Performing Medical Billing and Medical Transcription from Home

If you are interested in a career, that can be performed from just about anywhere, medical billing and medical transcription from home offices may be for you! Performing some of the most critical, non-patient care tasks, medical billing and medical transcription process billing and ensure medical records are accurately maintained. Fortunately, there are many medical transcription and medical billing companies that allow telecommuters to work from home making the job ideal for the disabled, those without a vehicle or persons who must work out of their homes.

Using a different schedule from most other administrative types of jobs, medical transcription and billing companies assign workers and shift, and during that shift provide all of the work that needs to be done. The worker completes assignments within a given turn around time period which may last the duration of the shift, may end sooner or could last longer. This all depends on the complexity of the assignment, the speed of transcribing or payment processing and the professional knowledge in the areas of medical terminology and coding procedures.

Payments for medical transcription personnel are based on a per-line rate. This is also used to help determine if the worker is employed on a full or part-time basis. Depending on your employment status, companies expect workers to meet minimum line production requirements to keep their chosen employment status. When calculating rates, payments can vary based on the type of transcription being used. While traditional transcribing has been the standard method of practice, the introduction of voice recognition systems has allowed for greater transcribing efficiency. A downside to this process is the reduction of per-line pay for transcription personnel. Beginning voice recognition transcriptionists can expect to make 4 to 5 cents per line for voice recognition transcribing and 7 to 9 cents per line for traditional transcribing.

To enter into the field, prospective medical transcriptionists and medical coders must complete a preparatory course. These can be taken a vocational/technical centers, community colleges and through online career colleges. Prices will vary, but vocational technical centers will usually be the least expensive and private career colleges will be the most expensive. If interested in pursuing financial aid, make sure you choose a program that is at least six months in length. Also investigate to make sure the chosen school is eligible to participate in Federal Financial Aid, as this type of public aid has the most generous grants and repayment processes.

While waiting to get into a program, do some studying on your own. This will help provide a solid foundation for your first day of class. Some of the subjects you will want to study include medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, diseases and conditions, keyboarding and time management skills. You will learn these again in your program, but if introduced to these subjects early on, class lessons and introduced terminology will be learned much easier thanks to your solid pre-program studies. Once finished, remember to save all of your texts and use them as reference materials.