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

New career. - MT56

Posted: Apr 02, 2013

How many of you are pursuing a new career. I can't live on the money I make from MT, and I don't know if I can do this until I retire. I have been studying gemology, trying to get into estate jewelry.

I want to go back to school, however, - sm

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I dont know what to do. The logical would be medical assistant, but I just dont feel safe doing anything medical.

I love photography, but I dont think there is money there.

I am scared to death.

same here - in same boat

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I am 63 and since they changed the age for full retirement to 67, I now have to wait 4 more years to qualify. This "job" is not going to last that long. I have skills, yes, but at my age, nobody will hire me anyway. I am also scared to death. You are not alone. Too old for school. Don't want to work at McDonalds or Walmart because I am better than that, and all costs money anyway, which I no longer have, or the time to learn a new "trade."

Here is What I'm Going to Do - see message

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I'm going to start drawing my SS at 62. One can make up to $15,100 per year working, without getting taxed on the SS. Figure out your numbers. And if the truth be known, the main reason I am taking my SS at 62 because gosh darn, the thing is going broke.

You can get a few more years out of MT... - sm

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You really can. This profession is not going away as quickly as some will have you think. Yes, there have been many changes, but you can still make a living at it. Hang in there.

But why would anyone in their right mind, and with - bills to pay, WANT to stay in MT longer?

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Things are NOT going to get better. Only worse. Why would anyone want to prolong their years of being grossly underpaid and exploited?

Why stay in MT? - Anonymous

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Because someone in their 60s is probably going to go to school for a year or two, get out and start hitting the job market. I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but most employers don't want to hire a 62-year old a couple of years away from retirement, unless it's for a part-time or per diem job. Starting over at 60 and working one's way up the ladder is not too realistic, and it's a tough job market in all occupations. I'm almost 59 and had big plans of starting over as a coder but ended up doing something MT-related instead. I'm not grossly underpaid and when this job ends I'll probably just take early retirement.

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching - about this

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lately. I am fortunate to work for a company with accounts that have plenty of work, and I can honestly say that I like my accounts. The pay is about average, but I'm never out of work, so it's dependable. The insurance is fantastic, and as my spouse is self-employed, the premium I pay vs. what he would have to pay means a HUGE difference in net pay. I have been here long enough to have accumulated a generous amount of paid leave every year. I don't need a car, so that saves me conservatively about $200 a month. Since extra hours are pretty much offered at my job every day, time I would have to spend commuting can be spent typing instead, and getting paid for it. For security and sanity, I have a part-time "outside" job close to home, relating to a hobby I am passionate about. They love having me as many hours as I can spare, and it breaks up my day and helps me remember how to interact with other humanoids. Between the 2 jobs, I grossed in the mid $30s last year. It's not what I once made straight typing, but it's enough to know I can support myself independently should the need arise. My work-related expenses are nil, so that factors into net pay as well. I did the math once, and in my situation a $12/hr MT job is equal to about a $15/hr outside job, not an easy thing to find around here without some additional training and starting all over again, and at this point in my life I really don't want to do that. I realize my situation isn't applicable to everybody but just wanted to say there are options in the middle, if leaving MT completely isn't really an option.

a few more years - yellowcat

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Just when I think speech wreck is getting alot better and they are going to try to pay us 2 cents a line, I get a slew of drafts that I might as well just retype. Then "they" are always rolling out another new and improved platform that just makes a bigger mess of things. And now this "predictive" data. . . where it tries to guess at the normal the doc would insert. The way I see it, speech rec does a lot of guessing. Doctor mumbling, just take a shot and type something. At any rate, I digress. On the one hand I agree that editors aren't going away in the next 6 months but I'm also preparing to get out of this field when the time comes. If I understand this correctly when Obamacare gets fully rolled out in 2014 the guvmint is going to stop paying incentives to hospitals to use the EMR. Who knows what will happen then. One can only hope and pray these MTSOs are painting themselves right into a corner.

Full retirement age for you: 66, not 67 - Almost gave me a heart attack !

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Hi. I'm the same age as you, 63. Will be 64 in 3 months. Full retirement age for us is 66. Just double-checked it on the SSA site. I hope this good news makes your night! :)

above message for IN SAME BOAT - Heart attack

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/

go for it - MTMT

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I think you should work on the photography. If it's something you love, then it won't feel like work. Start out part time, keep your day job at first, and maybe eventually you can make enough doing that to turn it into your full-time gig. I wish I could do something "fun" to make money, but I don't have a creative bone in my body, so I just keep typing away.

Good luck!

