Accelerated Online Master’s in Healthcare Administration, MHA

Essential Skills & Insights

Become a leader in healthcare management and learn from expert faculty with real-world healthcare experience.  Develop your skills to lead high performing healthcare organizations —aligning finance, quality, and patient outcomes with data-driven, AI-enabled decisions.

• Healthcare Finance & Strategic Planning: Optimize service lines and capital plans with rigorous analytics.
• Data Analytics & Decision-Making: Turn clinical and operational data into faster, smarter actions.
• Ethics & Regulatory Compliance in Healthcare: Embed patient-first ethics and stay audit-ready across regulations. 
• Quality Patient-Centered Care: Develop the skills to operate complex care services, manage service lines, and promote quality patient outcomes.

AI-Powered Learning, Real-World Impact

Our accelerated online programs integrate opportunities to engage with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a powerful tool for learning and career preparation. Students apply AI in ways that build authentic skills and mirror how businesses are leveraging it across industries. We emphasize ethical and responsible use, ensuring that students develop the judgment to apply AI appropriately. This approach helps graduates enter the workforce with both technical knowledge and a clear understanding of AI’s role in their discipline.

Online MHA Career Outlook

Healthcare organizations need leaders who can balance patient care with operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and financial stability. A Master of Healthcare Administration prepares graduates for high-demand roles with strong earning potential and opportunities to make a lasting impact on communities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Medical and Health Services Managers earn a median annual salary of $117,960, with a projected 29% job growth rate—much faster than average.

• Healthcare Administrator — Median salary: $104,830
  Oversee hospital or clinic operations by managing staff, budgets, and regulatory compliance to ensure quality care and organizational success.
• Healthcare Consultant — Median salary: $95,000+
  Advise organizations on efficiency, compliance, and strategic initiatives to improve patient outcomes and streamline systems.
• Risk & Compliance Manager — Median salary: $102,000
  Ensure adherence to healthcare laws and regulations, minimize risk exposure, and protect patient safety.
• Clinical Director or C-Suite Executive — $150,000+
  Lead healthcare organizations at the executive level by setting strategic goals, managing budgets, and driving innovation.

Admissions Requirements

For admission to your Accelerated Online Master’s in Healthcare Administration degree, simply complete the 2 step application process.

1. Complete the Graduate Admissions Online Application by visiting my.lindenwood.edu/register  
2. Request official transcripts from your undergraduate institution(s) showing a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher.
   
   Only transcripts with the final degree posted are required if you attended multiple institutions.
   
   Request your official transcript to be sent directly to Lindenwood University Accelerated Online via one of the methods below:
   • Electronically to: [email protected]
   • By Mail to:
     Office of Admissions
     Lindenwood University Accelerated Online
     8205 S Priest Dr #11480
     Tempe, AZ 85284
   • By Fax to: 480-393-1826

Curriculum Overview

Advance your career with Lindenwood University’s Accelerated Online Master’s in Healthcare Administration. Learn from expert faculty with real-world experience as you gain skills in finance, strategic planning, data analytics, ethics, and workforce management. Designed for working professionals, this flexible program prepares you for leadership and executive roles in hospitals, clinics, nonprofits, and beyond.

Required Courses – 36 credits

Human Resources in Healthcare

This course presents the techniques and practices behind effective management of people the healthcare profession. It presents the techniques and practices behind effective management of people the healthcare profession on issues of employment law and employee relations, credentialing of healthcare providers, staff recruitment, selection, and retention practices performance management, workforce planning in a rapidly changing healthcare system and nurse staffing in healthcare organizations. Problem-based learning cases will engage students and expand learning comprehension.

Issues in Public Healthcare Administration

Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. Students will learn about public health from both a global and national viewpoint as well as additional topics of disaster preparedness, public policy and research. Disease prevention via behavior and environmental modification along with the cost effectiveness and benefits of public health interventions and technology use will also be reviewed.

Administration of Healthcare Law and Case Study Analysis

This course will be an in-depth discussion of case setting precedents in healthcare law. The scope and perspective of the intricacies of healthcare law will be discussed from a management perspective, as well as liabilities of healthcare institutions as they relate to legal issues. Students will learn to analyze, synthesize, and apply current and previously established political, social, economic, and legal indications in the analysis of legal cases as they relate to predominant healthcare issues. Current precedent setting cases and established cases will be fully explored as they relate to and contrast the evolution of healthcare law.

