How dependable can the income of a medical transcriptionist be?
Asked by dewyepoch1
I'm looking into an online course that can help me become a medical transcriptionist in about 6 months. My husband and I wanted to know before we invest the time and money if it is even worth it! We have a little boy getting ready to start school and would like to have a job where I can make my own hours...work at home...pick him up...drop him off...actually talk to the teachers and be somewhat involved...we also hope to expand our family soon and thought this might be the way to go to keep our new baby from having to go to daycare. How much do these types of jobs usually make?...And how can I tell if the online course I choose is legit?

Best Answer:
It depends. I would not advise working "by the line", as you have to almost kill yourself to make any money. Back when I started, we got paid about 17 cents a line. Now, it is about 7 cents a line and a line is counted as sixty five characters. The truth of the matter is, medical transcriptionists jobs are going away, as many medical facilities (my own included) are using a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking. Fortunately, since I transferred to the Radiology Department, it has not impacted my work at all, as Dragon is not compatible with the software we use for transcription. Fortunately, I am in a union shop, so worst case scenario is that we eventually get retrained and continue to make $30 an hour plus. Ten years ago, a good medical transcriptionist could quit a job making $25 an hour on Wednesday and be working somewhere else on Thursday at $26 an hour..those days are gone. As for online courses, well, to be honest with you, they give you the most basic of basics and are nothing like the "real world" of transcription. I wish I had a dollar for every transcriptionist I have to retrain from online and home courses. I am not trying to discourage you, but I do want to tell you what the schools won't tell you.
Transcribing since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Answered by Sherri C

You want to take the course from an accredited online school...check their accreditation. I look into this too...my little girl is 5. It is going to take you a while because you are going to have to drum up your own business. You will need to contact doctors and set up your own business. Plus you will need to buy some equipment too, I believe. I think you can make decent money, it just takes time to get yourself established, and the schooling takes a 1-2years too, I think. It's not something you can just jump into and be able to make a consistent income in the next 6 months...
Answered by hunnygril

This site has info on online courses and free courses as well that you can look at to see if this is an area you really want to get into. Go to the transcription section. I'm a transcriptionist, both medical and general and I'm self employed. I make a proper living out of this. I wouldn't work any other way, but I choose to work form home around my kids. I miss my old city life, but those days are over.
Answered by vrtual_assistant

Penn Foster has this. Check out the site.
Answered by nicoleband0