Free Care Manager Job Description Templates
Free care manager job description templates: clinical, home care, geriatric, assisted living, small agency. With HIPAA, licensing, and FLSA guidance.
Care Manager Job Description Templates
5 free templates by setting, with licensing and FLSA guidance. Download as DOCX.
Hiring a care manager comes with two wrinkles most job description templates ignore. First, care manager, case manager, and care coordinator are three different roles that get used interchangeably, and naming the wrong one attracts the wrong candidates. Second, the role is almost always licensed and HIPAA-covered, so the credentials and compliance matter from day one. Get those right, and the rest is a fairly standard healthcare job description.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the small care businesses that make this hire, often a home care agency, an assisted-living community, or a geriatric care-management practice without an HR department. The five templates below cover the care manager by setting: clinical, home care, geriatric, resident care, and a small-agency version, each handling the licensing and compliance honestly, and the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
What Is a Care Manager?
A care manager assesses a client's needs, builds and manages a care plan, and coordinates services across providers to improve health, safety, and outcomes. The core work is constant: assess, plan, coordinate, support, and document. What changes is the setting and the license behind it.
For the employer writing the posting, two things matter up front. First, the setting shapes the role: a clinical care manager is a licensed clinician running a caseload, often within Medicare chronic-care management; a home care manager oversees clients and caregivers; a geriatric care manager guides older adults and families; and a resident care manager oversees care in an assisted-living community. That is why the templates below differ by setting. Second, a care manager is usually a licensed professional, which separates it from a more administrative care coordinator and from a social-services case manager. The next section makes those distinctions clear.
Care Manager vs Case Manager vs Care Coordinator
These three titles get used interchangeably, and hiring the wrong one is a costly mismatch. Here is how they differ.
| Care Manager | Case Manager | Care Coordinator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Clinical care planning | Social services, benefits | Scheduling, logistics |
| Typical license | RN or LCSW | Social work / LCSW | Often none required |
| Setting | Healthcare, home care, CCM | Behavioral health, social work | Practices, agencies |
| Clinical bar | High | Medium-high | Lower |
A care manager assesses and coordinates clinical care, usually as a licensed clinician; a case manager leans toward social services and connecting clients to resources; and a care coordinator handles the more administrative scheduling and follow-up. The lines blur in practice and employers use the titles loosely, but the license requirement, pay, and candidate pool differ, so name the level of responsibility your role actually needs.
Care Manager Duties and Responsibilities
Across every setting, care manager duties group into assessment and planning, coordination, people and oversight, and records and compliance. What fills each bucket differs by setting, but the structure is shared, which is why the templates follow the same shape.
A strong posting fills these with the specifics of your organization: the caseload size, the population you serve, the EHR you use, and the programs and payors involved. For a structured way to scope the role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by your setting. The assess-plan-coordinate core runs through all five, but the setting changes the population, the license, and the compliance. Use this guide to choose.
5 Free Care Manager Job Description Templates
Download all five as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: organization and role overview, key responsibilities, qualifications with the required license, the FLSA status with a confirm note, compensation, and how to apply, with the specifics left as fields. Fill in the brackets and post.
Template 1: Clinical / Chronic Care Manager (RN or LCSW)
For a practice, agency, or CCM program: a licensed clinician who assesses patients, builds care plans, and coordinates services, often within Medicare chronic-care management. The dominant meaning of the term.
Template 2: Home Care Manager
For a home care or home health agency: manages a caseload of clients, supervises and schedules caregivers, conducts home visits, and ensures quality and compliance.
Template 3: Geriatric / Aging Life Care Manager
For a private geriatric or aging-life care practice: guides older adults and families through aging and care decisions, advocates across providers, and manages a private-pay caseload.
Template 4: Resident Care Manager (Assisted Living)
For an assisted living or residential care community: assesses residents, manages care plans, supervises care staff, and ensures compliance with state assisted-living rules.
Template 5: Care Manager for a Small Agency
For an owner hiring their first care manager: a broad, hands-on role owning assessment, care planning, coordination, and oversight while helping build the agency's processes.
Care Manager Licensing and Compliance
This is the part worth getting exactly right, because a care manager is licensed, handles protected health information, and often works in a state-regulated agency or community. Here is what to require and verify at hire.
The simplest rule: verify the active clinical license your role and state require, provide HIPAA training with a signed acknowledgment, and confirm your home care or assisted-living licensing and any Medicare or Medicaid program requirements. The CMS chronic care management rules set documentation and eligibility requirements for reimbursable care-management programs, and care roles working with vulnerable adults typically need background checks. State requirements vary, so confirm yours. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is a Care Manager Exempt from Overtime?
Care managers are frequently exempt from overtime, but not automatically, and the title never decides it. The reason the answer is often yes: a licensed clinical care manager does work requiring advanced specialized knowledge, and a supervising care manager directs a team, which map to the learned professional and executive exemptions.
