How much should I pay my practice manager?
BLS reports a median annual wage of $117,960 for medical and health services managers (May 2024), with the bottom 10 percent under $67,900 and the top 10 percent above $219,080. Outpatient practice managers sit toward the lower half of that range; multi-location administrators toward the upper.
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Definition
A practice manager is the operational lead responsible for staffing, scheduling, billing oversight, vendor management, and day-to-day administration of a medical or dental practice.
The detail
BLS reported a median annual wage of $117,960 for medical and health services managers in May 2024, with the bottom 10 percent under $67,900 and the top 10 percent above $219,080. That $151,180 spread between the tenth and ninetieth percentile is the useful part: this is not one job. At the bottom sits a senior front-desk lead with a new title; at the top, an administrator running multiple sites, payer contracting and a capital plan. Where a candidate falls depends less on the practice's size than on which of those two jobs you are actually hiring for. In the engagements we run, multi-location administrators command a clear premium over single-site ones, bonuses are usually tied to revenue growth, A/R days or staff retention rather than a flat percentage of base, and California and the Northeast sit above national medians while rural markets sit below. The right salary is whatever produces a manager who takes at least ten hours a week of operations off the owner — measure the hire against that, not against a percentile.
Median wage for medical and health services managers was $117,960 in May 2024.
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Medical and Health Services Managers
Top 10 percent earned more than $219,080 annually, mostly at multi-location and hospital-affiliated groups.
MGMA Management Compensation Survey is the standard source for benchmarking practice administrator pay by specialty and region.
What this means for clinic owners
From Sorso
Underpaying your practice manager is one of the most expensive mistakes a clinic owner makes. Turnover in this seat costs 6 to 12 months of revenue disruption. Pay at or above the 50th percentile and tie a meaningful bonus to two or three KPIs you actually want to move.
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What is a good overhead ratio for medical practices?
General dentistry runs 60–65% of collections, with above 70% treated as a problem (ZenOne). Dermatology runs 72.9% of net revenue for medical and 75.1% for cosmetic (FTI Consulting). Outpatient physical therapy runs 80.8% at clinic level — salaries alone are 59.1% — per U.S. Physical Therapy's FY2025 10-K. Each of those links to the page carrying the figure. Note the spread: an 80.8% overhead ratio is healthy in physical therapy and would be a crisis in dentistry, which is why a single cross-specialty target is worse than none.
What is the average revenue per provider?
There is no free public benchmark for collections per FTE provider by specialty — MGMA's survey is the industry reference and it is a paid product. From our own client work, general dentistry commonly runs $700K to $1.1M per dentist and physical therapy $250K to $350K per FTE clinician.
What is a good staff-to-provider ratio?
A good staff-to-provider ratio is 3.5 to 5.5 FTE staff per FTE provider for most outpatient specialties, with primary care typically 4 to 5, specialty care 3.5 to 4.5, and procedural specialties 5 to 7.
When should I hire a fractional CFO?
Most clinics should hire a fractional CFO when they cross $2M in revenue, add a second location, raise debt or equity, or start preparing for a sale, typically 12 to 36 months out.
How do you structure compensation for an associate physician in a private practice?
Most associate physician compensation packages in private practice combine a guaranteed base salary for the first 12 to 24 months with a productivity-based incentive (typically a percentage of personal collections or wRVUs above a threshold), plus benefits and a defined partnership track. The right structure depends on specialty norms, payer mix, and whether the role is partner-track or career associate.
How much should outpatient clinics spend on staff training and continuing education per year?
Most outpatient clinics budget roughly 1 to 3 percent of total payroll for staff training, continuing education, and required certifications, with clinically licensed roles (providers, RNs, therapists) running higher than administrative staff. The right number depends on specialty CE requirements, billing-staff certification needs, and how aggressively the practice is upskilling for new services or systems.
Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.
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