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Gain comprehensive skills essential to your health care organization.

The Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration is a degree designed to equip you with the skills needed to succeed as a healthcare administration professional in a variety of settings — or prepare you to pursue graduate-level education.

This program provides students with a comprehensive education that includes foundational liberal arts courses and specialized courses covering essential health care administration-specific topics such as medical transcription, health care policy, and medical office management.

Enjoy Flexibility – 40 courses with start dates every 2 weeks
Learn from Anywhere – 100% online
Affordable Monthly Payments
Focus on your Passion – Choose your Capstone

Students who complete the Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration degree will graduate with a solid understanding of the critical areas of healthcare, management, and the business of medicine that are essential for success in this growing industry.

Aspen’s balanced Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration curriculum offers students core liberal arts courses in areas such as history, psychology, mathematics, and sciences with fundamental medical management courses including Legal Aspects of Health Care Management, Medical Office Management, Principles of Health and Disease, and Leadership in Organizations.

Admission Requirements

  • Application – A completed application.
  • High School Transcripts – An official high school transcript or its equivalent. Waived if student has completed at least 15 credits of college-level course work.
  • Official Transcripts – Official transcripts for all previous college credit earned.
  • Minimum GPA Requirement – A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00 is required for all previous high school or college credit.
  • Military Documentation (Optional) – A copy of the most recent orders; or a copy of DD214 (This can be requested from the .)

Courses:

    This course provides a study of human communication by covering major communication concepts, theories, research, and trends. This introduction communications course will help students to understand their own communication behavior as well the communication behavior of others. Concepts covered include basic theories of communication, understanding individual communication styles, the use of communication across cultures, and listening and critical thinking skills. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: SPC 2300

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Designed for administrators, managers, researchers, and other professionals working in the medical field, this course uses a consistent and logical system to help students build their understanding of medical terminology. It also has a real-world focus that relates medical terminology to various health professions including addiction studies, thereby capturing the students' interest and providing information about many different potential health careers.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides comprehensive coverage of personal financial planning in the areas of money management, career planning, taxes, consumer credit, housing and other consumer decisions, legal protection, insurance, investments, retirement planning, and estate planning. The goal is to teach the fundamentals of financial planning so students can make informed choices related to spending, saving, borrowing, and investing that lead to long-term financial security. Provided financial planning tools help identify and evaluate choices as well as understand the consequences of decisions in terms of opportunity costs.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Contemporary Issues in Health Care introduces students to the skills they need to become competent and productive health care workers throughout their careers, with a strong emphasis on employability skills such as teamwork, effective communication, professionalism, and medical ethics. The course also introduces the terminology, concepts, and elements students need to gain employment as health care professionals supporting administrative and clinical functions.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is designed to help students master the traditional five-paragraph essay and variations of this essay. Four principles are presented as keys to effective writing: unity, support, coherence, and sentence skills. The first part of the course focuses on the first three principles and to some extent on sentence skills. It shows, respectively, how these four principles apply in the different patterns of essay development and in specialized types of writing. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: ENC 1101

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on the many voices of psychology. To some, the science of psychology provides its students with a better understanding of others' behaviors. Others view psychology as a pathway to self-understanding. Others see the potential for a future career, and some are drawn to psychology by the opportunity for intellectual discovery that its study provides. The overall goal of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview to the subject of psychology. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: PSY 2012

