What Medical Careers Allow You To Work From Home?

According to a recent article published on the website Bankrate, people choose to work from home for a variety of reasons. As might be
expected, parents with young children are the largest group of people who desire to work from home. A flexible schedule, saving money on daycare, and spending more time with their children were the top three reasons cited by people interviewed for the Bankrate article. Others
who reported that they prefer to work from home include:

• People with physical or mental disabilities who find working in a traditional office environment challenging.
• Older Americans who have retired from their careers but still desire to work part-time for supplemental income.
• Military spouses who need the flexibility to move on short notice without affecting their own jobs.

Top At-Home Medical Careers

With the youngest of the baby boom generation turning 50 last year and the oldest turning 70 next year, the need for skilled medical professionals continues to rise to keep pace with demand. This includes both hand-on careers, such as doctors and nurses, and non-clinical positions like coders for insurance claims and medical transcriptionists.

Many of these positions are entry-level and pay well despite only requiring a minimum investment in education. For example, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that billing and posting clerks earned an average annual income of $33,820 in 2012. Not surprisingly, the greatest demand for billing clerks comes from physician’s offices across the country.

People who are interested in the medical field and prefer to work at home should seriously consider training for one of these careers:

• Medical Billing: Private care providers, clinics, and hospitals all depend on medical billers to accurately process insurance claims. The skills needed for such a position include medical terminology, knowledge about the major insurance company practices, understanding patient invoices, and strong computer skills. In addition to graduating from an accredited program, people interested in this career need to pass a certification exam.
• Medical Coding: Every time a patient undergoes any type of medical procedure, it requires both a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code and an International Code of Diseases, Ninth Edition (ICD-9) – and soon, ICD-10, code for billing purposes. The job of a medical coder is to evaluate the procedures the patient had done and assign the appropriate billing code to each. Some of the skills necessary for success in this position include anatomy and physiology, third-party reimbursement knowledge, medical terminology, and medical office procedures.
• Medical Transcription: Doctors are busy people who don’t have time to type the medical reports that go in patient charts. This is why they rely on transcriptionists to do the job for them. A medical transcriptionist listens to a doctor’s dictated report and converts it to a typed report. He or she can stop the dictation at any time with a foot pedal, a feature that comes in handy for doctors who speak fast or who are difficult to understand. In a medical transcription training program, students learn medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, human diseases, keyboarding, and best practices for error-free medical transcription.

Learn More About Our Programs

Brighton College offers these and other medical career training programs in a supportive online environment. Please contact us to request more information.