Is a Degree in Healthcare Management Worth It?

This is a pretty common question that comes up when people are looking at basic college degrees. If you are asking this question, then odds are you’re not someone who is interested in working in the highly competitive private sector.

Degrees in healthcare management tend to be designed for students who are looking to work in government or hospital settings. Many times these students are returning to school after working for several years.

What I’m going to do here is do a quick overview of the degree and the field. Most of the people who have an interest in this are not suited to working in corporate environments. This is in tandem with the fact that elite colleges don’t really offer healthcare as a major. The students and the schools who are involved in healthcare management tend to come from less rigorously strong academic backgrounds.

But, that is not to say that it’s not worth studying this particular subject. It very well might be. For many people who do not have the skill or the academics to get into a good school and study Finance, Marketing, Pre-Law, or Pre-Med and want a stable career where there is guaranteed employment, then this might be the best approach.

First, let’s breakdown just what exactly healthcare administration is and where you might study it.

What is a Degree in Healthcare Administration Exactly?

Is healthcare administration and healthcare management the same thing? Not really, but for all intents and purposes you can treat it as such.

Healthcare administration is a fancy term for people who work in office support for any medical related business. The large majority of people who study this go into working as administrative assistants or human resource assistants for government medical offices, hospitals, or non-profits.

It is much different than a medical degree.  In fact, most often the schools that offer these programs are either online schools, community colleges, or schools that are not affiliated with also having Graduate programs in Liberal Arts, Law Schools or Medicals schools.

The degree is not healthcare, that is something that is either advanced such as Med School for Doctors, or a trade school degree in line with Nurses, Patient Care Techs, or other medical professionals.

Likewise, it’s not a management role. There are some good colleges that offer Healthcare Management programs. Of course, many of these programs are also padded administrative roles for people who are already working in the hospital field and are going back to obtain the equivalent of a professional certificate.

The degree is not designed for anyone who is seeking to work in the private sector. It’s exclusively for people who want to work for a government funded medical program or a hospital.

The course load is very specific to working in a government bureaucracy. It’s not going to prepare you for corporate America.

As someone who has worked with corporate companies across every industry, the one thing that is clear is that corporate headhunters and hiring managers do not like people who study healthcare management.

The work ethic and work environment in corporate environments is so significantly different than non-profits and hospitals as to render applications completely irrelevant.

For corporate roles, people study things such as:

Finance, accounting, marketing, communications, psychology, and other subjects.

Healthcare Administration courses are designed to train people who might have little experience with the professional world how to deal with a bureaucracy.  It’s not uncommon for students to learn how to use applications such as MS Word, Outlook and other basics that other colleges just assume their students can learn independently.

Topics of study include:

• Equity Issues
• Gender Information
• Medical Billing Information
• Proper Filing and Office Etiquette
• Insurance and Medical Industries
• Patient Rights and Human Dignity

Is It Considered a Real Degree?

It is considered a real degree by hospitals, government officials, and anyone who hires people who work in an administrative setting.

Now, if you want to work as an Account Executive at a Pharmacal firm? No, they will pass on your resume. If you want to work as an Account Manager for a large Tech firm that sells equipment to hospitals? Likely they want to see real world experience, not just a degree.

It’s not a degree for people who want to work in corporate America. That means if you are looking to work in Finance, Public Relations, Media Relations, Consulting, or any number of any fields, you are best studying something more classic and traditional.

Healthcare related work isn’t considered a proper field of study when it comes to corporate work. But if your goal is to work in a hospital or non-profit environment, then it shouldn’t matter.

There is very little crossover between corporate workplaces and hospital, government, and non-profits.

What Jobs Can you Get with a Healthcare Management Degree?

Almost all jobs that you are going to be applying for and getting are administrative related jobs in facilities such as a hospital, government agency, or federally or state funded non-profit.

The names of these jobs vary, but they are all very similar. They all come down to roles that center on administrative type work within the medical industry.

Because most medical procedures in the country are funded by insurance agencies, be they publicly paid for programs such as Medicaid or private insurances, the bulk of the work is going to be paperwork in order to bill insurance companies.

The other sector is what is generally called human resources. These roles include items such as credentialing departments, where your job might be to make sure a nurse has a license. Or it might be a role that requires you to keep track of all employees time off from work.

As you can see, most of these tasks involve very similar work. You are going to be responsible for tracking items and making sure that they are kept on record.

There is very little room for improvisation or creative work. Healthcare administration revolves around making sure patients are moved through the system, that their records are maintained and cataloged, and that government funding is secured and billed so that employees of the hospital or non-profit can be paid.

What Do You Do with a Degree in Healthcare Management?

People who go into healthcare administration and healthcare management know what they are going to do, for the most part.

Healthcare administrative courses are not going to attract people who are intellectually curious about the Western Cannon, or Physics, or want to learn how world economic markets work. No, it’s a very pragmatic path of study for people who are seeking to solely land a stable, comfortable job upon graduating and getting their degree.

With a degree in healthcare management you can apply for and land jobs at hospitals and other governmental institutions.

Of course, it’s important to have a resume where you have relevant work experience, but most healthcare management and healthcare administrative roles do provide for this. Instead of taking academic courses for credit, these programs usually grant people credits for taking internships where they do things such as hospital registration, contact tracing programs, or other basic hospital work.

These “work” experiences round out the persons’ resume and make it so that when they send in their resume there is work experience. This is an important way that colleges that offer healthcare administrative majors work around the problem of entry level roles that require 1 year of experience.

Also, many of the roles in this industry are not as competitive as in the private sector. When you’re applying for a government job, for instance, it is different than when you apply to a private sector job. You simply take a test and put your name on the list. Likewise, with hospitals and non-profits, they tend to hire friends, family, or people who come from programs designed to help those less advantaged. If you attend a low tier school that has these programs, then you are already able to get your foot in the door.

A hospital and non-profit is not likely to hire someone from a good university. They know that the work environment is simply too strange for those who come from an academic background that is strong.

Large cities such as L.A, New York, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago have large oppertunies for healthcare work. Billions in federal and state money supports huge hospital systems in these cities.

Organizations such as:

• New York City Health and Hospitals
• LA Medical Center
• Texas Medical Center

and many others employeee tens of thousands of people. Many of these people are not even high school gratuates. In many instances, all that is required to work in these hospitals as a patient registar, clerk, or other administrative role is a GED.

Of course, college degrees with Healthcare Admistration is an even better resume booster and will aid in getting a higher paying role within the hospital system.

So, when looked at with all of these considerations, it’s quite obvious that a degree in healthcare adminstration is worth it for those concerned with finding a steady job right out of college.

Unlike traditiaonl college students who study majors such as Litterature, History, Philosophy, Economocs, or Psychology, the individual who studies healthcare adminsitration is poised to find immediate work and never long be on the job market.