programs at the top. That’s consistent with the credential’s vocational-front-office positioning rather than a hospital-administration trajectory.
Should I prefer this or a coding-and-billing CIP?
Compare actual program content. Medical Insurance Coding Specialist/Coder (CIP 51.0713, 1,539 completions) trains specifically toward CPC, CCS, or AAPC coding credentials — a specialized clinical-billing track. Health Information/Medical Records Technology (CIP 51.0707, 3,421) overlaps and pushes toward RHIT certification. Medical Office Management is broader but less specialized; it gives you breadth (HR, scheduling, supervision) but no specific coding or RHIT-style credential. Pick by whether you want supervisory breadth or a specialized billing/coding credential.