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Health Providers Seek More Medical Coders and
Transcriptionists
If you want to work in health care but don't want
to be directly involved
in patient care, a healthy career choice for you may be that of a
medical
coder or transcriptionist. These are behind-the-scenes jobs in the
medical
field.
Transcribe This
Have you ever been able to read a doctor's note? Probably not. But you
would learn if you were a medical transcriptionist.
Medical transcriptionists are medical language specialists. By
interpreting
and transcribing, they detail the health care obtained by a patient
after
an injury or during an illness.
They listen to dictation tapes or read notes made by doctors about
patient
visits and then accurately record this information using computers.
Fast typing is an important part of this job. Karen Beckley is a
transcriptionist.
She says even though typing is very important, don't count this career
out
if you are a poor typist. She was not fast at typing at first.
"When I was in school, I thought I would never become a
transcriptionist
because I was so bad at typing. When I got into the real world, though,
and
took a transcription position, I learned that I was very good at it and
took
pride in it because I was so fast and accurate," says Beckley.
It's All in the Code
Medical coders have specialized knowledge as health technicians. They
assign
numerical codes to the diagnosis and procedures that a doctor requests
to
help a patient.
These codes are important. An error could result in a wrong clinical
decision
or a financial loss to the doctor or hospital.
If you were working as a coder, you would apply a code to a doctor's
note
that, for example, a patient was suffering from whiplash caused by an
automobile
accident. This coding would impact the reimbursement the doctor would
get
from the patient's insurance plan.
There are codes for everything from upset stomachs to brain surgery.
They
tell the insurance company what the problem was and how it was handled.
Why are These Occupations in Demand?
Our society is getting older. That means more people need more medical
tests, treatments and procedures. And that means an increasing need for
transcriptionists.
Plus, organizations like Medicare will continue to carefully scrutinize
billing.
So skilled medical coders will be in demand.
Jobs for health information technicians will grow much faster than
average
through 2016. That's according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook
(OOH).
The biggest demand will be in large group practices of doctors, as well
as nursing homes and home health agencies, says the OOH. Hospitals will
still
hire lots of medical coders, but the growth will not be as fast as the
other
areas, it adds.
Transcriptionists are also in short supply. For a while, some people
were
concerned that technological advances like voice recognition software
might
have a negative impact on the demand for workers. But that doesn't
appear
to be the case.
"In doing my business plan, I looked into voice recognition and it is a
long way off," says transcriptionist Carla Young. "Most physicians
don't want
to bother with it because it is time-consuming and costly."
Sandra Lenting agrees. She has been a transcriptionist for 11 years in
a hospital setting.
"There has been a lot of talk about voice-activated transcription, but
I am wondering what the machine is going to do about interpreting heavy
accents,"
says Lenting. "I see no let up in work or job opportunities in this
field.
We can even work at home and receive jobs and send our completed
reports over
the Internet."
What Kind of Training Do You Need?
To be a medical coder, you will need some training. Exactly how much
depends
on your objective, and on who you talk to.
"Coders are highly skilled individuals who have graduated from a
medical
record program with an associate or bachelor's degree and have sat for
a national
exam to achieve their credential," says Cheryl Bowling. She manages the
coding
department for a medical center in Michigan.
The American Health Information Management Association sponsors the
certification
exam for medical coders. Successfully completing the exam gives a coder
the
title of either certified coding specialist (CCS) or certified
procedural
coder (CPC).
The OOH recommends that secondary students take courses in biology,
health,
chemistry and computers to prepare for this kind of work.
What is the Pay?
Young, Beckley and Lenting agree that you could realistically expect to
make in the range of $12 to $14 per hour as a medical transcriptionist.
The most recent figures available from the Occupational Employment
Statistics
places the average earnings of health information technicians at
$28,030.
Here are some things about these careers that you should know:
- You need to be detailed-oriented and have a
high level of concentration.
- These are computer-based occupations, which
means there is risk for things
like eyestrain and repetitive strain injuries.
- There is a lot of sitting with these jobs.
- Opportunities exist to work from home,
especially for transcriptionists.
- Because there are various training and
certification options, it is wise
to talk with employers in your area about what kind of credentials they
require.
In short, career opportunities for medical coders and transcriptionists
get a healthy diagnosis!
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Net Sites
|
Occupational Outlook Handbook
For more information related to this field, see
Health Information Technicians in the OOH
http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos103.htm
A Career in Healthcare Documentation
Learn more about working in this field from the
ADHI
http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/careermt.cfm
MT Daily
An online community of thousands of medical
transcriptionists
http://www.mtdaily.com/
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