Utilization Review versus Pre-Service Coordinator versus Care Coordinators
Nov 10, 2021
Utilization Review versus Pre-Service Coordinator versus Care Coordinators -Which role is right for me?
If you have been researching remote, alternative careers then you have likely stumbled upon the 3 most popular non clinical therapy positions: Utilization Review, Pre-Service Coordinator and Care Coordinators. But how do you know which non-clinical position is best for you?
In this article, we’ll do a comparison of Utilization Review versus Pre-Service Coordinator and versus Care Coordinators to help you know which role is the best remote role to choose!
Salary: Which of these 3 non clinical roles pays the most?
First, you should know that your salary just like in the clinical world will also be dependent on your years of experience. So for those with more experience, you’ll have a higher starting salary than new graduates or recent graduates applying for these same roles.
Pre-Service Coordinator Salary: $81,900
Utilization Review Salary: $83,100
https://www.salary.com/research/salary/alternate/utilization-review-specialist-salary
Care Coordinator Roles Salary: $82,683
ttps://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/skilled-inpatient-care-coordinator-salary-SRCH_KO0,34.htm#:~:text=The%20highest%20salary%20for%20a,States%20is%20%2428%2C661%20per%20year.
From anonymous clinical manager who hires for these roles:
If you have less than 5 years of experience, pay is: $78,000 - $80,000
If you have 5-10 years of experience, pay is $80,000 - $81,500
If you have 10+ years of experience, pay is $82,000 - $83,000.
In addition there is also a potential for a 5% bonus per year!
Winner? Which non clinical job pays the best?
Tie! All 3 jobs pay a starting salary that is extremely similar.
Remote: Which of these 3 non clinical roles is the most remote?
Care Coordinators are a hybrid role. So as a cross market, transitional, skilled inpatient or home health care coordinator, you’ll be working 2-3 days in the facility and 2-3 days remotely.
Utilization reviewer roles are 100% remote.
Pre-service coordinator roles are 100% remote.
Winner? Which non clinical job is the most remote?
Tie between Utilization Review and Pre-service Coordinator
Stress: Which of these non clinical roles is least stressful?
This is a tough question but one very important. But it’s also very dependent on your personality so give a clear winner will really vary on anyone reading this article. But I’ll try my best to lay the ground work for helping you understand the stressfulness of each position:
Care Coordinators are a hybrid role. So as a cross market, transitional, skilled inpatient or home health care coordinator, you’ll be working 2-3 days in the facility and 2-3 days remotely.
Utilization reviewer roles are 100% remote so there is no commute stress. There is also reduced interpersonal stress as there is little interaction amongst co-workers and patients and other medical staff. There is the stress of dening medical records however, you are not often directly contacting the provider to report this denial. So you are avoiding what I would feel would be the most stress of this position – letting people know you’ve denied their treatment session.
Overall, I’d rate this role fairly low stress. Yes you have to do work and be busy reviewing charts. But overall you are just writing up reports and are fairly anonymous.
Pre-service coordinator roles are 100% remote so this as well has no commute stress. There is team and patient interaction and so as a result there is stress involved in this communication. You may have to let the hospital know that a patient has not been authorized to go to a certain rehabilitation facility or other negative news. On the flip side, you are helping patients and can share positive news too.
Overall, I’d say this has more stress than utilization review as there is more interdisciplinary interaction and patient interaction, but less stress than care coordinators.
Winner? Which job is least stressful?
Utilization Review
Patient interaction: Which of these non clinical roles has the least patient interaction?
Care Coordinators work largely with patients, family members and caregivers to coordinator medical care and they are spend several days a week at a certain facility interacting with patients, caregivers, family members and medical staff. So as a cross market, transitional, skilled inpatient or home health care coordinator, will be communicating and interacting several days a week, at least, with patients and their caregivers.
Utilization Reviewers have ZERO patient interaction. They strictly review charts for medical necessity and appropriateness of documentation and billing.
Pre-Service Coordinators are involved in the transitioning of patients into a rehabilitation or hospital environment. As a result, they are involved in communication with patients, families and caregivers. As this is remote compared to hybrid remote of care coordinators, I rate this as less patient interaction than care coordinators as likely you’ll have less interaction and especially less face to face interaction.
Winner? Which job has the least patient interaction?
Utilization Reviewer
(Note that you may want patient interaction. So this could be a pro or a con with your selected job role. )
Clinician/Team interaction: Which of these non clinical roles has the least clinician and team interaction?
Care Coordinators work largely with interdisplinary team members to coordinator medical care and they are spend several days a week at a certain facility. So as a cross market, transitional, skilled inpatient or home health care coordinator, will be communicating and interacting several days a week, at least, with other professionals.
Utilization Reviewers: Utilization Reviewers have very minimal team interaction. There may be days or weeks where your chart reviews are very clear and you will not need to ask any questions and have any further conversation than emailing or messaging the team to report if a said chart is approved or denied. There can also be days where there may be more interaction, perhaps a chart review is complicated and you’ll need to ask for help from the rest of the team reviewing that patient’s chart. It really will vary, but likely as you become more skilled – there will be less and less team interaction. Overall, there is minimal team interaction.
Pre-Service Coordinators are involved in the transitioning of patients into a rehabilitation or hospital environment. As a result, they are involved in communication with the medical team to ensure appropriate admission as well as discharge plans. As this is remote compared to hybrid remote of care coordinators, I rate this as less team interaction than care coordinators as likely you’ll have less interaction and especially less face to face interaction.
Winner? Which job has the least patient interaction?
Utilization Reviewer
(Note that you may want more team interaction. So this could be a pro or a con with your selected job role. )
Benefits and Upward Mobility:
Benefits and upward mobility will depend on employer, but overall all of these roles are often found within the same employer and we’ve seen with our students that the benefits and upward mobility is the same no matter the position.
Winner? Which non clinical job pays the best?
Tie! All 3 jobs have extremely similar benefits and upward mobility.
Work happiness/Satisfaction: Which job is going to give you the most sense of pride and personal happiness?
I think this is an important question, as money, stress, and other qualities are important, but there is just something special about helping people and feeling appreciated. I think many of us could accept less pay or more stress if the reverse equaled more job satisfaction.
Care Coordinators: I think this role largely has the most job satisfaction. Although you may not always be able to meet every medical members or patient’s requests and goals, but your job revolves around helping a patient better succeed in the rehabilitation transition process. You get to hear the positive feedback (and yes, likely negative too) and you get to hear the success stories from your patients.
Pre-Service Coordinator: I think this is the 2nd best role for job satisfaction. Similarly for care coordinators, you’ll be interacting with patients and medical team members which can be positive or negative, but you are still involved in the success of patients care and rehabilitation process. I think this role is less satisfying as this role does involve more insurance authorization components and more potential denials of care or denials or particular type of care. This to me drops this job satisfaction to less than care coordinator.
Utilization Review: I think this role has the least job satisfaction if you are looking for direct patient appreciation or direct medical member appreciation. Since you are largely working alone and remotely and are reviewing medical charts, you have little to no interpersonal interaction. This interaction is a large component of our feeling of job satisfaction. This is not to say that this job does not have any satisfaction, but there is something special about see a patients progress and hearing their kind words.
Winner? Which job as the most job satisfaction?
Cross market, transitional, skilled inpatient or home health care coordinator all have similar job duties and functions and due to their ability to positively help patient care and hear this good feedback from patients, family members, caregivers and medical team members, I rate this position as the best for job satisfaction.
Grand winner? Which non clinical job is the best – Utilization Review, Pre Service Coordinator, or Care Coordinator?
Utilization Review!
Now this result will vary. You may want a hybrid remote role. You may want a role that has more interaction. And so I hope this battle between the above 3 non clinical roles has been helpful, but ultimately you may have your own personal preferences.
Utilization Review Course:
We love helping therapists and assistants with transitioning to an alternative healthcare career position that is remote and high paying like Utilization Review, Pre Service Coordinator and Care Coordinator positions! We have an amazing program that helps you discover these positions and get hired in just 1.5 months or less here! It includes 2 hour CEU class on Interqual and medicare guidelines, step by step instruction on how to ace your interview and write your resume, REAL questions and answers from Anthem and naviHealth interviews, FREE resume review and edits, samples of resumes and cover letters, Facebook support group and lots more help! You can check out our program here: https://alternativehealthcarecareers.com/courses/becomeautilizationreviewer.
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