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If your patient satisfaction levels are dipping or your patient retention chart is on a downward trajectory, it might be time for you to hire a patient care coordinator (PCC) for your medical practice. Patient care coordinators act as personal assistants for your patients, holding their hands through every step of the medical care process.
The result is that patients feel supported and understood, which increases the effectiveness of the care they receive. PCCs also take the patient navigation, treatment coordination, and administrative tasks off your physicians’ plates, freeing up their time to focus on direct patient care.
If you want your medical practice to run a bit smoother, you need a PCC. But how much is hiring one going to cost you? Here, we explore patient care coordinator costs.
On average, a patient care coordinator in the U.S. costs $41,369 per year, which works out to a monthly cost of $3,447, or an hourly cost of $20.68. The actual salary range, however, varies from a low of $28,947 per year to a high of $59,122 per year.
Keep in mind that this is just the base salary. You’ll also have other costs associated with hiring a PCC, such as benefits, insurance, bonuses, and paid time off. If you offer any other perks, such as stipends for personal development or remote work setups, they’ll add on, too.
The exact amount you’ll pay a patient care coordinator, however, hinges on a lot of factors.
Patient care coordinators come in various types, with the average base salary differing for each one. Here’s a breakdown of average patient care coordinator costs in the U.S. by type.
Responsibilities: Conducting patient rounds, auditing and updating patient charts, and monitoring the treatment progress and compliance of patients. Typically requires a nursing degree.
Cost: $54,369 per year, or $4,531 per month
Responsibilities: Providing patient-centered care by helping them navigate the medical system. This includes coming up with solutions to overcome barriers, connecting patients to each site of care, and pairing them with the necessary resources.
Cost: $50,669 per year, or $4,222 per month
Responsibilities: Monitoring health data from patients’ wearable medical devices in real-time, educating patients about the usage of these devices, and alerting healthcare providers in case of abnormal data.
Cost: $57,443 per year, or $4,787 per month
Responsibilities: Guiding patients through the registration process, collecting the necessary insurance information, and verifying insurance eligibility and coverage to reduce the claims denial rate.
Cost: $38,905 per year, or $3,242 per month
Patient care coordinators who work in specialty clinics, or those with bilingual or multilingual proficiency, can attract higher salaries.
Let’s dive into the other factors that can affect patient care coordinator costs.
The more experience a patient care coordinator has, the higher their cost. In fact, lead specialty care coordinators can cost upwards of $100,000 per year, with their average cost falling at $82,149.
This is because experienced patient care coordinators have a higher domain knowledge and come with a proven track record of success, which makes them better at handling complex situations. They also require less training than entry-level PCCs. So, the extra costs you incur with their salary will be returned tenfold with the value and reliability they provide.
Any patient care coordinator you hire should be able to maintain a decent standard of living with their salary. Since each locality has a different cost of living, your PCC’s location plays a major role in determining its cost.
Apart from the U.S., here are some of the places where patient care coordinator costs are the highest:
On the flip side, here are some places with the lowest patient care coordinator costs:
Your patient care coordinator cost also depends on whether you hire them as remote staff or in-person staff. Typically, in-person roles attract higher costs than remote roles, simply because you’ll have to pay for their office space, equipment, and supplies.
Here's a simple way to remember the cost hierarchy:
In-person roles > Remote roles where the employee resides within the same country > Remote roles where the employee lives in a different country with a lower cost of living
You should hire an in-person care coordinator if: You run a surgery center, home health aide, or specialty clinic that requires hands-on, face-to-face patient handling from the PCC.
You should hire a remote patient care coordinator if: You want to reduce overhead costs, need support for your telehealth wing, or want to offer greater flexibility for your PCC hire.
Patient care coordinators who hold certifications and come with specialized skills (such as bilingual/multilingual proficiency or previous chronic care management) will garner higher costs. This is because of their demonstrated proficiency in specialized areas, which will add value to your medical practice without you having to spend time and resources on training them.
For instance, if your medical practice receives a lot of Spanish-speaking patients, the best course of action would be to hire a bilingual PCC as opposed to one who’s only fluent in English. While this may increase your total costs, the value the PCC will provide by being able to connect with patients in their own language will be immeasurable.
We already saw that hiring a full-time, in-person patient care coordinator will cost you around $42,000 per year as a base salary. But, how much will hiring a remote offshore or nearshore PCC cost you?
Let’s assume you’re going to hire a full-time, entry-level remote PCC from the Philippines whose hourly cost is $10.
Total work hours in a month: 40 hours per week x 4 = 160 hours
160 x 10 = $1,600 per month, or $19,200 per year, which is more than a 54% cost savings on payroll.
Here’s another example of a mid-level patient care coordinator cost using Pearl Talent’s salary savings calculator that benchmarks U.S. payroll data and actual salaries paid by Pearl.
As the data shows, you’ll save around 60% in payroll by hiring a remote patient care coordinator from a country with a lower cost of living.
Pearl Talent’s premium white-glove service starts at $3,000 per month. When you partner with us, you can cut your patient care coordinator costs by ≈60% when compared to U.S. hires.
For as little as $3,000 per month, you’ll get paired with a patient care coordinator from Southeast Asia, Latin America, or South Africa who matches the skill level of any U.S. hire.
We handle all the logistics of hiring internationally, including payroll, taxes, and compliance. We also pay our patient care coordinators 2X their local market rates, because a happier employee is a more productive employee.
If you want U.S.-level talent while cutting your patient care coordinator costs in half, working with a healthcare talent acquisition partner like Pearl Talent to hire globally is the way to go.
At Pearl Talent, we specialize in helping employers like you find your perfect employee match. We pair you with the top 1% of patient care coordinators from the Philippines, Latin America, and South Africa, all while cutting your payroll costs in half.
Our patient care coordinators are handpicked, vetted, and AI-trained by us. We only pick the ones with a proven track record. Our patient care coordinators integrate seamlessly into your workflow, handle complex tasks with ease, and add value to your medical practice.
Our white-glove service makes the hiring process completely hands-off for you. We source, vet, onboard, and manage the hires. For you, this means a 90%+ employee retention rate. See 3 pre-vetted profiles as soon as you sign up, select one and book a call, and interview them within 24 hours, cutting down your hiring cycle to days.
We don’t compromise on talent, and neither should you. Browse available hires and find your dream patient care coordinator hire.
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