Medical Transcribing

[NaturalMama311]

In March I quit my FT job to be a SAHM and I LOVE it. However, money has been tight and the agreement was that I woudl get a PT WAHM job. Well, 4 months later I still have nothing.

DH and I have talked about it a lot and we think the only reliable, stable income will be if I start doing Medical Transcribing. We are willing to make the investment for the proper training but I can't seem to get a handle on what is out there....I've seen training from $800 - $5,000.

Anyone out there have any advice on what the best training program is? I've seen that there are some programs that are certified by AHDI (fomerly AAMT) but they seem to be the pricier ones. I think the lowest priced of the certified programs is just over $2,000.....and they seem to be quite lengthy programs too, some 12 months.

We can't afford for me not be brining in money for another 12 months so I'm looking for a shorter program, and hopefully a cheaper one. I did find "Future MT" (http://www.futuremt.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx) which is $795 and about a 3-6 month course. Anyone have experience with this company?

Please someone out there help me out, I need to start making money soon or DH is going to insist that I go back to work FT and put DD in daycare. :

[desertpenguin]

I can't say what the best training program is, but one of my friend's told me about Penn Foster and that is the program she is taking. I'm going to be taking this program too. I will be getting my first set of materials on Monday. However that program you linked to sounds really great and it's cheaper than the one at Penn Foster.

[Jude-a-buddies-mom]

I'm getting ready to start with Career Step medical transcription program. They have an A+ with the Better Business Bureau and I have heard their training is good. It is not as short as what you are looking for, my goal is to finish it in 8 months. I have a home daycare right now with two children in my care. I would check with the Better Business Bureau and do some googling of any training to get a handle on feedback for them.

[becoming]

I'm a medical transcriptionist and work from home. I was a Career Step student but didn't finish the program due to landing a dream job that would take me with only a year of transcription experience. I really recommend Career Step, and I'm not one of their paid recruiters. Being a medical transcriptionist already while doing the program (I was doing it because I didn't have enough experience to get hired with most companies), I thought the program was laid out really well and covered everything you need to know as a transcriptionist. It's not as inexpensive as the program you mentioned (I think it's around $1800 now), but I've heard that Career Step and Andrews are the only two worthwhile programs for MT. Good luck! I really love the job and do it with all my kids at home with me with no problems.

[greenemami]

Another working MT who went with Career Step. It did take me about a year to finish, but I could have done it faster. My advice, if you go with it, is to not spend so much time on the first half, which I did and it dragged on and on-it is good for a base knowledge, but didn't need to memorize quite so much vocab Anyway, I think it was a good program and I think I made back the cost of the program (which was somewhere around 1200 if I am remembering correctly?) within the first month or two of working. BTW, I work after my dp gets home for a couple hours, but mostly work at night after she goes to sleep, so it is a lot of very late nights and not much sleep. I think it is the best I could come up with though, and feel very lucky to have the job I do and still be able to be home with dd.

[becoming]

Same here. I do most of my work early in the mornings before my kids wake up and late at nights after they go to sleep, so I do not get much sleep with this career. If you expect to be a "stay-at-home mom" for all intents and purposes during the day, be ready for very early mornings and very late nights.

[mom2girl~n~boy]

Originally Posted by becoming

Same here. I do most of my work early in the mornings before my kids wake up and late at nights after they go to sleep, so I do not get much sleep with this career. If you expect to be a "stay-at-home mom" for all intents and purposes during the day, be ready for very early mornings and very late nights.

I am interested in this route.. I have to ask you..

on average, how many hours of sleep do you get a night? I am a nigh owl so I can do late night. But I gotta ask, when do your kids go to bed.. mean about what time do you start working at night? And another question, about how many hours do you put in a day? Is this kinda job something where you got stop and start throughout the day if need be?

Just wondering...sorry to pick your brain.. but I was really wanting to get some feedback before I dish out my money for this and then it's something I don't want to do.

TIA!
Wendy

[abiyhayil]

Subbing, I will be taking my final friday and saturday with career step. I am wondering how to go about a job search?

[GAmomto5]

Originally Posted by abiyhayil

Subbing, I will be taking my final friday and saturday with career step. I am wondering how to go about a job search?

I have been a transcriptionist (at home) for 13 years. The best place to look for a job is probably www.mtjobs.com. Now, you have to understand that most want experienced MTs, but you may find someone who is willing to hire a "newbie." You also have to understand you won't be making a whole heck of a lot in the beginning, especially if you are working for a national company and don't have your own accounts. Getting your own accounts (as in doing transcription for docs in your area) are hard to come by, especially with no experience. The average pay with a national company is about 0.7/line. So, if you type 1000 lines a day (which is usually the minimum a company wants you to type, sometimes more), you will make $70.00/day before taxes. Depending on how fast you type and how well you know that specialty, 1000 lines/day is doable in about 6 hours or so. Realistically though, for a new MT, it may take you longer. Just don't get discouraged because your speed will increase as your knowledge increases. The emphasis, however, should be on using the correct terminology and using the right grammer and punctuation, not on speed. That will come as you gain experience.

