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

Opinions on course of study and job outlook? - MT plotting my escape route

Posted: Mar 31, 2013

Usual story -- I loved MT, but I'm about to be laid off and know another MT job would probably pay minimum wage (if that!). I'm lucky, in that I'll get enough unemployment to live on and will probably still have enough savings to pay tuition. However, I have no preexisting college degree, and both unemployment and tuition money will only stretch to about 5 quarters. I've already passed the CPC exam once, can brush up and pass it again. My local community college offers what they call an "eHIM" certificate (course list below). My question, of course, for those of you in the know about the coding/informatics/etc. field(s), is, what will my outlook likely be if I go this route? I'm smart as hell but also female, fat, 58 years old, and not especially great at "selling" myself, so of course a huge question is whether I'd even be considered as a candidate for any computer-related jobs, where last I heard they tend to hire young and male (and if they have a choice, probably also "fit"). Thanks for your time reading this, wisdom and insight! HIM classes:
Success Strategies for HIM Students
Health Care Delivery Systems
Health Data Structure, Content and Standards
Medical Terminology I
Medical Terminology II
Clinical Classification Systems
Healthcare Privacy, Confidentiality, Legal & Ethics
Information and Communication Technologies

IT classes:
Introduction to Practical Computing
PowerPoint
Word I, Excel I
Outlook
Access I
Excel II
Access II
Introduction to Project Management
Data Modeling
Database Implementation
Network Security Fundamentals

Other classes:
English Composition I
Human Biology
Introduction to Business
Customer Service

Bonuses:
CPC-A certification
Eight years' FT transcription experience, all specialties except radiology & pathology

Well, if you're smart . . . - Informaticist

[ In Reply To ..]
If you're intelligent, you can do better than this in about the same amount of time. Seriously. And probably for the same or less cost.

Western Governors University, which is totally online, but a real university (not a diploma mill), allows you to complete coursework as fast as you are able. They charge by the 6-month term. Their average completion time to a bachelor's degree is 2.5 years.

If you are motivated, you could do quite well with that. Wieh it, you would finish with an RHIA, CCA (at least), and several impressive computer software/network credentials.

You would be employable as a coder or anything else in HIM, including informatics.

That is important because it keeps your job options open, rather than closing them down.

The CC program that you showed us is fine, but it is only an associate's degree program. You did not say if it led to the RHIT. If it does, well, ok, but it's going to take you 5 semesters. You can do the WGU program in that time or a little more!

And do you truly need to take 2 semesters of medical terminology, a semester of customer service, and some clerically-oriented course in Word? I mean, really?

If you went to WGU, you could use your existing knowledge to get through that material quickly. You could buzz right through that stuff. And I think they teach something better in their Microsoft courses. They are a university, not a junior college. You could also begin in 30-60 days, rather than having to wait for next fall.

Something else . . . they have a 100% pass rate on the RHIA exam. That is almost unheard of.

RHITs often have difficulty getting jobs, and that's if they can pass the test. The failure rate on the RHIT exam is very high just among people who brave it. Many never try. They look at the jobs available to RHITs and give up.

Something else . . . it is a lot easier to go from a job in HIM to a better job in HIM than it is to finish school and expect to get a job without experience. This applies to any field, but also HIM.

If you do the CC program, you will end up sitting in school for 2.5 years. Then, you'll try to find a job. Good luck. You'll be lucky to end up filing papers in charts. And if you wanted to get an RHIA, it would take you another 3 years and there would be no guarantee that the second school would accept all from the first.

My advice would be to . . . in this order . . . apply to WGU . . . renew your CPC . . . and really apply yourself to the WGU program. Once you are going along ok with that, either spend your time doing more coursework or start looking for a small job. Coding is a good thing to start with, but anything in HIM or a clinic would do. Attend local AHIMA groups and get to know people. Crow about your fabulous program. Crow about your coding credentials. Also attend the local AAPC groups and do the same thing.

I think you can get a decent job that way.

The only way I would recommend the local CC program is if WGU would not take you.

Note that WGU looks for students who have healthcare experience. To me, you do. You have very valuable experience in medical record documentation, in fact.

And, you are very smart. They have an amission test. You can prepare for it using SAT prep books or online resources. Your verbal skills will be a no-brainer, but you might need to review the math. This is the same thing you would need to do for the CC, probably, so you're going to have to do it eventually.

About the job market: It's good. HIM-informatics is the up and coming thing. Everybody needs us. You just do better in it with an RHIA.

