Medical administrator vs referral specialist

The differences between medical administrators and referral specialists 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 referral specialist. Additionally, a referral specialist has an average salary of $36,143, 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 referral specialist are patients, customer service, and medical terminology.

Medical administrator vs referral specialist overview

	Medical Administrator	Referral Specialist
Yearly salary	$35,713	$36,143
Hourly rate	$17.17	$17.38
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	104,510	72,016
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Average age	49	49
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 referral specialist do?

Referral specialists are responsible for ensuring patients are already cleared for specialty service office visits. They resolve registration, pre-certification, and case-related affairs before the client's appointment. Also, they give support to clinical staff to manage the administrative components of clinical referrals for many services. They must gather relevant information from financial counselors, insurance carriers, and other supplementary staff to make sure the patient's financial responsibility for services are provided. Additionally, they act as a liaison between the patients, physicians, hospitals, health insurance vendors, or other referral sources.

Medical administrator vs referral specialist salary

Medical administrators and referral specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medical Administrator	Referral Specialist
Average salary	$35,713	$36,143
Salary range	Between $28,000 And $45,000	Between $29,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	Hillsborough, NJ	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Connecticut
Best paying company	W. R. Berkley	Cognizant
Best paying industry	Finance	Non Profits

Differences between medical administrator and referral specialist education

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

	Medical Administrator	Referral Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Medical administrator vs referral specialist demographics

Here are the differences between medical administrators' and referral specialists' demographics:

	Medical Administrator	Referral Specialist
Average age	49	49
Gender ratio	Male, 23.0% Female, 77.0%	Male, 15.3% Female, 84.7%
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, 9.6% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 3.8% White, 70.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between medical administrator and referral specialist 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.

Referral specialist example responsibilities.

Manage assignments of paying medical bills limit in depth that include organizing and researching regulations as pertain to veterans eligibility.
Interview patients, evaluate eligibility, collect co-pays, deductibles, including, but not limit to insurance verification.
Input HIPAA information, call physician offices to verify testing, collect copay's and deductibles.
Arrange for debt repayments or establish repayment schedules and send out insurance claims with the correct ICD-9 and CPT codes.
Research referrals and either deny or approve based on information obtain and appropriately identify diagnosis (CPT and ICD-9 coding).
Maintain confidentiality by following all applicable HIPAA regulations.

Medical administrator vs referral specialist skills

Common medical administrator skills

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

Common referral specialist skills

Patients, 17%
Customer Service, 12%
Medical Terminology, 9%
PET, 6%
Patient Care, 3%
Data Entry, 3%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Medical Administrator
Medical Administrator vs Referral Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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