Master of Health Administration (MHA) Programs, Compared

What Is a Master of Health Administration?

A master of health administration is a professional graduate degree in running health care organizations. It’s the business degree of the health sector. You learn how hospitals, physician groups, clinics, nursing homes and health systems are financed, staffed, measured and governed, and you practice making the calls a manager makes.

The degree goes by several names. Schools award it as an MHA, an MHSA (Master of Health Services Administration), an MSHA or MS in Healthcare Administration, and sometimes as an MBA with a healthcare concentration. Of the 452 programs compared on this site, 216 carry an MHA-style title, 94 are MS degrees, 126 are MBAs with a health focus, 9 are MPH degrees and 7 are MPA degrees. They overlap heavily in what they teach, and they differ in credits, cost and accreditation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the job an MHA prepares you for as planning, directing and coordinating medical and health services. In practice that means setting efficiency and quality goals, keeping a facility compliant with laws and regulations, preparing and monitoring budgets (including patient fees and billing), recruiting and supervising staff, building schedules, keeping service records and representing the facility on governing boards.

Who Should Get a Master’s in Healthcare Administration

An MHA fits three kinds of people, and programs are built for each.

Clinicians moving into management. Nurses, therapists, lab scientists and pharmacists who want to run a unit or department. Programs often give you credit for that background. Loma Linda University reduces its 800-hour practicum for clinical students, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences MHA lets students working full time in health care swap its 10-week summer residency for a management project.

Early-career graduates. If you’ve just finished a bachelor’s, a residential program with a built-in residency fills the gap on your resume. The BLS notes that employers may require experience in an administrative or clinical role before they hire a manager. The UAB residential MSHA ends with a 9-12 month paid administrative residency, and the USC MHA requires a 1,000-hour residency under a senior-level manager.

Working managers and executives. Executive MHA programs assume years of experience and meet in short on-campus blocks. The UAB executive MSHA expects you to be working full time in health care, with five years of clinical or management experience preferred. There are 35 executive MHA programs in the set.

The BLS notes that medical and health services managers typically need a bachelor’s degree to enter the field, and that some employers prefer a master’s. The master’s matters most for moving up: advancement to top executive positions may require one.

MHA Degree Costs, Credits and Time in Numbers

Here is what the 452 programs look like when you line them up.

• Credits: the median is 39. MHA-titled programs run longer, with a median of 42.
• Per-credit tuition: the median published rate is $698, across 263 programs that publish one. Rates run from $230 to $2,887.
• Estimated tuition: for 283 programs, the median is $27,000 (the published per-credit rate times credits, before fees, or the school’s own published total). The low end is $8,460 and the high end is $125,510.
• Format: 294 programs are offered online, 147 on campus and 98 in a hybrid format. Many offer more than one.
• Tests: 202 programs either don’t require the GRE or GMAT or let you waive it.
• Field experience: 155 programs build in a residency, internship, practicum or field experience.
• Accreditation: 143 programs at 105 schools are on the CAHME accredited-program list.

Those medians hide a real split. A 30-credit online degree at a public university can cost less than one year of a private residential program. The table below shows the range with real programs.

Program	Format	Credits	Length	Estimated tuition	CAHME
American College of Education MHA	Online	36	16-18 months	$8,460	No
LSU Shreveport online MHA	Online	30	About 12 months full time	$12,630	No
University of North Florida MHA	Campus	45	2 years full time	$22,209 (resident)	Yes
University of New Haven MHA	Campus or online	36	2 years	$32,184	Yes
NYU online MHA	Online	45	28 months, part time	$116,595	Yes
USC MHA	Campus	48	2 years full time	$121,872	Yes

What You Study in an MHA Program

The core of every MHA is the same set of management skills applied to health care. The BLS lists the kinds of courses a health administration degree includes: health services management, accounting and budgeting, and health informatics. Around that core you’ll take health policy, law and ethics, operations and quality improvement, human resources, strategy, and data analysis.

Accredited programs are held to a competency model. CAHME’s 2026 standards require each program to define the competencies its graduates must reach, teach a set of Required Program Topics to every student, and close with an Integrative Final Assessment that shows you can apply what you learned before you graduate.

Concentrations let you aim the degree at a setting. Real ones offered in this set include:

• Data and technology: Health Informatics, Health Data Analytics, Digital Health, and Analytics and Intelligence (A.I.)
• Operations and quality: Quality Improvement in Health Care, Operations Management, Health Care Supply Chain Management, and Organizational Excellence (Lean Six Sigma)
• Settings: Long-Term Care Administration, Aging Services, Memory Care, and Medical Laboratory Management
• Money and people: Financial Management, Human Resources, and Health Care Compliance and Privacy
• Population and policy: Population Health, Health Policy and Advocacy, and Public Health Management

Most programs end with a capstone. Some are a strategy project for a real organization, like the University of New Haven capstone of team projects with area hospitals. Others are a supervised residency or internship.