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    The purpose of accounting is to provide a means of recording, reporting, summarizing, and interpreting economic data. In order to do this, an accounting system must be designed. A system design serves the needs of users of accounting information. Once a system has been designed, reports can be issued and decisions based upon these reports are made for various departments. Since accounting is used by everyone in one form or another, a good understanding of accounting principles is beneficial to all. Accounting is concerned with the design, interpretation of data, and the preparation of financial reports. Three forms of business entities exist: 1) sole proprietorship, 2) partnership, and 3) corporations. Corporations have the unique status of being a separate legal entity in which ownership is divided into shares of stock. A shareholder's liability is limited to his/her contribution to capital. Whenever a business transaction is recorded, it must be recorded to accounting records at cost. All business transactions must be recorded. All properties owned by businesses are assets. All debts are liabilities. The rights of owners are equity.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This class provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to work in a variety of medical billing and coding positions in the medical field. It covers the foundations of insurance, billing, coding and reimbursement. Students learn not only the submission of claims to the insurance carrier but reviewing medical records, verifying patient benefits, submitting a secondary claim, posting payments and appealing the insurance carrier's decision.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This introductory course in sociology gives students the opportunity to use sociological imagination to master their social world. It examines aspects of the social environment that students might otherwise ignore, neglect, or take for granted. It looks beneath the surface of everyday life to help students understand and anticipate human behavior in a variety of environments. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: SYG 2000

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides an overview of how information technology is used in healthcare, how it has affected traditional techniques, practices, and devices, and ways healthcare professionals can continue to learn and prosper alongside advancing technology. The course covers how computers and other forms of technology have been used in medical offices up until the present day, as well as cutting-edge ideas and techniques that are just beginning to gain popularity.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course covers American history from the 1500s to post Civil War Reconstruction. You will study a diverse range of cultures from these time periods and how migrations, social and economic changes and interactions between cultures have shaped the history of America. You will study the shifting frontiers and political landscapes of the land before and after the Revolution and examining associated patterns to form a big picture of the historical story of America.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on the skills and strategies that managers need in today’s workplace. The role of communications will be explored, as well as an examination of effective communications in hiring and promoting, conflict management, presentations, routine messages, and reporting and proposals. Studies consistently report the importance of communication to business success, and managers frequently correlate communications proficiency with career satisfaction and progress. This course builds that ability central to managers as they pursue goals and objectives.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides a foundation of factual knowledge about biology in order to help students build a cognitive framework for critical scientific thinking. Students will learn key biological terms and theories and exhibit understanding of these terms through assignments that incorporate case studies, essays and ethics questions concerning current biological issues.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course puts the humanities in perspective by discussing the arts and ways of knowing art's main concerns, purposes, and functions. The course also discusses artistic style and how to apply critical skills. This course is designed for students with little or no background in the arts.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    In this course we focus on grammar, sentence structure, and other aspects of the "mechanics" of English. Our emphasis is on creating arguments that persuade, convince, and inspire. The goal of this course is to develop writing skills that enable students to develop powerful arguments that are more than just correct; they produce the results intended. We identify the fixed types of questions that an argument can address, helping students to build writing projects around the need to develop answers to significant questions concerning facts, definitions, causes, values, and actions. These questions form a logical progression - questions of fact and definition must be settled before questions of cause can be addressed, and so on - which means that they can serve as the basis of a sequence of assignments.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is a comprehensive survey of common diseases affecting each body system. This class presents the basic principles of human disease, organized by human organ system. Included in the course are new diagnostic tests and lab procedures, treatment and diagnostic sections to include common treatments and general medical options, coverage of disease statistics, risk factors for diseases and disease prevention. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: MCB 2000

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Using an interdisciplinary approach that emphasizes culture and family, Human Development challenges students to understand development from a broader perspective. Students draw on their own experiences as they weigh the research and ideas presented in the course. The course explores controversies about human development, often within a specific cultural context. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: DEP 2004

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    College Algebra will dive deep into problem solving, algebraic reasoning, linear functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, compositions and inverses, and graphing and analyzing data. The student will develop a personal framework for problem-solving. Real-world scenarios are used throughout the course to ensure an understanding of how each concept is used in one’s life. Students will create, interpret, and revise models and find solutions to problems while utilizing real-world situations. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: MAT 1140

