How Do You Start A Work From Home Medical Transcription Career?Most beginners to the work from home medical transcription industry don't know so here is an expert overview of the industry. Whatever isn't covered here will be in-depth by a very successful 9 year work from home medical transcription veteran who wrote what is being referred to as "The Bible" of the work from home medical transcription industry.
Why Should You Follow My Advice?I would be shocked if you didn't want to know. My name is Paul Hackett and helping people start their own home based medical billing businesses & work from home medical transcription careers is my passion.
I am the President of Stelo Medical Management, Inc. (a successful home based medical billing and transcription business), Stelo Enterprises, Ltd. (a medical consultation business) and the author of the home based medical billing business startup guide "Medical Billing Beginners Book". I've been in the home based medical billing & work from home medical transcription industries for almost a decade, built all my businesses from scratch and have helped hundreds of beginners start their own home based medical billing businesses & work from home medical transcription careers. Now that you know me and what I represent let's move on to...
Medical Transcription; Is It A Legitimate Work From Home Career?Most definitely and unlike medical billing it is not plagued with those widely advertised scams that see online or in newspapers. Medical Transcriptionists have three options when deciding how they want to work:
1) Work inside a practice, hospital, etc.- if you take this route then you could make the equivalent of $9-15 per hour depending on your skill, accuracy and location. As with any other job you will be supplied with everything you need (including benefits) by your employer.
2) Work as an independent/self employed medical transcriptionist - This is when you work completely for/by yourself, you take care of your taxes, you sign up and maintain your own client/accounts, you market your services, you provide your own benefits, etc. You'll probably start out at the equivalent of $10-15 per hour (or 6-14c per line) and in time (years) you could be earning the equivalent of $15-$40 per hour depending upon the amount of work, clients and type of equipment that you use. Or;
3) Contract with one or more national, regional or local companies - this is called work from home medical transcription and it is the same as the above mentioned position with the exception that the company you contract with usually pays 7.5% of the FICA tax, they might give you certain equipment to do the job their way and they will assign the workload expectation and pay scale.
Medical Transcription; What Is It?Medical transcription is the process whereby one accurately and swiftly transcribes medical records dictated by doctors and others, including history and physical reports, clinic notes, office notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, letters, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory reports, x-ray reports and pathology reports.
It involves receiving dictation by tape, digital system or voice file, the use of ear/head phones, a foot pedal for start-stop control, a variety of word processing programs and sometimes the use of a printer and a modem. Today many work from home medical transciptionists still deliver their completed work back to the office but with technology being what it is now it's just as simple to deliver the work via a modem. If you work of a national company they may require you to use a modem to download and transmit the work.
Work From
Home Medical Transcription; What Skills Do I Need?Having a computer at home and knowing how to type fast is not enough to become a medical transcriptionist. You MUST:
Take A Really Good Online Medical Transcription Training Course (or attend a good school-college-trade or vocational school),
Have Good Listening Skills,
Great English Grammar Skills,
Excellent Computer Skills,
Superior Research Skills,
Possess High Typing Speeds With Great Accuracy,
Pay Great Attention To Detail,
Have A Great Foundation In Medical Terminology, Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, Laboratory Tests And Values, Medical Equipment and Procedures,
Possess The Ability To Work Alone (Usually you won't have much contact with others),
Possess The Ability To Work Under Pressure And Sometimes Under A Deadline, and
Posses The Ability To Sit In Front Of A Computer For Extended Amounts Of Time.
You will need to invest in several different types of publications such as: an English dictionary, a grammar and style guide, a complete medical dictionary, a drug index, a laboratory and pathology word book, a medical word book by specialty, a surgery word book, a medical abbreviation word book, other specialty word books and a physician directory and other journals.
You will also need to use several different pieces of software such as a medical spellchecker and an abbreviation system such as PRD or Smartype. You will also need to learn all you can about your own computer so you can employ all the ticks and shortcuts within it to greatly enhance your productivity. Remember that you need to always have your hands on the keyboard because the more you type and type accurately is the greater your pay will be.
Medical Transcription; What's The Initial Investment?This varies and it depends on several factors like:
Do you already have a home office or if you're starting from scratch?
Do you have formal medical transcription training or not?
Do you already have most of the books you will need?
Do you have the necessary software programs to do the job professionally?
Do you need to purchase additional software or hardware?
You can buy mildly used equipment from Ebay and other places that support the work from home medical transcription industry. Your four major purchases will be your medical transcription training, transcriber, computer and reference books so your investment will be very minimal compared to medical billing.
Medical Transcription Training; What Online Course Should I Choose?When it comes to medical transcription training courses you will have a plethora of choices (especially if you search online). Let's begin with your choices:
College Courses
Vocational School or Trade School
On The Job Training
Learn On Your Own or
Take an Online Medical Transcription Training Course
Note: How one medical transcriptionist got their training might not be the right type of training for you because everyone learns differently.
