medical coding training at home.
You've likely seen ads, heard commercials, or read fluff filled articles about how training for a career in medical transcription can help you create an instant career. Chances are you probably thought, "Hey, I wonder if I can do that." Let's clear up a few myths and misconceptions about medical transcription.
As a transcriptionist I've been asked this question more times than I can count.
Loretta, I would like to take a course on medical billing and/or coding or medical transcription so that I can work at home over the summer. Which course do you recommend? Also, is this work difficult and do many medical companies hire home workers for this?
These are my own personal opinions based on my business experiences and research I've done online. I am a general and legal transcriptionist, I've never personally trained, studied, or even attempted to do medical transcription and these are the reasons why.
The first thing to clear up is that a lot of times people confuse medical coding and billing with transcription. They are not the same thing, however there are many people in the field that do both billing and transcription work in the offices they work for.
Most of the programs that are offered online for this that promise work from home opportunities for medical billing and coding and medical transcription are a huge waste of time. You can always look at your local community college or find a doctor/hospital with an internship program if this something you are truly interested in. As a side note, small town doctor's offices are usually more willing to train someone new for doing their billing and/or transcription work than those in the bigger cities.
Most offices and hospitals will require you to work in house for at least a year in their billing department, sometimes 2 or more years, before allowing you to telecommute. The same goes for medical transcription. Security being the main reason for this. Think about the information you give your doctor... it would be completely irresponsible for them to hand that off to just anyone.
If your main goal is to work only from home, medical billing/coding/transcription is probably not the best path to take. While I realize that's not the advice or information anyone wants to hear, it's my honest opinion on the subject and something I tell people often.
To further elaborate on the amount of work at home jobs available in this field for those wondering...
I've personally been working from completely from home since 2001 and in that time I have been a member of so many work at home mom groups, forums, email lists, communities, message boards, and chat discussions that I lost count ages ago. I've met hundreds of work at home moms and entrepreneurs virtually and quite a few in person as well. In all that time, with all that networking, with all that chatting, I've only ever met ONE person that did medical billing or transcription from home, and she didn't even work 100% from home, she was in the office Monday and Thursday, and at home Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. It took her nearly five years to convince her boss of that arrangement.
medical coding training at home.