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is on thinking about and understanding your physical surroundings. It is a straightforward but substantial introduction to the fundamental behavior of matter and energy. It is intended to serve the needs of non-science majors who are required to complete one or more physical science course and will introduce basic concepts and key ideas while providing opportunities to learn reasoning skills and a new way of thinking about your environment.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides students with fundamental concepts and tools of finance that are generally applicable within any industry. The emphasis of this course is on the application of financial principles within the healthcare industry to enable financial planning, reporting, and evaluation of returns on provided services and purchased capital equipment and facilities. Students will also examine the healthcare system today and its associated financial and capital structure.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course offers content in pharmacology which meets the needs of the allied health student. The focused approach of this course provides students with the perfect blend of content and practical exercises which promote understanding of pharmacology concepts. A focused approach introduces the history of pharmacology, discussing the legal and ethical principles involved, illustrating drug administration techniques, reviewing math, and explaining drug calculations.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on the writing needs of students in allied health fields. Proofreading and revision exercises help develop critical thinking skills in writing and a keen eye for written work. The course reviews basic writing concepts but also builds knowledge specific to communication in healthcare fields. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: ENC 1102

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on understanding and managing diversity. Clearly, diversity is an interdisciplinary field. Much of its theoretical framework originates in the social sciences. There is some disagreement among scholars on the definition of diversity; much less what materials should be included in a course about diversity. To meet this challenge we have selected a text for this course that gathers a wealth of information from the salient issues surrounding the topic of diversity. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: ANT 2410

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course explores the aspects and impacts of CRM. It examines how Web 2.0 technologies and social media tools are being woven into CRM strategies. The course identifies the new business models being used by the most successful companies and also provides guidance on how other companies can and should adopt these innovations. Students will explore companies that are providing the best tools, provide various recommendations and insights and present insightful interviews with industry leaders on how to establish and maintain customer relationships.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course prepares students to understand and use electronic records in a medical practice. The material is designed to train future users of EHR programs to document patient exam, diagnosis, orders, and coding. The course focuses on the importance and implementation of electronic record keeping. The impact of HIPAA rules is examined from the perspective of patients and providers.  An access code is required for this course.  Please call EMC Paradigm at 800-535-6865 to order your textbook.  Order ISBN: 978-0-76388-138-2

    3 Credits
    Required Books
    • **Order through EMC Paradigm: Information in Classroom** Exploring Electronic Health Records - 978-0-76388-138-2

    This course trains on managing in the new competitive landscape, how business operates on a global scale, what types of technology is advancing online and offline, and managing for competitive advantage through environmental analysis and responding to the environment. The functions of management are demonstrated in eight modules and cover every management topic from the foundational theories and paradigms to ethics, strategic planning, the management of human resources in a diverse workforce, and of course, leadership, teamwork, and entrepreneurship.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    We believe the combination of performance and team management can produce dramatic improvement in organizational success. Too often performance management programs are more about classifying or categorizing employees rather than improving their performance. These approaches tend to be administrative in nature, rather than tools managers can use to improve performance. In today's organizations, teams - not the individual - have become the basic unit of performance management. As a result, team building and development has become critical. This course addresses two of the most important challenges managers face. The first half of the course is devoted to managing performance toward achieving the organization's strategic objectives. The second half of the course is focused on creating, developing, and leading high-performance teams.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on the people in the organization and how they work and behave in the work environment. It examines the behavior of individuals, the dynamics of teamwork, the processes of small groups, decision-making, problem-solving, conflict management, and ways to eliminate barriers to effective communications within the workplace.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    The quantitative approach involves using numbers to help define, describe, and resolve a wide range of business problems. Quantitative Methods is an overview of statistical techniques used in business decision-making. Students examine research design, statistics, data analysis, and research methodology.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course covers principles of microbiology with emphasis or microbial anatomy, microbial disease, and disease prevention and treatment. The course includes a broad overview of both the historical and current field of microbiology with focus on microbial pathogenicity, the spread of microbial pathogens, the methods of human immunity, and best practices for the diagnosis and treatment of microbial disease. A lab component is included within the course. Florida Course Numbering System Equivalent: MCB 2010

