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The differences between medical support assistants and patient care specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a medical support assistant, becoming a patient care specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a medical support assistant has an average salary of $35,390, which is higher than the $34,157 average annual salary of a patient care specialist.
The top three skills for a medical support assistant include patients, patient care and advanced life support. The most important skills for a patient care specialist are patients, patient care, and data entry.
| Medical Support Assistant | Patient Care Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $35,390 | $34,157 |
| Hourly rate | $17.01 | $16.42 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 190,633 | 146,861 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 49 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
A medical support assistant job is mainly in health care services, such as hospitals, medical clinics, and private doctors who perform administrative duties and organizing schedules and records. They work together with patients' physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel. Assistants can directly work with patients and call insurance firms on their behalf to inquire about insurance coverage. Medical support assistants encode data on a computer regarding patients' medications, treatment, and lab test results.
A patient service or care specialist works at different medical facilities. Primary responsibilities include checking patients in and out, scheduling follow-up appointments as well as checking patient eligibility for services or programs. Patient service specialists should maintain a systematic referral log to correlate patient referrals to other specialists. Applicants for the job should have the basic computer knowledge to effectively manage data of patient's files, knowledge of medical terminologies, and possess good interpersonal and customer service skills.
Medical support assistants and patient care specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Medical Support Assistant | Patient Care Specialist | |
| Average salary | $35,390 | $34,157 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $44,000 | Between $20,000 And $55,000 |
| Highest paying City | Portland, ME | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | KPG |
| Best paying industry | Government | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a medical support assistant and a patient care specialist in terms of educational background:
| Medical Support Assistant | Patient Care Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between medical support assistants' and patient care specialists' demographics:
| Medical Support Assistant | Patient Care Specialist | |
| Average age | 49 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 24.9% Female, 75.1% | Male, 20.3% Female, 79.7% |
| 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, 11.7% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.1% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 7% |