If a youngster with basic college education would ask around for a career that would offer consistent growth, the answer would be medical transcriptionist (MT). Starting as an MT trainee, the candidate could move on to the positions of transcriptionist, supervisor, editor, work-from-home professional, and also head towards consulting or other interesting avenues.
Medical transcription is a lucrative job not only for youngsters fresh out of college, but also homemakers and older individuals looking to earn big and have an interesting life. And the demand for MTs keeps rising since healthcare organizations have been enforced with increasing documentation responsibilities. Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has projected a slower than average 6% growth rate for the job from 2012 to 2020, the ageing population is expected to raise the demand. As of 2012, the median pay for MTs was $34,020 per year and $16.36 per hour.
Medical Transcription Is Integral to Healthcare
Transcription of medical reports serves the needs of hospitals, clinical practices, nursing homes and individual physicians. HIPAA norms are strictly enforced, and the physician needs to stay out of trouble to avoid legal hassles. With greater coding and billing responsibilities, on account of the coming ICD-10 implementation, physicians and other medical professionals have a lot to handle. Their coding has to be accurate if they are to receive prompt and adequate reimbursement for their services.
This makes outsourcing medical transcription or maintaining dedicated staff for the purpose important. The demand will always be there, since efficient transcription can enable physicians to have reliable records of treatment and diagnoses, and retrieve those documents easily whenever required. This ultimately helps in providing better healthcare to patients. Moreover, doctors can focus on providing care.
Need for Accuracy Makes Outsourcing Essential
skilled manpower is a must. This is why trained transcribers are always in demand. The need for precision is also why outsourcing is considered to be a better option. While healthcare practices can maintain staff exclusively for transcription, it could be a drain on the resources while also requiring a significant infrastructural investment. Outsourcing ensures cost-effective and large scale transcription.
Offshore medical transcription is usually more cost effective. Medical transcription providers have software and all the technical nuts and bolts for effective transcription. This technology also filters down to the dictation options. While audio recorders are conventionally provided by transcription companies to doctors for dictating files, speech recognition software is now taking the upper hand since it enables automatic audio conversion to text format.
The bottom-line is, the demand for medical transcription underscores its importance to the healthcare industry – and it has evolved successfully according to the changing needs.