Here's what good medical transcription training courses consist of:
Medical Terminology,
Acronyms, eponyms, abbreviations,
Anatomy,
Physiology,
Laboratory tests and values,
Medical procedures and equipment,
Drugs,
Transcription formatting,
Ethics of medical transcription,
Research methods and resources,
Brush-up typing (if you need it),
Brush-up English grammar,
Marketing,
Medical transcription business skills
You should also look for a medical transcription training course that will give you all the up-to-date equipment you'll need to learn on (at no addition charge), award you with a "Certificate Of Completion" (not to be confused with "Certification") and if the course or school has employment programs for after you complete the medical transcription training at no addition expense to you then that's great!
I took the time to speak with several working MT's, home based MT's, schools, online medical transcription training courses, the alumni of medical transcription training courses and then applied my own experience to base my conclusions on.
Medical Transcription Training; Who Is The Best In 2009-2010 and Why You Should Enroll Today?
Allow me to be blunt: You can ignore the suggestions that I have taken the time to list for your today however, doing so will greatly diminish the opportunities that will be hand delivered to you once you complete your medical transcription training at the course I professionally endorse below.
1) This medical billing training curriculum is approved by the Medical Transcription National Certification Board also known as AHDI (formerly AAMT). This is the type of education that will allow you to sit and pass the National Certification Exam after you complete the course. To me that is huge because once you pass the exam you will be a proud CMT (Certified Medical Transcriber) so you can go or live anywhere in the USA and be able to work while commanding better salaries than those that are not certified.
2) The medical transcription training course can be completed in as little as 4 months but you can take up to a full year with the use of their extension voucher.
3) The software that they use to teach you over the internet is the most current and up-to-date technology that other courses have not instituted yet. As a matter of fact this medical transcription training course has partnered with another industry giant to use BenchMark KB. How does this help you? Because of this joint venture you will be exposed to the industry's first application designed to increase the quality and speed of medical transcription through the use of a centralized, standardized electronic health information resource. This product is available to all new students as part of their training package as of January 1, 2009.
4) This medical transcription training program offers two levels of online enrollment and have several payment options like payment plans, scholarship programs and loans because they understand everyone's financial situation is different.
5) They provide you with free bonuses some courses charge for such as helpful forums, Chat Rooms, and online visits with key leaders in the industry, access to friendly one-on-one student support staff, helpful one-on-one technical support, newsletters, updates, plus much, more . . .
6) They have medical transcription programs especially for Military Spouses while the other significant other is away in Iraq.
7) This medical transcription training course has over 100 different companies that (Medquist, Spheris, Accuscribe, Ascendhealthcare, E-mtsonline, Imtrans, Northwest, Mediscript, Princetontrans, Transcendservices, Transtechmedical, Ntitech, Encompassmt and Trxinc just to name a few) hire graduates of their course and industry employers insist on their medical transcription training because they know that those graduates will fill their need for productive, quality medical transcriptionists.
8) This course has been featured on TV and in print by CNN, Good Morning America, The Wall Street News Hour, HOME Business Journal, Opportunity World, Home Business Connection, and Inc. Magazine. Listen, if these well know entities go out of their way to feature this course on a national basis then you know the are the Best-Of-The-Best.
9) Even thought learning is a very serious matter this medical transcription training course is far from boring. They teach you interactively with puzzles and games to keep you wanting to learn. They keep your eyes, mouth and hands active so what is being taught can be absorbed quickly and easily into your mind.
10) The course is affordable. That's an understatement considering that most good medical transcription training courses cost around $2,500 and up. Even if you take this courses most expensive and comprehensive course option you will not spend over $2,000.
Since 2005 I have taken, graduated and evaluated 10+ medical transcription training programs using the same steps I did for the example course above so you don't waste your precious time, energy and money on useless MT training courses.
I have read several "How-To" home based medical transcription books but only two of them cater to the true beginners to the MT industry. To make your journey a less rocky one I strongly suggest that you read both of them because they cover in-depth all the necessary topics that you must know about the field before you get started! These ebooks are written by two highly successful home based medical transcriptionists so they are more than qualified to help you become successful too.
I've really enjoyed the time we've spent together today and I hope that you learned what you must consider before you decide to venture into the home based medical transcription industry.
Here's To Your Success,
Paul Hackett
“The Medical Billing & Transcription Mastermind”
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Disclosure
Keeping in the tradition of complete honesty I want you to know that the authors/owners of the products and services I mention on this webpage do give me a small portion of each sale made as a reward for alerting you to their offerings. However, I need you to understand that my recommendations are made based on me purchasing and using the product or service myself, evaluating the quality, reputation and history of the product or service and if I professionally feel that you may benefit from using them to advance your home based medical billing career and in one case your financial situation (FREE GIFT).
Stelo Enterprises, Ltd.
86-75 Midland Parkway
Suite# 3L
Jamaica, NY 11432
(917) 528-3219
stelopm (at) nyc (dot) rr (dot) com
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