Why We Love It
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$106,070Potential Avg. Salary*
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Growing DemandJob Outlook
* Salary & growth data is based on the recent Bureau of Labor and Statistics data published at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes119111.htm for 11-9111 Medical and health services managers 11/2021. Based on national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary.
With a bachelor of science in healthcare administration, you’ll be prepared for a career managing the operations at healthcare facilities like doctor’s offices, hospitals, and nursing homes.
A healthcare administration degree offers a leadership-focused curriculum that’s concentrated on topics applicable to the healthcare and medical industries, such as HIPAA laws, ethics in healthcare, and handling of PHI.
What is a Degree in Healthcare Administration?
A bachelor of science in healthcare administration is a part-business part-healthcare degree that trains students how to work in careers as administrators, managers, and leaders in the healthcare industry.
Students study general business topics—such as marketing, human resources, payroll management, and leadership theory—as well as healthcare industry courses like medical ethics, protected health information (PHI) management, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) information management.
Students will learn how to staff healthcare offices with talented professionals, which may include front office staff, medical assistants, nurses, and even doctors. In their careers, they’ll be responsible for hiring, scheduling, managing, and organizing all professionals who work for their institution, as well as providing exemplary service to patients of the institution.
Graduates are well prepared to take on administrative and leadership roles at doctor’s and dentist’s offices, at hospitals and clinics, and in nursing homes or long-term care facilities.
Recommended Schools
What Courses Would I Take For a Major in Healthcare Administration?
- Healthcare Marketing
- Healthcare Finance
- Healthcare Data Management
- Human Resource Management
- Ethical and Legal Considerations of Healthcare
- Healthcare IT Infrastructure
- Healthcare Research and Evaluation Methods
- Healthcare Reimbursement
What Jobs Can You Get with a Degree in Healthcare Administration?
Jobs in the healthcare industry are among the fastest-growing in the nation due to the aging Baby Boomer generation. Because of the large number of Baby Boomers who are at or nearing retirement age, demand for medical care is expected to increase significantly, which will significantly increase the need for talented medical professionals in all roles—providers, support, and administrators.
For this reason, healthcare administration graduates should be able to find work quickly after graduation.
How Long does it take?
A bachelors in Healthcare Administration will have a typical length of 4 years in a full time schedule. That said, there are many ways to speed up the timeframe by either taking more units via online coursework, community college, or taking free classes at OnlineDegree.com that could transfer to universities in the US.
Online Healthcare Administration Degree
Several universities offer online bachelor degrees in healthcare administration. Students are required to complete around 120 credit hours that are divided into lower and upper division courses.
The study can normally be completed within 4 years for full time students.
What Can You Do With a Healthcare Administration Degree?
Healthcare administration is a managerial profession that deals with the financial and human resources needs of healthcare institutes. It is a field that combines science, business and health policy. Healthcare administrators work to ensure the quality of the services provided to the patients while maintaining the rights and safety of the workers.
They also set the business model and the plans to manage the available resources and generate revenue for the healthcare institutes. The role of healthcare administration is vital in critical conditions such as wars and epidemics when the available resources become limited compared to the demand. This became very clear recently with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What does a healthcare administration student learn?
Healthcare administration is a multidisciplinary study that combines basic medical knowledge, business, law and management. Healthcare administration graduates should know how to manage the available resources to provide medical services and satisfy the needs of the working medical team.
The following list shows the courses that are commonly offered in healthcare administration programs:
- Healthcare industry: This is an introductory course that presents the history and evolution of the healthcare system in the country. Students should learn how finance can affect the healthcare system. They also get to know the various business models that are used in the medical field. They should then be able to acknowledge the link between the different aspects of healthcare as a business model and a critical service to the community.
- Basic illness and disease: this is a course introducing basic medical knowledge to the students about common diseases. Students will get to know about the treatment and prevention of these diseases. They will also learn about the nature of the medical services provided in a hospital including the most common treatments and interventions.
- Healthcare management: This is a business management course that focuses on the structure and organization of the healthcare system. It deals with the challenges that commonly face the management of healthcare institutes including ways to improve the quality of the healthcare services and increase the success of the business.
- Healthcare accounting: the accounting aspect of the healthcare system is complicated compared to other business models as it involves several parties including the government, medical insurance companies, patients and their families, the healthcare team and the business owners.
- Healthcare law: it is very important to understand the laws regulating medical services in the country or in a state. Laws control several aspects of the medical field including patient confidentiality, the right to prior consent on medical services in addition to the rights of the healthcare team.
Now I have the healthcare administration degree…where can I work after graduating?
Healthcare administration has gained much attention in recent days with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare administrators played a major role in adapting new models that are more suitable to the pandemic situation including the use of technologies to provide distance or online healthcare services and implementing more strict infection control measures.
Experienced healthcare providers who earn a healthcare administration degree increase their chances of getting a managerial position in the medical field. The following list shows the most common career options for healthcare administration graduates:
- Managerial positions of healthcare institutes: hospital CEO, CFO or department manager, nursing home administrator, clinic administrator or medical office business manager.
- Insurance company analyst: the role of this position is to determine the risks and benefits that are associated with medical insurance programs. They help in determining the optimum value and conditions of an insurance plan.
- Government lobbyist or policy maker: combining medical knowledge with business and law is the best approach to set the right policy regarding healthcare.
- Manager of healthcare staffing agency
- Hospital marketing specialist
- Insurance contract negotiator
Should I choose a healthcare administration degree?
Healthcare administration is a dynamic field that is continuously changing. Management of healthcare institutes is challenging and requires intense and organized efforts.
Studying for a degree in healthcare administration will help develop a number of useful skills:
- Leadership: healthcare administration requires synchronizing teams of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to provide the highest possible quality of services.
- Medical knowledge: administrators should at least have a basic level of medical knowledge for effective management.
- Critical and quick thinking: healthcare administrators commonly face critical and urgent situations that require clear and sometimes innovative decisions.
- High ethical standards: many of the decisions of healthcare administration can affect the lives of patients and the healthcare team and should be considered with careful attention to the ethical aspects.
Recommended Schools
Best Jobs for Healthcare Administration Degrees
A bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration prepares graduates to take on front office, administrative, billing, and leadership roles at physician’s or dentist’s offices, clinics, hospitals, urgent care centers, and nursing homes.
Generally, graduates begin in more entry-level positions and work their way into leadership roles over time, though a bachelor’s degree can shorten the amount of time needed to earn promotions.
How to save time and money
Our mission is to help you to avoid paying full price for college. We want your Healthcare Administration degree to be affordable and accessible. Here’s how you could save:
Create Your Free SmartPlan
There are many ways to make college affordable and accessible.
That’s why we created a helpful tool called SmartPlan.
It’s free, and helps you find potential ways to save and tons of information about each school you’re considering
Think of it as your “college blueprint”, to help you instantly craft a path to your degree:
- Which Colleges Match Your Needs
- Ways You Could Save Time & Money
- Free Courses You Could Take for Credit
- Valuable Data and Insights on Each College
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See what’s possible for you and generate a free plan within just a few minutes
Create My SmartPlanGet a Certificate in Healthcare Administration First
Before enrolling in a bachelor’s degree program, take time to consider if you should first earn a certificate in healthcare administration. A certificate program usually requires less than a year of study, and after earning a certificate, students can find work and begin earning income and experience in the field.
Then, you can return to school to earn a bachelor’s degree, and your credit from the certificate program may even transfer to reduce the number of credits required to earn your four-year degree.
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