A Brief History of the Health Administration Major
As healthcare careers continue to expand at an incredible rate, one area essential to the success of the industry are its administrators. At its core, the healthcare system in the United States is still a business and much like any business, healthcare systems and networks need effective managers to make hospitals, private practices and clinics run effectively. Healthcare administrators work behind the scenes to ensure the success of their given facility. Healthcare administrators are those who fill the positions most closely involved with controlling costs and insuring accountability and accuracy with insurance companies and Medicare. Whereas a healthcare administrator in the past may have only dealt in areas of personnel and finances, today’s healthcare administrators see increased demands in the area of technology as medical records and communication are converted to electronic forms. In 2008, more than 283,000 jobs existed in healthcare administration, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number is expected to grow by 16% through 2018 to account for more than 328,000 jobs. Positions range from local offices and small practices to global positions in charge of major healthcare networks. Health administrators and managers are vital to the industry as they directly influence of the improvement of quality and efficiency of healthcare.
Delving Into the Health Administration Major
While an associate or bachelor’s degree is adequate for entry level positions in healthcare administration, a master’s degree is the industry standard. There are also a number of PhD programs that offer a multitude of options for those with every knowledge and skill level to participate in online courses. While associate’s degree programs generally focus on specific parts or functions of a health administrator such as business, economics and management, bachelor’s programs focus on a well-rounded education featuring elements of communication, mathematics and business at its core. Later in the program, bachelor’s students will begin to shift to job specifics such as healthcare ethics, healthcare-related finance and economics courses. Master’s level training will focus on many of the same disciplines developed in bachelor’s training. Only master’s level courses go a step further by putting more emphasis on healthcare law, statistics and operations, and quality assessment. Curriculum will predominantly focus on text books for reference, but classes that focus on law and ethics may require studying current events that often move too quickly to be incorporated into textbooks. For professionals looking to continue their education while in the field, there are several online offerings for PhDs in health administration as well. Someone looking for a PhD in health administration will likely already have a great deal of success in the industry and will be looking forward to advancing to the top level of their field, or possibly moving into a major hospital or clinic network on an executive level.
Degree Levels:
Associate
Students looking to pursue an associate’s degree in health administration will begin their curriculum with a basic introduction into college skills, writing, communication and mathematics, but will eventually move into economics, accounting, management principals and marketing courses. Some programs may even offer students an introduction into business law. Students will then finish with courses designed to get into industry specifics, such as health insurance, healthcare coding and document processing and healthcare ethics. Associate’s students will use mostly textbooks as reference guides for courses, but can also feature other material due to the rapid change and growth of various healthcare fields.
Bachelor’s
While a bachelor’s health administration degree is designed to incorporate specific elements that an administrator handles on a daily basis as a healthcare admin, expect the vast majority of your course load to be centered on business courses specific to healthcare. Basics, or core curriculum classes, will feature many of the same standard courses that would come along with any major. Once into courses designed for the major, expect to see leadership courses, courses on understanding hospital IT systems, claims and coding systems for insurance, and how modern health systems control communicable diseases and illnesses. Most programs will also feature courses that specifically deal with finance and economics of hospital systems. Similar to an associate’s degree, reference material will range anywhere from textbooks in core classes to more modern and up-to-date materials in niche courses.
Master’s
Healthcare administrations master’s programs will be similar to the bachelor’s curriculum, only taking the basic concepts and courses and focusing in on healthcare-specific training. Expect to see courses dealing with healthcare and business law, healthcare marketing, and ethics. The curriculum will also deal with problem-solving techniques for today’s hospitals and healthcare systems legal, financial and health delivery challenges. Students can also expect to see courses centered on human resources issues facing administrators, such as training, educating, evaluating and retaining staff. The master’s curriculum is designed to improve day-to-day operations in the field for existing administrators; as a result students can expect to deal with course work that focuses more on modern, day-to-day operations. Master’s course reference materials will contain fewer, if any, textbooks as reference material will be pulled from the actual field.
Doctorate
Online doctorate programs are designed for healthcare administrators in the field that are trying to build on an existing master’s degree, an MBA in Business Administration, Masters in Nursing or those that have a JD in Health Law. Those looking to pursue a doctorate must be able to grasp management and social service theories and apply them to daily situations. Courses will focus on understanding human behavior and learning methods of leadership to accomplish goals within an organization. As studied in a master’s program, students can once again expect to study ways to increase ones understanding of managed care and health insurance with topics such as provider payment, cost containment and issues of public policy.
Supplementing Your Health Administration Major
While core curriculum for health administration professionals will prepare them for a broad spectrum of subjects and skills needed in the field, additional training that can be applied always provides an extra edge in any situation. For students looking to supplement majors, the first and most obvious category is in business. Although in most cases administrators will work in a specific healthcare center, they are the business managers of the industry. Knowing and understanding business principals and basic business law will prepare an individual to handle day to day operations of hospitals and clinics. Additionally, accounting provides a firm background in learning the principals and day to day workings of financial gains and losses. Since health administrators in small offices or clinics may be the main or only business person, the ability to track where your money is going and how much is coming out is a quality that will set you apart from the rest. Similarly, finance and economics programs also carry a great deal of importance as both provide a firm background into one of the most fundament business principals there is; managing your money and resources. Management and human resources courses are also an excellent way to supplement any level of healthcare administration education. In the field, healthcare administrations are often directly involved with managing a staff of nurses, medical technicians and doctors. While an administrator may or may not be involved with the hiring or firing of an employee, they are relied upon to maximize the efficiency of their staff. Knowing how to react when faced with a challenge among a team of highly trained medical professionals is a valuable resource recognized by potential employees. While it may not be of relevance for lower level students, a background in law will also provide an excellent resource for someone adding to an existing education or looking for a way to transition from a career in law to a career in healthcare administration.
Learn More About the Health Administration
- Princeton Review
- Technology in the Healthcare System of the Future
- United States Department of Labor
The Health Administration Major in the Job Market
Medical and health service managers often work long hours and in some cases may be expected to be on call during off hours to deal with various problems or issues that arise during time away from work. Entry to mid-level employees may be expected to work in a wide variety of specialized areas: anywhere from finance to marketing, medical staff relations, to planning and development. Starting salary usually ranges in the $50,000-$60,000 range, the BLS reports. The lowest 10 percent of the field earned less than $48,300. The median annual salary for the administrators was $80,240. The upper 10 percent of those in the field earned more than $138,700 annually. Top pay is usually earned to by top level executives within the field such as CEOs and COOs. Pay also varies based on where an individual works and the size of the medical staff of the facility. Median salaries for medical administrators in offices of 6 or fewer physicians earned a median salary of $82,423, while administrators of 7-25 physicians earned a median income of more $105,710. Administrators who managed practices of 26 or more physicians saw a median income of $119,000. Income for administrators who worked as office managers in specialty physicians practices such as gastroenterology, dermatology and cardiology ranged from $54,000 -$58,000. Office managers in ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics, internal medicine and family practice ranged from $44,900 – $51,400 annually. While the majority of healthcare management positions exist within hospital systems, the field has seen a significant shift of job openings at smaller clinics and outpatient care sites and those sites are becoming more and more plentiful across the nation. Growth will also be seen in the offices of private health professionals as services previously only provided by hospitals will continue to shift to smaller settings as medical technology improves and as medical group practice management becomes larger and more complex. While many career fields and jobs seen to be faced with a questionable future as the nation’s economy continues to recover, medical administrations are one of the few who have not only been relatively unaffected, but also are expected to see steady growth over the next decade.
Careers I Can Get with This Degree:
