What Goes Into Starting A Successful Home Based Medical Transcription Business?
This article is advice about what medical transcription is, whatskills a home based medical transcriptionist needs, what theinitial investment is to start a home based medicaltranscription business and what someone should consider whenchoosing the right medical transcription training course.What Goes Into Starting A Successful Home Based MedicalTranscription Business?If you don't know that's OK! Most beginners to the home basedmedical transcription industry don't either but t...
...his websitewill give you an expert overview of the industry. We will alsodirect you to what is being referred to as "The Bible" of thehome based medical transcription business so whatever isn'tcovered here will be then (in-depth) by a very successful 9 yearhome based medical transcription veteran. You Won't Go Wrong IfYou Act Upon What We Share With You!Who Am I & Why Should You Follow My Advice?That's a fair question and I would be rather shocked if youdidn't want to know. Please understand that the following answerto your question is not an attempt to satisfy my own ego butrather to show you that I am not some "QUACK" that justdispenses unfounded theories or hype. My name is Paul Hackettand helping people start their own home based medical billing(MB) & medical transcription (MT) businesses is my passion.I am the president of a successful home based medical billingand transcription business (Stelo Medical Management, Inc.), amedical consultation business (Stelo Enterprises, Ltd.) and theauthor of the internets #1 selling home based medical billingbusiness startup guide entitled "Medical Billing Book For HomeBased Beginners".I've been in the home based medical billing & transcriptionbusiness for 8 years, built all my businesses from scratch, havehelped hundreds of medical billing & transcription beginnersstart their own home based MB & MT businesses. I have earned mytrust within both industries by giving out only useful andtruthful information about the field. Now that you know who I amand what I represent lets get down to the meat of the issue!Is Medical Transcription A Legitimate Home Based Business?Yes, it is and it has been for decades. It is not one of thosewidely advertised scams that you would see online or innewspapers like the medical billing industry is plagued with.Medical Transcriptionists have three options when deciding howthey want to work:1) Work inside a practice, hospital, etc.- if you take thisroute then you could make the equivalent of $9-15 per hourdepending on your skill, accuracy and geographic location. Aswith any other job you will be supplied with everything you need(including benefits) by your employer.2) Work as an independent/self employed medical transcriptionist- This is when you work completely for/by yourself, you takecare of your taxes, you sign up and maintain your ownclient/accounts, you market your services, you provide your ownbenefits, etc. You'll probably start out at the equivalent of$10-15 per hour (or 6-14c per line) and in time (years) youcould be earning the equivalent of $15-$40 per hour dependingupon the amount of work, clients and type of equipment that youuse. A lot of medical transcriptionist around the nation ratherdoing business this way (including me) and once you see the prosand cons of the business and speak to a CPA you'll see that thisroute is rather lucrative and you're the boss. Simply put, youown the company so you do whatever you must to make it asuccess. Or;3) Contract with a national company - with this type of medicaltranscription you are referred to as Statutory Employee. It isthe same as the above mentioned position with the exception thatthe company you contract with usually pays 7.5% of the FICA tax,they might give you certain equipment to do the job their wayand they will assign the workload expectation and pay.What Is Medical Transcription?Medical transcription is the process whereby one accurately andswiftly transcribes medical records dictated by doctors andothers, including history and physical reports, clinic notes,office notes, operative reports, consultation notes, dischargesummaries, letters, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory reports,x-ray reports and pathology reports.It involves receiving dictation by tape, digital system or voicefile, the use of ear/head phones, a foot pedal for start-stopcontrol, a variety of word processing programs and sometimes theuse of a printer and a modem. Today many home based medicaltranscriptionists still deliver their completed work back to theoffice but with technology being what it is now it's just assimple to deliver the work via a modem. If you work of anational company they may require you to use a modem to downloadand transmit the work.What Skills Does A Home Based Medical TranscriptionistNeed?Let me put it this way, having a computer at home and knowinghow to type fast is not enough to become a successful medicaltranscriptionist. You MUST:Take A Really Good Online Medical Transcription Training Course(or attend a good school-college-trade or vocational school),Have Good Listening Skills,Great English Grammar Skills,Excellent Computer Skills,Superior Research Skills,Possess High Typing Speeds With Great Accuracy,Pay Great Attention To Detail,Have A Great Foundation In Medical Terminology, Anatomy,Physiology, Pharmacology, Laboratory Tests And Values, MedicalEquipment and Procedures,Possess The Ability To Work Alone (Usually you won't have muchcontact with others),Possess The Ability To Work Under Pressure And Sometimes Under ADeadline, andPosses The Ability To Sit In Front Of A Computer For ExtendedAmounts Of Time.You will need to invest in several different types ofpublications such as: an English dictionary, a grammar and styleguide, a complete medical dictionary, a drug index, a laboratoryand pathology word book, a medical word book by specialty, asurgery word book, a medical abbreviation word book, otherspecialty word books and a physician directory and otherjournals.You will also need to use several different pieces of softwaresuch as a medical spellchecker and an abbreviation system suchas PRD or Smartype. You will also need to learn all you canabout your own computer so you can employ all the ticks andshortcuts within it to greatly enhance your productivity.Remember that you need to always have your hands on the