MT – The profession

The U.S. Department of Labor recognized medical transcription as a separate and distinct labor category in 1999.  According to this definition, medical transcriptionists or medical transcribers listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other healthcare professionals and transcribe them into medical reports, correspondence, and other administrative material. The Labor Department also reports that in the year 2000, over 102,000 MTs were employed in hospitals (2/5th), in Physician offices and Clinics (2/5th) and in laboratories, transcription houses and universities, etc. (1/5th). The job outlook for MTs is that employment will continue to grow faster than average for all occupations until 2010. The aging population with bigger need for treatments and the requirement for electronic medical records will spur demand for transcription services and sustain its growth.

The median hourly earnings for MTs was reported to be $12.15 an hour in 2000. The variation in the median earnings between an entry level ($10.32) and the experienced MT ($13.00) is not significant. Production-based pay for independent contractors is between 7 to 8.5 cents per line, while the typical rate charged to the end user per 65-character line is estimated to be 12 to 13 cents.

While not backed by any official statistics, the general concern is that the profession of medical transcription is not attracting enough young, new entrants and the ability to grow the business is limited due to a shrinking pool of skilled and experienced MTs. Home-based transcription continues to grow due to enabling technology (higher bandwidth for voice files, internet based workflow solutions, ASP choice) and reduced overhead. In fact, there are several well-established companies that manage the business with a minimal, basic office set-up and a total virtual workforce.

While the job growth promises to be above average, the effort to reduce healthcare support cost means that there may not be any major increase in the earning potential for transcriptionists. Those who understand the US labor market know that increase in remuneration on its own is not enough to make MT a career of choice. Unlike the developing countries, career choices are not made based on marketability alone. The shortage of IT workers or revenue potential of physicians failed to increase enrollment in these fields.

With the exception of skilled resources in the IT area, the US economy has managed to curtail spiraling of wages even at times of low unemployment. For example the current nurse and teacher shortage, has not translated into huge salary increases to these professionals. The point is that it is highly improbable that MT industry will see a resurgence of interest in this field to attract prospective candidates ready to fill the market need.