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

Thinking of transitioning - macmom6

Posted: Jun 22, 2013

I have been working as an MT since 2003. I started out in-house, transitioned to home-based within my first year and was outsourced after 3 years. The 1st few years were not bad working production but since then things have steadily gone downhill. I have been thinking about making the transition to coding and would like to get advice about whether or not it is worth doing and also any program/course/school recommendations.

Yes - yes

[ In Reply To ..]
I transitioned into coding from MT and, yes, I think it is worth doing. You have medical terminology and medical record knowledge, which is a good base to step off from. I went with Andrews and I think that was the straightest path to getting into coding as soon as possible with the best education possible for a reasonable price. I could get credentials as soon as I was done and be on my way. It is not an easy path; you will have to work very hard, especially if you are working while you are taking the course. There is always a need for good coders out here. Just make sure you check coding out and it is something you will like doing.

Check your local area for qualifications for coders - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I finished a coding program a year ago and got my certification, but I have not been able to find a coding job due to the "need experience" that I've heard at every interview or any time I've submitted a resume.

Which cert do you have? - MTSlave

[ In Reply To ..]
CCS, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P ?? Just curious.

I am planning on going to Andrews in September also.

Yes - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
If coding suits you, it can be a very good thing to do. There are salary survey on the AHIMA and AAPC websites, so you can estimate income levels. You an advance in coding or move laterally easily.

With the transition to ICD-10 projected for October of 2014, it is expected that employers will hire more coders. It is also expected that many long-time coders will choose to retire. The increasing scrutiny of bills and documentation by Medicare will likely result in more jobs for coders as doctors and hospitals take proactive measures to avoid trouble.

If you are going to do this, you might want to do it quickly so that you can take at least the AAPC CPC exam before they switch it to ICD-10. That will put you in a marketable position in time.

There are two things to be aware of. One is that there have to be jobs in your area before you can get one. If you live in a rural area where there are few doctors and only a small hospital, or no hospital, there will be few opportunities. You should not expect to get a job coding in locations like that.

Another is that the majority of jobs are in physician services coding, i.e. mostly in outpatient locations like offices of provider groups, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, etc. Compared to that, there are relatively few in hospitals and medical centers, and those have the most stringent hiring criteria because they have the most complex jobs.

As in any field, employers are going to prefer experience and few will offer you top salaries right away. You may need to start small and change jobs several times to move into higher salary levels. As the AAPC will tell you, 25% of new, inexperienced CPC-A's cannot find jobs. However, 75% of them DO find jobs, which is very good considering the job market and employment rates in other fields.

Transitioning - Lissybell

[ In Reply To ..]
Hi, I think you are smart to be thinking along these lines. I too am thinking of transitioning as the pay rate is so low with medical transcription. I am looking to attend a community college here in my area for an Associate's in HIT with RHIT credentials. It is an on-line course with a certificate as a medical billing specialist for the first year and then the second year you can earn your RHIT. There are some clinical requirements, I believe 60 hours year one and 80 hours year two. I will be working as I attend as a medical transcriptionist for Precyse (a new job I just acquired). Good luck.

Considering Transitioning - MacMom

[ In Reply To ..]
I am in semi-rural area if that makes any sense at all. Years ago when I was kid it was VERY rural. However, in the last 5 years it has been incorporated into the greater Atlanta Metro area (outlying of course). We have 2 hospitals (1 primarily acute care and 1 cancer specialty) in my immediate area along with HUNDREDS of physician offices, several ambulatory surgery centers, not to mention the retirement/nursing homes, so I think the area is a good one.

