Looking for career advice: HIM degree vs. certifications vs. Health Informatics?
I’m looking for some career advice from people who have been in healthcare administration, health IT, or informatics.
I’m 28 years old and currently work as a Patient Care Coordinator at Emory. Before that, I worked at Johns Hopkins for six years in Patient Access and became a lead after about four years. Most of my experience is in patient access, registration, insurance verification, scheduling, Epic, and improving front-end workflows.
I started college as a Biology major but dropped out during my third year. Now I’m ready to go back to school, but I want to make the smartest decision.
My long-term goal is to improve healthcare systems, work on process improvement, operations, data, or informatics, and earn at least $100k by my 30s.
I’m considering two paths:
1. Earn an Associate’s degree in Health Information Management (HIM), get into the field sooner, and then continue toward a bachelor’s.
2. Skip the HIM associate’s degree, earn certifications (Excel, SQL, Power BI, Lean Six Sigma, etc.), and work toward a bachelor’s in Healthcare Informatics.
For those of you already in healthcare IT, informatics, HIM, or healthcare leadership:
• Which path would you choose if you were starting over?
• Is the HIM associate’s degree worth the time, or would certifications plus a bachelor’s be a better investment?
• What certifications have actually helped you get promoted or increase your salary?
• If your goal was to make $100k+, what would your roadmap look like from where I am today?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve made similar career moves or are currently working in these fields. Thanks!