What is Healthcare Accounting? A Look at Careers in Accounting for Healthcare

Key Insights:

• Entry-level healthcare accounting professionals help healthcare organizations track, store, and organize their financial information. They may also help prepare forms and reports needed for regulatory compliance.
• If you’re interested in working in the healthcare accounting field, a degree program can provide the education and skills needed to perform these duties.
• Learners at UMA get more than an education in healthcare accounting — they also gain access to a variety of student support services, including those designed to help you in your job search after graduation.

Entry-level positions performing healthcare accounting functions help healthcare organizations collect, input, track, and report their financial information. This often involves performing duties related to the recording of the organization’s financial data, verifying information accuracy and completeness, and creating financial reports.

If you enjoy working with numbers and are interested in a more behind-the-scenes healthcare role, a healthcare accounting career path may be a good fit. Keep reading to learn more about what entry-level roles with healthcare accounting functions do and where they work. We also talk about how to pursue entry-level positions in this field, and how a healthcare accounting degree program can help you prepare.

What Is Healthcare Accounting?

Individuals performing healthcare accounting functions use basic accounting principles to collect and organize financial data for healthcare facilities and organizations. They may also create reports to show the organization’s financial status or use various bookkeeping software programs to input and review financial data within spreadsheets and organizational databases.

Watch our short video to learn more: What Is Healthcare Accounting?

What Do Workers With Healthcare Accounting Functions Do?

Individuals in entry-level positions within the healthcare accounting field may have job duties such as:

• Recording financial data, including monies that are both incoming and outgoing
• Balancing patient accounts, which may involve collecting and processing payments from patients and/or insurance companies
• Verifying insurance claims and patient bills to ensure they are accurate and complete
• Resolving billing issues or reimbursement-related inaccuracies or complaints
• Completing payroll for healthcare organization staff
• Preparing financial reports for regulatory agencies, such as those used for tax purposes

Depending on the employer, an administrative assistant or secretarial position may perform healthcare accounting functions in addition to other clerical duties. This may include opening and dispersing incoming mail, maintaining patient or staff files, and performing other administrative tasks.

Behind the Scenes: Where Healthcare Accountants Work

The need for healthcare accounting professionals can be found in a variety of settings. These include physicians’ offices, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities. Insurance companies also sometimes employ entry-level roles with healthcare accounting functions.

This type of work generally involves working alone, although it can also require interacting with others. The latter can entail collaborating with other medical staff or interacting with patients to handle billing issues.

What Does It Take to Enter Accounting for the Healthcare Industry?

If healthcare accounting sounds interesting to you, you might be wondering about the requirements for this career path. Some employers only require a high school diploma for entry-level roles, while others prefer individuals with training or a degree in accounting principles.¹

Even if they don’t, a healthcare accounting program can help people new to this field gain the knowledge and skills needed to perform the required job duties. On-the-job training may also be required, enabling you to learn how to use that employer’s software and financial programs.

If you find that you want to advance your career later, this typically requires obtaining additional education. You may need a bachelor’s degree or higher, depending on the position you’d like to pursue, along with gaining a higher level of experience.

Start Working Toward a Career in Healthcare Accounting

Does healthcare accounting sound like a career path for you? If it does, a degree program can help you prepare. Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA) offers a Healthcare Accounting Associate of Science / Associate of Applied Science Degree program. It’s available online and can be completed in 18 months or more.²

Earn your degree at UMA and you will learn about the various accounting principles and software applications. Since this position involves working in the healthcare field, we also cover medical terminology, healthcare claims processing, anatomy, physiology, and more.

Note: UMA’s Healthcare Accounting Associate of Science / Associate of Applied Science Degree program does not prepare graduates to sit for certifications like the Certified Bookkeeper designation.

Why choose UMA to prepare for a career in accounting for healthcare?

Obtaining your degree at UMA offers benefits that extend beyond your education. You also gain access to our helpful and understanding Student Support teams.

Need help paying for your healthcare education? Our Student Finance advisors are available to discuss your financial aid options. Struggling with a particular course or assignment? Academic Services is here to help, providing one-on-one support if you want or need more specialized attention.

Plus, the support doesn’t stop once you’ve earned your degree — we continue to provide our learners with career support assistance after graduation. We can help you with your resume or work with you to prepare for upcoming job interviews. We also have several employer partners who prefer to hire UMA grads.

Should you decide to advance your career in healthcare accounting by pursuing a higher level of education, UMA has education partners as well. These partnerships can help you make the most of your UMA education by assisting with the transfer of certain credits, potentially enabling you to complete a program at one of these partnership institutions on an accelerated schedule, and sometimes even possibly qualifying you for educational grants from that institution.³

If you have questions or want to learn more about how UMA can help you start your healthcare career, contact us today. Our caring and compassionate staff would love to hear more about your career goals. You can also reach us by phone at 888-213-4473 or chat with us online — whichever is most convenient for you.

FAQs

• What makes healthcare accounting unique? Many healthcare positions involve direct patient care. Healthcare accounting is more behind the scenes, enabling individuals with a passion for healthcare to make a positive impact on the industry without providing one-on-one care. Plus, the American Hospital Association reports that healthcare institutions can face a variety of financial challenges, such as inadequate reimbursement and shifting care patterns⁴ — challenges that may not exist in other industries. Individuals in healthcare accounting positions can help institutions track and monitor their financial standing, enabling them to make informed decisions based on this information.
• Why is healthcare accounting important? Healthcare organizations must be able to pay staff, order supplies, buy new equipment, and simply operate from day to day in order to stay in business. Healthcare accounting professionals can help these institutions track their finances. They may also be responsible for creating reports and completing the forms needed to remain in compliance with government regulations. Read our informative blog “What Is the Importance of Accounting for Healthcare?” to learn more.
• Does UMA’s healthcare accounting program prepare me to work as a CPA? No. CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant, and you generally need a bachelor’s degree, as well as passing a certification exam, to earn this designation.⁵ UMA’s program prepares you for entry-level healthcare accounting roles such as revenue billing specialist, claims analyst, insurance billing specialist, medical billing specialist, and patient services representative.