A master's in healthcare management or administration will provide you with a number of health-related career options. However, it can just as easily serve as a springboard for a career in government, consulting or the business world. This professional versatility is just one of the degree's many positive qualities. Here is a brief synopsis of some of the many industries in which healthcare management graduates often end up working:
Health Administration
Health organizations hire master's in healthcare management graduates in droves. This category of employers includes health networks, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Each of these entities needs to hire employees who have a firm grasp of the current healthcare environment's business, ethical and legal facets. These employees have an inside track when it comes to career advancement within the organization, and could well find themselves in VP-level or even chief-level positions It is also possible to transfer from the private sector to the nonprofit sector and vice versa, often more than once.
Management Consulting and Professional Services Firms
Large accounting and professional services firms— for example, Ernst & Young, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG, collectively known as the "Big 4"—are working to expand the breadth of services they are able to provide to their clients. These clients tend to be large companies with complicated capital structures, dozens of subsidiaries, proprietary interests in countless other business ventures and thousands of shareholders to appease. Managing all these interests at once requires a great deal of manpower, and having a great deal of manpower behind your operation means complicated internal health-related policies and procedures. Master's in healthcare management students have the knowledge of these federal, state and local health-related laws, rules and regulations that is necessary to perform a compliance audit for the firm's large clients. The Affordable Care Act's rollout will only make healthcare professionals more desirable as potential hires in the professional services industry.
Government and Lobbying Firms
The federal Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Labor are both places you should look for jobs and internships if you find yourself drawn to working in the public sector. State and local departments of health also hire healthcare management graduates to formulate and implement policy on a smaller scale. Legislators need staff members who understand the ins and outs of the healthcare milieu and who are able to inform their decisions regarding health-related legislation. Lobbying firms are charged with persuading lawmakers to vote a certain way on a particular piece of legislation or to make a legislative proposal that would be advantageous to their clients.
Conclusion
Master's in healthcare management graduates have no shortage of career paths open to them. You can use this degree to launch a career in government or the professional services industry just as easily as you can to establish yourself in the world of healthcare management and administration.
Sources
http://www.healthmanagementcareers.org/
http://www.healthecareers.com/article/5-booming-areas-in-healthcare-management/171125