Healthcare Office Jobs: 3 Career Paths That Don’t Involve Direct Patient Care

Key Insights:

• If you want to work in healthcare but aren’t interested in direct patient care, non-clinical roles provide this option. These are healthcare office jobs that may involve interacting with patients (such as when answering billing questions), but don’t involve patient care.
• Non-clinical healthcare career paths include health information management, healthcare management, and entry-level accounting careers in healthcare. These roles are more behind the scenes and typically involve working with patient records and/or performing basic office management tasks.
• Ultimate Medical Academy is here to help you choose a career path that could be a good fit for you based on your interests and goals. We also offer a variety of resources designed to help you learn more about your options, if you prefer to do your own research.

Some people pursue a career in the healthcare field because they want to work directly with patients. Others like the idea of being in this field but would prefer a more behind-the-scenes role. If you’re in the second group, a healthcare office job enables you to be part of this growing field¹ without providing direct patient care. These are sometimes referred to as non-clinical healthcare roles, and there are several options from which to choose.

Clinical vs. Non-Clinical Healthcare Roles

What’s the difference between clinical and non-clinical healthcare positions?

• Clinical healthcare roles are hands-on, patient-facing positions. These are the doctors, nurses, and physical therapists providing care directly to the patients. They’re also the healthcare support workers who perform clinical tasks — the dental assistants, medical assistants, phlebotomy technicians, and nursing assistants, just to name a few.
• Non-clinical healthcare roles are positions that help medical offices or healthcare organizations run smoothly. These are the workers who perform administrative tasks such as answering phones, scheduling appointments, processing insurance claims, and updating patients’ records.

Healthcare Office Jobs: 3 Career Paths to Consider

The healthcare industry is the largest employment sector in the U.S.² It’s also incredibly broad. This may give you the opportunity to pursue an educational and career path that aligns with your interests. Three non-clinical options that offer the ability to work in an administrative or office role are health information management, healthcare management, and healthcare accounting.

#1: Health information management

Individuals in health information management careers help their employers store, organize, track, and secure patients’ private health information. This can include their medical histories, labs and tests, diagnoses, treatment plans, and health insurance policy numbers and benefits — all of which are generally stored in an organization’s electronic health record (EHR) system.

Depending on your role, you could be tasked with updating patients’ digital records, verifying record completeness and accuracy, preparing reports, and/or ensuring that patients’ health records are not accessible to unauthorized users.

Health information management falls under the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) category of medical records specialists, which is projected to grow 7% between 2024 and 2034.³ This would lead to roughly 14,200 openings each year, on average, during that time.

#2: Healthcare management

Healthcare organizations are created to help people protect or advance their health. But they’re still businesses. Individuals in healthcare management careers help these businesses handle the day-to-day operations that enable them to run efficiently.

Depending on your role, you may create departmental workflows, resolve workplace conflicts, monitor inventory, oversee revenue cycle operations, and/or ensure that regulatory guidelines are followed so the organization is compliant with governmental standards.

The BLS projects that medical and health service manager positions will grow 23% between 2024 and 2034.⁴ This equates to approximately 62,100 openings each year, on average, during that time.

#3: Healthcare accounting

Another option for working in an office setting versus providing direct patient care is to pursue an entry-level role in accounting for healthcare. Individuals in these positions help healthcare companies track and record their financial information.

Depending on your role, you may help these organizations keep track of money coming in and going out, collect and process payments, resolve billing issues, complete payroll for staff, and/or prepare financial reports.

Entry-level healthcare roles in this field fall under the BLS category of bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks. While an overall decline is projected for these types of positions, the BLS expects that there will be 170,000 openings each year, on average, between 2024 and 2034.⁵

UMA Is Here to Help You Find (and Pursue) Your Healthcare Career Path

Choosing a career path is a major decision, but you don’t have to make it alone. If you’d like help exploring healthcare education options that could be a good fit for you, let us know. Tell us about your interests, professional goals, or the type of work you’d like to do in the healthcare field, and we can talk about your options.

We’ve also created a few resources you can use if you’d like to do some more research:

• >Healthcare Career Guide – Learn about a wide variety of options, as well as what to look for in a healthcare school.
• Healthcare Career Quiz – Take this short, informal quiz to help identify healthcare programs that may align with your interests and goals.
• Remote Healthcare Career Options – Some healthcare careers offer the opportunity to work from home, and these may be a few options.

Check these out and, if you have any questions, reach out. We’re here to help.

FAQs

• What are examples of non-clinical healthcare careers? Health information management and healthcare management positions are examples of non-clinical careers that don’t involve direct patient care. Entry-level accounting or bookkeeping positions in healthcare are another example of non-clinical roles.
• Do healthcare office jobs require medical training? Some healthcare employers may require their office staff to have medical training, while others do not. If you’re interested in a particular healthcare office job, ask that employer about their medical training requirements. This enables you to understand the qualifications for that specific role.
• Can I work in healthcare without patient experience? Yes, patient experience may not be required for non-clinical healthcare roles since they involve working on a computer versus working with patients. Some employers also hire entry-level clinical healthcare professionals without patient experience, enabling them to gain this experience on the job.
• What skills are important for non-clinical healthcare roles? Basic computer skills are important when working in a non-clinical healthcare role, especially when working within an employer’s electronic health record (EHR) system or using their other office software. Additional important skills can vary depending on the job role. For example, individuals in health information management careers can benefit from being analytical, detail-oriented, and having interpersonal skills.⁶
• Are non-clinical healthcare jobs in demand? Many non-clinical healthcare jobs are in demand, such as health information management roles (which have a 7% projected growth rate from 2024 to 2034)3, and healthcare management positions (which have a projected 23% growth rate during this same time).⁴