HIMDegree.com is an independent guide to health information management, health informatics, medical coding, and healthcare data education in the United States. We track 328 CAHIIM-accredited programs at 287 institutions across 48 states, 303 of them documented by their institutions as available online. Our 2026 Career Outcomes Survey of 1,127 graduates found 91% found employment within six months, with median starting salaries of $62,000 for associate graduates and $75,000 for bachelor graduates. Health informatics was the largest destination at 26%, followed by medical coding at 22% and HIM management at 18%. 87% of employers required RHIA or RHIT certification. We rank programs on a seven-factor Quality Index covering curriculum rigor, practicum requirements, faculty credentials, accreditation maturity, technology training, career outcomes, and cost value. Every program links to its official page. Last updated August 2026.
Most rankings in this field measure reputation, which in practice means measuring how old and how large an institution is. We score documented program attributes instead, publish the weights, and link every program to its own page so you can check us. You can disagree with the weighting. You can verify the inputs. That is the point.
What this site is for
Health information management is one of the few fields where the education decision is genuinely constrained. You cannot work your way to the credential. Graduating from a CAHIIM-accredited program is the only route to RHIA or RHIT eligibility, and our 2026 survey found 87% of employers required one of them. Choose a non-accredited program and the credential path closes permanently, with no remedy available.
That constraint makes accurate information unusually valuable here, and the market for it is unusually bad. The most heavily advertised entry points in this field are non-accredited certificates sold as routes to a coding career, and their marketing does not distinguish itself from the accredited degrees it competes with. We built this site to make that distinction obvious, and to rank what remains on evidence rather than prestige.
The five pillars of a health information education
Every accredited program covers the same required domains, and they still produce graduates with very different outcomes. The difference sits in these five areas, and they are what our index is built to detect.
Electronic health records, databases, analytics tooling, and the data work that 65% of employers now name as critical. The fastest growing gap between programs.
HIPAA, state retention statutes, information blocking, and the compliance framework that makes health data different from every other kind of data.
Enough anatomy, pathophysiology, and clinical workflow to know what a record means and when it is wrong. The half that cannot be self-taught quickly.
Department management, budgeting, vendor negotiation, and the written argument. The part every accredited curriculum under-teaches relative to the job.
Credential eligibility, practicum placement, and employer pipeline. The measurable end of an education, and what we weight our index toward.
What our 2026 research found
The Health Information Management Career Outcomes Survey 2026 surveyed 1,127 graduates from the classes of 2020 through 2025, between January to March 2026. It is proprietary research conducted by our team, and it is the evidence base behind most of the opinions on this site.
| Degree level | Median starting salary |
|---|---|
| Certificate | $55,000 |
| Associate (AAS) | $62,000 |
| Bachelor's (BS) | $75,000 |
| Master's (MS) | $85,000 |
| Doctorate | $95,000 |
Top career paths
- Health informatics: 26%
- Medical coding and billing: 22%
- HIM management: 18%
- Healthcare data analytics: 15%
- Compliance: 10%
- Clinical documentation: 9%
Most in demand skills
- Electronic health records (EHR): 78%
- Medical coding: 72%
- Data analytics: 65%
- Healthcare regulations and HIPAA: 62%
- Health information exchange: 55%
- Project management: 48%
Three findings shaped how we rank programs. 87% of employers required RHIA or RHIT, which is why accreditation is weighted heavily. 73% of graduates called hands-on practicum experience critical or very important to their career, ahead of school reputation and ahead of degree level, which is why practicum is our second largest factor. And data analytics was named critical by 65% of employers, which is why technology training carries 15% rather than the token weighting it usually receives.
Read the full methodology and survey detail →
A HIM degree is not a medical billing degree. If you treat it as one you will waste it. The money in this field is in informatics, analytics, and compliance, not in coding routine outpatient encounters, and our own survey shows graduates already know this: informatics and analytics together took 41% of them, more than coding and HIM management combined.
Featured rankings
Best HIM Programs
The flagship ranking. Every accredited health information management degree in our database, scored and ordered.
See the ranking → RankingOnline HIM Programs
Accredited health information programs documented by their institutions as available online, at every degree level.
See the ranking → RankingBest Health Informatics Programs
Accredited health informatics degrees and digital health credentials, concentrated at the graduate level and delivered mostly online.
See the ranking → RankingBest Medical Coding and Billing Programs
The accredited associate degrees that form the real coding pipeline, leading to RHIT and then to CCS or CPC.
See the ranking → RankingHIM Programs With Practicum and Internship
Accredited programs with documented supervised professional practice, the strongest predictor of career outcome we found.
See the ranking → RankingMost Affordable HIM Programs
Public colleges, community colleges, and technical colleges offering accredited health information degrees.
See the ranking →How we score programs
The HIM Program Quality Index 2026 distributes 100 points across seven factors. Every factor is derived from something the institution or its accreditor publishes, which means any score is reproducible and any disagreement with it can be specific rather than vague.
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum rigor | 18% | Breadth and depth of the published curriculum across coding, data, law, and systems coursework, judged from what the institution documents. |
| Practicum and internship requirements | 17% | Whether supervised professional practice experience is required, and how substantial the institution documents it to be. |
| Faculty credentials | 15% | Credential stack of the named program director, weighted for doctoral qualification, RHIA, and AHIMA fellowship. |
| Program accreditation status | 15% | CAHIIM accreditation maturity, using status and the length of the next review cycle as the signal. |
| Technology and software training | 15% | Documented instruction in EHR systems, analytics tooling, databases, and health information exchange. |
| Career outcomes and placement | 10% | Credential eligibility produced by the degree and the strength of the regional employer pipeline. |
| Cost value | 10% | Public and community college delivery treated as the affordability proxy, since net price varies by residency and aid. |
It does not measure teaching quality, admission selectivity, or the odds that any individual gets hired, because those are either unpublished or self-reported. The methodology page says so at length, including what we deliberately excluded and why.