About competing with men: You won't be, especially not if you do the CC program because it technically is not a computer field. It's a health information technology field, which is dominated by women. Don't be misled by a few computer courses in it--it is not going to turn you into a geek.

The WGU program IS going to turn you into a geek with a specialty in health informatics. There will be men in it, but I don't think you need to worry about it because you'll have excellent credentials. And there are very few informaticists.

About being fat and not presenting well: In that case, I'd go for the best credentials I could get. I know a lady who is quite large, yet has superb credentials. She carries herself so confidently that nobody thinks twice about her size. She's just plus-size gorgeous competence. And your age just means you have more life experience to bring to the table.

Agree with above poster - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I went the RHIT route and I regret it. I went to my local community college and it took me 2 years to finish. If I had gone to WGU from the beginning, I could have finished my bachelor's degree in 2.5 years like the above poster stated. Now, I am going to enroll at WGU to get my bachelor's. I cannot find a coding job as a RHIT. All I can find is a glorified file clerk job that pays 11 bucks an hour.

Thank you!!! - Desperate to leave MT

[ In Reply To ..]
You have provided me a way out of the MT downward spiral and just in time.

Also, is this a degree or a certificate? - Me again

[ In Reply To ..]
If this is a certificate, it seems like an awful lot of coursework.

I looked online but found only an eHIM certificate program at Takoma Community College. It did not look like this one. It seemed shorter.

If you would share the name of the school we can figure out what it is exactly. A lot of times, it seems like we should know from the names of courses, but you never know what schools teach until you look deeper. We can also interpret the school's financial disclosure statement for you.

Is this the school where you did your coding? I am wondering why you are not just making an effort to get a coding job. Truly, that is your best bet. If there are few coding jobs in your area, or if you feel you aren't up to them, I think you won't be much better off after completing that college's eHIM certificate. The situation with that is probably worse. And, believe me, you will start at the bottom with that, too. You might as well start at the bottom in coding . . . at least we know you can advance quickly in that. It is also more friendly toward mature individuals. Maturity and stability are valued in coding.

Thank you!!! (see msg) - MT plotting my escape route

[ In Reply To ..]
...for taking the time to provide me with so much thoughtful, extremely valuable specific information. You've given me a lot of food for thought! (And quite likely headed me off from wasting both time and money I can ill afford.)

Not to mention the "above and beyond" research to identify the school I was looking at. You're absolutely right on both counts: It was, indeed, the Tacoma Community College eHIM program I was looking at; and, yes, the list of courses I posted is longer than the list they show for the program.

That latter fact is because, when I got right down to figuring out how many quarters it would take me, I realized that some of the classes in the eHIM program had prerequisites that weren't part of the eHIM list, and some of those prerequisites themselves had prerequisites, etc., etc. So what I posted was the list of classes that I would need to have taken by the time all was said and done. (A few of which I already have done, because I got my MT certificate from TCC, back when.)

And, in answer to another question, the eHIM program leads to a certificate, not a degree.

I looked very, very thoughtfully at WGU when I first saw it mentioned here and kind of knocked it out of the running because it would be a 2-1/2 year program (whereas the eHIM thing would be half that time -- 5 *quarters*). (I also wasn't sure they would accept me, though I think they *probably* would.)

Your observations have me scratching my head and trying to figure out if there's any way I could, in fact, survive (and pay tuition) for 2-1/2 years at WGU rather than 15 months at TCC. It's entirely a matter of financial reality; I'm looking forward to going back to school -- I loved my MT training program! However, I slam up against both "Could I possibly afford to do that somehow?" and "How much does it make sense to invest money and 2-1/2 years of extreme poverty in earning a bachelor's, when I hope not to be working more than 6 years past the point I'd graduate?"

I certainly see the point of getting the CPC-A credential again and then pursuing a coding job; I guess, in large part, I had concluded (having heard both here on MTStars and also from people I know "in real life" here in my area) that a coding certification alone just isn't adequate to get you that first job.

I've wondered from time to time if I should invest time and money in the AHIMA certification as well; would that second certification have much real value, in the absence of actual WORK experience coding?

