What Is a Healthcare Administration Degree?

A healthcare administration degree prepares you to run the business side of health care: finance, operations, staffing, regulation and strategy in hospitals, physician practices, long-term care facilities and other health organizations. It is a management credential, not a clinical one. It is offered at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels, under several different degree names, and it sits close to fields such as health informatics and public health. This guide explains what the degree covers, what the letters on the diploma mean, and how to tell a dedicated degree apart from a related one.

What the field covers

Colleges report their programs to the U.S. Department of Education using the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). Healthcare administration degrees usually fall under CIP 51.0701, "Health/Health Care Administration/Management." The NCES definition describes a program that "prepares individuals to develop, plan, and manage health care operations and services within health care facilities and across health care systems." Listed topics include planning, business and financial management, human resources management, health care resource allocation and policy making, and health law and regulations.

The occupation most closely tied to the degree is the one the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls medical and health services managers. BLS describes these managers as people who "plan, direct, and coordinate the business activities of healthcare providers." It gives nursing home administrators, clinical managers and health information managers as examples. BLS reports a median annual wage of $123,860 for this occupation in May 2025. That figure covers the whole occupation. It is not an outcome for any degree or program.

The degree does not license you to treat patients, and it is not a professional license by itself. Some management roles are regulated separately. BLS notes that "all states require licensure for nursing home administrators," and that requirements vary by state.

Award types at each level

The same subject appears under many degree names. What you actually earn is the awarded degree printed in the school's catalog, so check it there.

Some examples from our research files:

• BS and BA. Towson University's Department of Health Sciences offers "a bachelor's degree (B.S./B.A.)" in Health Care Management, among other majors.
• BBA. At Idaho State University, the healthcare administration curriculum "leads to a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Healthcare Administration."
• MHA. Johns Hopkins describes its MHA as "an advanced professional degree preparing future healthcare executives for leadership positions."
• MS. Saint Louis University offers both an M.H.A. and an online M.S. in Health Administration. They are separate programs with different formats, which shows why the degree name matters.
• DHA. Central Michigan University's Doctor of Health Administration asks for a master's degree and "at least three (3) years of responsible experience at the mid to senior level in health administration."
• PhD. UAB's PhD in Administration-Health Services requires comprehensive examinations in three areas before a dissertation proposal. That is a typical research-doctorate structure.

For a level-by-level comparison, see the master's programs and doctoral programs sections.

Dedicated degree, MBA or MPH pathway, or concentration

Programs relate to health administration in four main ways. Our directory keeps them apart.

• Dedicated degree. The awarded degree itself is health administration, such as an MHA, an MS in Health Administration or a BS in Healthcare Administration.
• MBA pathway. A healthcare MBA awards an MBA, not an MHA. The University of Colorado Denver's Master of Business Administration in Health Administration, for example, requires "a minimum of 45 semester hours of graduate-level course work." Its diploma is an MBA. These programs are listed separately under healthcare MBA programs.
• MPH pathway. A Master of Public Health with a management or administration concentration awards an MPH. The University of Minnesota's Public Health Administration & Policy MPH "provides core knowledge about managing organizations and influencing policy to improve population health."
• Concentration in another degree. Health administration can also be a concentration inside a broader degree. Grand Valley State University's Master of Public Administration has a Health Administration concentration that "focuses on the management, policy, and operations of healthcare systems." The degree awarded is still an MPA.

None of these is automatically better than another. They lead to different credentials, and employers and accreditors read them differently.

Related fields: informatics, analytics and public health

Several neighboring fields share courses with health administration. They are related fields, not substitutes for it.

• Health informatics. NCES classifies medical informatics (CIP 51.2706) as "the application of computer science and software engineering to medical research and clinical information technology support." Health information administration (CIP 51.0706) prepares people to manage the systems used to "collect, store, secure, retrieve, analyze, and transmit medical records and other health information." Both focus on information systems. Health administration focuses on running the organization.
• Healthcare analytics. Analytics often appears as a track inside an administration degree. Appalachian State's online MHA has a Health Informatics concentration that "focuses on data analytics and data management in health care." Cal State Long Beach offers its BS in Health Care Administration with an "Option in Healthcare Data Analytics." Some schools offer informatics as a separate degree instead. UAB's coordinated MSHA and Master of Science in Health Informatics requires 30 graduate courses, including a summer internship.
• Public health. NCES describes public health programs (CIP 51.2201) as including "epidemiology, biostatistics, public health principles, preventive medicine." The focus is on the health of populations rather than on managing a single provider organization. For a fuller comparison, read MHA vs. MPH.

Accreditation and certification basics

Two organizations matter most in this field, and they do different things.

• CAHME accredits individual graduate programs in healthcare management. It does not accredit universities. CAHME notes that accredited programs carry "a variety of degrees," including the MBA, MHA, MHSA, MPH and MS. So a healthcare MBA can hold CAHME accreditation without being an MHA. CAHME does not accredit bachelor's or doctoral programs. Candidacy is not the same as accreditation. Details are on our CAHME accreditation page.
• AUPHA certifies undergraduate programs. Certification is not accreditation, and AUPHA itself explains that certification "does not require a site visit." Being an AUPHA member is not the same as being AUPHA-certified.

Using this when you compare programs

When you look at a specific program, check these four things:

1. The awarded degree in the official catalog (MHA, MS, MBA, MPH and so on), not only the marketing name.
2. Accreditation or certification for that specific program, as the accreditor lists it.
3. Practical training. Some programs require an internship or residency at a health organization. That is separate from whether classes are on campus or online.
4. Attendance requirements for online programs. Online coursework does not always mean no campus visits. Central Michigan's DHA, for example, includes "six intensive face-to-face, two-and-a-half-day seminars."