Start A Medical-Transcription-At-Home Career

By Guest | Aug 20, 2007

This is a guest post by Michele Miller to clear your doubts on medical transcription career. She is into medical transcription since 1994 and currently is a home transcriptionist in Fort Pierce, Florida and runs the web site medical transcription at home.com. Here she goes:

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked several times a month, how I got started in this business. So many people nowadays want to work from home, especially mothers with young children. That’s the primary reason I started my home business ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter. I didn’t want someone else taking care of her after school instead of me.

Step-by-Step Guide to Medical Transcription at Home

It’s really not hard to start a medical transcription business. The start-up costs are low compared to many other home-based businesses.

You need a form of education, via home study courses or by attending your local community college. You do NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a business either. In a short amount of time, usually nine months or less, you can be working from the comfort of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer, a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need, outside of the education, which include:

Excellent grammar skills
Good listening skills
Basic computer skills with a word processing program
Research skills
Ability to type – your speed will increase with experience
Must be detail oriented
Ability to work on your own
Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a self motivator

You will also need some computer programs such as a medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut down on the amount of actual typing you do. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word® include this type of utility. It is the best invention by far, in my opinion.

Basic bookkeeping is necessary, but not difficult. A good bookkeeper is great to have when it comes to taxes and advising you about saving money with tax deductions for your business.

Medical transcription is usually paid by the amount of work transcribed. Therefore, it is quite normal to charge your clients by the line. If you charge 13 cents per line and type 200 lines per hour, (this is a very comfortable speed to type) your hourly rate would end up being about $26.00.

Being self employed does have some pitfalls. One must consider, as with any home-based business, that once you become self employed, you are responsible for securing your own health insurance and putting away money for retirement.

However, there are many positive things about being self employed, as I’m sure you can imagine. For me, what I love the most is the flexibility I have with my time. If I want to work late in the day I can, and if I want to work early in the morning, that’s up to me. Running a home-based medical transcription business is a lot of fun.

Medical transcription is not for everyone, and it is important before venturing into any business that you weigh up the pros and cons of it all and do what is best for your situation.

Tags: home-based business, medical transcription business, medical transcription career, work from home

7 Responses to “Start A Medical-Transcription-At-Home Career”

Heather McNeill on January 13th, 2008, at 5:14 pm said:

I just finished with online courses at http://www.pennfoster.edu and now I am having trouble finding someone to work for, both online and in my area. I have called every doctors office and went to all of the hospitals in my area. I am so impressed that you started your own business. Great Job!

DR R KRISHNA NAIK on May 21st, 2008, at 4:10 pm said:

i m a veterinary doctor working in governament sector , i have work for only 3 hours a day , so i chose 2 work all my free time at home and earn some amount and i have chosen this medical transcription as a good way 2 work and earn

ganesh on October 31st, 2008, at 2:34 am said:

Iam undergoing medical transcription training. i want list of compaines hiring for on job MT training

Raj on October 31st, 2008, at 6:05 am said:

@ganesh: Seems you’re either from New Delhi/Andhra Pradesh. I’ve already published three list of medical transcription companies in India. Check those lists, contact those companies near to you for further details.

subramaniam on April 18th, 2009, at 1:22 pm said:

I Want to do the course and work from home

JEANETTE on September 30th, 2009, at 2:27 am said:

HI How can I download an ebook I purchased online from Michele Miller the step by step to medical transcription at home it tells how to start your own business at home, I had it on my old hard drive and want to transfer it to my newer hard drive and computer I didn’t transfer any of my old information Because I think I had a virus and didn’t to take a chance of getting it on my new hard drive. Don’t want to purchase the ebook again help please new at this, thanks jeanette; ps can’t email michele either for help, does she have to be in my address book thanks RAJ

Raj on September 30th, 2009, at 2:48 am said:

Unfortunately I myself don’t have a copy of that book now. Hence Michelle will be the only person who can help you out. Visit her site, find the E-Mail icon on the left side bar of her site and you can reach her through that.