A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

want to leave MT - curious

Posted: Oct 22, 2010

Hello, I am seriously considering leaving the field. I have worked too hard all my life to subject myself to one more drop in pay. Sometimes, we just have to make a stand and I think my time has come!

Luckily, my husband has a good job and I can afford to take some time off to take a class or two or start over in another field. My question is what direction to go? What field would make for the smoothest transition? My friend who is also thinking of leaving MTing checked into coding and the lowering of pay and outsourcing situation is happening there as well. I have been transcribing for almost 20 years and have no idea what else is out there. When I first started working from home, there was no one else that I knew of telecommuting. Now it seems pretty common, but everything I see on line looks like a scam.

My question is for those of you who have left the field or are currently looking into leaving the field, what type of work did you find / are you finding out there? Did anyone move into another type of transcribing? I am afraid the day of making a good living at medical transcription have long gone and I just do not want to work like a dog for so little anymore. Thanks in advance for any ideas/suggestions/success stories!

Well... - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, I'm seriously thinking of leaving. My situation is such that I don't want to invest money in a new career on account of I only have a few years left until retirement, but if I did choose to invest? Probably court reporting. Something to think about.

Many are going into nursing as well, but that's a tough haul.

Good luck!

Alpine Access is a legit company that is (sm) - yochana

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a call center for at home workers. They require either cable or DSL internet so that leaves me out.

I am going back to school... - sm

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to get my bachelors degree in health informatics. I hate being an MT and hate being broke.

have to leave MT - discouraged

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I developed an ulnar nerve compression a few months ago due to typing for 20 plus years, had surgery and still have no feeling in my ring and pinky finger so cannot type very well any longer. Wondering what other jobs I could do and where previous poster is going back to school

I am going back to school at.... - sm

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my local university in Montana.

leaving MT - discouraged

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Do you mean a degree in health information? How long would it take? I am 54 so I don't know if that is an option for me. Is the pay good?

Not health information, health informatics... - sm

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It combines health information with technology. It is a high demand career because of the change to electronic medical records. It is a 4 year degree and there are several openings at my local hospital starting at 47k a year (mind you this is in Montana where pay is low).

unable to do MT - discouraged

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for the info! It must be nice to live in Montana! I live in crime city, Memphis, TN. born and raised here. I am 54 so a 4 year degree is not impossible, but I need work right now.

Leaving MT for something better - Ann

[ In Reply To ..]
What interests you? If you want to stay in the healthcare field, there are training programs for lots of different careers. Check the job postings and local job ads to see what is in demand, then find out what training you need and go for it.

After several years of listening to PAs mangle words in their dictations, it finally dawned on me, I could do that. So, when I retired from my day job (MT has been just a part-time second job for me), I applied and was accepted into a Physician Assistant training program, which with the addition of only a few more class hours beyond the PA program will also confer a Master of Science degree, and I started the program in June.

The first year is mostly academics, and so far I'm doing well and loving it. The second year will be mostly clinicals, and I'm really interested to see how that will go. I wondered whether I would be able to keep up my part-time MT job, but that has been no problem, and two of the physicians I transcribe for have even offered me a job when I finish the PA program. The medical job ads in my area have more openings for physician assistants than for physicians, so it seems to be a growing field.

Find something you really want to do and look into how to get the training it requires. It will take some time and work to get there, but that time is going to pass anyway. You might as well have a new job to show for it when it does.

Best of luck to you!

That's great! Isn't a PA pretty much a doctor these days? - sm

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How long is the program? I thought you had to go to medical school to be a PA?

Not at the doctor level - Ann

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and must work under the close supervision of a physician (at least in my state). A PA can treat patients, assist with surgery, prescribe medications, but always under the supervision of a doctor. That is, the doctor the PA works with must sign off on all PA actions but not necessarily be present at the same location or observe the PA while working.

The program is 26 months and requires a 4-year degree to get in, so six years total (though my 4-year degree is 35 years old!). I was really surprised to discover that most of the PA programs are offered by community colleges, though the curriculum is generally provided/supported by a university. My PA certificate will be conferred by the community college, but the Master's Degree will come from a big university, though I will do the course work through the CC offering the PA program.

The training is thorough, but I have no illusions that I will know as much as a physician who completed the whole spectrum of medical-school training. The pay range for a PA in my state is in the 110K to 160K range, so not in the MD range but still quite respectable. The program, including the MS, cost about $22K, so I think the income potential is a good return on the investment in training.

