A home health office manager runs a branch office. They lead the scheduler, intake and client care staff and keep the phones, fax, records and supplies in order. They chase unsigned doctor's orders, fix timesheet and mileage errors before payroll closes, and keep charts ready for a surveyor.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, home health care agencies · BLS, May 2025
We're looking for an Office Manager to run one of our branch offices. You'll lead the Scheduler, Intake Coordinator, and Client Care Coordinator, keep records, phones, and supplies in order, chase signed physician orders, and get timesheets and mileage right for payroll, so clinicians and caregivers in the field get what they need from the office.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Supervise office staff, set their priorities, and cover their work when someone is out.
Track unsigned physician orders and plans of care, and follow up with physician offices until they come back signed.
Keep patient and personnel records complete, filed, and protected under HIPAA.
Collect timesheets, visit records, and mileage logs for payroll, and fix errors before payroll closes.
Order and track supplies such as gloves, masks, wound supplies, and blood pressure cuffs.
Run the phones, fax, after-hours answering service, and on-call schedule.
Prepare the office for state surveys and audits with the Administrator.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check phones, faxes, and the shared inbox for orders, referrals, and messages, and route them.
Meet with the Scheduler and Intake Coordinator on the day's admissions and staffing gaps.
Work the unsigned orders list and call physician offices.
Welcome visitors, staff picking up supplies, and new hires coming in for orientation.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Unsigned orders past policy: [your target].
Payroll errors from timesheets and mileage: [your target].
Patient records complete at audit: [your target].
Office staff turnover: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent; an associate degree or higher is a plus.
[3+] years of office management or medical office experience, with [1+] years supervising staff.
Comfortable with EMR, scheduling, and payroll systems, and with spreadsheets.
Knows HIPAA and how it applies to faxes, records, and phone calls.
Tracks many deadlines at once and follows up until each one is closed.
6. Preferred Experience
Home health, home care, or hospice office experience.
Has helped prepare for a state survey or accreditation visit.
Has supervised schedulers or intake staff.
7. Physical Requirements
Sitting at a desk for long periods, with time on your feet greeting visitors and handing out supplies.
Lifting supply boxes up to [25] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Office-based in [branch city], where staff, visitors, and new hires come in.
Regular hours: [Monday through Friday], with extra hours before payroll and surveys.
Occasional travel to other branches.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new office manager gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Patients almost never come to a home health office. What comes in instead is paper: orders from doctors, notes from visits and timesheets from caregivers. Much of it has a federal rule behind it.
Unsigned orders hold up the money
The agency can't send Medicare the final claim for a 30-day period until the doctor or allowed practitioner has signed and dated the plan of care. Orders given by phone get written down and signed by the nurse or therapist in charge of that care, and the practitioner countersigns them before the agency bills. Each plan comes up for review at least every 60 days, with a new signature each time. The office keeps one list and works it daily. Source: 42 CFR 409.43: Plan of care requirements (Cornell LII).
Patients can ask for their chart
A patient who asks for their clinical record gets it free. Medicare's rule for certified agencies sets the deadline: the next home visit or four business days, whichever comes first. That covers paper and electronic charts. Keep a request log and decide who prints or exports the chart. Tell the visiting nurse when a copy has to go out with them. Source: 42 CFR 484.110: Clinical records (Cornell LII).
Faxes, voicemail and the whiteboard
HIPAA requires reasonable safeguards for patient information. That includes limits on incidental disclosures. In a home health office the slips are ordinary. A fax goes to the wrong doctor's office. A voicemail names a diagnosis. A visitor reads a patient list on a whiteboard. Save the fax numbers you use most, use cover sheets, and report any misdirected fax to the privacy officer that day. Source: 45 CFR 164.530: Administrative requirements (Cornell LII).
Gloves and masks are the agency's cost
OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard covers staff who could touch blood or other infectious materials while doing their job. For them, the employer pays for gloves, gowns, masks and eye protection. The gear has to be on hand in the right sizes. Anyone allergic to the usual gloves gets another kind, such as powderless gloves. Stock every size, and set reorder points so a nurse never leaves the office short. Source: OSHA: 29 CFR 1910.1030, Bloodborne pathogens.
