Top Healthcare Administration Careers

If you aspire to work in health services but don’t want to work as a clinical employee, healthcare administration is a great career option. A healthcare administration degree allows students who are interested in the medical field to work in essential roles that focus on patient care.

In This Article:

• What Can I Do With a Healthcare Administration Degree?
• Job Outlook for Healthcare Administration Careers
• Salary Ranges for Healthcare Administrators Work
• How To Start a Career in Healthcare Administration

What Can I Do With a Healthcare Administration Degree?

Getting your degree in healthcare administration opens various job opportunities for you to consider. Below, you’ll learn about various careers in healthcare administration, job outlook and how to get your degree in healthcare administration.

Office Manager

One career path that a healthcare administration degree can lead to is management of a medical office. This role entails responsibility for the daily operations of a physician’s office, including creating and tracking the office budget. An office manager with a healthcare administration degree can work either in a public medical office or for a private practice. An office manager must be skilled in billing, coding, collections and appointment making.

Insurance Specialist

Healthcare administration graduates who are interested in the financial side of the medical field may find a satisfying career working with companies as insurance specialists or medical reimbursement specialists. These professionals help patients navigate and select payment plans for their medical bills and work with insurance companies to determine billing and policy needs.

Consultant

Businesses that provide health services may not need to hire a healthcare administrator right away, but may choose to hire a consultant who can help them identify the services they need to offer. As a consultant, you would analyze data, present findings and help clients understand how to run their businesses. It is helpful to have a solid understanding of business concepts as well as strong communication and presentation skills.

As a consultant, you can even work in health law, ensuring that clients are meeting local, state and federal rules while navigating contracts and other legal documents. This role entails representing clients like hospitals or healthcare facilities in legal disputes, so a good law degree is essential.¹

Human Resource Manager

Although this job may not initially seem healthcare-specific, your healthcare administration skills will shine through as you support employees through training and by understanding their needs as healthcare workers. A healthcare administration graduate working in human resources works to fill open positions, support employees through training and managing payroll and medical benefits.

Social and Community Service Manager

A social and community service manager works to improve wellness conditions for the community. A professional in this role creates and coordinates programs that serve families and individuals in the community.² If you want to advance quickly in this career and you enjoy the social work aspect, consider earning a Master of Social Work after graduating with your undergraduate degree.

Pharmaceutical Product Manager

The field of health services isn’t just about the services provided, but also about products, including pharmaceutical drugs. As a pharmaceutical product manager, you would be responsible for supervising teams of professionals producing these products, from the conception stage through marketing.¹

Health Informatics Professional

People in health informatics can conduct research and apply their findings to improve processes and propose solutions to technical, clinical and organizational challenges. Health informatics professionals also impact enhanced delivery of care, improved health outcomes and advanced patient education.

Health Department Professional

As a health department professional, you can work at the federal, state or local level. You would be responsible for leading efforts to keep the spread of disease to a minimum in your community. A governmental health services career is about serving the community and promoting incentives and programs that raise health awareness in the public mind.

University Staff/Faculty

Those with a degree in healthcare administration can also choose to follow a university career path. There are many options for health service professionals within a university, including the following occupations:

• Clinical Placement Coordinator: Professionals in this role are responsible for managing and tracking the overall student clinical experience. They help students manage expectations and requirements and partner with students and faculty to find the best placement option for each student.

• Campus Health Services Worker: For those with a healthcare administration degree, another interesting university job is working with campus health. Although campus health may initially bring on-campus nurses to mind, there is more to it than providing care for students, including educating students on staying healthy.

• Assistant Professor/Professor: Professors are needed in almost every field, including health services. A healthcare administration degree is a good starting point on the way to teaching students in the healthcare field, but becoming a professor requires work experience and additional degrees, including a doctoral degree, so make sure you know all the steps to becoming a college professor before you embark on your journey. 

