Well, I may be going back to school and would appreciate ya'lls advise on the following career fields:

1. Medical Coding and Billing

2. Medical Records Clerk

I'm more of a records/admin type person and cannot handle needles nor much human contact. I thought that since I'm unemployed I'd try a certificate program that would launch a new career.


Please let me know what you think of these careers and the future possibilities.

Hi Mustang Gal,

There are a lot of "short term" schools offering training for those jobs, as well as Pharmacy Tech. (Have you considered that?) Normally, those schools offer placement assistance as well.

I don't know what state you are in, but quite often the state will have a listing of schools like this as well as their accreditation. Be careful - - here in California we had a couple of schools close because of the economy. Students who were in the middle of training lost their money and other schools would not recognize the hours they had already put in.

Have you researched the job market for these skills? Are there jobs available? Don't just listen to what the school says, but check for yourself.

As a mature adult, you may have more appeal to an employer than a 20-year old that graduates with you. You can bring more to the table with your life-long experience with other jobs, clients, customers, etc.

Here are some links that might help you:

http://www.healthcaresalaryonline.com/medical-records-clerk-job-description.html

http://www.healthcaresalaryonline.com/pharmacy-tech-job-description.html

http://www.medicalbillingcareer.org/

Good luck!!

What great advice Dancing D. I never would have thought of it.

Looks like Dancing Dolphin has turned up some good websites.

I DO know the healthcare field is a good one to be in -- as our society continues to age, our healthcare needs are only going to be growing.

The face of medical records is changing fast. Many facilities are going to computerized medical records. I've done medical records before. Coding is a good one. The coding is so important for reimbursement. Home care is growing by leaps and bounds. Boomers don't want to be in nursing homes. I worked in nursing homes for 17 years and now I'm in home care. It's a tough field. Home care workers (companions, homemakers, home health aides) work very hard for little pay. The work is not a guaranteed number of hours. I don't know how some of them survive. MAny have jobs with tow or three agencies to get the hours up to what they need. I work in the office as an administrative assistant/coordinator.

As long as doctors are "chicken scratchers" there will always be a need for medical transcribers. It's tried and true Job Security!!!

Ross's office has gone paperless. He's trying to stick with the times so that when the time comes to sell his practice, it won't be old fashioned. He started the scribing well over a year ago and it has literally made him crazy. He is currently doing all the recording himself and can't stand it. Afterall, he isn't the best typist. Of course it's a program with many drop down menus, but is's intensive. He has tried doing it while patient is in room, filling it in after patient leaves, etc and it's making his life miserable. It's so time consuming. Sigh. He never gets a break between patients because his head is always in the computer.

As some of you know, our daughter is living at home and has had several jobs which she hasn't liked, but she's a trooper. She is currently working at a food store and announced that she wanted to learn medical billing. He offered to employ her part time; the days she isn't working at the food store, and she LOVES working for her dad. She is learning the medical billing, and his recent brainstorm is to have her do the scribing. Oh, he also tried sending his findings to a gal at home so she could record his findings at night, but that didn't work either. She had too many questions while he was at home. Anyway, the currnet plan is that he's teaching our daughter to be his scribe. She is quick on the computer and is looking forward to being trained. Ross has always worked for a large practice too, which he still does one afternoon a week. At that practice he has a scribe in the room working with him and it works beautifully. That's what he's aiming for. I know some people think doctors have it made, but let me tell you, being a small business owner comes with it's trials.

Loved seeing that scribing and medical billing was mentioned here.

My sons first job as student was scribing for an optican and he and a girl had a wonderful summer doing this

Now that sounds perfect to me. He has his prsctice and a good income in these trying times and he can give his daughter work and a paycheck too. Sounds like the old adage of "killing two birds with one stone."