Online Medical Coding & Transcription Degree Programs

Looking for a hot health care career? You might be interested in medical coding or transcription because of potential telecommuting opportunities, or maybe because you have a good eye for detail. Whatever your reason, career opportunities should be excellent: according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the field is expected to grow faster than average, increasing by 14 percent from 2006 to 2016.

Medical Coding and Transcription Career Training

Medical coding transcription professionals assist physicians', hospitals, laboratories, and clinics in documenting interactions between health care professionals and their patients. Often, transcriptionists will listen to recorded transactions as dictated by doctors, laboratory personnel, or other health care practitioners, transcribing the vital information into medical reports, inter-office correspondence, and procedure findings.

Transcriptions are typed or coded into specialized reporting software, which then is used to create medical histories, diagnoses, lab and imaging results, consultation and referral letters, discharge summaries, patient instructions, and procedure descriptions used in billing.

Vital Skills for Transcriptionists

While demand for transcriptionists is rising, the BLS points out that the job opportunities will be best for professionals with experience and certification.

Because of the technical orientation of the work and patient sensitivity, transcriptionists must learn to format documents swiftly and accurately. Coursework may cover the use of digital and analog dictation equipment and sophisticated medical reporting software used in the industry.

You can train in vocational schools, community colleges, or through online degree programs, via a one-year certificate program or two-year associate's degree. Whichever you choose, your coursework will include the following:

• Medical terminology
• Anatomy
• Legal issues
• Health care documentation
• Grammar and punctuation
• Speech recognition software
• Computer operation and the Internet
• Patient ethics and communication
• Office procedures and protocol

Programs also might include supervised on-the-job training.

Medical Transcription Salary and Career Options

About 41 percent of all working transcriptionists and coders work in hospitals, with another 29 percent employed directly in physicians' offices. Others work at outpatient care centers, medical and diagnostic laboratories, business support companies, and offices of speech therapists, audiologists, physical and occupational therapists. While hospitals are expected to remain strong sources of employment, many jobs will open with larger clinics and multiple-physician offices where record-keeping practices are subject to ongoing standardization.

Career growth will be sparked by an ever-aging American population requiring health care and, accordingly, increased documentation of medical procedures.

Progressively more employers allow transcriptionists to work from their homes, provided they have demonstrated their skills though practical experience. Work-at-home transcriptionists use the Internet to download dictations or documents that need formatting, returning their completed work online. Additional coursework in business can facilitate operating an at-home office for medical coding and transcription. The BLS reports that many transcriptionists can advance into consulting, teaching, or supervisory positions with additional training.

According to the BLS, hourly earnings for transcriptionists were $15.02 in 2007, with top-end salaries surpassing $44,000 a year.

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