Lynn Said:

how to start a home base medical transcription career?

We Answered:

Check out the website below. It has tons of tips and resources for anyone getting started on their own, including free listings in the directory.

The forum section is also helpful for connecting with other who already work from home in MT.

Sidney Said:

How do you begin a career in medical transcription?

We Answered:

Do not be fooled by companies that say they will train you for free. They actually charge nearly $500 for their software and FEW people ever actually get hired. I'm surprised the company linked on this thread is still in business to be honest w/ you.

You can train either w/ an online school, be wise, and choose a good one. You can also train through a community college. I trained with www.meditec.com. They have an awesome internship program to help you get started with your first job.

You do not have to be certified to work. However, the AHDI does have two levels of certification testing for MTs, IF you want it. Graduating from a good school should train you well enough to pass the RMT exam, if you want to take it. You can work w/o it. Then, after you have a few years of acute care transcription experience, you can test for the CMT.

Marshall Said:

I've been interested in a career in Medical Transcription, Billing & Coding but don't know how to get started?

We Answered:

When you apply for a job in medical coding and billing or medical transcription, the employer will test your skills before they will even look at your application. Actually, you have to take a test as part of the application process. Then if you pass, they will look at your resume. So if you feel like you have sufficient skills in these areas from your past experience, then training may not be needed. You can take a test and see how you do to determine if you should explore training options or not. I would suggest that you take a pre-employment test from a company that you do not want to work for just in case you don't pass- you don't want to leave a bad first impression.

Anyway, if you feel like you need training in these areas, then that is where you should start. There are online training options that make it nice for people with busy/crazy schedules. Otherwise, your local college or university may have some training options for you. An online school can take you from about 5 months to a year to complete since it is a self paced program. The time it takes you depends on how much time you devote to the course.

Once you are ready to start applying for jobs, then you can look at your local hospital or doctors' offices for jobs or you can find medical coding and billing companies or medical transcription companies.

Julia Said:

Is a career in Medical Transcription pretty rewarding?

We Answered:

Can you type all day long? I know I can't.

I use Dragon Naturallyspeaking 11 to actually write this answer. I use the same program to do all my nursing notes (at work). It's very accurate. Many doctors are using it now. There is a "medical" version that has all the words built in. In my case, I have to "teach" it a new word when it doesn't know.

Benjamin Said:

what is the future of Medical transcription career?

We Answered:

The department of labor has good statistics on the job outlook of MTs. They project MT employment to grow 14% which is faster than the average for all jobs. Even with speech recognition technology, the future of medical transcriptionists is strong. The department of labor also talks about employment and job prospects in the link below. Just think of it this way, people are always going to get sick and need doctors-- no matter what shape the economy is in. And MTs will be needed to transcribe their medical records.

Pretty much all medical transcription companies will require you to have training. So if you haven't looked into schools yet, here is a great resource: http://bestmedicaltranscriptiontraining.… And you can see a demo of a MT course here: http://www.careerstep.com/demo-mt/?uid=a…

But in a recession period, the health care industry is not impacted as much as the rest of the economy. Like I said, people will still get sick and need doctors.

Good Luck!