Posted: 12/21/2014 7:00:38 PM EDT
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Anyone do this or know someone that does? My wife is thinking about doing this. ETA: Title change. I mixed up Medical billing/Coding with medical transcripting  |
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My mother had a biz doing it from '79 till maybe mid 90's. You gotta know what the doc is talking about because they have garbled speech sometimes and you cant just keep calling them asking what they're saying If the transcriptionists can't understand what the doctors are mumbling, they put a big blank line in the transcription and the doctors get to type in in themselves. They generally learn to speak where someone can mostly understand them. |
| A friend has been doing it for more than 10 years, mostly working from home. It's going the way of the dodo. With voice recognition software, there's a decreasing need for the transcriptionists. My friend says there is a growing need for EDITORS of the transcripts, but you don't make as much. |
| My wife is a certified medical coder and certified radiology coder. She went to school for it after she got laid off from her bookkeeping job several years back. She absolutely loves it. She works for a billing company owned by a group of doctors. Looks forward to going to work and even logs in from home on occassion just so she doesn't get backed up. They absolutely love her. |
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Quoted:
Anyone do this or know someone that does? My wife is thinking about doing this. ETA: Title change. I mixed up Medical billing/Coding with medical transcripting
I handle legal and injury claims for a large insurer; we have one lady in the office that does this for us. Seems like quiet, boring work. We basically get tons of medical bills, each and every procedure has a "code" which describes what the procedure is and what is the common charge for it. She them compiles it for us and prints out a customary and reasonable report for me. I look it over and try to offer the client a fair settlement. She seems to like it. Kinda' boring I think. 
We have software for it; I believe its called Mitchells International. But the human interaction with the software is still important. She basically produces a short report with what was "billed" - a short description of what it was and what is a "fair" price for it. She seems happy, doesnt have to talk to customers and listens to AM radio in the background all day. I can always catch up on Rush Limbaugh when i'm in her office. |
| Coding is getting more and more complicated, especially with the imminent transition to ICD-10. Computer software is taking more of a lead role, but there should continue to be a strong demand for people with expert knowledge in the field. It is an unnecessarily complex system and will continue to get worse. |
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Quoted: A friend has been doing it for more than 10 years, mostly working from home. It's going the way of the dodo. With voice recognition software, there's a decreasing need for the transcriptionists. My friend says there is a growing need for EDITORS of the transcripts, but you don't make as much. In the old days, the physicians/nurses wrote your temperature on a chart. Then a transcriptionist would read the chart, and type 98.6 into a computer. Now, the physicians/nurses immediately enter your temperature into a desktop/tablet. |
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My sister was a long time medical transcriptionist. Those positions are getting phased out and voice recognition software is being used instead.
She had enough seniority to avoid getting laid off and transferred over to the medical coding department. It involved several weeks of training and passing an exam at the end of the class. She works from home most days. Her employer installed a separate Internet line just for the work computer. She has to commute a couple days a month to the central office several hours away. Not sure if she likes it anymore. But she's trained, has good benefits and it pays the bills. |
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I work for a health care company that adopted an Electronic Health Record system (EHR) 3 years ago. The demand for coders only increased, and now the United States is going to switch to the ICD-10 system in October 2015, which is more complicated and makes medical encounters even more time-consuming to code because it's so much more detailed than the current ICD-9 nomenclature. So I think the work is going to be there if she gets trained and certified.
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The pay is low and some doctors can be difficult to deal with. Advances in medical software will eventually make the occupation of transcription obsolete. I recommend that she shoot for a position as Hospital Biller or Professional Biller. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted: The pay is low and some doctors can be difficult to deal with. Advances in medical software will eventually make the occupation obsolete. I recommend that she shoot for a position as Hospital Billed or Professional Biller. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile  Way to cut costs.BTW the idea that incorporating IT into the medical business would create efficiencies, cost-cutting, better care and outcomes for patients? There's almost no evidence that they have. But man the companies that build and maintain EHR systems have been doing great.
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| The pay is not low if you know what your doing and excel at it. My wife makes over 75k as a medical biller for a small 3 doctor neurosurgeon practice just outside of Sacramento. She has been coding and billing for 15 years and was just called from a doctor she worked for 5 years ago to come in and consult and train 2 new billers for him, he paid her at 45.00 dollars an hour to do this over the course of 2 months |
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The pay is not low if you know what your doing and excel at it. My wife makes over 75k as a medical biller for a small 3 doctor neurosurgeon practice just outside of Sacramento. She has been coding and billing for 15 years and was just called from a doctor she worked for 5 years ago to come in and consult and train 2 new billers for him, he paid her at 45.00 dollars an hour to do this over the course of 2 months Certified coders make good money. Certified coders with years of experience make better money. It can also depend on where you are located and what type of entity you work for. My wife is making more than she did as a restaurant manager (with 20+ years of experience) or as a bookkeeper (not sure how many years of experience in that). |
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The pay is low and some doctors can be difficult to deal with. Advances in medical software will eventually make the occupation of transcription obsolete. I recommend that she shoot for a position as Hospital Biller or Professional Biller. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile I agree. Right now, I type all my notes at the time of service. I can type fast (thank you, Arfcom!). In the Assessment/Plan section at the end, I have to put in the diagnosis which carries with it the proper billing code. It sounds like the OP's edit is about billing. Currently, there is a small army of billing people which I agree with you is a better position to shoot for. I think over time the billing people will be needed less and less as the system becomes more efficient as I can and already do all of the coding myself as a doc. Oh, who am I kidding. We're talking about the government taking over health care! 
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Quoted: I'm tired of being RN. How do I get into the coding game? Private vocational schools are usually where you find programs to teach medical billing, check community colleges too. |