Patient service representative vs customer service representative

The differences between patient service representatives and customer service representatives 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 service representative, becoming a customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a patient service representative has an average salary of $32,476, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.

The top three skills for a patient service representative include patients, customer service and excellent interpersonal. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.

Patient service representative vs customer service representative overview

	Patient Service Representative	Customer Service Representative
Yearly salary	$32,476	$32,260
Hourly rate	$15.61	$15.51
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	165,920	209,515
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 32%	High School Diploma, 33%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	4	12

What does a patient service representative do?

A Patient Service Representative is responsible for coordinating with patients, ensuring accuracy and satisfaction at all times. The duties of a Patient Service Representative revolves around greeting and responding to patients, offering assistance in documentation, gathering and maintaining their personal information, and even communicating with the family or guardian. They also have to collect payments and process insurance details, obtain medical history, and even keep the patients updated in various aspects. Aside from this, it is crucial for a Representative coordinate with supervisors or personnel in-charge at all times.

What does a customer service representative do?

Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.

Patient service representative vs customer service representative salary

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

	Patient Service Representative	Customer Service Representative
Average salary	$32,476	$32,260
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $38,000	Between $25,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Des Moines, WA
Highest paying state	Vermont	Washington
Best paying company	University of California, Berkeley	Oracle
Best paying industry	Health Care	Insurance

Differences between patient service representative and customer service representative education

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

	Patient Service Representative	Customer Service Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 32%	High School Diploma, 33%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Patient service representative vs customer service representative demographics

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

	Patient Service Representative	Customer Service Representative
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 11.9% Female, 88.1%	Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 21.5% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between patient service representative and customer service representative duties and responsibilities

Patient service representative example responsibilities.

Manage the daily release of charges to A/R.
Adhere with all state and federal regulations such as EMTALA and HIPPA requirements and appropriately collect co-payments and deductibles from patients.
Provide caring and compassion to elderly and developmentally disable patients.
Demonstrate respect, compassion and confidentiality for patients and family members.
Provide professional and accurate service to schedule patient appointments, check-in and verify insurance eligibility.
Provide quality customer service to patients and observe all protocols regarding HIPPA regulations to ensure patient confidentiality.

Customer service representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Maintain cleanliness and safety and assist patients as necessary.
Operate POS system and maintain exceptional and consistent customer service.
Exercise proofreading and basic math skills to maintain quality control over documents process
Work in customer service department entering information into customer relationship management (CRM).
Develop highly empathetic client relationships and earn reputation for exceeding good customer service rep goals.

Patient service representative vs customer service representative skills

Common patient service representative skills

Patients, 20%
Customer Service, 12%
Excellent Interpersonal, 7%
Check-In, 7%
Patient Service, 6%
Excellent Organizational, 6%

Common customer service representative skills

Cleanliness, 10%
POS, 7%
Data Entry, 6%
Sales Floor, 6%
Customer Service, 5%
Home Health, 5%

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

Updated January 8, 2025

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