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

Life after transcription TIA - What else can I do

Posted: Sep 06, 2014

Hey all, after 10 years of being an MT, I'm thinking about jumping this sinking ship. Unfortunately, I can't bear the thought of working outside the home again. Is there any job out there that I can do at home that isn't a scam and is stable? Or, if I have to work outside the home, what jobs are out there that my experience would complement? I'm starting to get anxious with how things are going with MModal, my current employer, and waiting for that ax. TIA

Most of them - that are not MT are

[ In Reply To ..]
in either customer service, tech support, management or sales and marketing. These are the verifiably legitimate ones. The customer service jobs are a lot of the cell phone companies with a lot of abuse by the customers who don't pay the bill, or else collection jobs where you are expected to abuse customers who can't pay the bill. If you want to stay home bad enough to do it, these are real jobs, full and part time, with employee status and benefits. One is an outfit called Convergys. I think the pay is only something like $9 an hour, but it's hourly pay and if hired, you can work from home.

Other work from home is coding and billing, but you'd have to invest in the time and money to get training for that unless you can find it through some of the free educational resources online. But you'd still have to put the time in.

not in the home, but - cindy

[ In Reply To ..]
You could try CNA. I know back in the day I never considered that, but I did that in 2011, signed up because my daughter wanted to. I have worked with patients in their homes. You can take them to doctors visits, do their shopping for them, a lot of them don't need real CNA care, but some of them do. I dd that and now I just finished LPN school. Still waiting to take the test for my license, but am back to doing transcription after doing CNA for 2 years, because I was lucky enough to find a transcription job which I hadn't been in the past. I know what you mean about leaving the home, this is good to work from home, but the jobs are really getting scarce and underpaid.

Home daycare--for kids OR animals! - ETOHPRN

[ In Reply To ..]
A couple of my friends and neighbors have been very successful at these 2 endeavors.

No idea what's involved with watching other people's kids, certification and that sort of thing, but if you dig it, it might be worth looking into!

I'm always amazed at how many people will come up out of pocket for someone to watch their dog/pups while they are at work, instead of leaving them at home! Even out here in the sticks where the median income is less than $40,000 and people have to travel a bit out of their way to bring them/pick them up.

Just some other things to think about that don't involve sitting in a chair that you can do from home.
:) Best of luck!

Life after transcription - Soon2beExOldMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I have a former MT friend who walks dogs. She started several years ago, walking them during the daytime for working people, and also days and evenings for people on vacation. Her second year she made more money doing that on the side than in her FT medical office reception job. I currently walk 2 dogs for 1 client once a day (weekdays at noon). Takes about half an hour and I make $300/month. I've been in MT for 43 years and ready to quit it for the last 10. I have also sewed for that long, and I've found my key to quit MT with that - doing alterations for a bridal shop, which I love, and making a lot more money. Early SS retirement starts in January - so I will be DONE with all things MT related by the end of this year and it can't come fast enough. I highly recommend any younger MTs to start looking for an alternative. I've been in this business long enough to go from excellent to good to bad and it's only headed downward from there :(

I left MModal in July. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been an MT for over 25 years and have seen this field go from a very lucrative, respected career to being an"expendable job" and the first thing to cut when administration wants to save money. This field is at its worst point right now, but I truly do believe that it will turn around.

When you search the large job sites like Monster or even your own state job search, you find more in-house MT jobs than those with national MTSOs or in remote settings. I just got a job back in-house when I left MModal. When I applied, the HIM manager said that with the latest large HIPAA breach there is a lot of buzz about risk management costs outweighing the cost of bringing MT back in-house. Even with EMR, there is always going to be a need for editors/MTs.

This humungous MT ship can't turn on a dime, and it will take a while, but the tide is already turning.

If you have a craft that you are really good at, there are several sites where you can sell your goods and make good money at it as well. I sold on Etsy for 2 years and made well over $8000 a year doing it. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of your time, but if you enjoy your craft, the time is much better spent than being anxious with MModal. If this is something that interests you, try Etsy, Zibbet, 11 Main, even Facebook. You can sell from your own FB page now. This just may be something to hold you over until things start improving...and if they don't, work at it as building your own business doing what you really love.

this is heartening - thank you

[ In Reply To ..]
I keep hoping that enough will finally be enough, and the work, all work, not just MT, but the factory work that is necessary for blue-collar workers to thrive, will come back soon.

I hate to say it but these corporate heads sending work overseas, factory work included, are from the Baby Boomer generation, which was supposed to be anti-Establishment, if you remember. We turned out to be the truer hypocrites.

We need a few powerhouses to return the work, get all the accolades and back-patting, and others will follow.

I got hired on - ExMT

[ In Reply To ..]
with a company that conducts medical history interviews over the phone with clients applying for insurance policies. Pay is better than MT and it's not a customer service "sales" position where you have to deal with irate callers. Having medical terminology in my background was what landed me the job. :)

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