I've even wondered if I should sign up for the Andrews coding course when I'm laid off, but, sheesh -- I took coding at TCC 10 years ago (concurrent with my MT classes), then took most of the AAPC course. (Partway through, I realized the AAPC course was just repeating what I had already learned at TCC -- in fact the TCC classes were MUCH better! -- so I went ahead and took the CPC exam, and did very well on it, without finishing the AAPC course.) Going for a THIRD coding course -- when I've already passed one certification exam with a pretty high score -- seems pretty silly. (I also have some negative feelings about the ethics of any school that is still marketing an MT training program, though if everything else point toward Andrews being what I needed to do, I'd get over that part.)

Hmm... - Me again

[ In Reply To ..]
Interesting dilemma. Well, you did notice that HIM programs tend to have those prerequisites that inflate everything. The certificate programs seem to want you to take everything anyway, but without the reward.

The thing is that those eHIM programs are, I think, intended to garnish a degree. Older RHIT and RHIA grads do not have the EHR courses. They need them to keep up. I am just not so sure that the certificate alone would get you anywhere.

If you are going to go that route, you need the RHIT, at least, and preferably the RHIA.

Deciding to go with 5 quarters because 2.5 years is too long is understandable, but maybe not such a good bargain. I understand your reasoning, but I think there may be a better way.

It seems that you decided not to look for a job in coding because you believed you could not get a job with the CPC. 75% of new CPCs find work. I think you need to try, because you do seem intelligent and because you can probably get into a better job with that than with the eHIM. Or better than most RHITs. Maybe not your first job, but within a year or so.

You might want to consider a first job as a learning experience. You are contemplating 5 quarters of learning anyway, so you have nothing to lose. I would rather see you working in a job where you could earn something so that you could move up, and saving your money so you could study something with purpose. It might take some of that time to find a job, anyway.

Will an AHIMA coding credential help? Yes, if you want a hospital job. It won't help with others. AAPC dominates outside of hospitals.

Should you take another coding course? No. Review on your own and retake the exam. At some point, taking more and more classes turns into a delay tactic. You just need to get a job so you can learn from that. No course teaches you everything.

You should live in a large enough area that you have jobs available. Even if it is front office billing, you will benefit from it. You will learn and gain experience to qualify for the next job.

You have what you need already. Use that first. Later you can still go to school. I know what I'm suggesting, too, because that is how I did it. Learn enough to get a basic job, then learn more to get the next job. Or, just learn for fun.

Man, do you ever make excellent points! - MT plotting escape route

[ In Reply To ..]

Interesting dilemma. Well, you did notice that HIM programs tend to have those prerequisites that inflate everything.

Amen to that. You sound as if that's the norm -- am I understanding correctly? Hm. I had assumed it was just kind of an unpleasant little oversight on the part of the TCC HIM department. (That was certainly not the impression I had of them when I was there doing my MT training and coding classes 10 years ago... but of course they've probably had three different casts of characters running things between then and now.)

The thing is that those eHIM programs are, I think, intended to garnish a degree.

You're absolutely right, of course. They actually even say that (at least more or less). I just figured, what with my already having coding training and MT experience, it might make sense. But if it's just a garnish, well, that's some pretty pricey parsley!

It seems that you decided not to look for a job in coding because you believed you could not get a job with the CPC.

Again, you're absolutely right. (Well, that and the fact that it seemed as if $15 hour was about the going rate for coders 'round here. I'm still having trouble resigning myself to the likelihood that I'll probably be lucky to "only" take a 50% pay cut... but I know I've probably [for a very short period more time] got almost the only remaining MT job in the country where one can make $32/hour. :::sigh:::) But, yeah, hearing over and over that it was a lost cause was the heart of the matter. I reckoned that the way in the door would be with a combination that was a little less thick on the ground than "just" coding certification.

75% of new CPCs find work. I think you need to try, because you do seem intelligent and because you can probably get into a better job with that than with the eHIM. Or better than most RHITs. Maybe not your first job, but within a year or so.

Really? 75%? That IS encouraging!

You might want to consider a first job as a learning experience. You are contemplating 5 quarters of learning anyway, so you have nothing to lose. I would rather see you working in a job where you could earn something so that you could move up, and saving your money so you could study something with purpose.

You know, that makes excellent sense (given that the prospects for actually finding something entry-level with certification but no experience may be better than the impression I had gotten previously)!

(It'll also take a lot of the sting out of working for $15/hour -- LOL, or less -- if I think of it more along the lines of, "Hah! But I'm not paying them tuition!")

You should live in a large enough area that you have jobs available.