Job Outlook for Healthcare Administration Careers

When looking at the overall picture for healthcare career job growth, the outlook is promising. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook estimates job growth for healthcare occupations to increase by about 16% from 2020 to 2030, faster than average, accounting for an estimated increase of 2.6 million jobs in the field.³

Different healthcare administration jobs within those listed above may have different job growth percentages as well. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook estimates job growth for postsecondary teachers to increase by about 9% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than average, accounting for an estimated increase of 121,500 jobs in the field.⁴

Salary Ranges for Healthcare Administrators Work

There are various salary ranges for these careers in healthcare administration. Some of these healthcare administration jobs have comparable wages. For instance, as of May 2021, social and community service managers have a median annual wage of $74,000, according to the BLS⁵ With that, postsecondary nursing instructors and teachers have a median annual wage of $75,470 as of May 2020, according to the BLS.⁶

Other healthcare administration careers can have more of a drastic salary range. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, health education specialists and community health workers have a median annual wage of $48,140 as of May 2020,⁷ while medical and health services managers have a median annual wage of $104,280 as of May 2020.⁸

How To Start a Career in Healthcare Administration

The first step to starting your career in healthcare administration is to earn your bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration from an accredited university. While pursuing your degree and after graduating, there are some things to consider and steps to take that can help you find a job when exploring healthcare administration career options.

How To Find a Job in Healthcare Administration

Once you’ve committed to pursuing your healthcare administration degree, you may want to know the best way to go about finding a job after you graduate. Here are some tips that may help:

• Narrow your search to your desired workplace environment (healthcare facility, nursing home, nonprofit, etc.).
• Consider your ultimate career goals, because entry-level positions may lead to higher-level jobs down the road.
• Review and highlight your strengths, and view your weaknesses as opportunities for improvement.

Grand Canyon University’s College of Nursing and Health Care Professions is pleased to offer the Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration degree and Master of Science in Health Administration alongside other distinguished degrees that can help you obtain a rewarding career in the medical field. Complete the form on this page to learn more earning your bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration from GCU.

¹Retrieved from Healthcare Management Degree Guide, 5 High-Paying Jobs in Healthcare Management in June 2021

²Retrieved from Public Health Online, A Guide to Careers in Health Administration in June 2021

³COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as well. Accordingly, data shown is based on September 2021, which can be found here: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Healthcare Occupations, retrieved on 02/25/2022.

⁴COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well. Accordingly, data shown is based on 2019, which can be found here: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Postsecondary Teachers. 

⁵The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”), Social and Community Service Managers as of May 2021 retrieved on 07/15/2022. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may also impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the BLS. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers from across the country with varying levels of education and experience and does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as Social and Community Service Managers. It does not reflect earnings of workers in one city or region of the country. It also does not reflect a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what you would earn if you were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give you a basis to estimate what you might earn at some point if you enter this career. You may also wish to compare median salaries if you are considering more than one career path. Grand Canyon University can make no guarantees on individual graduates’ salaries as the employer the graduate chooses to apply to, and accept employment from, determines salary not only based on education, but also individual characteristics and skills and fit to that organization (among other categories) against a pool of candidates.

⁶The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”), Postsecondary Nursing Instructors and Teachers as of May 2020. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may also impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the BLS. This data is publicly released by the United States government and in no way reflects Grand Canyon University data. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers from across the country with varying levels of education and experience and does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as postsecondary nursing instructors and teachers. It does not reflect earnings of workers in one city or region of the country. It also does not reflect a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what a worker would earn if they were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give a basis to estimate what a worker might earn at some point after entering this career. It is recommended to compare median salaries if an individual is considering more than one career path.

⁷The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health Education Specialists and Community Health Workers. They are not calculated using wages from GCU graduates but from workers across the country with varying levels of education and experience, and they reflect a national median wage for this occupation in May 2020. This national data may not accurately reflect earnings of workers in particular parts of the country and include earners at all stages of their career and not solely entry level wages. COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as well. Accordingly, data shown is based on May 2020.

⁸The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”), Medical and Health Services Managers as of May 2020. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may also impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the BLS. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers from across the country with varying levels of education and experience and does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as Medical and Health Service Managers. It does not reflect earnings of workers in one city or region of the country. It also does not reflect a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what you would earn if you were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give you a basis to estimate what you might earn at some point if you enter this career. You may also wish to compare median salaries if you are considering more than one career path.

Approved with changes by the Assistant Dean of the College of Nursing and Healthcare Professions on Dec. 27, 2022.