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An Online Healthcare Administration degree is a dynamic field of study that can help you get a job in health and business. Depending on your career goals, you can tailor your degree and internships toward health care or business administration. The market is promising: Jobs in health care are expected to grow 16 percent between 2020 and 2030, much faster than any other industry.
Online Healthcare Administration degree prepares you for leadership roles in health organizations such as nursing homes and hospitals, where you can apply your business acumen to improve delivery and efficiency of health care services.
It can teach you the same things as a campus-based degree, but you can learn from the comfort of your own home, and you can become qualified to enter many different healthcare and related fields in which you could potentially build your career to make more than $100,000 per year (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
What Classes are Required for a Bachelor’s Degree in Healthcare Administration?
A healthcare administration degree combines several different subject areas, including science, business, technology, and medicine.
While your exact course list will depend on things like your school and your specialization, you can expect to see the following classes in most degree programs:
Medical Terminology: You’ll need to know the lingo as a healthcare administrator. Even if you’re working in an office and never directly interacting with patients, their paperwork will be covered in the codes, acronyms, abbreviations, and general medial jargon of doctors and nurses. You’ll need to be able to decipher it.
Health Records Management: A business is nothing without its records, and this includes healthcare businesses such as hospitals, clinics, rehabs, and nursing homes. Documents can include everything from insurance forms to patient histories. They need to be both organized and protected, and a health records management class can show you how.
Finance: There’s usually a math component to healthcare administration degrees. It might be related to finance, accounting, billing, statistics, or economics. Even if your career won’t require the use of a calculator, you’ll need to have a fundamental knowledge of how the system works to be effective as an administer.
Healthcare Marketing and Communication: These classes are particularly important if you plan to work in a public outreach position. How can you communicate your ideas to the public? How should you handle a PR disaster? How can you lobby for more funds for a hospital, or how can you attract more patients to a private practice?
Anatomy, Physiology or Kinesiology: These courses are usually geared more towards hands-on work in the medical field, but they might be a requirement for your healthcare administration degree as well. For example, your school might want you to take an introductory class just to learn the basics, or you might have a specialization that requires it.
Human Resources: The field of human resources is so vast that you can get an entirely separate degree in it. However, its subjects can also cross over with a healthcare administration degree.
From recruiting new employees to handling payroll with the ones that you already have, human resources courses can prepare you for the business side of the medical industry.
What Can You Do with an Online Healthcare Administration Degree?
A degree in healthcare administration can qualify you for work in many different fields. Your potential career paths will depend on your skills, interests, and certifications, as well as things like job demand and industry growth.
If you’re a well-organized person, you might become an office administrator for a clinic or hospital. If you like computers, you might find work as a health information manager or record system specialist.
Are you a fast typist? Consider a career as a medical transcriptionist. Do you like stretching your creative muscles? Consider becoming a public health coordinator who plans new programs for schools, offices, parks, and hospitals.
A healthcare administration degree can also prepare you for work outside of traditional medical settings. If you specialize in something like human resources, for example, your skills can translate to many HR offices.
If you study human services, you can learn about helping the disadvantaged, which could help you become an advocate, social worker, or community service manager. Some of these jobs will require more schooling than others.
For example, while it’s technically possible to become a nursing home administrator with nothing more than a bachelor’s degree, most employers will want a traditional or online masters degree in health administration and certification as a Certified Nursing Home Administrator (CNHA).
No matter what your degree level, however, you can qualify for work in healthcare administration. You might be limited to entry-level jobs if you only have an associate degree, but any amount of education can increase your odds of landing a job.
Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration Salary
How much money can you make with a degree in healthcare administration? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, some careers in the healthcare administration field include:
| Careers | Annual Median Salary |
| Hospital Administrator | $128,750 |
| Human Resources Manager | $121,220 |
| Laboratory Manager | $105,840 |
| Medical and Health Services Manager | $104,280 |
| Clinical Managers | $100,860 |
| Hospice Manager | $89,880 |
| Healthcare Consultant | $73,230 |
| Insurance Underwriter | $71,790 |
| Social and Community Service Manager | $69,600 |
| Healthcare Compliance Officer | $62,940 |
Also, if you ever plan on climbing up the ladder towards the more higher-end jobs, you may want to consider pursuing your master’s or PHD in health care administration online . One thing to note is that these are median numbers. For example, the full salary range of a healthcare compliance officer is $35,660-$104,270 per year, so you could earn much more than the $62,940 median suggests. It all depends on whether you’re a top earner in the field.
