Medical Transcription Service

If you have strong understanding of medical terminology and procedures, you can turn that expertise into a successful career in medical transcription.

Medical transcriptionists make good money transforming physicians' dictated medical records into written copy. Our start-up guide makes getting into this rapidly growing, lucrative field easy.

You'll learn how to reach potential clients, market yourself, how to use online services to obtain medical information, and much more.

The world of medical treatment has changed dramatically in the past few years. Doctors are overwhelmed by the maze of complicated claim forms and insurance policy procedures. They need time to focus on their patients, but with complicated billing procedures from private and government-administered insurance companies, HMOs and PPOs, they're often having to worry about whether they'll ever get paid for the services they provide. And this is where you come in: There's a growing need for outside help--a need that you can easily fill, working from your home.

As a medical claims biller, you can earn a good income managing claims for doctors and other health-care specialists. There's no special training or experience needed, and start-up costs are minimal. All you really need is a computer, a printer, a modem and claims processing software.

It's an ideal "starter" business because you decide its size and scope. You can specialize in certain fields--chiropractic, pediatric or dentistry, for example--and determine exactly how many health-care professionals you want to accept as clients.

This chapter explores the burgeoning field of medical billing, or medical claims processing, from passé paper claims to progressive—and profitable—computerized billing.

A medical billing service is the doctor’s key to getting paid. Despite the fact that the health-care industry is alive and well in America, most doctors and other health-care providers have no idea how to get themselves paid quickly and efficiently, if at all—either by insurers or by patients who are also waiting for that check to arrive in the mail. Private and government-administered insurance companies, HMOs, PPOs and a host of other mysteriously initialed plans have conspired to make physician reimbursements as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Doctors, once the lords of the health-care world, are fast becoming the underdogs. Not to worry—the medical billing service is on hand to save the day. A billing expert can dramatically increase the doctor’s immediate revenue.

Through the miracle of cyberspace, the biller electronically transmits insurance claims directly to the insurance company, or, in other words, into the company’s check-generating computers.

Amazingly, however, while electronic claims processing is the method for getting providers paid, most providers are still stuck in the Snail Mail Age. This makes electronic billing a thriving field with room for growth.