The learned professional exemption applies when the primary duty requires advanced knowledge from a prolonged course of specialized study, and the employee is paid a salary at or above the federal floor. A licensed RN- or LCSW-based care manager fits that, while a supervising care manager may instead meet the executive exemption. Here is how the common care roles shake out.
The federal salary floor is $684 per week ($35,568 per year); a 2024 rule that would have raised it was vacated in court, so the 2019 level remains in effect, and some states set a higher floor. The licensed and supervisory care manager roles usually clear an exemption, while the non-supervisory, hourly care coordinator is the common non-exempt case. Confirm the borderline coordinator-level roles rather than defaulting them to exempt. This is general information, not legal advice.
Care Manager Pay
Care manager pay depends on the type and the license behind it, so benchmark against the closest occupation rather than a single number.
Within each, region, license, caseload, and setting move pay significantly, and supervisory or program-leading roles pay toward the top. A non-supervisory care coordinator earns less than a licensed care manager, and market data shows geriatric care managers in private practice may bill private-pay rates well above an employed salary. Benchmark against the specific role, license, and market you are hiring in, and disclose a range where your state requires it. The templates leave compensation as a field so you can set it for your market.
Care Manager Skills and Qualifications
Care manager qualifications combine the required license with clinical and coordination skills, so name them concretely rather than leaning on vague traits.
| Weak requirement | Strong requirement |
|---|---|
| Has a license | Active RN, LPN, or LCSW license as the role requires |
| Clinical experience | 2+ years in care or case management or clinical care |
| Organized | Strong assessment, care-planning, and coordination skills |
| Knows EHR | Experience with EHR and care-management software |
| Compliance-aware | Knowledge of HIPAA and relevant licensing and programs |
The core is a licensed clinician who can assess, plan, and coordinate care, with genuine command of documentation and compliance. Name the required license and experience precisely, and keep each line job-related, the SHRM job description tools describe a good job description as a plain-language summary of a position's tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Keep the posting neutral, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics.
How to Write a Care Manager Job Description
A strong care manager posting takes about 20 minutes and does two jobs: it gives a candidate the setting, caseload, and license they screen on, and it gets the credentials and compliance right so you hire defensibly. Here is the process the templates are built around. If this is among your first hires, the small business hiring guide covers the steps around the posting itself.
Hiring a Care Manager for a Small Agency
A hospital or health system hires care managers through an HR department that verifies licenses and handles compliance. A small home care agency, assisted-living community, or geriatric practice, where the small-business demand actually lives, has the owner or administrator doing all of that personally. The same licensing, HIPAA, and state rules apply anyway. Here is how to approach the posting and the hire for that reality.
After You Hire: Onboarding a Care Manager
The job description is step one, and a care manager hire is license- and compliance-heavy, so the onboarding starts with verification. Confirm the required clinical license is active and unrestricted, plus any certification, then send the offer and get it signed, and complete Form I-9 and the rest of the new hire paperwork and tax forms, along with HIPAA training and a signed acknowledgment and any required background check.
Then set up EHR or care-management access and orient the care manager to your clients, your care-planning and documentation standards, and your payor and program requirements, the kind of structured start that good onboarding is built on. For a small agency without an HR department, a repeatable process keeps license checks and HIPAA from slipping, which matters for surveys and audits, and once your offer is ready the offer letter template handles the core terms. FirstHR connects the offer and HIPAA acknowledgment with e-signature, runs the onboarding workflow, and stores licenses and certifications in document management, built for agencies without an HR team. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a care manager do?
A care manager assesses a client's needs, builds and manages a care plan, and coordinates services across providers to improve health and outcomes. The core work is assessing needs, risks, and goals, developing and updating an individualized care plan, coordinating services across providers and settings, educating and supporting the client and family, and monitoring progress, all documented and kept HIPAA-compliant. The setting shapes the emphasis: a clinical or chronic-care manager is a licensed clinician (RN or LCSW) running a caseload, often within Medicare chronic-care management; a home care manager oversees clients and caregivers for an agency; a geriatric or aging-life care manager guides older adults and families; and a resident care manager oversees care in an assisted-living community. Across all of them, a care manager is usually a licensed professional who owns a caseload and coordinates care, which distinguishes the role from a more administrative care coordinator.
What is the difference between a care manager, a case manager, and a care coordinator?
These three titles overlap but mean different things, and getting the distinction right matters when you hire. A care manager assesses clients, builds care plans, and coordinates services, usually as a licensed clinician, often in healthcare, home care, or chronic-care programs, with a focus on clinical care planning. A case manager leans more toward social services, benefits, and connecting clients to resources, common in behavioral health, social work, and community settings, and the term is the higher-volume one in the US. A care coordinator is more administrative: scheduling, follow-up, documentation, and logistics, usually with a lower clinical bar and lower pay. In practice the lines blur and employers use the titles loosely, but the typical hierarchy of clinical responsibility runs care manager, then case manager, then care coordinator. Decide which level of license and responsibility your role actually needs, then name it precisely, since the candidate pool and pay differ.
