Patient advocate vs customer service advocate

The differences between patient advocates and customer service advocates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a patient advocate, becoming a customer service advocate takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a patient advocate has an average salary of $36,325, which is higher than the $33,000 average annual salary of a customer service advocate.

The top three skills for a patient advocate include patients, customer service and patient care. The most important skills for a customer service advocate are strong customer service, social work, and appointment scheduling.

Patient advocate vs customer service advocate overview

	Patient Advocate	Customer Service Advocate
Yearly salary	$36,325	$33,000
Hourly rate	$17.46	$15.87
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	88,778	211,969
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	4	12

What does a patient advocate do?

A patient advocate is responsible for supporting the patients with the medical processes in a healthcare institution, assisting them with insurance claims and medical billing disputes, verifying treatment procedures, and conducting referrals to medical professionals based on the patient's needs. Patient advocates facilitate a payment plan for the patients, discussing this plan to the financial department of the facility. They also address the patients' inquiries and concerns, as well as their complaints with hospital operations, immediately raising these issues to higher management.

What does a customer service advocate do?

A customer service advocate is responsible for prioritizing customer satisfaction in a company or business. Most of the time, they reach out to clients and perform follow-up calls to secure sales, devise strategies and programs to improve support operations, handle correspondence, and monitor all inquiries to ensure that all issues get resolved on time. Furthermore, as a customer service advocate, it is essential to develop corrective measures on complex matters, coordinate with staff, and adhere to all regulations.

Patient advocate vs customer service advocate salary

Patient advocates and customer service advocates have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Patient Advocate	Customer Service Advocate
Average salary	$36,325	$33,000
Salary range	Between $29,000 And $45,000	Between $27,000 And $39,000
Highest paying City	Springfield, MA	Danvers, MA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Alaska
Best paying company	Cognizant	Committee for Public Counsel Services
Best paying industry	Health Care	Insurance

Differences between patient advocate and customer service advocate education

There are a few differences between a patient advocate and a customer service advocate in terms of educational background:

	Patient Advocate	Customer Service Advocate
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Patient advocate vs customer service advocate demographics

Here are the differences between patient advocates' and customer service advocates' demographics:

	Patient Advocate	Customer Service Advocate
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 17.5% Female, 82.5%	Male, 25.6% Female, 74.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.5% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 23.6% Asian, 6.8% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 12.5% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 21.1% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between patient advocate and customer service advocate duties and responsibilities

Patient advocate example responsibilities.

Manage the complaint process as required by CMS for the hospital.
Provide support for emergencies by managing inappropriate behaviors, aggressive patients, CPR and persons in crisis.
Train to welcome and register patients at ESI triage window.
Document patients medical problems using ICD 9 and CPT coding for patients diagnosis.
Pull any incoming referrals, triage them, and schedule patients with the appropriate doctor.
Collect and review patient information to determine patients' eligibility for Medicaid and charity program assistance.

Customer service advocate example responsibilities.

Manage and motivate VAS teams to achieve KPI, s assign by management.
Continue to manage a high volume of customer calls relate to HMO, PPO and POS concerns.
Manage all customer inquiries through phone calls and emails and ensure appropriate assistance in compliance with company policies and procedures.
Help create and edit HTML coding to fit customer requests.
Conduct wine and food tastings on-site to boost brand knowledge while consistentlyexceeding sales goals.
Assist customer's with editing their business websites and coaching the basics in HTML.

Patient advocate vs customer service advocate skills

Common patient advocate skills

Patients, 28%
Customer Service, 11%
Patient Care, 5%
Medicaid, 4%
Financial Assistance, 4%
Patient Accounts, 4%

Common customer service advocate skills

Strong Customer Service, 29%
Social Work, 8%
Appointment Scheduling, 8%
Compassion, 7%
Phone Calls, 5%
Health Insurance, 4%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Patient Advocate
Patient Advocate vs Customer Service Advocate

Updated January 8, 2025

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