Is Medical Transcription a Great Career Choice?
Medical transcription is touted as one of the best work at home ideas according to various websites, but is it truly? What could be better than sitting in my pajamas at my computer typing reports for various doctors, clinics and hospitals?
Yippee for me! I already have an Associate’s Degree in Medical Office Administration. I also have over 10 years of experience in medical transcription. So, this should be easy, right?
Wrong.
Many years ago, I worked at McDonald’s. Not a bad job, but how many people do you know who want to flip burgers for the rest of their lives? Not me, because I’m a lazy girl. I decided that I would never get anywhere with my life if I didn’t go back to school. I figured that there would always be a need for medical transcriptionists, since people will always need health care – even when the economy is bad. Sure, I could have taken a home course and possibly get a job, but, at that time, most employers didn’t take home courses seriously. Instead of spending about $300 – $400 on a medical transcription home course, I went to a private school known as the local junior college. I didn’t think I was smart enough or rich enough to go to a real 4 year college.
When I enrolled, I was told the cost would be $7,500 for the entire program. I decided the investment in my education and bettering my career was worth that cost. Half way through the program, however, the school built a new building and increased tuition. I was stuck with the choice of either quitting medical transcription and going back to flipping burgers, as well as now having debt, or I could follow through with the plan and end up spending $13,000 on my education. I decided to stick it out, rationalizing the decision with the fact that I should be able to double my income in the new career field. (As told to me by the school recruiter and my own uneducated research. Back then, the internet was full of home-made websites and not exactly the wealth of information it is today.)
After two years, I graduated, and was super excited that I could finally get a desk job and make more money! Right away, I landed a great job at the local hospital where I completed my internship – for $0.50/hr LESS than I had made at McDonald’s.
Wait – WHAT?
Yes, you read that right. I made LESS after racking up $13,000 in student loan debt and working hard for two years to get my education. I was devastated. I felt misled and taken advantage of. But I worked through it and worked hard to build a career in medical transcription. A couple of years later, I was offered the opportunity to work from home, and being self employed, I made much better money.
The biggest downside is the pay! In the last few years, the potential income has taken a nosedive! When I started medical transcription over a decade ago, the going rate of pay to work at home (WAH) was $0.07 – 0.09 per line. For a while, I made as much as $0.12 per line. Now, the going rate is $0.05 – 0.08 per line. (1200 – 2000 lines per day average) In addition to having to work harder to earn the same amount of money, voice recognition software has taken over. Even though most transcriptionists I know can type from scratch faster than they can edit, administration only pays half to edit transcription done by voice recognition, making it even harder to earn a decent wage. Yes, that means editing reports done by voice recognition only pays $0.04 per line! Some companies don’t even feel they need medical transcriptionists to edit reports. I have actually lost a contract when a company like this bought out one of the clinics I worked for. I hate to think about how bad those reports are! If you’ve ever tried to use Siri, you know what I’m talking about. Every time I ask her to “call Nana,” she wants to know if I said “text Larry.” NO, I didn’t!
As if that weren’t bad enough, the fact that I can work at home means that ANYONE can work at home ANYWHERE. Medical transcription is truly location independent. Many jobs have been lost to outsourcing to other countries such as India and China. (The thought of our sensitive medical information being processed in another country is quite scary to me!) Now, the market has been flooded by people wanting to work at home, and it’s exceedingly difficult to find work, let alone work that pays well.
Don’t just take my word for it! Before jumping into any career, please, please, please talk to someone in the industry and call around to chat with potential employers to get the real scoop. Schools are trying to sell you a product (tuition), so don’t just take their word for the job outlook for any career field. The pay is NOT good anymore, and there aren’t jobs available.
It breaks my heart to see other blogs saying that medication transcription is a great career where you can work from home. That just isn’t the case anymore. In my experience, medical transcription doesn’t fit into the idea of a Lazy Girl’s life!
Update: Completing a home course would definitely be the faster and cheaper way to go. Career Step (approximately $3,000) and Penn Foster (approximately $600) get the most buzz in the industry. This route can be done as quickly as 4 months, although you get out of it what you put in, and spending 4 months studying versus 2 years will definitely affect the quality of your education. By comparison, the local community college charges $152 per credit hour. The 2-year Associate Degree program requires 62 credit hours, plus books and other miscellaneous fees, costing approximately $11,000. They also offer a certificate, which requires 24 credit hours, plus books and fees for approximately $3,800. This option provides a more in-depth education, and credits are usually transferable should you decide to continue on for a Bachelor’s degree later on.) HOWEVER, I still would NOT recommend medical transcription as a career. Despite the fact that many schools still advertise this as a hot job, the career outlook is bad and only getting worse.