It's a lot of work but it's fun to be back in school after all these years, and I'm finding that, while I am often more tired than my younger classmates, life experience can frequently give me an edge over youth and energy.

That is so cool!!! I envy you and I wish you all the best with your studies! - nm

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nm

Thank you! - Ann

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.

PA work - curious

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Ann, that is pretty impressive! I wish you the best of luck. I will probably end up back to school myself, not in the PA field as I don't have that much time to commit to studies and I'm not sure if hands-on patient care is my area of interest. I would like to use my years of knowledge in this field in some capacity, though, just maybe going in a slightly different direction. I am thinking about maybe getting into legal transcription with a speciality in medical malpractice.

I'm not sure where I'm headed just yet, I just know I am getting out of this field before I get much older and have no choice. Back a few years ago, medical transcriptionists at the hosptial level were considered part of the professional staff. Now, I think people associate the field with the hokey work from home ads. People don't realize that many of us have degrees and (at one time at least) made a pretty darn good wage.

I am still doing my research and am starting to ask questions on other boards in the fields I am interested in. Looking into court reporting as well as there seems like there will be a shortage in that profession and they can do pretty well, about the same as transcription used to pay, even better if you do direct courtroom work.

Nationally, average coder pay is increasing, not dropping. - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
Would you be able to provide some examples and details about what your friend observed when he or she "checked into" coding?

Accoring to the most current salary survey from the AAPC (released October 2010), coder salaries have continued to increase, even with the economy the way it has been. I have not heard of any coder salaries that are dropping.

As for outsourcing, that isn't such a bad thing, since that is what provides at-home coding positions. Offshoring is another matter. While I haven't seen any of that, it might have occurred somewhere, but I doubt if it is an extensive amount. There is a lot of negative thinking about offshoring due to the potential revenue loss incurred by undercoding and erroneous coding, and also due to liability related to fraud, abuse, and privacy violations. Coders are legally liable for the work they do, and it's not feasible to hold offshore foreigners liable in an American courtroom. Also helping discourage any offshoring tendency is the fact that agencies of the federal government, like DOD and the VA, are prohibited from contracting with offshore or offshoring companies. If they outsource, the work must be done in the US.

coders - curious

[ In Reply To ..]
Hello, our hospital has had a direct transcription department since the day it opened in 1962. My friend was the 1st transcriptionist hired by that department. Most of our transcriptionists worked in house for a long time before going home. I did not personally get to know the coders, but my friend did get to know most of the "old-timers" over the years, several that have been in the field of coding as long as she has been in the field of transcription.

In her opinion, after speaking with several of them, they feel the coding profession is headed the way of the transcription profession, maybe 5 years from now. They not only see it happening to coworkers at other hopsital themselves, but like all of us here, they know others in the community that are coders and are active on their own forums and are seeing the trend.

While it may still be a good profession at this time, having experienced the drastic decline in transcription pay and outsourcing overseas already, I do not want to jump into another profession heading down that road. Even two years ago when I was looking at transcription jobs, the pay was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than it is today. I am living proof, as someone who thought she would retire having made a good living, the rapid decline in your salary can happen, don't fool yourself.

Many think that outsourcing to home positions is a positive, and in many ways it is. However, there are so many people almost deparate for a home based position, they will undercut your salary in a heartbeat to be able to work from home. Look at the classifieds here. There are people who will do IC work for what an employee makes. In my experience, almost 20 years now, outsourcing companies promising at home positions eventually end up driving salaries down because so many are willing to take the cut to stay home. At first, your salary will be fine. Then slowly but surely, after you are really comfortable at home, they will start chipping away at your pay.

If you google outsourcing coding jobs to overseas, you will see it is a growing trend. Anytime companies outsource to places where the workers are willing to do our jobs at a fraction of the pay, the pay will come down. I cannot tell you how many countless transcriptionists I spoke with a few years ago who felt that for medical malpractice and HIPPA reasons transcription could never be outsourced overseas. Well, it is being done and apparently without any serious repercussions.

While you are right and my friend has no real evidence after "checking into" coding, all of what she found out from coders and what I see when when reading about where the profession is headed is exactly what I saw about the transcription profession a few years ago.

I do not have a crystal ball and cannot predict the future, nor can I say I have "concrete evidence" that coding is going the way of transcription and it may never go there; however, there are just too many red flags for me to pursue it. If others feel differently, they are more than able to make that decision for themselves.

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