Er. Or not. But I'm resigned to a long commute. Just one of the reasons I loved MT, but I've done a 3-hours-a-day 5-days-a-week commute before. Just have to get kind of zen about it. Not that the current price of gas helps much with the zen attitude. C'est la vie.

You have what you need already. Use that first. Later you can still go to school.

<grin> Yeah, but later, unemployment won't pay me to go to school! Which does raise the question -- are there any specific things I might grab a course in that WOULD help me to be more competitive in finding that first coding (or coding-related) job? ICD-10?

Thanks -- AGAIN -- much wisdom!!!

Average coder pay - Hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
Where did you come up with that $15 an hour? And what does that mean over the long term?

Before I address your comments, can you do a little homework? There are salary surveys on the AAPC and AHIMA websites. Also, I think, at HCPro. They are very reliable. Would you look them up and see if you can figure out a little more about coding salaries? And salaries for other kinds of health info professionals?

coder pay - stillwellmtc

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been coding for about 20 years now and have been credentialed for 6 years work a a hospital/nursing home my pay is only $17.68 an hour. Well under what it should be with experience, but will take this as itis only 10 minutes from my house and no heavy traffic to go through, close to my home and my daughter if she needs me for anything. Would love to get more an hour but hey at least i have a job.

Are you serious? - wow

[ In Reply To ..]
I posted just below about the pay cut and having some serious regrets and wondering if I made the right decision to learn coding. What can I say, That's really your pay? I can completely understand wanting to work close to home, dealing with traffic, and would take it too, but that's so not what I was expecting in terms of pay. I haven't given up completely, but wondering if I should keep throwing good money after bad. Still on the fence, still an MT. Thanks for sharing.

Changing careers --> initial pay cut - Been There

[ In Reply To ..]
Any time you change careers, there will be a pay cut because you start over.

Coder pay depends on the type and size of the facility and on the complexity of the coding and its effect on reimbursement. Interventional coding is very complex, requires advanced training and credentials, and pays in the 70K range. Nursing home coding is the opposite and its pay is lower than the average.

You really shouldn't take one report of pay as a doomsday signal. You don't believe anyone else here who makes more, so why the drama over this?

Why would you not use the AHIMA, AAPC, and other industry-conducted salary surveys instead?

In any event, 17+ an hour is 37K a year. It also will include 20-25% more in benefits. It is on the low side of coding salaries, according to the surveys.

What are you making right now? If it is so much, why were you prompted to switch in the first place?

And do you not see that salaries in coding go up with experience and type of work? It isn't like MT, where everyone makes the same piece rate and there is nowere to advance.

The time to do career research is before going into it. If you can't do it now to get more realistic and objective information, you might want to stop now, too, because the disinterest in or inability to do simple internet research is a very bad sign. It does not disqualify you from coding, but it will limit you to jobs where everything is cut and dried, i.e., to the jobs that pay less.

Earnings "homework" from AAPC and AHIMA sites - MT plotting my escape route

[ In Reply To ..]

"Where did you come up with that $15 an hour? And what does that mean over the long term?

Before I address your comments, can you do a little homework? There are salary surveys on the AAPC and AHIMA websites. Also, I think, at HCPro. They are very reliable. Would you look them up and see if you can figure out a little more about coding salaries? And salaries for other kinds of health info professionals?"

Actually, I came up with about $15 hour from all of the homework I had done before I posted here, which included the AHIMA site, the AAPC site, the published union pay scale for coders where I work now as an MT, and grapevine from friends in the field.

I posted here mainly hoping that perhaps acquiring the eHIM certificate would put me more on the informatics track, which (entirely from what I have seen here) sounds much better paying.

I very much appreciate the time and effort you've taken answering my post, and after seeing your message above, I thought that I must have missed (or misinterpreted) info on the AAPC and AHIMA sites, so I went back. Here's a summary of what I found on my repeat visit from the perspective of someone without prior coding job experience. (Yes, there are significantly higher salaries all over those sites, but when you read about the levels of education and, especially, years of experience to achieve those, it becomes clear that someone with only 8 years or so left in the workforce isn't likely to ever even approach those numbers.)