CHANGING CAREER TO CODING - gltrgrami

[ In Reply To ..]
Great idea! You have been given some excellent feedback. Take it to heart. I have been doing transcription for 30+ years and am actually thinking of doing the same thing. I am already working at home. In my area they have a very large company that hires "newbies" in coding and trains them. Having your credentials definitely helps. Being an MT definitely helps, but they like to train you their way. The only caveat, the pay is only $10-12 an hour. I live in California, so it's impossible to live on that. My niece went to school, was hired by them and within 6 months was working at home. So, there is hope. Whatever you need to do, get out of transcription. It's really deteriorated in the years I have been doing it. Slave labor for crap wages!! I wish you much luck ;-)

Would you mind sharing : ) - MTSlave

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm in Southern California. If you don't mind sharing the name of the company, I would be willing to accept that pay just to have a chance!! What school did your niece attend?

Comment - Experienced Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
A rate of $10 to 12 an hour is so far beneath the average pay nationally, not just in California, that I think this sounds more like billing than coding.

I also want to point out something of concern with working for a company that wants to "train you their way." If you are so desperate for a job as to take this, go ahead, but you need to be aware of some very important things.

One is that coding is not done "their way" for them and other ways for other employers. Coding is done according to nationally accepted standards. Everybody complies with the same rules and policies.

Being trained by an employer can be the fastest route to being unable to pass a certification exam, to being unable to ever get a job with another employer, and to ... jail.

One of the main causes of failure to ever certify is being unable to code correctly because you have no idea that your employer requires incorrect coding.

I don't like to hear of coders getting paid that little, and I suspect that many of them working for that company trade home sweatshop conditions for the ability to work at home. I cannot imagine any MT who has been through the misery of work-at-home MT for another form of low-pay at-home servitude.

Agreeing to work for below-market rates was a big factor in the decline of MT. Now, here are MTs who are again jumping on the slave ship.

That being said, I think this is not coding, but billing.

That is not a good jobfor a coder because the pay is too low.

You're correct - MTSlave

[ In Reply To ..]
Speaking for myself, I am just really anxious to leave MT far, far behind me and sometimes get a little too anxious to find a quick escape route.

I must remind myself, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

PLEASE, PLEASE READ THE ABOVE POST! - WWW

[ In Reply To ..]
Don't touch this offer with a ten foot pole. There are so many things wrong here. Employers should never train someone how to code something "their way". There is no "their way"; there is only "the correct way". Secondly, the pay for this is abysmal. You seriously are going to accept subpar pay just to work at home? How well did that work out for transcription? Oh, just so many things wrong here . . . .

to clarify one point, MTs are competing with - alias

[ In Reply To ..]

overseas MTs. We didn't just agree to work for lower wages. Even now I just saw an ad for an MT overseas who has posted a resume in which he will work for 3 dollars an hour.

There are also ads for coding from overseas coders...

Another view - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I understand that a lot of MTs feel trapped in their low-paying jobs, but there is another side to the story.

When you accept those jobs, or stay in them when pay is cut, you lower the market value of those services. When MTs are willing to work for minimum wage and lower, and to do so under the sweatshop conditions now being imposed on them, the value of those services drops. When MTSOs can find MTs who will accept 2 cents a line, that is what they will pay. They can underbid competitors because they know that the competitors' employees will flock to them to get a job, any job, if the MTSOs own employees quit when, the pay is lowered. They will use VR because they know that their MTs will put up with the lower pay and increased work required rather than leave the field.

This is simple economics. When people agree to work for less, employers have no reason to pay more.

I was in your shoes once. When I was unable to get work on a predictable basis, when I ended up with 30 accounts, and when my income dropped to $12K with MQ, I started learning something else.

I am not going to waste my breath on arguing the overseas angle as it pertains to coding and related fields in health information administration. It has been discussed here before and if you still can't understand how it differs, you never will.

Nobody cares if you go into coding. The point is just that if you don't like the wages offered to you, you can choose to get out. And that is what you need to do.

I agree, and I think that is what some of us are trying to do with coding. SM - mtwith6yearstogo

[ In Reply To ..]
I'll be 60 soon and want to do something else for the rest of my working years, but I've been an MT so long I'm not sure what else to do.

Suggestion - Been There

[ In Reply To ..]
No one is ever sure what to do, are they?