Careers this field leads to
Eight in-depth guides covering what each role actually does, what it pays by seniority and setting, the credential route in, and an honest account of the ceiling.
Health Information Manager
The department head role that most health information management degrees are actually designed to produce. Here is what it pays, what it demands, and who should avoid it.
$82,000 to $108,000 typical rangeHealth Informatics Specialist
The highest-volume and best-paid destination for health information graduates, and the one most likely to be mislabeled by the employer advertising it.
$52,000 to $78,000 by credential and specialtyMedical Coder
The second most common destination for health information graduates, the one with the most misleading marketing around it, and the one where credential choice determines pay more than anything else.
$78,000 to $112,000 typical rangeHealth Data Analyst
The steepest compensation curve available to health information graduates, and the one where the required investment is most consistently overestimated.
$95,000 to $135,000 typical rangeHealthcare Compliance Officer
The most automation-resistant career in health information, the one with the clearest path from a records background, and the one that filters hardest on temperament.
$85,000 to $110,000 typical rangeClinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
One of the best paid roles in health information that does not require managing anyone, and one you cannot enter straight from a degree.
Certifications that decide your salary
Certification moves compensation in this field more than degree level, employer, or geography. These guides cover eligibility, exam structure, realistic cost, and what each credential is actually worth.
RHIA
The credential that decides whether a health information management degree becomes a management career or an expensive records job.
AHIMA · Associate level, technical trackRHIT
The most cost-effective credential in health information, what it unlocks, and the specific point at which it stops being enough.
AHIMA · Advanced coding, hospital inpatient focusCCS
The credential that separates the top of the coding pay range from the middle, and the hardest exam in mainstream health information.
AAPC · Professional coding, physician and outpatient focusCPC
The dominant coding credential in physician and outpatient settings, and the one with a designation quirk that catches new coders out.
AHIMA · Advanced, analytics specializationCHDA
The credential that makes a health information background legible to analytics hiring managers, and what it cannot do on its own.
HIMSS · Senior, health IT and informatics managementCPHIMS
The recognized credential for health IT and informatics leadership, and the specific point in a career where it starts to pay.
Programs by state
Every state and the District of Columbia, with the accredited programs located there, current federal wage data, and an honest note for the four jurisdictions with no accredited program of their own.
Reading and analysis
HIM vs Health Informatics: Which Path Is Right for You?
The most common decision students in this field face, and the one where the degree titles are least reliable as a guide.
Career guide · 12 minHow to Become a Health Information Manager
The full route, the realistic timeline, and the specific steps where people lose years without noticing.
Career guide · 12 minHealth Information Management Jobs: What Can You Actually Do?
The full map of what this degree actually opens, with real pay bands and an honest note on which routes are shrinking.
Analysis · 11 minIs a HIM Degree Worth It in 2026?
The honest arithmetic, level by level, including the cases where the answer is no.
Analysis · 10 minOnline HIM Degrees: Are They Respected?
The modality question is settled. The question that actually predicts your outcome is a different one.
Salary data · 13 minHIM Salary Guide 2026
What health information actually pays, broken down by every variable that moves the number, using our survey data and federal wage statistics.
Federal wage context
The occupation most health information graduates enter is Medical Records Specialists, SOC 29-2072, with a national median of $51,140 per BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. State medians in our data range from $27,990 in Puerto Rico to $63,180 in Hawaii.
That federal figure understates what credentialed professionals earn, because it blends entry clerical roles with credentialed specialists, and because management roles sit in a different occupation code entirely. We publish both the federal data and our own survey figures rather than picking whichever is more flattering.
Frequently asked questions
What is health information management?
Health information management is the discipline responsible for the accuracy, accessibility, privacy, retention, and legal defensibility of patient health records, and for the coding and data that flow from them. It sits between clinical care, information technology, compliance, and revenue cycle, and it is the profession credentialed by AHIMA through the RHIA and RHIT certifications.
How long does a health information management degree take?
An accredited associate degree takes two years and leads to RHIT eligibility. An accredited bachelor degree takes four years and leads to RHIA eligibility, which is what most management postings require. Bachelor completion programs for working RHIT holders typically take two to three years part time because associate coursework transfers.
What can you do with a health information management degree?
Health informatics, medical coding, HIM department management, healthcare data analytics, compliance and privacy, and clinical documentation integrity. In our 2026 survey of 1,127 graduates, informatics was the largest destination at 26%, then coding at 22%, HIM management at 18%, analytics at 15%, compliance at 10%, and clinical documentation at 9%.
Is CAHIIM accreditation required?
For certification, yes, and it is the one decision in this field that cannot be corrected afterward. Graduating from a CAHIIM-accredited program is the only route to RHIA or RHIT eligibility, with no experience-based alternative. Every program in our database is CAHIIM-accredited.
How much do health information management graduates earn?
Our 2026 survey found median starting salaries of $55,000 for certificate holders, $62,000 for associate graduates, $75,000 for bachelor graduates, $85,000 for master graduates, and $95,000 for doctorate holders. The federal median for medical records specialists is $51,140 per BLS OEWS May 2025, which blends entry clerical roles with credentialed professionals.
How do you rank programs?
With a seven-factor Program Quality Index using only attributes published by institutions or their accreditor: curriculum rigor at 18%, practicum requirements at 17%, faculty credentials at 15%, accreditation status at 15%, technology training at 15%, career outcomes at 10%, and cost value at 10%. Every score is reproducible from the program record.