Medical administrator vs medical representative

The differences between medical administrators and medical representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a medical administrator and a medical representative. Additionally, a medical representative has an average salary of $36,309, which is higher than the $35,713 average annual salary of a medical administrator.

The top three skills for a medical administrator include patients, patient care and medical terminology. The most important skills for a medical representative are patients, customer service, and first aid kits.

Medical administrator vs medical representative overview

	Medical Administrator	Medical Representative
Yearly salary	$35,713	$36,309
Hourly rate	$17.17	$17.46
Growth rate	-8%	4%
Number of jobs	104,510	176,481
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	49	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does a medical administrator do?

A medical administrator is in charge of overseeing a medical facility's daily operations, ensuring the efficiency of all services and processes. Among their responsibilities include setting goals and guidelines, studying the feedback of different parties, gathering and analyzing data to identify areas needing improvement, planning and organizing new services and projects, managing the medical staff, and developing strategies to optimize operations. They may also develop training programs for new and current employees, coordinating with experts in the medical field. Furthermore, as a medical administrator, it is essential to lead the workforce while implementing the hospital's policies and regulations.

What does a medical representative do?

A medical representative is responsible for selling medical equipment, medications, and other medical supplies by demonstrating benefits and features to patients and healthcare professionals. Medical representatives work closely with their company's marketing department to develop strategic procedures and promotional techniques to attract customers and generate revenues for the business. They respond to the customers' inquiries and concerns, take their orders, and process their payments. A medical representative also analyzes the current trends in the medical industry to identify business opportunities that would establish a market presence.

Medical administrator vs medical representative salary

Medical administrators and medical representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medical Administrator	Medical Representative
Average salary	$35,713	$36,309
Salary range	Between $28,000 And $45,000	Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying City	Hillsborough, NJ	Lansing, MI
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Michigan
Best paying company	W. R. Berkley	Capgemini
Best paying industry	Finance	Pharmaceutical

Differences between medical administrator and medical representative education

There are a few differences between a medical administrator and a medical representative in terms of educational background:

	Medical Administrator	Medical Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	University of Pennsylvania

Medical administrator vs medical representative demographics

Here are the differences between medical administrators' and medical representatives' demographics:

	Medical Administrator	Medical Representative
Average age	49	47
Gender ratio	Male, 23.0% Female, 77.0%	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 3.8% White, 70.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	9%	6%

Differences between medical administrator and medical representative duties and responsibilities

Medical administrator example responsibilities.

Facilitate client relationships and manage surgery schedules, financial consultations, follow up care and ongoing maintenance.
Maintain a working knowledge and understanding of CPT and ICD-10 codes.
Provide patients with information explaining hospital admission policies, time of admission, and HIPPA privacy guidelines.
Receive and fulfill requests for release of information to patients and external providers following HIPPA guidelines
Attend classes to improve proficiency in billing using CPT and ICD9 codes with special modifiers.
Verify coverage for third-party insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and out of network benefits.

Medical representative example responsibilities.

Achieve market share growth in the psychiatry, cardiovascular, and neurology markets.
Lead the nation in new product introduction of ZAC, an anti hypertension medication.
Manage the sale of pharmaceuticals to treat hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, depression, women's health and pain/neurological disorders.
Manage specialty sales of psychiatry and other products across Mid-Michigan health-care systems.
Manage products in gastroenterology, cardiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and OB-GYN categories.
Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.

Medical administrator vs medical representative skills

Common medical administrator skills

Patients, 29%
Patient Care, 10%
Medical Terminology, 7%
HIPAA, 6%
CPT, 5%
Medicaid, 5%

Common medical representative skills

Patients, 17%
Customer Service, 13%
First Aid Kits, 9%
Incident Investigations, 9%
CPR, 6%
Medical Terminology, 6%

Medical Administrator vs. similar jobs

Medical Administrator related careers

Medical Administrator related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Office and Administrative Industry
Medical Administrator
Medical Administrator vs Medical Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse office and administrative jobs