Inside Medical Transcription

“Medical transcription salaries number in the six figures.” We have all heard the incredible stories of how much you can earn in a few hours a day, working from home in medical transcription. It often seems too good to be true. These days many people are looking at a career in medical transcription, and one of the reasons is that working as a medical transcriptionist can be quite lucrative. However, if you are looking to become a medical transcriptionist, you should know that , as with any profession, salaries can and do vary widely. There really is no set standard salary or guaranteed income for medical transcriptionists. Experienced professionals can easily earn as much as $50,000 a year working full time or as much as $20,000 working part-time.

There are many, many factors affecting medical transcription salaries. First and foremost is the skill level of the individual. Of course, the most experienced transcriptionists command higher salaries than those with less experience. Training is another factor that affects compensation, although this is not as important as experience. Some companies and institutions prefer medical transcriptionists who are graduates of a formal medical transcription school or a community college or trade school, and will pay them a higher salary compared to a transcriptionist who has no formal training.

Payment methods can vary as widely as does the amount earned. Some transcriptionists receive compensation based on the number of lines they transcribe per hour or per day. There are also those who are paid hourly regardless of how much work they transcribe, and some are even paid by the minute of dictation they transcribe. So you can see you really must educate yourself regarding the different rates of pay and methods of payment and then choose the one which will work best for you before accepting a position.

Among those who can earn higher salaries is the transcriptionist who works from home. This may be either with their own business or as a subcontractor for another company. One advantage of having your own business is that your income potential really is unlimited. However, just like with any business, running a medical transcription business can be quite a challenge. With your own medical transcription business you must market your services and obtain all of your clients yourself. This is opposed to having work ready and available to you as an employee or subcontractor.

Independent contractors who work as subcontractors have work provided to them, but there is no guarantee of work or income. This is completely opposite from transcriptionists who are employees and receive regular paychecks as well as possibly medical insurance benefits and vacation pay. The workload with home-based medical transcription is also inconsistent. There will be times when you have more work than you can possibly handle, and still other times when you may have little or no work available. As an independent contractor, if you do not work you do not get paid. A genuine concern for most of us, especially if we are a one-income family.

With unlimited potential in medical transcription salaries available, the medical transcription field offers real opportunities for motivated individuals to just about write their own paychecks.