Professional Organizations for Those with a Degree in Healthcare Administration
You don’t have to join a professional organization to be successful, but they can definitely help.
They can offer advice, support, and resources for people in their industry, so whether you’re looking for workshop opportunities or continuing education classes, a professional organization can be a good place to get them.
American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management
The American association of healthy care administrative management (AAHAM) is the only organization in the U.S. dedicated to revenue cycles.
They offer both education and advocacy for the subject, and they’re a source of certification if you’re interested in becoming a Certified Revenue Cycle Professional (CRCP) or Certified Compliance Technician (CCT).
Medical Group Management Association
The Medical group management association (MGMA) is for people who own a medical practice. They boast more than 55,000 members, and they offer everything from networking events to discounted goods and services from healthcare vendors.
They also offer certification for becoming a Certified Medical Practice Executive (CMPE).
Professional Association of Health Care Office Management
The Professional association of healthcare office management (PAHCOM) is a supportive network for healthcare administrators that offers access to conferences, discounts, academic journals, and certification exams.
You can become a Certified Medical Manager (CMM) or Health Information Technology Certified Manager for Physician Practice (HITCM-PP) through them.
Accreditation for an Online Healthcare Administration Degree
Accreditation is very important for colleges. Not only does it mean that they’ve passed the test for educational quality, but it also qualifies them to receive federal financial aid.
There are six main accrediting boards in the United States:
1. Higher learning commission
2. Middle states commission on higher education
3. New England association of schools and college
4. Northwest commission on colleges and Universities
5. Southern association of colleges and schools
6. Western association of schools and colleges
As you can see, they’re divided into geographical regions, so accreditation in California is handled by a different organization than accreditation in New York.
You migh also stumble across schools that are accredited by the Commission on accreditation of healthcare management education (CAHME).
This is a special organization that oversees healthcare management programs, including healthcare administration programs. It’s only for master’s degrees, but if you think that you might climb the ladder in the future, it might be worth enrolling in a CAHME school.
Financial Aid for a Healthcare Admin Degree Online
If you need help paying for college, your first step should be filling out the FAFSA. It won’t cost you anything, and you could qualify for several different types of financial aid, including:
- Grants
- Loans
- Work-study programs
There are also financial aid opportunities outside of the federal government. For example, you can ask your employer if they offer tuition reimbursement, or you can look for scholarships.
In addition to the usual income- and merit-based scholarships, there are ones devoted specifically to healthcare majors, including:
1. The healthcare information management systems Scholarship
2. The Bachrach family scholarship for excellence in health care administration
3. The National association of health service executives Scholarship
4. The David .A. Winston health policy Scholarship
You can also look into scholarships available from businesses in your area.
Questions Related to Earning a Healthcare Administration Degree Online
Here are our answers to a couple of more questions you might have.
What Is the Best Online School for Healthcare Administration?
Everyone has different needs and expectations about college, so the right school for you might not be the right school for your neighbor. However, you can ask yourself similar questions when narrowing down your options:
- How do they handle online courses? It’s possible to take labs and other hands-on classes through an online healthcare management degree program, but you’ll need to check with the school to get the details on how it’s done.
- Do they offer the right majors? While some schools have healthcare administration as its own degree, others will require you to take “healthcare management” or “health services” with a concentration in administrative work.
- How far are you taking your degree? Look for accredited programs on every level. The school’s associate degree programs should be just as rigorous as their bachelor’s and master’s.
Make sure to ask the usual questions about healthcare management degree online classes, tuition, staff, and graduation rate as well.
How Do I Get a Degree in Healthcare Administration?
The first step to getting a healthcare administration degree is figuring out what you want to do. Are you looking for entry-level work with an associate degree, or do you want a long-term career with the help of a bachelor’s or master’s degree?
Once you’ve decided on your degree, consider the different specializations in healthcare administration. Are you more interested in the legal, financial, ethical, or social side of things? What classes interest you the most? What would be your top three jobs?
After that, it’s just a matter of figuring out which school offers all of the things that you want. The right program is out there. You just have to find it.
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