What does a patient care coordinator do?
A patient care coordinator or care coordinator is a trained health professional who manages patients' health care, such as the elderly or disabled. Patient care coordinators educate patients about their health conditions and develop a plan to address their personal health care needs. To comply with health care laws and regulations, care coordinators must attend training and courses so that they are updated with the new developments in health care. They are also required to take up licensure examination and should have experience in care coordination or clinical practices.
Patient care coordinator responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real patient care coordinator resumes:
- Communicate with insurance companies on a continuous basis to ensure hospital reimbursement and attain authorization for home and rehabilitation services.
- Manage caseload by providing care coordination to individuals with a primary intellectual/developmental disability diagnosis all of whom receive community-base waiver services.
- Check in, check out patients, and do EKG's.
- Gain knowledge relate to bundle payments for orthopedic patients and the rules and regulations set forth by CMS.
- Respond to telephone inquiries, providing quality service to customers, PSR's and insurance representatives inquiring about patient accounts.
- Prepare patients prior to MRI exam, obtain safety check lists and assist with the daily operations of the MRI department.
- Monitor and maintain cleanliness of waiting area and reception area, and be able to assist if patients have any difficulty.
- Maintain professionalism and compassion with severely injure and/or disorientate patients.
- Greet patients at check-in, ensuring accurate demographic and insurance information.
- Monitor PSR patient registration accuracy and proficiency on internal audit system.
- Provide administrative support to medical teams inclusive of telephone triage and patient scheduling.
- Remove monitoring needles from patients after surgery and discard of them safely and appropriately.
- Enroll patients for receiving medications by obtaining insurance, medical history and authorizations pertaining to HIPAA.
- Oversee PCR staff, create PCR schedules for the week.
- Lead PSS for up and coming clinic.
Patient care coordinator skills and personality traits
We calculated that 32% of Patient Care Coordinators are proficient in Patients, Customer Service, and Home Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Customer-service skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Patient Care Coordinators that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 32%
Maintained confidentiality of all information acquired through employment with the clinic, including patients medical records and clinic business information.
- Customer Service, 13%
Recognized for a rapidly promoted to a Medical/Dental Care Coordinator position and for a professional and high quality customer service.
- Home Health, 6%
Communicated with patients and businesses on non-clinical home health related issues, and effectively identified patient conflicts and implemented solutions.
- Data Entry, 3%
Oversee company data entry, while updating medical records, collecting co-payments, verifying patient insurance information and entering claim information.
- Patient Appointments, 3%
Schedule patient appointments and provide information to the patient on behalf of the medical facility regarding examination procedures.
- Direct Patient Care, 3%
Participate in QAPI program and hospice-sponsored in-service training; deliver direct patient care as necessary.
Common skills that a patient care coordinator uses to do their job include "patients," "customer service," and "home health." You can find details on the most important patient care coordinator responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. Many patient care coordinator duties rely on customer-service skills. "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints.," so a patient care coordinator will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways patient care coordinator responsibilities rely on customer-service skills: "greeted customers and patient appointment scheduling maintained a clean reception area, including lounge and associated areas. "
Listening skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of patient care coordinators is listening skills. This skill is critical to many everyday patient care coordinator duties, as "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "computed, communicated and collected accurate fees while coordinating insurance benefits and patient responsibility. "
Patience. A big part of what patient care coordinators do relies on "patience." You can see how essential it is to patient care coordinator responsibilities because "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical patient care coordinator tasks: "handled sensitive calls with compassion and patience. "
Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in patient care coordinator job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what patient care coordinators do. Patient care coordinator responsibilities rely on this skill because "representatives must determine solutions to customers’ problems." You can also see how patient care coordinator duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "handle client services via phone and in-person, including: appointment scheduling, question management, check-ins and issue resolutions. "
Communication skills. Another skill commonly found on patient care coordinator job descriptions is "communication skills." It can come up quite often in patient care coordinator duties, since "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day patient care coordinator responsibilities: "document case activity, communications and correspondence in computer system to ensure completeness and accuracy of patient contact records. "
The three companies that hire the most patient care coordinators are:
- Walmart6,237 patient care coordinators jobs
- UnitedHealth Group244 patient care coordinators jobs
- Sedgwick LLP108 patient care coordinators jobs
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Compare different patient care coordinators
Patient care coordinator vs. Patient advocate
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.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between patient care coordinators and patient advocate. For instance, patient care coordinator responsibilities require skills such as "home health," "direct patient care," "patient flow," and "triage." Whereas a patient advocate is skilled in "patient care," "medicaid," "financial assistance," and "medical terminology." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Patient advocates really shine in the health care industry with an average salary of $35,016. Comparatively, patient care coordinators tend to make the most money in the health care industry with an average salary of $37,912.On average, patient advocates reach similar levels of education than patient care coordinators. Patient advocates are 3.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Patient care coordinator vs. Patient liaison
Patient Liaisons are intermediaries addressing concerns on behalf of patients and families working in tandem with the hospital administrator. They are responsible for gathering data regarding patient care issues and inquiries, assessing patient well-being, suggesting improvements, and interpreting hospital service, policies, and procedures to patients and families. Patient Liaisons also work to educate health care professionals in humanizing the hospital experience for patients. They work in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or programs related to public health.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that patient care coordinator responsibilities requires skills like "direct patient care," "strong customer service," "outbound calls," and "triage." But a patient liaison might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "medical terminology," "health system," "surgery," and "excellent interpersonal."
Patient liaisons may earn a lower salary than patient care coordinators, but patient liaisons earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $32,280. On the other hand, patient care coordinators receive higher pay in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $37,912.patient liaisons earn similar levels of education than patient care coordinators in general. They're 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Patient care coordinator vs. Referral coordinator
A referral coordinator works with insurance companies and care providers to share essential patient information and assists primarily in scheduling appointments and managing health insurance issues. As a referral coordinator, you will work directly with the patient, patient families, or even social workers, depending on the job and patient needs. Other job responsibilities include general administrative or clerical tasks such as setting up appointments for new and existing patients, verifying insurance information before appointments, and answering phone calls.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, patient care coordinators are more likely to have skills like "direct patient care," "patient flow," "outbound calls," and "triage." But a referral coordinator is more likely to have skills like "medical terminology," "patient care," "emr," and "ehr."
Referral coordinators earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $35,297. Patient care coordinators earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $37,912.When it comes to education, referral coordinators tend to earn similar degree levels compared to patient care coordinators. In fact, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Patient care coordinator vs. Scheduling coordinator
A scheduling coordinator is responsible for arranging the calendars and managing the appointments of a senior employee. Scheduling coordinators keep a record of meetings, reminding the key personnel as well as other participants of any schedule adjustments and cancellations. They are also responsible for booking venues for events and processing travel arrangements, following the specifications of the head personnel. A scheduling coordinator must be detail-oriented, as well as having excellent communication and organization skills to answer schedule queries and perform administrative tasks as needed.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between patient care coordinators and scheduling coordinators, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a patient care coordinator might have more use for skills like "direct patient care," "strong customer service," "patient flow," and "triage." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of scheduling coordinators require skills like "medical terminology," "patient care," "surgery," and "payroll. "
The health care industry tends to pay the highest salaries for scheduling coordinators, with average annual pay of $35,624. Comparatively, the highest patient care coordinator annual salary comes from the health care industry.scheduling coordinators reach similar levels of education compared to patient care coordinators, in general. The difference is that they're 1.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of patient care coordinator
Updated January 8, 2025
