If you’ve been looking for legitimate work-from-home jobs that don’t require years of education, you’ve undoubtedly come across medical transcribing.

Because you can become a medical transcriptionist in under a year and work from home is prevalent, it’s frequently touted as a side hustle or full-time WFH employment.

What Is the Role of a Medical Transcriptionist?

I’m sure you’ve heard the doctor’s handwriting joke. Maybe you’ve merely squinted at an old-school subscription and wished your pharmacy luck.

Thankfully, medical records are now mostly computerized and standardized, but it’s conceivable you’ve never given much thought to how they came to be that way.

The following is how it works:

• Doctors either dictate their notes or enter them straight into an electronic health record (EHR) system.
• Medical transcriptionists use speech-to-text technologies to convert audio recordings into accurate written records.
• Medical coders use standardized coding systems to organize diagnoses, procedures, and other clinical data.
• EHR professionals oversee the system, ensuring data security and patient privacy, as well as sending and receiving data to and from other EHR systems, generating reports based on EHR data, and more.
• At the end of the day, no one has to read doctors’ handwriting, billing and record transfer are simplified, and wide studies of medical trends and patient care are possible.

What Is It Like To Work As A Medical Transcriptionist?

Because you need a background of anatomy, medicine, and clinical terminology, medical transcription demands specialized training. It’s simple to make mistakes without that expertise, and inaccuracies in medical records can be disastrous.

As a result, most businesses demand candidates to hold a medical transcribing certification as proof of training and ability.

You can get one of two major medical transcription credentials. If you’re new to transcription or just starting out, being a Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist is a good place to start (RHDS). Typically, a RHDS concentrates on one kind of healthcare. You can take an exam to become a Certified Healthcare Documentation Specialist after two years of job experience (CHDS). A CHDS is a specialist who works in advanced care or has many specialties.

Is Medical Transcription a Lucrative Career?

Despite the possibility of doing medical transcription from home, this is a bad moment to start a career as a medical transcriptionist.

Medical transcriptionist job possibilities are expected to fall by 7% over the next decade, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

It’s a dying industry, especially when compared to other healthcare support vocations, which are expected to rise by 16 percent, according to the BLS.

This is due to a number of factors. Many doctors now type their notes directly into their records system, thanks to advancements in voice recognition and speech-to-text technology. As EHR systems grew more common, many doctors now enter their notes directly into their records system. Medical transcriptionists aren’t as important as they formerly were.

Fortunately, we already highlighted a comparable and similar position that has a better outlook: medical coding, or medical coding and billing.

Medical Coding vs. Medical Transcription

Many of the qualities that drove you to medical transcription in the first place are shared by both medical transcriptionist and coding professions. Medical coding, on the other hand, has some crucial differences that make it a superior career choice.

Similarities between a medical transcriptionist and a coder

Medical coding, like medical transcription, has a low entrance barrier — no college degree is required. Both require professional credentials, which can be obtained in under a year online.

If working from home as a medical transcriptionist appealed to you, you should realize that medical coding is becoming increasingly remote. Early in your career, you may be required to pay some office dues, but even that may be altering as a result of the changes.

Medical transcription and coding are also attractive to those with similar personalities. If you’re an introvert who enjoys making rational decisions and categorizing things according to rules, becoming a medical coder could be a good fit for you.

Medical Transcription vs. Medical Coding: Job Prospects

Medical coders have a substantially brighter job outlook than medical transcriptionists, according to the BLS. In fact, coding jobs are increasing at about the same rate that transcription positions are decreasing. By 2030, the BLS predicts a growth rate of 9%, somewhat higher than the overall job growth rate of 8%.

Artificial intelligence is already helping to make coding job easier and faster, but there’s still a lot of discretion involved, so humans are unlikely to be completely replaced. Furthermore, while medical billing may be on the decline as a result of healthcare reform, medical coding has become intertwined with record transfers and big data analysis. Work in the field of coding is here to stay.

What Does It Take to Work as a Medical Coding Specialist?

First and foremost, you should evaluate whether you want to specialize in medical coding or work in a capacity that combines medical coding and billing. This choice will have an impact on your training and job search requirements.

The certification you choose is more important later in your career than it is at the start, but it’s still worth considering.

In either case, earning the appropriate coding and/or billing certification is the quickest way to get into the sector. You can complete your training online and begin working in less than a year. Look for courses that will prepare you for well-known certifications. CPT, ICD, and HCPCS are the three major coding systems you’ll encounter in your employment.

Final Thoughts

You’ll be able to study whenever and whenever you choose with an internet connection, and your tuition includes exam registration expenses as well as a laptop that you get to retain. If you’re a military spouse, you might be eligible for a DOD grant to help pay for your training.