AHIMA: http://perspectives.ahima.org/PDF/2009_PHIM/Roles_and_Challenges_of_the_HIM_Educator/Table_2.pdf
- 21/34 with Associate's degree earned $30,000 (which is $14.42/hour) or LESS; since it was 21/34, this was obviously the median average also.
- 35/102 with Bachelor's degree earned $30,000 (which is $14.42/hour) or LESS; the median average was $40,000-$50,000 (which is $19.23-$24.04/hour).
- Although this table ONLY offers educational data, it seems reasonable to assume that the ranges within each educational level are in large part related to years of coding experience and level of coding credentials, i.e new coders would make (probably considerably) less than the median.
- AHIMA 2010 Salary Survey: http://www.hicareers.com/Toolbox/salarystudy.aspx
  - Average salary for a CCA was $40,196 ($19.33/hour). Again, this table offered ONLY credential data, no experience data.
  - Average salary for a CCs was $60,919 ($29.29/hour). Again, this table offered ONLY credential data, no experience data. To qualify to take the CCS exam, I would either need to (a) Repeat my coding training with an AHIMA-approved format (maybe even an AHIMA-approved provider? Not clear on that part) or (b) Have a year's coding experience plus either CPC or CCA.
  - Although I couldn't find it on this visit, on a prior visit I saw a breakdown by years of experience, which included a perky little mention of newly-credentialed coders "jumping right in at $20,000 to $30,000 year." (That would be $9.62-$14.42/hour.) (I'm pretty sure this was on the AHIMA site, though it's possible it was on the AAPC site -- however, I currently can no longer find it on either site. You can bet that the perky little mention of $20K to $30K stuck in my mind, though!)

AAPC's 2012 Salary Survey:
http://d2b6x6ie9q9upp.cloudfront.net/documents/2012-Salary-Survey.pdf
- Average salary for all CPCs, regardless of experience, was $47,796 ($22.98/hr). Not bad! However, digging a little deeper, it develops that the average CPC in their survey had 12 years' experience, and…
- The chart breakdown by years of experience showed annual income for those with zero to 1 year of experience at approximately (only a chart provided, no actual numbers, hence the approximation) $33,000 ($15.87/hour). It appears that coders with 6 years' experience average about $42,000 ($20.19/hour).
- And, of course, as we already all know, the AAPC site acknowledges that "For apprentices (CPC-As®, CPC-H-As®, and CPC-P-As®) who are breaking into the field, employment has improved, but remains difficult, with [unemployment] rates close to 25 percent."

From AHIMA, I think that the most applicable salary figure would be the $30,000 one; and from AAPC, I think that the most applicable salary figure would be the $33,000 one. Averaging those two yields a likely entry-level coder pay -- assuming we can ignore altogether that chilling reference I saw (but can no longer find) to $20K-$30K starting pay -- of $31,500, which is $15.14/hour. So my seat-of-the-pants impression from my first visits to those web sites (plus my conversations with new coders I know) that new coders could probably expect to make about $15 hour once they managed to land a job appears to calculate out pretty darn close.

I'm not -- as I'm sure some here will be quick to say -- trying to justify giving up. What I am trying to do is figure out if, by getting another year's education (which is how much I can afford), I can improve my starting-wage prospects a fair bit. (I thought maybe by veering toward health informatics, but I'm certainly wide open to other ideas as well!) If I can't, then it probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to pursue coding; I might or might not be able to make $15/hour at another MT job, but by the time you factor in time and cost of commute (I live out in the boonies), I might still be worse off moneywise with a $15/hour coding job I'd have to commute to.

Great research! - wow

[ In Reply To ..]
I posted above about having the CCS and not being able to find a job, wondering about the pay cut to start over. What a great job researching all this info. I'm at the same place you are, wondering whether it is worth it to take a pay cut to go into coding. I was hoping getting the CCS would have some kind of impact on my job prospects, but so far, not at all. I haven't given up, just disappointed that the credentials don't mean anything to employers, and would have to take any job in a hospital and wait for a coding job to open up.

Some people (coders?) on this board talk about not limiting myself to inpatient coding jobs. How to find outpatient coding jobs? Doctors offices or clinics? From my experience in a doctor's office and from job openings I see, they want billers. Some openings I have seen want 5 years experience and only pay 14 an hour, so how much are they going to pay for entry level? I just haven't seen any other opportunities for new coders to break into the field. Doesn't mean they're not out there, I'm just not aware of them. Anybody care to enlighten me?

Your entire first section is off-track -- - Wondering why you think it is about coders

[ In Reply To ..]
I am not sure how you found Table 2 -- the one that gave you the $30,000 salary.

That table is not about coders at all . . . it pertains to HIM educators, i.e. faculty in health information programs. It isn't even about coding teachers.

