Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between provider relations specialists and customer support specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a provider relations specialist and a customer support specialist. Additionally, a provider relations specialist has an average salary of $44,403, which is higher than the $39,470 average annual salary of a customer support specialist.
The top three skills for a provider relations specialist include provider relations, medicaid and health plan. The most important skills for a customer support specialist are customer support, phone calls, and compassion.
| Provider Relations Specialist | Customer Support Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $44,403 | $39,470 |
| Hourly rate | $21.35 | $18.98 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 70,700 | 259,592 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 1 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
Provider relations specialists are professionals who work for insurance companies as the primary contact for health care providers such as clinics and hospitals. These specialists are required to provide answers about service contracts and billing procedures to health care providers. They must handle the documents of patients to ensure that proper paperwork has been filed for coverage while developing communications with providers about any policy changes. Provider relations specialists must also travel to different health care organizations to provide training to their staff on insurance policies and procedures.
A customer support specialist is responsible for assisting a customer's inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services the organization offers. Customer support specialists handle customer issues and resolve them promptly, escalating high-level complaints to the immediate supervisors. A support specialist will also replace products or process payment refunds as needed. Their goal is to maintain the highest customer satisfaction and keep a good reputation for the company while driving revenues and increasing profitability. A customer support specialist must have outstanding communication skills, as well as the ability to multi-task to record customer complaint cases while providing resolution.
Provider relations specialists and customer support specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Provider Relations Specialist | Customer Support Specialist | |
| Average salary | $44,403 | $39,470 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $65,000 | Between $28,000 And $55,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | - | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | - | Micron Technology |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a provider relations specialist and a customer support specialist in terms of educational background:
| Provider Relations Specialist | Customer Support Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 59% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between provider relations specialists' and customer support specialists' demographics:
| Provider Relations Specialist | Customer Support Specialist | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 22.0% Female, 78.0% | Male, 37.4% Female, 62.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 21.4% Asian, 7.3% White, 53.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 11.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 7.2% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |