What Alternative Career Options Medical Transcriptionists Have?
I am Bryant. I am from the US, 52-year-old man that is working in Afghanistan. My entire career up to this point has been defense related electronics.
I’m sure you know that defense and travel go hand-in-hand. I have about 45 countries under my belt for travel. I am interested in retiring to Thailand.
I still want to work after I leave here, but in a semi-retired status. I don’t want to travel so much anymore, because that usually means being somewhere I don’t want to be.
So I have stumbled upon your current career of MT. My questions to you are:
- Would companies be reluctant to hire me at my age? I want to work from Thailand, but I would need a year or two at a company to get some experience.
- What schools do you recommend that are online, and would a degree in this field open more doors, or is a certification enough?
- Is the demand out there that would justify my time and expense for what I want to do?
Any info is much appreciated and I have bookmarked your blog.
Had this question been put forward even some four-five years back, I would have nodded yes for a medical transcription career after retirement and would have guided him accordingly. However, at this point in time, it is a definitive NO and replied him as below.
I am happy that I could help you. You have knocked the right door as well.
However, here is the bitter truth: MT is a sunset industry with EMRs taking away the jobs of MTs, both offshore as well as onshore MTs. I discussed this a couple of years ago about how EMR is going to affect the medical transcription industry. The situation is no different now that either medical transcription industry has an uncertain future or demise in the recent future!
The pay rates too have come down heavily from 22 cents a line when I started this career to now about 2 to 3 cents a line.
Hence, being a US citizen, I would suggest you to take up something like virtual assistance, charging anything from $20 to $50 an hour depending on your skills. I do not have full information regarding that, however. You may search Google for more information on this and could then make a decision.
Also I would like to let you know that medical coding with an average annual salary of $46,800 is definitely a better option than medical transcription! You may find how to get on to that trade by Googling yourself.
So, what alternative career options do we medical transcriptionists have? I remember sometime back we had another MT, Kathy Nicholls touching on this subject but couldn’t end on a definitive note.
Hence for Bryant’s further query “Do you think there would be any resistance to someone doing coding as an independent contractor working at another country?” I couldn’t actually guide him, and conveyed my inability to describe the nature of work in medical billing and coding due to lack of knowledge on the subject, and even my desire for an alternative career, and that I too am on the brink of a career change!
So, together we came to a conclusion to put these questions to the readers of this blog, who are into medical transcription:
Here are the questions for you:
- Do you think virtual assistance and medical billing and coding would be an alternative viable option for medical transcriptionists?
- Apart from these, what other alternative career choices do medical transcriptionists have?
- What career choice would you suggest for a veteran like Bryant who want to start from scratch and want to work from home on a computer and Internet? (Of course, the paychecks should be decent and not underpaid as we have ended now in medical transcription!)
Substantiate your answers from where to begin with sitting at home to pursuing training online to finding a remunerative job online. Your answer is definitely going to be a turning point in the year 2012 for many MTs and for our friend Bryant. Wish You All A Happy New Year
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Tags: medical transcription career, medical transcription industry, work from home
6 Responses to “What Alternative Career Options Medical Transcriptionists Have?”
Medical coding is a better option than medical transcription both in terms of productivity and pay. There is also good demand for medical coders right now.
Simply said, medical coding is just assigning code numbers to each and every disease/diagnosis/procedure for easy handling of documents for insurance companies.
Medical billing and coding go hand on hand. Online medical coding and billing training programs are available for becoming a Registered Medical Coder. Inquire the reliability of a particular course on online forums/with friends before enrolling into one and if the trainers could actually help you find a job. As of now you don’t need a certification to be a medical coder, however, but it would be easy for one to find a job with a certificate.
With cost of living in Thailand in terms of USD (1 USD = 31 Thai Baht) being very much less than back at home even an annual income of $30000 should be more than enough to lead a lavish lifestyle!
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Do not go into medical coding and billing! I have a friend who was a medical transcriptionist until she was laid off a few years ago due to voice recognition. She went through the Billing and Coding program, only to discover that she can’t find a job in that either because employers are wanting people with several years of experience. I don’t know what to suggest. I’m still trying to find another occupation, too.
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Here is my two cents:
1.) Online tutoring. How about getting associated with a virtual tutoring site?
2.) Raj, do you remember once you wrote about buying an established affiliate marketing website for passive income? Why not revisit that thought again?
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Raj replied:
January 3rd, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Interesting! Two noteworthy propositions. Yeah, it’s time that I should think about the second one again.
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It’s a huge cop out and excuse to say you must have experience with a warning to not enter that field.
My wife has been in medical transcription for over 20 years and had to reinvent herself numerous times but always worked. The industry has changed and there are plenty of openings for entry level personnel in MT and coding. Coding however is the new frontier. And Ms. Nichols at MT Tools is very good and has great advice but she is also selling a course in coding which is not cheap. She is encouraging encoding and offering a paid course. Perform your due diligence before leaping. An alternative is finding a current self-study book for encoding at Amazon. i.e. Step-by-Step Medical Coding 2012 Edition, 1e
Negative talk poisons the discussion pool. If you want something bad enough the get out there and do it. Stop with the excuses. Unless your an expert quit giving advice to not do things.
I am a CPA/MBA and Microsoft Systems Engineer with years or hiring and management experience. I have business consulting experience of over 30 years. Don’t discourage people, but show them valid alternatives on topics you know something about. (This is not for the site owner here but minions who comment)
And…I have over 20 affiliate marketing sites and if you think that’s an easy alternative than you’re sadly mistaken. I would recommend doing it but don’t quit your day job and shoot for 10 good quality websites on subjects you are interested in.
However, be prepared to work hard, wear many hats and learn copywriting, SEO, web building, keyword search, domain purchasing, finding a good site host…………Yes, you can do this but you won’t be sitting on the beach while you earn millions in passive income.
Or, switch to learning encoding, master it and find a job. On the side you can then use ODesk and put your resume out there to seek contract jobs.
Here’s an acronym to success – G.O.Y.A
“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”
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Raj replied:
January 2nd, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Yep. Fact of the day contradictory to Akhilan’s statement. Experience matters everywhere and don’t know how to skew ourselves in any job without any experience.
Wish you good luck Leslie. Kindly let us know too what you choose.
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