That table went with a survey of teacher salaries. The incomes in Table 2 aren't even for full-time faculty. Some of them are annual earnings for part-time and even as-needed instructors. You calculated a per-hour rate assuming it was a full-time salary when you have no idea how many hours they worked.

Overall, you also appear to be mistaking "average" in the statistical definition for the everyday English "average" meaning "usual." They are two completely different things. That is leading you to see meanings that aren't there.

Average in this sense is the statistical mean. It is not "the usual," "the most common," or even "the middle."

Thoughts - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
It seems to me that you are really trying to give yourself a reason to not pursue coding. If you don't want to go into the coding field, then don't. It's not the end of the world.

Justifying another year - TCS

[ In Reply To ..]
My overall take on this is to agree with anon. You seem to be trying to justify not going into coding.

If you cannot accept the salary, then the job is not for you. For you, the first day pay is most important. You do not seem to envision anything after that.

I would just point out that you provided no income estimates for any informatics jobs that you could get without an RHIA (or minimal RHIT). The certificate you are interested in is an ADD-ON to the RHIA and RHIT, not a stand-alone. Does it make sense to do that if you live so far out of town that you don't even want to commute for coding?

What you are doing, basically, is trying to justify spending thousands more and another year to avoid having to accept an entry coding position and pay. You are not thinking, though, that this mythical informatics job for uncredentialed people will pay squat (if it existed) because it is for uncredentialed people.

Further, you are trying to justify doing this because you have no experience. No experience = entry level job. After a year, you would HAVE experience. So, you are trying to justify spending even more to go to school FOR THAT SAME YEAR, after which you will be in the same boat as before, with no experience.

If it were me, and it was at one time, I would take the entry-level coding job and consider it paid, on-the-job training, because that is what it is. That is why the pay is entry-level.

Your calculations really do twist the statistics. Instead of seeing that the average salary for coders nationwide was, what, 48K, you managed to twist that into something negative.

I agree with anon that you should find something more suitable. If there is a job that will pay more at the beginning, take it. If entry-level pay is most important - and it might need to be for you - focus on that rather than what you can make in 3 to 5 years.

I also noticed that it takes you a long time to respond to the answers to your questions. Three weeks, in this case. That makes me think you are not really serious about this. I don't want to waste my time further on this pointless argument with you, so I will not be responding again.

Really, it is not a problem for anyone if you do not go into coding.

I also want to note that just as this discussion is winding down and moving toward the bottom of the page, the exact same question has been asked again at the top. Same exact circumstances. For the third time, I think. Rural, should I go into coding, small hospital. I just have to wonder how many of you there can be.

Pay cut - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I understand what you are saying about the pay cut. I got the credentials, but with the cut in pay for entry level coders or coding related jobs (not a drastic cut like yours), 3-hour commute, and cost of gas, it's just not doable right now. I feel like I would be paying them for the experience. I would still need to work part-time as an MT, and after that 3-hour commute, how do I do that? So here I sit typing, looking for something closer to home to offset some of the cost of gas or the bus pass.

Just want to double check the math - Teeny

[ In Reply To ..]
To the MT plotting escape route, 6 years is not a lot of time to work to pay back the cost of the BA degree. Western Governors is relatively inexpensive if you can devote full time to it (as you could while on UE) BUT, I just want to make sure that you've done the math here. Would you be able to make back the cost of the degree in 6 years? I'd hate to see you drain your savings and not be able to recoup it before retiring!!

I'd suggest getting a calculator out and seeing what you'd expect to make with the degree versus what you'd expect to make with out it, less the cost of the degree and THEN make your decision.

Don't forget that new coders often don't jump right into good jobs immediately upon graduating and are often expected to take entry level work that is tangentially related to coding first.

Oh, and it is still possible to make more than $15 per hour pretty easily in MT so you could draw UE and then get another MT job and try to EEK it out until retirement. Not ideal for sure but at least that would save you the $15K in school costs!!

WGU is for more than coding -- - RHIA in informatics

[ In Reply To ..]
An RHIA in informatics is highly marketable. I suggest you DO look up the salarys they make.

Finishing in 2.5 years would cost about 17K, part of which may be covered by scholarship and grants that you do not need to repay.

Even with an entry level job in HIA, you would earn that back in 6 months.

Informatics? - weeweewarrior

[ In Reply To ..]
I have seen a lot posted here about Informatics. Do most hospitals employee more than one Informatics specialist at their facility? From what I understand this is like a medical IT position that keeps the EMR secure? I have just been trying to find out more about it -- it is relatively new where I am from.

