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

Remote job after graduating - Curious

Posted: Mar 28, 2013

I'm curious how many of you graduated from your medical coding/billing course and found a job to work remotely? I'm currently a transcriptionist looking to enroll in a coding/billing course, but will not be able to work onsite to gain experience that most of these companies are wanting. I've been doing some research and most of them want you to have 3 years onsite experience. I will need something remotely after graduation. I thought I would check here and see how many were able to find companies that would hire new graduates. Thanks!

Can I ask - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Why can't you work onsite? Your chances of landing a remote position increase greatly after working onsite. Some hospitals that I know of in my area will allow their coders to work remotely, but only after working at the facility for a certain number of months.

can't work day shift - curious

[ In Reply To ..]
All the positions I'm finding available in my area are all on day shift. I homeschool my boys, so I have them home with me all day. They are not old enough to stay home alone. I would work to pay all my wages for daycare, so that's not an option. I've looked for evening shift coding/billing jobs, but they just don't exist in my area. I can work day shift remotely, but not onsite. I will not put my boys into public school, so my options are limited at this time. I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a program and not be able to use it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Employers and daycare - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It will be nearly impossible for you to get a job working remotely without experience. If you get both the CPC and the CCS, an employer might let you work remotely sooner, but it would probably have to be on the day shift. No employer is going to allow you to do daycare or homeschooling on their time. You would be unable to do so, in any event, because coding productivity is so high. Encoder packages also track and time everything you do, so you would not be able to hide it.

Set the record straight - curious

[ In Reply To ..]
I just want to clarify that I would NEVER homeschool on my employers time. I can work a fulltime schedule and homeschool around that schedule. I just need to be home so I don't have to spend all my income in daycare expenses since the kids are not in school all day and are home with me. My motivation to get into coding/billing is to further my career goals. I've always wanted to get into coding/billing, it was just never the right time financially. I have found a few employers who do hire new graduates to work from home remotely. I just need to decide now if it's the best thing for me to get into. I feel like I'm pressured now to switch careers as transcription is going downhill and GOOD jobs are hard to come by these days.

Setting the record straight - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
Curious, I think that at some point you may be able to work at home as a coder. It is becoming easier now because everything is electronic and you won't need paper health records. I know several coders who work at home because of space issues at their facilities. However, no one that I know is permitted to go home without working on site for at least a year. If you work for a company that employs remote coders, their rules may be even more strict. If you have children at home, it is going to be difficult. The work requires a lot of concentration (even more than MT) and you are not going to want to be interrupted. The person who explained the encoder software keeping track of what you do and the need to code a certain number of cases a day is correct. Again, as with MT it will take some time to get up to speed, and you are going to have a lot of questions. No one is saying that working at home as a coder is impossible, but think it through very carefully while your children are homeschooling. My thought is that if you are feeling pressured to make a decision to switch careers, it may turn out to be one you regret later.

Agree, and also want to point out . .. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Anonymous is correct. I would also like to point out that there is a very good reason employers require on-site experience. It is because of what we do simply is not taught in school. It takes time and someone to show you what you need to know.

As for those companies you found that are happy to take inexperienced coders, I would be very suspicious. What kind of companies are they and what services do they provide?

The most obvious problem with them is that reputable companies are reputable because their coders are experienced professionals. Their clients cannot find experienced professionals and thus contract with companies that have them on staff. Coding is high-stakes work. Clients need to know their work is being done by professionals. This actually forms part of what is known as a compliance plan. To demonstrate that the facility intends to be compliant with regulations and things like CMS requirements, they intentionally use only certified experienced coders. That applies whether they hire their own or contract.

For instance, we only use companies with high standards. We know who is doing our work. They are all coders whom we would hire ourselves. They meet our requirements. We need for them to have the same ethical standards we have. We trust their ethics. Their company audits them, but so do we.

In light of that, I would wonder what kind of company will take inexperienced coders to work from home. Maybe it is just billing. Or maybe they want inexperienced coders because they are easier to sway toward inappropriate coding practices. Maybe they can't keep experienced coders on staff because we smell fraud a mile off and don't want to go to jail. Or be cheated out of pay.

Or -- and I think this is something MTs might really want to think about -- maybe they are clones of the same companies you hate working for now. Many MTs got into the business so they could work at home . . . daycare, homeschooling, or pin money. They continued to tolerate poor pay, irregular work, and sweat-shop abuse because it let them work at home.

I am often surprised to see the same MTs who complain that they have to get out of MT asking if coding will, basically, let them get the same kind of miserable job. I do not understand why you would want that kind of job, although I can understand that you might not realize how those jobs contributed to the way MTs are now paid.

I think that you should be really suspicious of any company offering to employ you in a work-at-home, no-experience-required job.

Motivation - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
If I were you, I would go over your motivations for pursuing coding in the first place. Coding is really a full-on career path, not a "make money in your spare time" kind of gig.

If you're looking more for part-time night work, there are some call centers that hire remotely that you could research. If you want to develop some skills to carry into a full time day job once your kids are older or out of the house, nursing might be an option as well.

If I were you, and really wanted to be a coder, I would hold off for now until the children are older or schooling options change.

Decision - curious

[ In Reply To ..]
I think I have made my decision to not enroll into a coding course at this time. It might be something I can do when my kids are older or once they move out. I thank everyone for their advice.

I think that this was a really smart decision - In school for coding

[ In Reply To ..]
I am not even homeschooling my children and the last part of my coding program is very, very time-consuming and difficult.

With your MT training, perhaps you would consider teaching homeschool classes? I know of some people in my area who have built up a very profitable business teaching niche subjects.

A few of them are even teaching online.

Good luck to you.

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