The phone list is part of the emergency plan
Medicare requires an emergency communication plan. It lists names and contact details for staff, contract services, patients' doctors and volunteers, plus a backup way to reach staff. It must be reviewed and updated at least every two years. After a storm or outage, the agency checks on on-duty staff and patients. It tells state and local officials about anyone it can't reach. The office keeps those lists current. Source: 42 CFR 484.102: Emergency preparedness (Cornell LII).
How much home health office managers make
The closest BLS group for home health office managers is First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers. First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers who work for home health care agencies earned a median of $30.81 an hour ($64,090 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $69,500 median for First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers in all industries. About 9,690 of the 1,436,680 First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers in that survey work for home health care agencies.
Hourly or salaried. If hourly, plan for overtime in payroll and survey weeks. If salaried, check that the duties, not just the salary, fit an overtime exemption.
Home health care agencies
$64,090$64,090 median Middle half $56,160–$80,320 10th–90th $45,970–$100,360
All industries
$69,500$69,500 median Middle half $55,950–$85,090 10th–90th $45,610–$104,710
$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k$100k$110k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Home health care agencies
$45,970
$56,160
$64,090
$80,320
$100,360
All industries
$45,610
$55,950
$69,500
$85,090
$104,710
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Works a list of open items, such as unsigned orders, every day until each one closes
Leads schedulers and intake staff and can cover their desks when they're out
Catches timesheet and mileage errors before payroll closes
Handles patient information on the fax and phone with care
Stays polite and persistent with physician offices that sit on paperwork
Keeps supply counts and orders on a schedule
Teach these on the job
Your EMR's order tracking and visit note reports
Your payroll cutoffs, timesheet rules and mileage policy
What the administrator wants ready for a survey
Your answering service, on-call rotation and escalation list
Your supply vendors, reorder points and glove sizes
The office runs on the home health EMR for orders and visit notes, the EVV and shift scheduling system for home care, payroll software, an e-fax service and spreadsheets for supplies and mileage. Ask candidates how they tracked unsigned orders in their last job and how they caught a timesheet error before checks went out.
Home health office manager interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Pull three months of EMR and payroll reports before you set any target, then look at the trend with the administrator monthly.
Unsigned orders past policy
Pull the EMR's order tracking report every Monday. Count orders past your policy window by physician office, and call the offices at the top of that list first.
Payroll errors from timesheets and mileage
Corrections made after payroll closes that trace back to a timesheet, visit record or mileage log, per pay period. Note each cause, such as a missed clock-out or a wrong address.
Patient records complete at audit
Each month, pull a set of charts from each branch and check for signed orders, finished visit notes and required forms. Charts with nothing missing, divided by charts pulled.
Office staff turnover
Office staff departures over a rolling year, for any reason, against the average number of office staff. Hold exit talks yourself and look for patterns in hours, workload or pay.
How is a home health office manager different from the administrator?
The administrator runs the whole agency and answers to its governing body for all of the daily work. The office manager runs one branch office: its staff, phones, records, supplies and payroll paperwork. Here the office manager reports to the administrator and gets the office ready when a survey comes.
How much does a home health office manager make?
First-Line supervisors of office and administrative support workers who work for home health care agencies earned a median of $30.81 an hour ($64,090 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $56,160 and $80,320 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Who owns the unsigned orders list, the office or the nurses?
The office owns the list and the follow-up calls. The nurse or therapist in charge of the care signs any order taken by phone. The director of nursing steps in when a doctor's office stops answering. Agree on when a stuck order moves from the office manager to the director, so nothing ages past your policy.
What does the office manager check before payroll closes?
That every visit and shift on the schedule has a matching visit note, EVV record or timesheet, and that missed clock-ins have a fix on file. Mileage should match the route, and any overtime should have been approved. The bookkeeper or payroll staff runs payroll, and HR and the CFO set the pay rules, including how drive time between clients is paid.
What does the office manager do when surveyors arrive?
Keeps the office running while the survey happens. Give the surveyors a room, pull the charts and personnel files they ask for quickly, and log every document handed over. Keep phones, intake and scheduling going, since patients still need visits that day. Let the administrator and nursing director know right away.