What license does a care manager need?
It depends on the role and your state, but most care manager positions require an active clinical license. The common ones are a Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) license for nursing-based care management, or a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or social work license for social-work-based roles. A clinical or chronic-care manager almost always needs an RN or LCSW. A geriatric or aging-life care manager typically holds a nursing or social work background, and many pursue aging-life care certification. A home care or resident care manager's requirement varies by state and payor, sometimes an RN, sometimes a different qualification. Beyond the license, care managers need HIPAA training, and home care agencies and assisted-living communities carry their own state licensing that the care manager helps maintain. Verify the specific license your role and state require, and confirm it is active before hire. The templates leave the license as a field so you can set it for your role.
Is a care manager exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
Care managers are frequently exempt, but not automatically, and the title never decides it. A licensed clinical care manager, such as an RN or LCSW, usually meets the FLSA learned professional exemption, because the role requires advanced knowledge from prolonged specialized study and a professional license. A care manager whose primary duty is supervising staff and who directs two or more employees may meet the executive exemption instead. Both are common exempt cases. The exception is a lower-paid, non-supervisory, hourly care coordinator whose work is mostly administrative and scheduling rather than independent professional judgment, which may be non-exempt and owed overtime. The exempt employee must also earn a salary of at least $684 per week. So set the classification from the actual duties, the license, and the salary rather than the title, and confirm borderline coordinator-level roles. Some states set a higher salary floor. This is general information, not legal advice; classification is fact-specific.
How much does a care manager make?
Pay depends on the type of care manager and the license behind it, so benchmark against the closest occupation. For a clinical or supervisory care manager, the closest federal benchmark is medical and health services managers, who earned a median annual wage of $117,960 in May 2024. For a nursing-based care manager, registered nurses earned a median of $93,600, and for a social-work-based care manager, healthcare social workers earn somewhat less, around the high $60,000s on average. Within each, region, license, caseload, and setting move the number significantly, and supervisory or program-leading roles pay toward the top. A non-supervisory care coordinator typically earns less than a licensed care manager. Geriatric and aging-life care managers in private practice may bill clients at private-pay rates well above an employed salary. Benchmark against the specific role, license, and market you are hiring in rather than a single care manager number, and disclose a range where your state requires it. The templates leave compensation as a field.
What should a care manager job description include?
Start by naming the setting and the license, then build the standard sections. The most important choices are which type of care manager you need, clinical, home care, geriatric, resident, or small-agency, and which license the role requires, since those determine everything else. From there, include an organization overview, the duties, the required license and qualifications, the FLSA status, and the compensation. List the real duties: assessment and care planning, coordination, client and family support and supervision, and documentation and compliance, framed for your setting. State the required license clearly, since most care manager roles need an RN, LPN, or LCSW. Handle compliance, because care managers carry HIPAA, state licensing, and often Medicare or Medicaid requirements. Address the FLSA status, since care managers are frequently exempt but coordinator-level roles may not be. Describe the caseload and setting so candidates understand the scope. Keep the language neutral and job-related.
Do small agencies and practices hire care managers?
Yes, and small agencies and practices are the best small-business fit for this role. The care manager title concentrates in large healthcare employers for the bare term, but the small-business demand is real in three segments. Small home care and home health agencies, a highly fragmented market with no dominant player, hire care managers to oversee caseloads and caregivers. Small assisted-living communities, which average around 33 licensed beds with many in the four-to-ten-bed range, hire resident care managers. And private geriatric or aging-life care-management practices are largely solo or very small, often under ten employees, charging private-pay rates. These are exactly the kind of small, owner-run care businesses that hire a care manager as a core role, usually without a dedicated HR department, which is the scenario the small-agency template on this page is built for. The hospital and health-system care manager is a different, larger employer.
What happens after I hire a care manager?
Verify the license, complete the paperwork, and onboard with HIPAA and compliance in mind, since a care manager handles protected health information from day one. Start by verifying the required clinical license is active and unrestricted, plus any certification, then send the offer and get it signed. Complete Form I-9 and tax forms, and handle HIPAA training with a signed acknowledgment, since your agency or practice is a covered entity. Run any required background check and state-mandated screening for working with vulnerable adults. Then set up access to your EHR or care-management software, and orient the care manager to your clients, your care-planning and documentation standards, your payor and program requirements, and how care coordination works in your organization. For a small agency without an HR department, a repeatable onboarding process keeps license checks and HIPAA from slipping, which matters for surveys and audits. FirstHR handles the offer and HIPAA acknowledgment with e-signature, runs the onboarding workflow, and stores licenses and certifications in document management. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.