Patient service specialist vs intake specialist

The differences between patient service specialists and intake specialists 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 specialist, becoming an intake specialist takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, an intake specialist has an average salary of $36,805, which is higher than the $33,563 average annual salary of a patient service specialist.

The top three skills for a patient service specialist include patients, patient service and physical therapy. The most important skills for an intake specialist are patients, customer service, and social work.

Patient service specialist vs intake specialist overview

	Patient Service Specialist	Intake Specialist
Yearly salary	$33,563	$36,805
Hourly rate	$16.14	$17.69
Growth rate	-4%	12%
Number of jobs	105,915	40,663
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 36%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Average age	40	43
Years of experience	4	12

What does a patient service specialist do?

A patient service representative serves as a patient's primary point of contact in a hospital or clinic, ensuring accuracy and customer satisfaction. They are mainly responsible for gathering a patient's information and medical history, verifying insurance forms, managing accounts, and processing payments, arranging appointments, and even performing reminder calls and correspondence. There are also instances when a patient service representative must discuss situations to patients and their families, and even alert the doctors when a patient displays strange or unlikely behavior.

What does an intake specialist do?

Intake coordinators manage the registration of clients or patients for medical services in a health care facility. They talk to patients and their families, determine their needs, and ask for patients' medical history and their mental and physical state. It is part of their job to obtain the insurance information of the patients. The necessary skills to become an intake coordinator include good writing and reading skills, good communication, and attention to detail.

Patient service specialist vs intake specialist salary

Patient service specialists and intake specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Patient Service Specialist	Intake Specialist
Average salary	$33,563	$36,805
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $40,000	Between $26,000 And $51,000
Highest paying City	Springfield, MA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	California
Best paying company	Virginia Eye Institute	Citi
Best paying industry	Health Care	Government

Differences between patient service specialist and intake specialist education

There are a few differences between a patient service specialist and an intake specialist in terms of educational background:

	Patient Service Specialist	Intake Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 36%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY at Binghamton

Patient service specialist vs intake specialist demographics

Here are the differences between patient service specialists' and intake specialists' demographics:

	Patient Service Specialist	Intake Specialist
Average age	40	43
Gender ratio	Male, 12.5% Female, 87.5%	Male, 20.7% Female, 79.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 12.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 21.9% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 21.4% Asian, 6.3% White, 54.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.6%
LGBT Percentage	7%	11%

Differences between patient service specialist and intake specialist duties and responsibilities

Patient service specialist example responsibilities.

Benefit coverage eligibility or concerns for patients will be complete timely to achieve identify outcomes or solutions.
Greet patients and visitors with warmth, compassion, and demonstrate commitment to exceptional service.
Provide customer service to patients via registration, co-pay and co-insurance payment collection, appointment scheduling and telephone service
Obtain patient demographic, billing, insurance, and other necessary intake information for patients seeking rehabilitation services.
Screen, triage, register and verify a high volume of client eligibility and demographic data.
Direct callers to appropriate personnel, and initiate a triage slip for response by medical personnel.

Intake specialist example responsibilities.

Manage assignments of paying medical bills limit in depth that include organizing and researching regulations as pertain to veterans eligibility.
Provide information to potential patients and referral sources regarding inpatient and outpatient programs offer and intake process.
Verify Medicare eligibility, provide patients with Medicare guideline information as related to home health care and their coverage.
Review U.S. DHS immigration compliance of participants.
Peg claimants claim and establish medial conditions to VA worksheets.
Respond to telephone and e-mail inquiries regarding CM/ECF and court relate procedures.

Patient service specialist vs intake specialist skills

Common patient service specialist skills

Patients, 20%
Patient Service, 9%
Physical Therapy, 8%
Rehabilitation, 8%
Patient Appointments, 8%
Front Desk, 7%

Common intake specialist skills

Patients, 16%
Customer Service, 14%
Social Work, 7%
Data Entry, 6%
Phone Calls, 4%
Home Health, 3%

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Patient Service Specialist
Patient Service Specialist vs Intake Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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