I want to go back to school too, but - sm

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I have no idea how I would work so I can pay my bills, go to school and raise my child. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. every single day and work until about 10 p.m. to make only 100 bucks a day. I'm literally logging on and off that entire time waiting for work to come in. How could I go to school and do that? Maybe just take out some school loans to pay my bills. I really want to be a nurse bad as I'm hating MTing.

Back to school - FutureNurse

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If you really want to go back to school, I would recommend researching what is available. I have been an MT for 8 years now, but I am also finishing up my 6th semester in school and should be starting nursing school this fall. I just cannot make enough typing to make it worth my time anymore.

School loans - Anonymous

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You cannot take out school loans to pay bills, the money is paid directly to the school.

no, that is grants - you get the loan money

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Been there, paid that back, spent it how I wanted.

Lending agencies - Anonymous

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It must depend on the lending agency. My money was earmarked for school and it was not a grant, it was a student loan. The checks were sent directly to the school. I would think they would frown upon loaning someone money to pay bills if they thought they were spending it on an education, you do have to state the purpose of the loan. Regardless, you're still going to be in debt.

Where there's a will, there's a way... - sm

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It may start with having to get a new job with better hours. Even if you went to school part time and it took you 4 years to earn your associate's degree in nursing instead of 2, you would have a whole new happy life when you're done with school. It took my sister 6 years to earn her associate's in nursing. She was 19, single, working full time as a medical secretary, and taking care of her son. Now 10 years later into her career, she is making $40+ per hour as an RN and has job security.

I'm 42 with two kids, working crazy erratic hours, like you, so I'm going to start school online for coding through a community college in my town. I hear good and bad about coding, but I've talked to people in my area about it, and they tell me coders will be in high demand, especially when they start using ICD-10 next year.

Part-time, anything - SassyMT

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I haven't been able to live on my MT income for years but after the last paycut and company buy out, I knew things would only get worse, and they have. I started applying for anything and finally landed a part-time job at a local hospital. At least I can do that and work part-time as an MT until something full-time opens up, hopefully at the hospital since it's close to home and the pay is decent. Good luck.

Part-time at a hospital? - WombatofDOOM

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What type of work did you get at the hospital? I'm edging up on 60 and need to explore some options.

Lol, love your moniker, wombat of doom - nm

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nm

I would like ot go back to school but... - SBH

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I cannot afford it. My husband makes too much money for any assistance. Every since our pay cuts we are in debt, because we are basically living off his salary. I want to be a Physical Therapist Assistant, and that would require 8 hour a day clinicals for 5 weeks at the end of the study. I don't know how I would work and do that too. Plus I would have to travel an hour one way to get to school.

I'm still not sure what I'll be doing, but in the - meantime, Ive gone back to school (s-m)

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and starting with the basics that I will need for just about ANY job out there: Word processing, Excel, Power Point, Access, Outlook, and probably some book-keeping classes. Then, even if I decide there's a specific career I want to train for (at the not-so-young age of 64), I can at least get a decent-paying office job with the above skills that will make it possible to pay my rent while going to school part-time to learn something else. Even if I don't take the schooling that far, having solid, UP-TO-DATE office skills (something MT doesn't prepare us for) should make me flexible enough to work in just about any industry. And I hope to get just as far away from medicine as my skinny lil' fingers can take me.

I've been working on my Plan B for a while now... - FBL

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Just passed the state real estate exam yesterday, and am interviewing with a broker Thursday to get my license activated. His agency handles sales and property management (rental/lease) and I have told him I want to learn both.

The real estate class was only 60 hours, and minimum education required is high school diploma. I took it at the local state college.

I'm in my late 50s, so know exactly what you all mean...changing careers at this age is scary, but I want a comfortable retirement, and making less and less at MT every year is not the way to get there.

I'm going to do MT part time until I get established...that will at least pay the COBRA premiums until I get new coverage. Then I'm outa here for good.

Simple plan, but it took me a couple of years to come up with it, just couldn't think of anything else to do until the light bulb came on one day. I think I was just too tired and burnt out to think straight for a long time.

Congrats on your plan B... - betsy

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Good idea, the real estate license. I'll be starting nurse's aide classes finally this Saturday. Not my first choice as an occupation but not many hours or expense involved and looks like I'd at least be employed for the foreseeable future judging by job postings. There are many places close by me, another plus. I don't think I'm going to miss MT all that much. Also heard back a few odd-ball part-time jobs I'd applied for a few months ago, a dry cleaner's and Meijer's, so I'm feeling better slowly but surely. It all will help pay the mortgage.

