Working from home? - Page 3

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@chrystaltree wrote:
@Moonchilde wrote:
Doing medical transcription from home is very far from a scam; the majority of medical transcription in the US is done from home.

One cannot do medical transcription cold without a great deal of not only training, but practice before a first job. Literally years of training and practice. Seriously. Years.

The old back-of-the-magazine "learn transcription" ads were misleading not so much because there were no jobs (at that time there were tons of jobs) but because the training they offered was never even close to sufficient.

Today, you might get a service to take you on for doctor's office notes (which use the least medical terminology) IF you have a very good aptitude for English spelling and grammar. But you are usually paid a pittance per line and beginners usually work the graveyard shift.

The only bona fide ways to learn medical transcription to the ability level to make decent ("good" money is no longer possible IMO) is from the training modules of the American Association for Medical Transcription (costly) or many semesters at a community college and even then your knowledge won't be as thorough as AAMT's courses. But you would perhaps know enough for a supplement to income, not to support yourself.

Thanks for that. It's unfortunate but there still people who actually believe that there are medical transcription and medical coding jobs available to anyone. They have no idea whatsoever about what the jobs really entail or the education or training that is required. I'm a certified coder myself but I work as a Health Information Management specialist, not as a coder. A lot of the transcription work is outsourced to India now. Medical coding too. The hospital I work for has not had in house transcriptionists for many years. The hospital my husband works for is in the process of outsourcing the majority of the medical coding to a couple of companies in India. Every year there are fewer and fewer of those jobs for anyone.

Don't I know it, @chrystaltree :-(

The first 15 or so years of my career I could name my salary and had my choice of hospitals. Several years in a row I got 15% raises just to keep me. Then the outsourcing began. I'd say for half of my 47 years transcribing I was in constant fear of my job being outsourced and was only one step ahead of hospitals closing their depts. I hung on at my final job only because it was Pathology and was a multi-tasking position (which, as a pure transcriptionist by preference, I hated), so not outsource-able. The doctors refused outsourcing through several administrations but they can't hang on forever :-(

I seriously wanted to take a legit coding course because I knew I'd make better money coding from home than transcribing from home, but the good courses are expensive, and the community college classes went on for a couple of years - and as I got older, just working 40 hrs a week took a toll on me mentally & physically so it never happened.

In theory I could transcribe from home now, but in reality since I've moved my wifi isn't reliable enough and is data capped - and when I researched nationwide services nearly all their offerings were on the graveyard shift and precious few of those. I could proof-read and QA voice recognition, but again...kwappy wifi. If better wifi is ever possible I'd love to just to keep my hand in.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

tansy · ‎01-02-2011

I had eight years of medical transcription training and experience before I branched out with my home-based service for two large hospital ER departments. I was delighted to give up that work after ten years.

AuntG · ‎03-09-2010

My employer offers it for several positions, but you first work in the office to learn the job. Then if a work at home job opens you, you must apply for it. They know what you are doing every minute so you must be productive.

shaggygirl · ‎11-24-2011

I know someone who works from home nights for one of the cable companies when people call with TV issues. He said mostly he helps old people who don't sleep well at night and screw up their tv pictures while pressing the buttons on their remotes. Think he might have been joking (or maybe not) when he said he gets a lot of little old ladies who CAN'T GET THEIR QVC because they screwed something up.

Mom2Dogs · ‎03-09-2010

@DMM05...my step daughter worked for a call center taking orders....unforunately she is not discipined and would literally roll out of bed, put on her head set and work or some days not work!!

I will say she had other issues going on but for her that type of job was not good but if you are disciplined I think it can work.

I can google, work at home...with my area included, you will see a lot of well known companies that hire to work at home. Most are call centers taking orders for hotels, shopping etc.

My step daughter had to buy her own equipment and have a good internet connection, she also had benefits.

ccassaday · ‎10-21-2010

I would look for a legit job that might offer a work at home possibility. Then during the interview process discuss it. My sister started working at home a few years ago three days so she could drop the kids off at school and pick them up. Her husband did it the other two days when she worked at the office. She does blueprints for a home builder. So it was easy to bring work home.

kitcat51 · ‎09-15-2016

@OfCourse My neighbor is away on vacation but as soon as she returns home I'll ask.

OfCourse · ‎08-26-2017

@kitcat51 wrote:
@OfCourse My neighbor is away on vacation but as soon as she returns home I'll ask.

@kitcat51 I'd appreciate that so much!! Thank you!

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@tansy wrote:
I had eight years of medical transcription training and experience before I branched out with my home-based service for two large hospital ER departments. I was delighted to give up that work after ten years.

That sounds like a good grounding, @tansy. I am actually one who learned "on the job", which was possible back in the day when there was no organized training. I started with radiology, then did cardiopulmonary, then pathology, and general medical records transcription of the Big 5. At one time (before I let the paper cert lapse because of all the yearly fees) I was a CMT. In SoCal, at that time a CMT earned more than someone not certified, automatically by virtue of the cert.

I loved the work, it was the "production typing" aspect that killed me - I had carpal tunnel, bowler's thumb and epicondylitis repeatedly over the years necessitating meds, PT and acupuncture. In the days before ergonomics I used to have horrible stiff necks that required PT and injections. That was also back in the day when you "didn't dare" go for worker's comp :-(

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@chrystaltree wrote:
@Moonchilde wrote:
Doing medical transcription from home is very far from a scam; the majority of medical transcription in the US is done from home.

One cannot do medical transcription cold without a great deal of not only training, but practice before a first job. Literally years of training and practice. Seriously. Years.

The old back-of-the-magazine "learn transcription" ads were misleading not so much because there were no jobs (at that time there were tons of jobs) but because the training they offered was never even close to sufficient.

Today, you might get a service to take you on for doctor's office notes (which use the least medical terminology) IF you have a very good aptitude for English spelling and grammar. But you are usually paid a pittance per line and beginners usually work the graveyard shift.

The only bona fide ways to learn medical transcription to the ability level to make decent ("good" money is no longer possible IMO) is from the training modules of the American Association for Medical Transcription (costly) or many semesters at a community college and even then your knowledge won't be as thorough as AAMT's courses. But you would perhaps know enough for a supplement to income, not to support yourself.

Thanks for that. It's unfortunate but there still people who actually believe that there are medical transcription and medical coding jobs available to anyone. They have no idea whatsoever about what the jobs really entail or the education or training that is required. I'm a certified coder myself but I work as a Health Information Management specialist, not as a coder. A lot of the transcription work is outsourced to India now. Medical coding too. The hospital I work for has not had in house transcriptionists for many years. The hospital my husband works for is in the process of outsourcing the majority of the medical coding to a couple of companies in India. Every year there are fewer and fewer of those jobs for anyone.

I did some medical billing from home for a couple of years for a small private company owned by some friends of mine. It was a legit job, I could work any hours I wanted to, as long as I met the deadline to get the work in.

I didn't continue because I had no experience in the field prior to that job, and got a lot of promises for additional training so I could advance and do more varied work, but it never came to fruition.

I like to be good at what I do, and I couldn't get my friends to spend the time (or get employees already in the company to do so) to teach me what I needed to know, so I felt like I was not giving them adequate performance. Honestly, had I not been working for a friend, I might have stayed at it, but I just felt like I wasn't giving them their money's worth, and didn't want to do that to friends, so I left the company.

So maybe the place to start would be checking with friends you know who own businesses and see if there is work they might have that you could do from home.