Healthcare Analytics

The healthcare industry is in a state of accelerated transition. The proliferation of healthcare data and its assimilation, access, use, and security are ever-increasing challenges. Data analytics plays an increasingly greater role in healthcare organizations. This course presents best practices for controlling, analyzing, and using data. The elements of preparing an actionable data strategy are exemplified on subjects such as revenue integrity, revenue management, and patient engagement. Students will look at different types of analytical tools to help make meaningful decisions that will cut costs, improve efficiency, and ultimately provide better care for patients.

Research Methods in Healthcare

Students will learn how to become critical and intelligent consumers of research literature in healthcare. Guidelines to determine if research is valuable will be presented based upon the appropriateness of research design, methodology, and statistics. Students will learn how to apply knowledge obtained through research to everyday practices in healthcare organizations. Prerequisite: MGMT 56070, MTH 14100, or MTH 24100.

Medical Records, Ethics and the Law of Health Information

This course reviews the accountability for the protection and dissemination of healthcare information and is an invaluable resource for students and practitioners across the health disciplines. This course provides an overview of health information HIPAA Privacy and Security rules, and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, and the growth in the utilization of electronic record systems. It introduces other laws and organizations that are critical to the management and protection of health information as well as basic concepts such as compliance, uses of information for coding, and cybersecurity. Standards for conduct and ethical uniformity of practice for the Health Information profession and ethical decision-making matrices will be discussed as a guide to understanding the complexity of solving ethical problems.

Quality Improvement and Management in Healthcare Organizations

This course reviews the current healthcare system, history of quality, and quality issues specific to the health care industry. Students will discuss the integration of quality into the strategic planning process. Students will understand the strategic role of quality in the American health care system. Students will learn domains and dimensions of quality and their integration into operational activities into the healthcare organization and a structured approach for reporting quality performance at multiple levels of the organization. Students will learn that there are parallels between financial performance and quality performance management.

Strategic Management and Marketing in Healthcare Organizations

This course provides the student with the ability to look at developing a strategic plan in a changing environment with changing consumer demands. Additionally, students will discuss healthcare marketing and health promotion applications used in various types of healthcare organizations.

Healthcare Finance and Accounting

This course will cover a broad range of topics to include an overview of the healthcare system and evolving reimbursement methodologies; healthcare accounting and financial statements; managing cash, and billing and collections; and an analysis of financing major capital investments. Budgeting and performance measurement and pricing will also be reviewed. Students will discuss production analysis, cost measurement, and internal reporting concepts that are imperative to making informed management decisions.

Economics of Health and Medical Care

This course will give students a firm understanding of the relevance of economics to the US health care industry and the economic policies that affect medical care delivery and finance. Students will explore the changing nature of health care and will learn to analyze health policy from a social, political, and economic perspective.

Digital Medicine and Healthcare Information Systems

This course is designed to assist today’s healthcare professionals and managers with the fundamental knowledge and tools needed to manage information and information resources effectively within a wide variety of health care organizations as well as understand national private sector and government initiatives that have played key roles in the adoption and application of the technologies in health care. Knowledge of these initiatives and mandates shaping the current HIT national landscape provides the background for understanding the importance of the health information systems that are used to promote excellent, cost-effective patient care.

Healthcare Administration Capstone

This course examines leadership skills in the context of managing healthcare organizations. Course content includes strategic thinking, effective communications, team building, and leading in various contexts. While learning about leadership issues, students are required to synthesize the information and skills learned in previous courses through activities such as group projects, case studies, presentations, and research papers.

Program Length Details

Lindenwood University’s (LU) accelerated online programs offer you choice and flexibility to support your education journey. Time to complete a master’s degree can vary based on course load, transfer credits, and individual pacing. You will tailor a course schedule that keeps you in the driver’s seat

• Transfer Credit: LU allows 9 transfer credits toward a master’s degree and you can complete your degree in as few as 27 credits.
•  Accelerated Courses: LU accelerated online programs offer 10 5-week terms per year.  By enrolling in two courses per term, you can potentially begin and complete your master’s degree in 7 months.
• Frequent Start Dates: LU offers multiple start dates throughout the year so you can begin your studies when you are ready allowing you to graduate sooner.
• Personalized Degree Plan: LU academic advisors will work with you to tailor your degree plan to support your education goals while balancing your personal and professional responsibilities.