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What is a patient care advocate and how to become one
The Patient Care Advocate is a health care professional that helps patients understand the health care system. He/She can be a geriatric care manager, nurse, social worker, or other health care professional. He/She helps patients understand what their insurance covers. But when the patient has no insurance, he/she makes financial arrangements with the facility. He/She handles patients' complaints by documenting and resolving them accordingly. As a patient care advocate, you make available all the necessary information a patient would need to plan their healthcare.
To be a patient care advocate, you need a minimum of a High school diploma and more than two years of experience in a similar field to apply for this position. You must possess communication, decision-making, organization, and problem-solving skills. You may be required to provide a Board Certified Patient Advocate certification. A patient care advocate makes $63,318 a year, which is between $54,407 and $73,430.
Avg. Salary $34,043
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate -4%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.69%
Asian 6.76%
Black or African American 11.91%
Hispanic or Latino 20.19%
Unknown 5.23%
White 55.23%
Genderfemale 77.66%
male 22.34%
Age - 39American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 39Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is challenging
7 - challenging
Work life balance is good
6.4 - fair
Patient care advocate career paths
Key steps to become a patient care advocate
Explore patient care advocate education requirements
Start to develop specific patient care advocate skills
Skills Percentages Patients 34.22% Patient Care 20.45% PCA 6.65% Social Work 4.04% HIPAA 3.09% Complete relevant patient care advocate training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New patient care advocates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a patient care advocate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real patient care advocate resumes.Research patient care advocate duties and responsibilities
- Communicate with insurance companies on a continuous basis to ensure hospital reimbursement and attain authorization for home and rehabilitation services.
- Answer questions relate to pharmacy benefits while maintaining HIPAA confidentiality, productivity standards, and performance guidelines.
- Assist patients with bathroom needs - bedside commode, bedpan, urinal, catheter care.
- Know how to do lab work such as strep and flu testing, drawing blood, and EKG's.
Prepare your patient care advocate resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your patient care advocate resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a patient care advocate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
Choose from 10+ customizable patient care advocate resume templates
Build a professional patient care advocate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your patient care advocate resume.
Apply for patient care advocate jobs
Now it's time to start searching for a patient care advocate job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
How did you land your first patient care advocate job
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Average patient care advocate salary
The average patient care advocate salary in the United States is $34,043 per year or $16 per hour. Patient care advocate salaries range between $22,000 and $51,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do patient care advocates rate their job?
Patient care advocate reviews
Putting that patient/customet first and directing (directions) that person to their Doctors office and setting or cancelling their appointments, just helping people.
There's nothing to dislike.
Updated January 8, 2025