I think two things keep MTs from moving on. One is the unrealistic and unnecessary idea that we have to choose one career and that it has to last forever. The other is that we have to be very clear about how it will all work out and have all our plans laid out before we can take even one step.

I understand the feeling of not knowing what to do, but I disagree that you have to know it.

Just start learning something. Anything. Today. Start filling your mind with information. See where it takes you. Maybe you will like it so much you won't want to quit in 6 years.

Buying a lot of maps does not get you to your destination. You have to get in the car and start driving.

ty for words of encouragement - alias

[ In Reply To ..]
...and for being respectful.

THANK YOU - Jen

[ In Reply To ..]
I just breathed this big sigh of relief when you said we feel like we have to know how everything is going to work out before we jump into it. I am going through exactly that right now.

I have been doing MT for 12 years now. Remember the old commercial for PCDI where Sally Strothers said "Would you like to make more money? Sure! We all would!" Well, I took that little rinky dink $500 correspondence course to learn MT. Back then I didn't have a child and was really young myself and didn't think much about it--just jumped in.

Well that $500 course, while definitely not the best in the world for MT, did open one door for me and then another and another. Transcription has been good to me for the past 12 years. It went down the drain a couple weeks ago when I received my termination notice at the hospital where I work. The doctors went to VR and are doing their own editing. We haven't seen a report in three weeks and our last day is coming up this month.

I have been so stressed because I'm now single with a new baby and being laid off. Unemployment isn't enough to live on. I live an hour from my current job and other jobs here in the hospital don't pay enough to justify the drive. It's just a horrible situation. I've been tossing around different school ideas and ways to survive while doing so, but in the back of my mind I feel like I MUST know exactly how everything will get paid and who will sit with the baby while I'm at work and when will I find time to study or go to school. The not knowing just drives me nuts now. I wish I was back to "young and stupid" and didn't care and could just jump in like I used to. So much more seems to be at stake now.

REALLY IMPORTANT RESPONSE - Been There

[ In Reply To ..]
Jen, you are in a dreadful situation. I just want to make one really important suggestion.

Even if the other jobs at the hospital do not pay enough to justify the drive . . . TAKE ONE OF THEM. Preferably in HIM.

The reasonvis that the minute you are unemployed, nobody, but nobody will hire you. Studies are showing that employers are not hiring the jobless. You have to BE employed to become employed.

I suggest taking any job there, regardless of the pay, and then looking for something closer or better. Make contact with your workforce retraining or rehab or unemployment now...do not wait. See if your hospital will assist you in getting a job at a facility closer to home.

There are lots of online programs, so you don't have to go to school in person anymore. Pell Grants may be available to you.

Don't let this overcome you. Even if you take a doctor's office job near you, or dentist, you will be better off. Then, you can begin learning coding. You will be getting experience the whole time.

not everybody is like you. stop blaming MTs - alias

[ In Reply To ..]

you are wasting your breath, if all you can do is blame MTs. you offer no advice really, other than to put anyone and everyone down who is not like you. what do you know about other's situations. who are you to judge. your advice is just to get out of MT, really? run, just keep running from profession to profession. or is it just to go to a certain coding school - period. anyone who does anything else is no good, right?

you just wasted my time.

You wasted your time all by yourself - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
No one forced you to respond. You wasted your own time.

I made an exception because imo - alias

[ In Reply To ..]

...I may not be the only one who thinks this way. you only scare people off from coding with your attitude; you are not exactly welcoming and encouraging, or even helpful to would-be coders, former MTs, unless they immediately do what you tell them.

since beginning to read this board a few months ago, I have really been questioning whether it is a profession I want to be associated with, if the majority of these posts are any indication of what co-workers or supervisors would be like on a day-to-day basis. that was the joy of MT, that one need not be in an office where there are 'distractions.'

I will now let you have the last word, which I am sure will be another put-down.

Coding does involve more interpersonal contact - Been There

[ In Reply To ..]
If you don't like interacting with others, that is something to consider. Coding requires a lot more interpersonal contact. There may be some who work alone, but many more collaborate on a regular basis, often many times daily. There can also be a high level of interaction with healthcare providers and others.