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This class includes extensive coverage of the administrative medical assisting profession including the history of the profession, the responsibilities of the medical assistant, responding to emergencies in the medical office, medical practice finances, and career strategies for the medical assistant.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    The course provides essential legal and ethical principles for healthcare careers. It provides a foundation of all the essentials including the legal system, the patient/physician relationship, professional liability and medical malpractice prevention, public duties of the physician, workplace law and ethics, the medical record, confidentiality, bioethical issues, and HIPAA.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This undergraduate-level course focuses on how healthcare policies, financial issues, regulations, legislative actions, businesses, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders influence healthcare in the United States and the world. Students will develop a solid understanding of the broader context of healthcare, including how patient care services are organized and financed, and how reimbursement is structured. Students will learn how healthcare policy is both developed and changed, and how that process can be influenced by healthcare professionals as well as lay and special advocacy groups. Students will be encouraged to participate in the political process and advocate for patients, families, communities, their profession, and changes in the healthcare system as needed. Advocacy for vulnerable populations with the goal of promoting social justice is discussed.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course focuses on what office managers actually do on the job. The material systematically explores the full range of office management topics-office environment, employees, systems, and functions. The course examines selecting, supervising and motivating employees. The analysis of job duties and performance are also covered.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    With a focus on professional involvement, this course shows all health care students how they can be more engaged in their profession. Taking a how-to approach, it clearly outlines the types of professional activities that develop one’s professional identity with a special focus on life after college. The course utilizes action-oriented assignments and address professional behaviors, professional organizations, workshops, seminars, conferences and community involvement in order to provide students with a foundation of knowledge to better help them develop the career they seek in healthcare.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Within the context of healthcare, this course explores the full range of contemporary ethical issues in a clear and concise way from a practical wisdom approach. The course presents the fundamental concerns of modern medical ethics--autonomy, beneficence, justice, and confidentiality--and then provides analysis, cases, and insights from the perspective of addiction related topics. Throughout, the discussion starts with larger issues or concepts and principles and then focuses on specific problems or complications with a focus on real world application.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is designed to acquaint you with the unique challenges of resolving ethical dilemmas and making ethical decisions is today's complex business organizations. This course relies upon applying a stakeholder perspective and value-based management approach to situations that involves groups and individuals who often have competing demands and interpretations of a problem, crisis, or opportunity. The stakeholder management approach ideally aims at having all parties reach win-win outcomes through communication and collaborative efforts. Unfortunately, this does not always happen in reality. Business professionals need straightforward frameworks to thoughtfully and objectively analyze and then sort through complex issues in order to make decisions that matter - ethically, economically socially, legally, and spiritually.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    The management of human resources is critical for companies to provide ""value"" to customers, shareholders, employees, and the community where they are located. Value includes not only profits but also employee growth and satisfaction, creation of new jobs, protection of the environment, and contributions to community programs. All aspects of human resource management including acquiring, preparing, developing, and compensating employees can help companies meet their competitive challenges and create value. Also, effective human resource management requires an awareness of broader contextual issues affecting business such as changes in the labor force, legal issues, and globalization. Both the popular press and academic research show that effective human resource management practices do result in greater value for shareholders and employees.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides a basic foundation of skills needed to equip students for future leadership activities. It introduces the history, philosophy, theories, and concepts of leadership and its relationship to the management of organizational change. Students identify and hone their own personal characteristics that will help them develop into effective leaders.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This project-based course is designed to encourage you to draw upon the knowledge and experience that you have gained during your Health Care Administration studies. The project also permits you to integrate your other related educational or professional development activities. Projects are intended to be of an applied and pragmatic nature and we hope that the outcome and findings of your research will be of value to you, either in connection with your own organization or globally, such as in the development of a framework to address an issue that affects medical care offices, whether in private practice or a small hospital setting. This course satisfies the proctored exam requirement for this program.

    3 Credits
    Required Books