keyboardbecause the more you type and type accurately is the greateryour pay will be.What's The Initial Investment Needed To Do MedicalTranscription?This varies and it depends on several factors like:Do you already have a home office or if you're starting fromscratch?Do you have formal medical transcription training or not?Do you already have most of the books you will need?Do you have the necessary software programs to do the jobprofessionally?Do you need to purchase additional software or hardware?The great thing is that you can buy most of the things you need(used) from places like Ebay and other places that support thehome based medical transcription industry. Your four majorpurchases will be your medical transcription training,transcriber, computer and reference books so your investmentwill be very minimal compared to doing medical billing from homewhere the investment can be as much as $6,000 to get thebusiness of the ground.How Do You Choose The Right Medical Transcription TrainingCourse?OK, this is the last segment that I'm going to cover but at theconclusion I will tell you exactly where to get the mostin-depth, informative and comprehensive medical transcriptiontraining for the least amount of money to start your home basedbusiness.When it comes to a medical transcription course or medicaltranscription correspondence course then you will have aplethora of choices (especially if you search online). So let'sstart with your choices:College CoursesVocational School or Trade SchoolOn The Job TrainingLearn On Your Own orOnline Medical Transcription Training Course or CorrespondenceCoursesNow allow me to say that how one medical transcriptionist gottheir training might not be right type of training for youbecause everyone learns differently.I know people that have learned the trade by doing on-the-jobtraining with the help of other experienced medicaltranscriptionists but the learning curve was huge because theyknew nothing before starting. I also know people that trainedthemselves (that's bold and I commend them) but even they havetold me if they were to do it all over again that they wouldhave learned it through some sort of school or online medicaltranscription training course (once again the learning curve isa killer). Here's a break down of what a good medicaltranscription training course should consist of:Medical Terminology,Acronyms, eponyms, abbreviations,Anatomy,Physiology,Laboratory tests and values,Medical procedures and equipment, Drugs,Transcription formatting,Ethics of medical transcription, Research methods and resources,Brush-up typing (if you need it),Brush-up English grammar ,Marketing,MT "business" skillsYou should also look for a medical transcription training coursethat will give you all the up-to-date equipment you'll need tolearn on (at no addition charge), award you with a "CertificateOf Completion" (not to be confused with "Certification") and ifthe course or school has employment programs for after youcomplete the medical transcription training at no additionexpense to you then that's great!I have had the opportunity to speak with several working MT's,home based MT's, schools, online medical transcription trainingcourses, the alumni of medical transcription training programsand then applied my own experience to base my conclusions on. Ifeel that if you have the time to attend a good local college,vocational or trade school then go that route (it will beexpensive) but if you don't have the time or money then take agood online medical transcription training course. The problemlike I said is that there are so many that it's an overwhelmingtask to choose a good and affordable one .I chose the following because they give you a very well-roundededucation, great phone-email-fax-mail support and a slew ofbonuses that come with the course instead of as an addition withan extra charge. Here are a few extras: up-to-date equipmentused in the industry, a copy of the course in hard copy,unlimited number of final exam retakes, 2 year graduate jobdatabase membership, letters of recommendation, reasonablepayment options, evaluation of your resume for employment,evaluation of your home based MT sales/marketing letter and ahotline to help you after you become employed just to name a few.You'll see that you have four different learning options thatare very well priced depending on what goals you are trying toachieve. For Example: lets say that you choose their "Home BasedMedical Center Package" to learn medical transcription, medicalbilling and medical coding (Wow! What A Package). Think abouthow much you'll be worth to a physician, group practice, clinic,hospital, nursing home, etc..Imagine the amounts of money/salary that you'll command fromemployers or your clients due to your knowledge of all threeprofessions. Plus in a home based business you'll have theability to offer each of your clients three distinct servicescompared to most businesses that only offer one (you'll befinancially secure in no time)! So without further delay here'smy #1 choice for the best medical transcription training courseof 2005: http://tinyurl.com/2347z.Trust me when I say you'll be doing yourself and your business abig disservice if you don't enroll because if you train with the2nd or 3rd best what's the likelihood you'll be considered as a1st rate medical transcriptionist in your potential clients eyes?Starting a medical transcription business from home is notrocket science but you should get all the expert advice that youcan so that your journey will be a less rocky one. I have readseveral "Home Based Medical Transcription Books" but none ofthem cater to the beginners to the industry or even come closeto the amount of useful information that is given in Michele'sbook entitled "Step-By-Step Guide To Medical Transcription AtHome" http://tinyurl.com/wool.You must read Michele's ebook today because she covers all thenecessary topics that you must know about the field and becauseshe also owns a very successful home based medical transcriptionbusiness she is more than qualified to help you become thesuccess that you see yourself being.I've really enjoyed the time we've spent together today and Ihope that you learned what you need to consider before youdecide to venture into the home based medical transcriptionbusiness.Here's To Your Success,Paul Hackett "The Medical Business Mastermind"
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