Alias - Question for you

[ In Reply To ..]
What useful advice have you offered?

As for your claim below that you are reconsidering a career in coding because you don't like a few posts here, that seems like a lashing-out kind of statement. "Nyah nyah nyah nyah! I don't like you, so I am not going to go into your career field! So there!" Complete with stamping feet, a stuck-out tongue, and a pouty-face with hands fisted on your hips.

Similar Messages:

Mar 24, 2010

Transcribing the dictation of various physician assistants made me wonder what was involved in becoming a PA, so I looked into the PA programs in my state. I have a BA and already have all the science prereqs, so I decided to apply. I'm retiring from my full-time job (not medical related) in April and wondered what I would do with myself with just my part-time MT job to keep me busy. Now I know. I start in the PA program with the summer session. If you have a ...

Jan 26, 2012

Anybody else switching careers right now? I have started a training course for a new career and it is EXTREMELY difficult to continue with MT. I just dread sitting at the computer, its like 8 hours of torture. I went through this before when I changed careers to MT. I cried everyday until I could leave my previous job. I am not crying everyday now, not yet anyway. Maybe its grief, leaving a job that I once loved, letting go, moving on. I am considering c ...

Jul 10, 2012

I'd like to suggest a forum devoted specifically to options for MTs looking to get out of transcription. Not for discussions of how bad it's gotten, etc., but a place where MTs can share (and easily find) concrete ideas (links, newspaper articles, etc.) for jobs or educational programs that might be a good fit for a new career for a medical transcriptionist. Or perhaps a board, a lot like a job board, with alphabetized listings or categorized by type of work. From what I can see, MTs a ...

Jan 25, 2014

Seeking advice from other MTs who are currently in school for another field or have already transitioned out of MT. One semester to go and I will hopefully be prepared to enter a career field that has nothing to do with MT. Problem is, I find myself worrying about working outside the home. I've been an at-home MT for almost 12 years. I have found a new enjoyment being around people in my classes and activities, but I'm so used to the home environment as my workplace. I am ge ...

Jun 20, 2014

I haven't posted much but am still employed as an MT at a place I actually llike, and even though my check only helps pay the bills, even that hasn't been enough lately. So, starting in September, I got a job at my son's school district's cafeteria service. It's only minimum, but I at least know, that minimum is what I will make and will have summer off as well as any days the district is off, plus will be elibigle for a raise (which I haven't seen ever) ...

Jan 09, 2011

I have had three large accounts for over 20 years. One has gone completely automated with voice recognition (except for two providers who will never be able to use voice recognition - yay!), one is in the process of going EMR, and one hasn't even addressed it yet. The first one has hired me to access their system directly (Centricity/Logician) and proofead every voice recognition-created record their providers create and make corrections as needed. They hav ...

Jan 15, 2014

Will be transitioning to ChartNet in a few weeks and am looking for input. It is really a speech WRECK program as so many people have posted? If so, is it because the program stinks or because the doctors stick at dictating? What's the approximate percentage of corrections that need to be made? How badly did your paycheck decrease? Or -- will I be able to keep a steady paycheck once I'm used to the program? Any input is appreciated. ...

May 11, 2011

I went through the Transcend orientation yesterday for (former) DTS employees transitioning to the new company. It left me very, very, very sad. Transcend's methodology is so different from DTS. The requirement of the $900 per pay period of full-time employees will be so difficult to achieve on this new BeyondText speech recognition as my pay will be cut based on what other MTs have told me!!! (That and IF the work is available which in the past with DTS has been very off and on.) ...

Jul 10, 2012

Hi everyone, I haven't posted here for years. I'm facing transition: my per diem employer has transitioned to the Cerner EMR and for now, there's no work for me. My primary employer is planning a move to an EMR late this year and my department head doesn't know what the implications will be for us. The latter is a psych facility. I'd worked for Spheris for a year from home and MedQuist for about three years. Before that, lots of in-house experien ...