Medical Transcription Career Outlook
As baby boomers age and require increasing health care services, all medical and allied healthcare career fields will experience an unprecedented demand.
 In medical transcription, this situation is already creating serious problems. There has always been a shortage of medical transcriptionists, due in part to the fact that it's one of those "hidden" career's people outside the medical field rarely realize to exist. But what was an inconvenience is quickly becoming a crisis. In some parts of the country, there is such a severe shortage of MTs that over 40% of the work is outsourced to transcriptionists living in other states.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, by 2014 the demand for medical transcriptionists will have increased by 14%. The American Hospital Association says that "medical transcription is one of the fastest growing fields," and Pat Forbis, past president of the AAMT (now AHDI) has stated, "It's easy to get accounts if you know the jargon. The problem is that it is not easy to find talent to service those accounts."
Over half of all medical transcriptionists work at home, and with the rising interest in telecommuting, medical transcription is gaining more attention.
Community colleges that never heard of medical transcription several years ago rushed to establish a curriculum, and the Internet offers a multitude of training courses.
This is unlikely to have much effect. It is estimated that 30% of students never complete the training, due in part to unrealistic expectations. The typical student with no background in health care demands a course with proper training, but is then unwilling to devote the time and effort necessary to master the material.
Of those who do finish, some are not employable due to inadequate training. Unfortunately, many courses turn out students who can recite the names of cellular organelles, but who are unfamiliar with professional tools, don't own a digital transcriber (pedal), and can't transcribe more than 100 lines per hour.
Prospective students ask questions such as, "Do you teach by body systems?" when they ought to ask, "Will you teach me the skills necessary to get a job?"
While there are jobs out there for New MTs with no prior medical background other than the Medical Transcription Course, these jobs require organization, self-motivation, and high accuracy of the work that is done.
Some places ask the MT to work at their location for a short period of time to learn proper skills and develop a trust between the company and the MT. However, not many New MTs are willing to devote a short time period of work outside of their home even when the payoff would mean years of working in their home setting.
There are few courses that focus on building transcription skills beyond providing practice dictation, or that provides training in the use of professional tools. We know how important it is to learn more than just terminology, and yet to not over stuff the course with materials that only a Doctor would need to learn.
It is sad, but true that some courses put extra material which is not needed in their course materials just so they can raise their course prices into the thousands of dollars instead of keeping the focus on what is important to learn as an MT. Consequently, no matter how many students actually graduate, it is unlikely to make a dent in the demand.
More than half of all medical transcriptionists are Independent Contractors (ICs). Some companies offer full benefits for ICs, including paid vacation and sick leave, health insurance, retirement plans, and even sign on bonuses. In addition, there is no mandatory retirement age for medical transcriptionists.
Independent Contractors usually commit to either x number of lines, or x hours of dictation per week. Six hours is a full day for most MTs, and many work less. Earnings are high enough that competent MTs can make a very good living working a 30-hour week.
In addition, ICs can choose to work for transcription services located in those regions that pay the highest rates. For example, the Pacific Northwest pays twice the rate of some southern states. It's as easy for an IC with digital equipment to work for a company located a thousand miles away as one located in the next town.
After gaining some experience, it is easy for Nurse MTs to acquire their own accounts with local physicians and clinics, which usually results in doubling one's income.
In addition to physicians and hospitals, medical transcriptionists can work for dentists, psychologists, medical examiners, even veterinarians. One MT we know works for a popular author, proofing his medical thrillers for accuracy while transcribing his dictated novels!
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