Tips For Earning Higher Medical Transcriptionist Salary
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that a medical transcriptionist salary is expected to range from $25,000 to $45,000 from 2012 to 2015, with steady increases comparable to most other medical industry jobs.
As a predominantly stay at home job, medical transcription provides a salary that is better than many other home jobs, especially when an MT finds permanent employment with a service or independent physician and receives steady work each work.
What You May Not Know About Transcription Pay
A medical transcription salary is based on how many lines of dictation an MT can produce in one hour. Rates per line are determined by the transcription service or doctor's office and can be anywhere from seven cents up to 18 cents per line, depending on the experience and expertise of the medical transcriptionist performing the work.
Earning your medical transcriptionist certificate is conducive to finding employment when searching for transcription jobs but having an associate's degree in medical transcription will further impress potential employers and broaden your choice of the type of transcriptionist jobs that are available to you.
Bureau of Labor Statistics and Medical Transcription Salary Ranges
Being a medical transcriptionist means you can find work anywhere you live in the U.S., since medical transcription jobs are predominantly online medical transcription home jobs that require a computer with high-speed internet and the appropriate dictation software and devices. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics presents interesting statistics regarding the difference in transcription pay according to which state an MT is employed.
- States with an average mean wage of $23,000 to $29,000 (lowest in the country)--Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and South Dakota
- States with an average mean wage of $32,000 to $34,000--Texas, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and Vermont
- States with higher transcription wages of $34,000 to $36,000--Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin and Minnesota
- States with the highest transcription pay averaging $40,000 or more per year--Oregon, California, Alaska, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland
- Wisconsin, North and South Dakota have the highest need for medical transcriptionists, with almost three openings per 1000 transcription jobs.
This discrepancy in medical transcriptionist salary is mainly influenced by the overall cost of living in each state. While it is possible for a certified MT to find a medical transcriptionist job paying over $30,000 in one of the southern states, working for this wage will largely depend on the amount of experiences with medical transcription services that an MT has accumulated.
Facts about Earning a Living as a Medical Transcriptionist
The majority of entry-level online medical transcription home jobs pay an MT almost $11 an hour. However, this pay rate largely depends on the ability of the MT to quickly and accurately transcribe dictated medical reports that are frequently spoken by doctors from countries other than the U.S.
Prior to enrolling in any online medical transcription schools, make sure that the chosen school is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council, an organization approved by the government and validating the certificate or degree given to successful graduates of a medical transcription training course. Certificates given by schools that are not accredited may result in working for reduced pay rates.
Even those medical transcriptionists working for lower wages benefit from working at home because they do not need to pay for gas, car repairs, eating out and other expenses affecting those who leave the house to earn a living. In fact, stay at home MTs who live in large metropolitan areas do not even need a vehicle as long as a city-wide transit system exists.
While job growth for careers in medical transcription is projected to remain above average, it is not expected to grow as much as other careers in the medical industry because of transcription services outsourcing jobs to overseas MTs who work for cheaper wages.
Additionally, speech-recognition technology, which has the potential for replacing human medical transcriptionists, has been invented but is far from being perfect. However, earning a medical transcriptionist salary is expected to be one of the more popular reasons why people enroll in an online transcription course.
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