Thats more info than you asked for, but I like to give newbies a heads up so they know what to expect before looking for their first job.

I also second Career Step and Andrews as being the best online schools. They are a little pricey, but well worth it when looking for a job because employers look favorably on these graduates.

HTH

[becoming]

Originally Posted by mom2girl~n~boy

on average, how many hours of sleep do you get a night? I am a nigh owl so I can do late night. But I gotta ask, when do your kids go to bed.. mean about what time do you start working at night? And another question, about how many hours do you put in a day? Is this kinda job something where you got stop and start throughout the day if need be?

My situation is unique in that my husband works offshore and is gone for two weeks at a time, then home for two weeks, so my schedule is much different when he's gone than when he's home. When he's gone, I work from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and then about two more hours at night after my kids go to sleep. Their bedtime is highly variable, anytime from 9 to 11. I try to make sure I get six hours of sleep. When DH is home, I work from 8:30 a.m. to noon, eat lunch, and get back on from 1:00 until time to go get DS1 from school, around 2:45. I work a little bit more, maybe another hour, after we get home from picking him up. Then I don't have to work at night. My goal is 125 minutes a day, and I get paid $1.06 per dictated minute, so I make around $132.50 a day before taxes on the weekdays. I get weekend differential ($0.15 extra per minute) on the weekends, so I try to do at least 50 minutes on Saturday and 50 minutes on Sunday. I have been doing this for several years and am FAST and accurate -- I type around 130 wpm regular rate and can type 150 wpm if I push myself. I've learned, though, from other transcriptionists that my job is highly abnormal. It's rare to find a job that pays per dictated minute, and we are paid really well. It's a local company, and I was very lucky to have found it.

Oh, and I should add that, when I posted my previous post about working "very early" in the mornings, that was back before school started when I was getting up at 6:00 to work before my kids got up. Now that school has started back up, I'm back to waiting until after I take my oldest to school before I start working.

[GAmomto5]

Originally Posted by becoming

My situation is unique in that my husband works offshore and is gone for two weeks at a time, then home for two weeks, so my schedule is much different when he's gone than when he's home. When he's gone, I work from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and then about two more hours at night after my kids go to sleep. Their bedtime is highly variable, anytime from 9 to 11. I try to make sure I get six hours of sleep. When DH is home, I work from 8:30 a.m. to noon, eat lunch, and get back on from 1:00 until time to go get DS1 from school, around 2:45. I work a little bit more, maybe another hour, after we get home from picking him up. Then I don't have to work at night. My goal is 125 minutes a day, and I get paid $1.06 per dictated minute, so I make around $132.50 a day before taxes on the weekdays. I get weekend differential ($0.15 extra per minute) on the weekends, so I try to do at least 50 minutes on Saturday and 50 minutes on Sunday. I have been doing this for several years and am FAST and accurate -- I type around 130 wpm regular rate and can type 150 wpm if I push myself. I've learned, though, from other transcriptionists that my job is highly abnormal. It's rare to find a job that pays per dictated minute, and we are paid really well. It's a local company, and I was very lucky to have found it.

Oh, and I should add that, when I posted my previous post about working "very early" in the mornings, that was back before school started when I was getting up at 6:00 to work before my kids got up. Now that school has started back up, I'm back to waiting until after I take my oldest to school before I start working.

I assume that you are working part-time, but I wanted to see how my numbers compared to yours, getting paid by the line versus paid by the minute. I had never actually "known" anyone who got paid this way and I was curious. I get paid 0.14/line on one of my accounts so when I finished a dictation for one day (took about 3 hours), it calculated out that I made $4.10/minute. You might want to renegotiate and possibly get paid per line. Since you work for a company, it might be though that what you are getting paid per minute turns out to be more than what they would be willing to pay per line. Just a thought!

[greenemami]

Originally Posted by mom2girl~n~boy

I am interested in this route.. I have to ask you..

on average, how many hours of sleep do you get a night? I am a nigh owl so I can do late night. But I gotta ask, when do your kids go to bed.. mean about what time do you start working at night? And another question, about how many hours do you put in a day? Is this kinda job something where you got stop and start throughout the day if need be?

Just wondering...sorry to pick your brain.. but I was really wanting to get some feedback before I dish out my money for this and then it's something I don't want to do.

TIA!
Wendy

I generally work for 2 hours after dp gets home from work (usually 4-6) then start after dd goes to bed-usually starting around 9 on a good night until 1 am. Dd is usually up at 7ish. I'm pregnant now, so I haven't been working as late, and frankly I have no idea how I am going to manage when the baby comes-I am trusting it all to work out, lol. I am not all that fast, but I usually end up doing 4000 lines a week, including working a few hours on Saturday morning. I try to pick up a few lines during her nap time, but she hasn't been napping lately, and work seems to be coming in later in the day. It is hard to plan ahead until you get a job-I was lucky to get a job where I can work whenever I want/whenver there is work, and am only working up to a line count, not hours. Many places are not like this.