Online, Campus, Hybrid and Executive Formats

The format you pick decides how much hands-on experience you get and whether you keep working.

Online programs are the largest group. They’re built for working adults, and most end with a capstone rather than a full residency. Some still ask you to show up in person. The NYU online MHA requires a 2.5-day immersion in New York City, and the GW online MHA includes two immersions in Washington, D.C. See the full online MHA programs list.

Campus programs are usually full time for two years with a summer internship or a post-coursework residency. The University of Florida MHA includes a 400-hour internship between the first and second year. The Mizzou residential MHA requires a 12-week summer administrative internship.

Hybrid programs mix online courses with short campus sessions. Georgetown’s MHSA uses four one-week intensives over 21 months.

Executive programs admit experienced managers and fit around a full-time job. The USC executive MHA looks for five to seven years of health administration experience and meets on campus in Los Angeles twice, at the start and the end.

How Long an MHA Takes

Length depends on credits, pace and whether a residency is attached. The fastest programs take under a year. The University of Phoenix competency-based online MHA says less than 12 months, and 78 programs appear on the list of accelerated and one-year MHA programs.

Two years full time is common for campus programs. Part-time study stretches that out: California State University-Northridge says its MHA takes 2 to 4 years, and most students finish in 3. The longest path is the residency model. UAB’s residential MSHA runs 33 months, 21 of them in full-time courses and the rest in a paid residency.

What an MHA Costs

Tuition is the biggest variable, and the sticker price depends on how the school charges. Some publish a per-credit rate, some a flat program price, and public schools often charge residents less. The University of North Florida lists $493.53 per credit for Florida residents and $1,126.88 for non-residents. Use the MHA cost calculator to run your own numbers with fees.

A few patterns stand out. Several public online programs sit near the low end: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s online MSHA comes to $10,378 at the Texas resident rate. Private universities sit at the top, where NYU charges $2,591 per credit and USC $2,539 per unit. CAHME accreditation doesn’t force a high price, since the University of Phoenix competency-based MHA is on the CAHME list at $10,800 for the program.

How CAHME Accreditation Works and Why It Matters

Your school’s institutional accreditation covers the whole university. CAHME accreditation covers the health management program itself. CAHME, the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education, has been doing this since 1968, and it’s the only organization recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation to accredit individual programs offering a professional master’s degree in healthcare management.

CAHME says it accredits 175 programs. In this set, 143 programs at 105 schools are on its list, and 122 of those carry an MHA-style title. Six schools on the list are flagged as on probation: AdventHealth University, Boston University (its MBA program), Central Michigan University, Fordham University, Duquesne University and Lipscomb University.

CAHME isn’t a legal requirement to work in health management. But if you’re aiming at hospital and health system leadership, it’s the standard many programs use to show quality. Check any program with the CAHME checker or see all CAHME-accredited MHA programs.

Admission: GRE, Experience and Residencies

Most MHA programs have dropped standardized tests. Of the 452, 158 say no GRE or GMAT is required and 44 let you waive it. Only 4 say a test is required. Where tests remain, they’re usually a backup route: Wichita State University’s healthcare MBA asks for the GMAT or GRE but waives it with three or more years of managerial experience, a U.S. master’s degree or a qualifying GPA.

Work experience matters more. It ranges from none (Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences) to a firm minimum, like the three years of healthcare leadership experience the University of Phoenix competency-based MHA requires. The MHA admission requirements guide covers GPA, essays and application steps, and the program matcher filters by all of these.

What an MHA Leads to

The BLS groups most MHA jobs under medical and health services managers. There were 597,080 of them in May 2025, with a median of $123,860 a year. The bottom 10% earned under $73,390 and the top 10% over $224,340. Setting and seniority explain most of that spread. The BLS projects 24% employment growth from 2025 to 2035, about 62,300 openings a year.

Titles include department manager, practice manager, operations director, quality or compliance manager, nursing home administrator and, later, health system executive. The careers guide covers the paths in detail, If you’re headed for hospital leadership, read the FACHE certification guide too.

MHA vs MBA, MS and MPH

The degrees overlap, but the numbers show real differences in structure and accreditation.

Degree family	Programs	On CAHME list	Median credits	Median estimated tuition
MHA, MHSA and MSHA	216	122	42	$29,000
MS in healthcare administration	94	9	36	$23,400
MBA in healthcare	126	8	36	$26,640
MPH with health management	9	3	42	$25,620
MPA with health focus	7	1	42	$53,970

Choose the MHA if you know you want to lead in health care and value CAHME accreditation and residencies. An MBA in healthcare management keeps doors open outside health care, and an MS in healthcare administration is often shorter and less expensive. The side-by-side guides on MHA vs MBA and MHA vs MPH go deeper, and the degree chooser asks a few questions and points you to one.