Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Medical Transcriptionist Salary

One of the most crucial factors that an individual analyzes before stepping into any career, is salary or pay scale. While interest in the chosen field and career development opportunities are of paramount importance, a decent salary is no less important criteria.

Medical jobs, since the last 10 years have flourished and have been one of the most stable and financially rewarding jobs. All thanks to the diversification and exponential development in medical technology, pharmacy field and advanced methods of medical treatments. Medical transcription is one such field that has developed greatly. Here, I'll specifically cut down my discussion by focusing on medical transcriptionist salary.

Salary of Medical Transcriptionist

After you have gone through this write up, you'll be able to know about medical transcriptionist salary range and how it depends on several factors. Prior to knowing about medical transcriptionist salary, knowing medical transcriptionist job description in brief will help you understand this job from close angles.

Job Description of a Medical Transcriptionist
Stated briefly, medical transcriptionists are medical professionals who are responsible for maintaining and managing medical records. In other words, they listen to dictated records created by medical experts and then they transcribe them into health care documents. These medical documents are important, as they contain all information about patient's discharge summaries, medical history, medical examination notes, autopsy reports, diagnostic result reports and referral letters. These reports are maintained on the guidelines stated by the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT). Medical transcriptionists have to check these legal documents for spelling, formatting and grammar. After proper medical transcriptionist training, employment opportunities are very decent. Excellent typing speed and good computer literacy are very important requisites for becoming a medical transcriptionist.

Medical Transcriptionist Salary: Factors on Which Salaries Depend
Finding employment in hospital jobs is dependent on your level of medical education or more importantly work experience. Same is the case with salary structure. Like various salary ranges for jobs, medical transcriptionist salary is dependent on following factors.
  1. Educational Degrees
  2. Work Experience
  3. Employer Type
  4. Work Location Area
  5. Number of Lines transcribed
  6. Number of hours worked
Wondering how these factors effect medical transcriptionist salary? Know more about them here.

Education/Certifications
An associate's degree or a medical transcription certificate is necessary for a medical transcriptionist profession. The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) gives two designations viz., Registered Medical Transcriptionist and Certified Medical Transcriptionist, for candidates aspiring to be medical transcriptionist. Medical transcriptionist salary, in the start for those who're armed with these degrees and certificates, ranges between US$ 10 to US$ 12 per hour. A certified medical transcriptionist salary or a registered medical transcriptionist salary is averaged between US$ 12 to US$ 15.

Work Experience
With increased work experience, medical transcriptionist salary rises and with some really good work experience, medical transcripionist salary can be anywhere US$ 25 to US$ 35 per hour.

Employer Type
Depending on your employer type, medical transcriptionist salary varies significantly. Working as a medical transcriptionist at home or in doctor's office can vary your salaries. Based on such factors medical transcriptionist salary averages between US$ 12 to US$ 20, per hour. Even self employed medical transcriptionists, can earn as high as US$ 30 per hour, after decent work experience.

Work Location Area
Working area contributes significantly in salary negotiations. For instance, if you're working in Florida, then medical transcriptionist salary in Florida will be less than most popular cities like Pittsburg or Dallas (as per reports of various sources). Certainly, cost of living in a city impacts salary ranges. Remote areas that are opening up to medical transcriptionist jobs hold promises for better pay in the near future.

Number of Lines Prescribed
Based on number of lines you write, your medical transcriptionist salary is decided. At the rate of US$ 0.06 per line, in case you write 800 lines, you'll earn near about US$ 12,480 per year. At the rate of US$ 0.14 per line, for 2,000 lines, you can earn nearly US$72, 800! This is decided by your employer.

Similarly, for number of hours one works, medical transcriptionist salary is fixed and is decided on that. On an average, medical transcriptionist salary is between US$ 30,000 to US$ 70,000. After properly researching on 'how to become a medical transcriptionist', one can surely take a step ahead to make a mark in this career.

No comments:

Post a Comment