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transcription to coding - Elaine Wondering

Posted: Sep 07, 2010

I've been an at-home medical transcriptionist for a national company for a little over six years. I loved my job until February when my company went over to VR. I'm not happy with the voice recognition and have decided to go back to school to get certification for coding. I'm wondering if anyone else has transitioned successfully from transcription to coding. Are you able to apply what you've learned in transcription to coding? Are your day-to-day duties in coding at all similar to what you did everyday as a transcriptionist? This undertaking is taking a big bite out of my budget. I hope I'm making the right move. I'd appreciate any insight you have to offer.

Transcription to coding - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm currently an MT in coding school and hope to be working as a coder in some capacity when I finish school, my current employer is letting me mentor and helping me quite a bit. Your computer skills and knowledge of terminology and anatomy will be very helpful to you plus knowing how to do research, but your day to day duties will not be the same at all and once you start learning to actually code you will learn how mentally challenging it is. For me it has been much more difficult than transcription ever was. I'm kind of surprised that people are doing this without knowing what coders actually do, that's usually good thing to know in advance when making a career change.

transcription to coding - Elaine Wondering

[ In Reply To ..]
You're certainly right, it is good to know in advance. I suppose I chose coding because I was advised to go that route when I first started taking classes to learn transcription, which was a second career for me. I'm retired from a totally different profession. I wanted a retirement career that would allow me to work from home and provide a supplement to my retirement income. Transcription was perfect for a while, and I will continue doing it while I'm learing coding. Thank you so much for your reply. It's good to know that someone else is traveling the same path.

I transitioned from MT to coding - Ex-MT

[ In Reply To ..]
There are quite a lot of MTs who have transitioned to coding over the years. It's a very natural transition. You'll have to learn new things, but the language and subject matter will be familiar. You'll be able to build on what you know instead of starting over at the rock bottom.

Are the duties similar? Well, yes and no. You're working with the same medical material -- the medical record. Instead of transcribing the reports, you will be reading the reports, identifying the diagnoses and procedures to be coded, coding them, and entering them in a computer system or submitting them to whomever in some form. Some places use written coding sheets which go to data entry folks or to billing, but many now use electronic encoding systems.

Coding is important to health care providers from statistical, business management, and reimbursement perspectives, so they are willing to invest time, effort, and money into it. Coders are usually treated very, very well and are mostly well paid because of this, particularly if they have a scarce credential in a difficult specialty.

There is a lot of room in coding to move up, too. You are not locked into the straight MT or QA roles. There are often several pay levels in coding, with lead coders, supervisors, managers, trainers, compliance specialists, clinical documentation improvement specialists, and so forth.

One area where MTs shine is in clinical documentation improvement, because they know the medical record and report types inside out. If they transcribed surgical procedures or inpatient records, they are usually very good at coding them. They know what is going on and can figure it out to code it.

Yes, it is a big bite from your budget, but it's going to be worthwhile in the end. Check the salary surveys on the AAPC website. Once you get a certification and a first job, you'll become a commodity that is in demand. Employers will appreciate you and pay accordingly. I do not know any competent, professionally behaved coders who are short of work, and I know a bunch of people who work as health information managers during the day and code on contract at night because it pays so well. They would not be doing this if it were a bad field.

A bit misleading - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
My mentor tells me that about operative reports; that I know what to look for since I have transcribed operative reports. She says I'll make a great radiology coder since I'm a radiology MT now. You have talked quite a bit about coding leads, supervisors, managers, compliance specialists, HIS managers and contract coders, but people new to coding or those still in school need to know that these are not entry level jobs, I know I'd be in way over my head if I tried something like that fresh out of school. It will probably be necessary to take an entry level job in billing/coding in a doctor's office or clinic or as a coder I somewhere to gain experience for the other jobs or enough experience to work as a contract coder. I think it's a great field to get into, but perhaps you are not telling the entire story; I'm guessing you began with a lesser position and worked your way up the ladder.

Not misleading at all - Coder

[ In Reply To ..]
My post was not misleading. I thought it was very clear. OF COURSE those are not entry-level jobs. I said there was room TO MOVE UP.

Everyone starts with entry-level jobs, but if you want to move up in coding, you CAN move up. Yes, you have to learn more and stretch yourself. The point is that you aren't locked into just one job.

I know people who have been doing the same job for 30+ years, but I know others who wanted to move on and found a variety of opportunities.

Your mentor is telling the truth. She's not telling you that coding operative procedures will be a walk in the park, but that you'll have an advantage when it comes to coding them because you'll understand what they say.

This might be difficult for you to believe right now because you haven't seen it for yourself, but that doesn't make it any less true.

just started coding class - Viva

[ In Reply To ..]
I just started a coding class last night and I really like it and the instructor. I am a RMT, so I think that background helps a lot in regard to the world of coding.

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