Another good idea! I think we all have one buried deep in - FBL

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our brains somewhere; each of us just needs to sit quietly and come up with the right idea for our own unique situations. I also did a lot of praying for the gift of discernment, to recognize the right idea when it finally did come to me. Good luck with your classes!

COBRA? Yikes! - MTMT

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You should be able to find something much cheaper than COBRA. I got my own health coverage thru an organization called HAA (Health Advocates Alliance). You become a member (membership fee was I think 5 bucks) and then you are eligible to join their group health plan. I've got a pretty good rate, way better than COBRA. When I went from IC to an employee job, I still had a better rate on my own. I'm sure glad I kept it, too, because that job didn't work out (NJA all the time) so when I found another IC job, I didn't have to worry about health insurance.

Try them or shop around. I think COBRA is the biggest ripoff out there.

COBRA - Under insured

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I couldn't afford COBRA either, but when choosing a plan one also needs to look at the coverage - I found nothing as good as my employer's policy, which is why the cost is greater. I looked into that insurance alliance you mentioned. For me, their rates are no better than what I was able to do on my own.

good for you! - MTMT

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The point I was making was that there are way better options than COBRA. I think some people just aren't aware that they can actually get their own insurance, and not have to pay COBRA's astronomical prices or wait for an employer to provide it for them. (Actually, I never really understood why it's an employer's responsibility to provide health insurance; used to be a perk that some companies offered to get good employees... now it's expected. After all, they don't pay our car or home insurance.)

Anyway, glad you were able to find a decent rate.

FBL - Old Pro

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I just wanted to say a big CONGRATULATIONS and wish you well in your new career!

Thank you! Signed on with a broker Friday, and will - FBL

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be writing the contract for my first listing tomorrow. Off and running! Still scared to death though LOL.

The biggest zing so far is getting back out in the real world...it IS still out there! Business being conducted by and between grownups, who knew!

Just to point out something about - Going to school

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I wanted to mention this because I see so many posters here who sound as if they think you have to go to the school, as in GO THERE. In person.

I see it with posters who look only at a community college near them or who mention how far they'll have to drive.

Colleges are big into online courses now. You can do loads of things totally online. In fact, it's getting rare to find in-person classes. Nursing and some hands-on fields might be an exception, although many of their classes ARE online.

Online is a lot different because you do not have to drive to or sit in classes. That saves a lot of time and aggravation.

You don't have to accommodate a class show-up-in-person schedule or sit there when you are dead tired.

You don't have to cozy up to an instructor, act interested, or participate in extracurricular activities.

You don't even have to go to a school in your state, although some schools offer in-state tuition to online students regardless of where they live.

Most of all, you do not have to be "not working" in order to go to school full-time. Many, many students can do both. It is absolutely not necessary to take just one or two classes at a time. You just have to organize yourself. If you can do your classwork from home, you can study instead of driving around all over.

So, if you have been hesitating to go to school because of GOING to school, maybe this will give you hope.

Education has changed! It's more accessible now. Much more.

This is very true, but - sm

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I really want to be a nurse, but that is not an online program for obvious reasons. There are some basic classes I can take online, but the majority of the classes are hands on.

new career - yellowcat

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Kudos to all of you. It really is heartening to see "us" starting to think outside the box. My entire attitude toward MT has changed tremendously since starting school again. So I'm just taking 1 or 2 classes a semester, I'm networking with a whole 'nother group of thinkers and it is refreshing. I grade papers and do some filing one day a week. I work 2 mornings a week at the elementary school kitchen. Last week I got paid to stand outside the library and take a census. You'd be surprised at the opportunities that present themselves when you get out of the house and take a look at the real world again. Most of the 99% of us are pretty much in the same boat and there IS life after MT! You'll find something that works for you, just hang in there :-)

yellowcat - Old Pro

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Thank you for such an encouraging and uplifting post. I could not help noticing the difference between your post and those of others (in denigrating tones) who tell MTs what they "should" do because the profession has gone south. You gave positive, concrete ideas and honest encouragement. You sound like someone I would like to know!

I so don't want to go back to school - see inside

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I have a bachelor's degree and 50 hours over that - all a long time ago. Back when I was young I was always taking classes! and now 30 years later I still don't want to do it anymore. Totally burned out on school. I just reapplied for my dream job working for the medical examiner's office. Every time I see that job posted, I reapply. So far I haven't heard a word out of them. Maybe this time! I brushed up my resume a little bit. Right now that's the only job I'd leave MT for, because my MT situation at the moment is not terrible, which is about the best an MT situation can be right, not terrible?

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