Is a career in medical transcription right for me?

[Chef_Erin]

This has nothing to do with Pampered Chef but I need some advice ... is anyone a medical transcriptionist or into medical billing? I am really thinking about getting into this field but I am not too sure. Has anyone gone through the schooling? Reccomened any schools? Is it easy getting work? How much do you make? Thanks so much!!
Erin

 

[soonerchef]

I started to do this but found out that the company I was going to train with was a sham. Unless you go to an accredited college of some sort you really don't know if XYZ company doing the training is a scam. I have also been told that Medical Transcription is not an easy field to get into, to work from home at least...

Good luck...

 

[heat123]

My friend who is a SAHM is doing online classes for medical billing. It cost her $900 for the books and supplies and I am not sure how easy it will be for her to get a job after she is trained (since it's not an accredited college) and no placement program. It was something I considered and would try it if I find my friend has success with it.

 

[gilliandanielle]

I was ready to take the classes and had my $900 for them all ready to go. I checked around to see how easy it is to get a job with this before I gave the final okay. I am SO glad I did! I found that no one will hire you without two years experience. If you can find a local job doing this you might have a chance, but working from home probably won't happen without 2 yrs. experience.

 

[mom2kr]

Medical TranscriptionHi Erin,

I have to tell you from my personal experience I fell into medical transcription and was basically self taught. I made very good money for about 7 years, and then one day I went to pick up my tapes from one doctor's office and he told me they were trying a new format, where they would just have to check off the normal/abnromal with the person's physical exam and write in what the abnromal thing was. So, I thought well they are not going to like this at all they are so used to me doing their typing for them and for them to have to write the reports out, it would be a pain. But unfortunately they loved the idea of the new format. It is obviously saving them money, a lot of money. I was typing for a group of 5 doctors, so when one tried it and liked it, it just kept flowing from there and now only one doctor is doing dictation for me every day, but it is by far less than he normally would have done before this new format. I have had to go out and get a job working. When my transcription business was at its peak, I would about 35 hours a week. I made double the money my husband was.

I just wanted to give you the other side of they story, things can be good for a while. You should probably go to a message board specifically for medical transcriptionists, and see what schools they would recommend. I'm at work right now, but I think you can google MTCHAT and they have a message board with some recommended school sites.

I have interviewed with some on-line companies to do medical transcription, but since I have no certificate and was self taught they don't want to hire me, and their rate of pay is by far lower than what I was making.

Cheryl

 

[Jennie4PC]

That is funny I was actually thinking about that myself, I am a medical assitant and I had to take a class in medical transcriptions but that was over 6 yrs ago.

 

[Cindycooks]

My advice: I am a medical asst and have worked both front and back offices in medical offices for 15 years until recently. Save your money. I say this because with computers and sophisticated medical software - transcriptionists are going to be obsolete in a few years. There is technology now where doctors just speak into a microphone directly into the computer and it translates and dictates automatically. Also insurance is filed electronically nearly everywhere now. Any office that is up-to-par in technology has this and if they dont now, they will. Most of these online schools (not all) are just out to get your money. I'm sorry but that is just the way it is. It's 2006.

 

[samcmills]

I have been doing MT for 12 years in my home, it has allowed me to be a SAHM for both my kids. I personally think all the at home schools/courses are a scam. No service is going to hire you without at least two years of acute care experience and their certificate is not worth the paper it is written on trying to find a job. My best advice if you can't get to a community college (the one I went to offered a 9 month program just for MT, I graduated with a 2 year associates degree in medical records), is to work for a doctor or hospital and see if they will train you, then after two years try for a service to work at home. I did the MT course at my college, interned at the hospital for coding, the manager put me in transcription and those ladies trained me.

I also don't believe we are going to be obsolete any time soon. The voice recognition software I have seen couldn't understand the doctors when they were talking fast as they are want to do, also the foreign doctors had problems with it not understanding their accents. They may improve on this and my job will be obsolete but by them I will probably be looking for another career anyway.

sam

 

[janel kelly]

I have a good friend who got her license for this recently. the program she went through was suppossed to automatically give her 2 years experience. Well, something happened and they weren't able to offer the experience. however she recently moved and was able to get a job doing medical transcription. So it worked out for her.

 

[Chef Kearns]

I have an associates degree in Medical Records with a certificate in Medical Transcription. It was very tough to find work for me. That is why I do not do it now. I wasn't even looking for a stay at home job. I was looking in the hospitals or with a firm and couldn't find any work. I loved it in school. It was very interesting work, but it is a competitive market. I would definitely recommend a Community College over any other format for training.