Referral specialist vs health information specialist

The differences between referral specialists and health information specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a referral specialist, becoming a health information specialist takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a referral specialist has an average salary of $36,143, which is higher than the $33,343 average annual salary of a health information specialist.

The top three skills for a referral specialist include patients, customer service and medical terminology. The most important skills for a health information specialist are patients, HIPAA, and medical terminology.

Referral specialist vs health information specialist overview

	Referral Specialist	Health Information Specialist
Yearly salary	$36,143	$33,343
Hourly rate	$17.38	$16.03
Growth rate	-8%	11%
Number of jobs	72,016	135,448
Job satisfaction	4	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 38%
Average age	49	45
Years of experience	2	12

What does a referral specialist do?

Referral specialists are responsible for ensuring patients are already cleared for specialty service office visits. They resolve registration, pre-certification, and case-related affairs before the client's appointment. Also, they give support to clinical staff to manage the administrative components of clinical referrals for many services. They must gather relevant information from financial counselors, insurance carriers, and other supplementary staff to make sure the patient's financial responsibility for services are provided. Additionally, they act as a liaison between the patients, physicians, hospitals, health insurance vendors, or other referral sources.

What does a health information specialist do?

A health information specialist is in charge of overseeing and developing strategies to optimize information management procedures in hospitals, physicians' offices, and other similar environments. Their responsibilities revolve around gathering and updating medical records, receiving and organizing files, and updating databases according to the appropriate coding systems and procedures. Furthermore, as a health information specialist, it is essential to coordinate with nurses and other staff to ensure accuracy in documentation, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

Referral specialist vs health information specialist salary

Referral specialists and health information specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Referral Specialist	Health Information Specialist
Average salary	$36,143	$33,343
Salary range	Between $29,000 And $43,000	Between $25,000 And $42,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Jose, CA
Highest paying state	Connecticut	California
Best paying company	Cognizant	University of California
Best paying industry	Non Profits	Health Care

Differences between referral specialist and health information specialist education

There are a few differences between a referral specialist and a health information specialist in terms of educational background:

	Referral Specialist	Health Information Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 38%
Most common major	Business	Health Care Administration
Most common college	-	University of Southern California

Referral specialist vs health information specialist demographics

Here are the differences between referral specialists' and health information specialists' demographics:

	Referral Specialist	Health Information Specialist
Average age	49	45
Gender ratio	Male, 15.3% Female, 84.7%	Male, 15.1% Female, 84.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 3.8% White, 70.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 17.5% Asian, 8.7% White, 59.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between referral specialist and health information specialist duties and responsibilities

Referral specialist example responsibilities.

Manage assignments of paying medical bills limit in depth that include organizing and researching regulations as pertain to veterans eligibility.
Interview patients, evaluate eligibility, collect co-pays, deductibles, including, but not limit to insurance verification.
Input HIPAA information, call physician offices to verify testing, collect copay's and deductibles.
Arrange for debt repayments or establish repayment schedules and send out insurance claims with the correct ICD-9 and CPT codes.
Research referrals and either deny or approve based on information obtain and appropriately identify diagnosis (CPT and ICD-9 coding).
Maintain confidentiality by following all applicable HIPAA regulations.

Health information specialist example responsibilities.

Manage chart completion (ICD-9-CM and CPT coding/abstracting), chart assembly and analysis, patient admission and patient information privacy/security.
Review and audit medical records for correct DRG and APC assignment.
Certify requests for subpoenas, court orders, legal cases and training of employees.
Utilize Cerner and Centricity systems to assist in ancillary services.
Abstract medical records with ICD9-CM, CPT and DRG coding.
Scan documentation via DCS into HPF to be index under ROI.

Referral specialist vs health information specialist skills

Common referral specialist skills

Patients, 17%
Customer Service, 12%
Medical Terminology, 9%
PET, 6%
Patient Care, 3%
Data Entry, 3%

Common health information specialist skills

Patients, 26%
HIPAA, 11%
Medical Terminology, 10%
Patient Care, 10%
Data Entry, 4%
Office Equipment, 3%

Referral Specialist vs. similar jobs

Referral Specialist related careers

Referral Specialist related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Office and Administrative Industry
Referral Specialist
Referral Specialist vs Health Information Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse office and administrative jobs