No, informatics is not just the IT person - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Informatics is not a synonym for "computer technician."

If you google "what is medical informatics," you can find several very good explanations.

You can also find degree programs ranging from bachelors in health information administration (RHIA) to masters and doctorates. These people do not maintain the computers . . . they deal with the medical information in them.

Informatics - Weeweewarrior

[ In Reply To ..]
I meant no offense. I actually did try to find information on Informatics before asking & found the information conflicting & confusing. I never said it was just an IT position but from what I had read, managing the security of the EMR is part of it. I also realize that it is an advanced degree & was hoping to get some insight into what the position entails from someone who actually does it.

Links - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
No one was offended. It is just that writing a lengthy explanation is silly when that same info is all over the internet.

Here is a link to a a good explanation. Note the link toward the bottom for additional info on informatics in health information administration. That is what most of us here are talking about . . . the informatics that we do in health information administration. When your health record system is electronic, you need HIAs who have informatics training.

Also, please, note that there is a list of universities there. The only one of them that is NOT a for-profit diploma mill is WGU. And, the WGU website has a pretty clear explanation of the degree and what you can do with it. Their program leads to the RHIA. There is a ton of information on that at the AHIMA website, www.ahima.org.

We keep posting these links, but you do not seem to use them.

http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/health-medical/medical-informatics-major.htm

Thank you for your response - WWW

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for the link and for the advice about the colleges. WGU is already definitely on my radar. Informatics sounds like something I would really enjoy. My hospital is rural and oftentimes it takes us a while to catch up to what bigger hospitals are doing.

I have never had a link posted for me before. By the comment that "We keep posting these links, but you do not seem to use them", must be directed at all transcriptionists. It is true, I have worked as a transcriptionist. Now I am working as a low level coder. They are both jobs that take a great deal of skill and knowledge. I am not sure why the animosity between coders and transcriptionists and vice versa, but it is a very unprofessional one to have, and one I will not be party to. I have been in the HIM field for many years, and we are all important. If you feel that you can not be civil, then please feel free to not answer my questions in the future.

The links were posted below in this forum - No animosity against MTs at all

[ In Reply To ..]
Where are you getting the notion that anyone has animosity against MTs? Most of us were MTs at one time, so we have no reason for it.

The links were posted below in this forum. No, they probably were not posted specifically for you but I think most of us who post career advice kind of hope that people will look to see if their question has been answered already.

Really, if you had read the posts in this forum, you would see that everything you asked had been discussed previously. Some of it more than once. You do appear to have been here long enough to have seen it.

Some people naturally seek out information and ask for help only if nothing is there. Others can be surrounded by it, yet ask others.

I DO APOLOGIZE TO ANYONE'S TIME I HAVE WASTED - WWW

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm sorry, I think you are mistaking ineptness for laziness. You are correct, I have not read the entire forum, just the past three months, and I do not see the links other than the ones you posted in your message. (Thank you, by the way). I do not have a lot of experience on these types of sites and have not yet figured out how to pull up the archives. (I am not asking you to do it for me -- I'll figure it out I'm sure). As far as expecting things to be done for me -- my education history and work experience would suggest otherwise. I personally DO see a lot of animosity between trancriptionists and coders and vice versa. I'm ashamed of and for the transcriptionists who ask questions and then attack the people who respond. If coding is not your cup of tea, why don't you stick to the transcription site? But I see a lot of people also asking questions of coders -- not just to get a clinical job description, but to try to get a "feel" for what the job entails. I am not sure those are getting answered. At any rate, I found a nurse informatacist at my hospital who is very kind and helpful. She will be a great professional contact for me, and while obviously our career paths will look differently, she will be a great person to ask questions to, so I do not have to waste your time.

I have gotten a lot of great advice here. I especially appreciate the encouragement of the people when I was having second thoughts about my new job. They really boosted me up when I needed it and kept me going. I am not at all sorry now that my career has changed directions, and I really just can't thank them enough.

how to pull up the archives - use the search option

[ In Reply To ..]
When you open the coding/billing forum, there is a search option. Type in what you are looking for and what pertains to that will show up. Those are archives. Print out what interests you and you can make an informed decision

archives - also in that manner

[ In Reply To ..]
The archives are to the left of the Search option. You pick what forum and the dates. The search option has given the subject, and it gives the date of the post.

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