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

Training and Getting Started - Katsim57

Posted: Sep 08, 2011

I am retired from the accouting/budget field and am interested in obtaining a job working from home in the medical transcription/coding/billing field.

How do I get started with training, etc.?

Thanks for your assistance!

job as an MT - why?

[ In Reply To ..]
WHY do you want to do this? Read all the posts on New MT board and see if you REALLY want to do this. No money, no money, no appreciation. Just read there, and make up your own mind.

Why? - katsim57

[ In Reply To ..]
Wow!! Is it that bad??

Take your time and read the posts on this site - Sound advice

[ In Reply To ..]
There are a lot of real issues going on in MT right now. Take some time to read some of the posts on this board, the company board, the new MT board, the VR/speech recognition board, etc. After doing that, you will have more information and can make an informed decision. Not everything you read on the internet is fact, of course, but there are some real concerns and issues to consider before jumping in feet first.

katsim57 - Nick

[ In Reply To ..]
No, it's not that bad. It's MUCH WORSE than that. Don't waste your money/time.

Yes and No - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
It's not truly horrible across the board, but it has the potential to be not great any more... and I've always been one of the more positive one out there, I think.

Take some time and do lots and lots of research. Find other MT boards to look at. This board is probably one of the most frequently visited, but it can be VERY negative. Not that what is said is untrue, but just that some of the view points, IMO, skew a little towards the dark side of things.

Research MT schools. There are 2 who are almost universally lauded, but I didn't go to either of them and have done just fine for myself.

Don't believe ANY hype that says you will make $50k your first year. I was lucky to make $5 an hour, but my situation was such that I had to leave school before I technically finished because I had to pay my mortgage, so I did a lot of on the job learning at 5 cpl or less. A decent school will take anywhere from 9 months to a year to finish, then you have the problem of trying to find a job with no experience when all of the companies want someone with experience. There are some companies out there that hire newbies - I know Nuance at one point used to - don't know if they still do.

You won't be actually typing - or at least not much. This field is going almost universally to voice recognition editing and the pay scale for that is low, and the effort required to make the drafts recognizable as readable medical records varies widely from company to company.

This can be a very isolating form of employment. If you're a person who likes to sit at home and not go out much and interact with other people, this may be for you. If you really thrive on daily interaction with people, this may not be for you.

Now, having said all of that, it can still be a good career, but it's much harder to make money than it used to, and it will get harder yet. Research good expanders - Instant Text seems to be the most well-liked, but I learned on Smartype and never could get the hang of Instant Text no matter how hard I have tried. People love it, though, so it's worth investigating for your use. You need to make sure you are at least basically computer literate. You will have to do a lot of your own software installs and trouble shooting, etc., and people who have no computer skills at all tend to be a bit at sea.

You need to be a self starter and very disciplined if you are going to work from home. It's very easy to do almost everything else other than work and before you know it, the end of the pay period is upon you and you haven't made any money.

Like I said, this can still be a good career, but you won't make any money at it for at least the first year. The people who are still doing well have a several years of experience built up and they have a good expander library (which to my way of thinking is critical in a straight typing environment). People are also working longer hours for the same amount of money, but again, that can vary by company.

I personally believe that there will always be a need for some type of editor for medical records. Not every facility in the country is going to go to point and click systems (at least I hope not - what a frightetning thought). No matter how good any VR system is, it will never adapt to doctors who start a sentence and then sasy "oh, will you go back and add this or delete this" if they even give you that much info that they're starting their train of thought over again. No VR system will EVER be able to accommodate a resident like I had at my last job who would start sentences over again and again and again. He was an ESL and if he lost his train of thought he had to start again. A coworker counted one time and he restarted things 26 times in one document, and yes, he was the producer of one fairly famous 60 minute progress note.

So, I believe there will always be a need for people to do something vaguely resembling what we are doing now, but they won't need as many of us, and the push by companies such as MedQuist and Nuance to send as much of their business as possible to India hurts even more. I believe (hope?) that there will be some sort of back lash on that some day and the off shoring will have to stop, but that's probably tilting at windmills.

I won't tell anyone to NOT go into this field, but you need to do it with your eyes open and know that you're never going to get rich. The benefits, for me at least, far outweigh that. No office politics, no commute, I get to have my cat on the desk next to me, no worry about what I'm going to wear, etc. My rear end is larger than it used to be and so you have to be very careful about exercising on a regular basis. If you travel, this is a very portable career. I worked graveyards at a hotel for a while and brought my lap top and foot pedal with me. I had at least 2 and sometimes 3 or more hours where I was just baby sitting the front desk and I sat and typed and made extra money while I was working. I loved that.

This is probably waaay more long winded than you were looking for. I take a break from typing to, let's see... come type. Go figure.

Katsim57 - Rosa

[ In Reply To ..]
Don't do it. This train has come and gone.

what I hear - Still love MT

[ In Reply To ..]
is that you want a job you can do from home and that you happen to know MT is done from home (especially since you lumped billing in there and billing and MT are two totally different animals.)

To answer your question, how do you get started with training, it depends on if you mean billing or MT. Since I do MT, I'll address that. You research schools and find which one best fits your needs and (and this is a BIG and) has definitive assistance for job placement when you're done. Schools most of us recommend are Andrews and M-TEC.

After 1-2 years of education, you then start applying for jobs. Most jobs require 3 years or more (some are requiring 5-10) of experience so picking that school is going to be very important. They will help you with job placement.

So, we're talking three years from say now, which means there will be little straight typing as we know it now and more editing and data entry. So also be sure your school offers education in editing.

Now let's talk income. Three years from now, starting as a new MT, working from home (btw likely with no benefits of any kind) you can probably look at starting out at $20k IF you've gone to a good school, excelled at the training, and are able to find a job.

Still wanna work at home? :)

Still love MT - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
In my humble opinion, your analysis is spot-on. The only thing I would add is that the education had better be from a decent school; otherwise no one will hire you. Your analysis is excellent.

MT training - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
It is my understanding that the rules on this board are for us to answer questions and not discourage new MTs from wanting to get into this field, which is what every one of you did. Realistically, the work is down from years previous, but there is still work. Companies are hiring all the time and if you luck out you can find one that will hire you, especially if you go to a reputable school that will help with job placement.

As far as the MT future going away, I don't see it. I know of two facilities in my area that have hired transcriptionists back because the doctors threw fits over the EMR system their company bought and refused to use it. I also worked for a company in another state that said they lost an account due to VR, and after a year, the company came back because they couldn't stand the work it produced. Then, there is some work that is just too extensive for a system like VR. Anyway, if it's something you really want to pursue, just do your homework thoroughly on the schools or be prepared to not get a job. There are too many people competing with you and there needs to be something about you that will stand out from others wanting the same job...such as the reputation of the school you went to.

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