[Purple Sage]

I am a Career Step student, and I think the course is very thorough. I agree with not spending as much time on the first half of the course - I wish I had known that when I started or I might not have had to purchase an extension. I had a baby (#4) in March, so that's my excuse for not finishing the program in a year.

This thread is very reassuring to me since I am almost finished with the course and starting to think of getting a job.

[becoming]

Originally Posted by GAmomto5

I assume that you are working part-time, but I wanted to see how my numbers compared to yours, getting paid by the line versus paid by the minute. I had never actually "known" anyone who got paid this way and I was curious. I get paid 0.14/line on one of my accounts so when I finished a dictation for one day (took about 3 hours), it calculated out that I made $4.10/minute. You might want to renegotiate and possibly get paid per line. Since you work for a company, it might be though that what you are getting paid per minute turns out to be more than what they would be willing to pay per line. Just a thought!

Hmm...that's interesting. When I was going on the Career Step forums while doing the program, everyone was saying that 8 cpl was good pay and that 9 cpl and above was pretty much unheard of.

My best friend was working for a line pay company recently (Medquist) and was having a hard time making any real money. According to her, she is making about three times as much money now working for the same company I work for, with minute pay.

And yes, I am only working about 4 hours a day.

[Fuamami]

I'm also working on the CareerStep program, and have finished about 1/3 of the actual transcription part, so I'm getting closer.

Becoming, I agree with you about cpl, from what I've seen. Though if you're experienced, that could make a difference. Everything I've seen, though, is to expect about 6 to 6.5 cents per line to start. And I've been timing myself to see about how fast I am, and I think I will only be doing about 125 lines max when I get started. So it's not like I'm going to be rolling in it, you know?

Anyway, to the OP, if I were to do it over again I would have taken a much cheaper and faster course. But, I already had really good spelling and fairly good grammar and just needed the transcription practice. So I would have done something that pretty much just provided that, and then started looking for jobs. But I can't really look for jobs now, with a half-finished program.

[abiyhayil]

Well my career step program isn't going as I planned (which is entirely my fault). I signed up in april '08 thinking I could breeze through and finish the final by the time I started nursing school(clinical portion) in september. I kept putting it off and here I am I need to purchase a second extension and I've only finished about 20 reports. I now have my lpn, but I would still like to finish the program. I have two more attempts at the final, I hope the slurred phrases get easier to interptet Does anyone know if the cassettes are the same as online?

[GAmomto5]

Originally Posted by becoming

Hmm...that's interesting. When I was going on the Career Step forums while doing the program, everyone was saying that 8 cpl was good pay and that 9 cpl and above was pretty much unheard of.

My best friend was working for a line pay company recently (Medquist) and was having a hard time making any real money. According to her, she is making about three times as much money now working for the same company I work for, with minute pay.

And yes, I am only working about 4 hours a day.

Lindsay - you are right. 8 cpl IS good pay when working for a company and yes, 9 cpl is almost unheard of, which really stinks. I have my own accounts and don't work for a company, and thats why I can charge what I do. When I did, I was making 9 cpl and felt very lucky. In actuality, you know that company is charging 18-20 cpl and only giving the transcriptionist 7 or 8 cpl. Thats total BS, to me!

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by abiyhayil

Well my career step program isn't going as I planned (which is entirely my fault). I signed up in april '08 thinking I could breeze through and finish the final by the time I started nursing school(clinical portion) in september. I kept putting it off and here I am I need to purchase a second extension and I've only finished about 20 reports. I now have my lpn, but I would still like to finish the program. I have two more attempts at the final, I hope the slurred phrases get easier to interptet Does anyone know if the cassettes are the same as online?

I've heard they are. There is lots of slurring and garbling and I've asked a couple of times to make sure it wasn't my headphones or sound card and the tech guy keeps saying it's just how it is. It's supposed to give you a real-world experience.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by abiyhayil

Well my career step program isn't going as I planned (which is entirely my fault). I signed up in april '08 thinking I could breeze through and finish the final by the time I started nursing school(clinical portion) in september. I kept putting it off and here I am I need to purchase a second extension and I've only finished about 20 reports. I now have my lpn, but I would still like to finish the program. I have two more attempts at the final, I hope the slurred phrases get easier to interptet Does anyone know if the cassettes are the same as online?

You took the final after only doing 20 reports?

I just started the Advanced Acute Care section. The slurred phrases are difficult, but it gets easier the more you do it. I'm looking at having to purchase a second extension, too, which is completely my fault. I would have hurried through the first half of the course if I knew how long it would take to do all the reports!

[abiyhayil]

Originally Posted by GAmomto5

most want experienced MTs

Thanks so much for the info, sorry I just read your post! So getting hired is pretty much based on luck?