As HIPAA becomes more and more important, the career opportunities for a home-based medical transcriptionist are very bright. But to start your career as a medical transcriptionist you need to follow certain guidelines and steps so that you can set up a successful home-based medical transcription business.
To begin with, you have to find a good space for your home-office which should be a space dedicated totally for the medical transcription work without which you cannot start a medical transcription career from home, let alone flourish in i. The work area should be secluded, noise-free and comfortable ensuring that it is not frequented by others in the family.
After you are done with the work space, you need to acquire all medical transcription tools and aids. You would need a medical dictionary, a medical spell checker and a copy of the medical transcription style guide issued by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). Your system should have the best anti-virus and firewall software.
Another important step to be followed by a medical transcriptionist is becoming HIPAA-compliant. One has to remember that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has laid down certain rules on keeping patient information confidential and secure and as a home-based transcriptionist, certain measures have to be taken to comply with HIPAA’s requirements. For example, a secure FTP connection is needed to transfer work files, an encryption software is needed to encrypt work-related e-mails, a paper-shredder is to be used to shred papers that are no longer required.
Last, but not the least, your computer should be dedicated to your work. It is neither to be used for personal purposes nor anyone else must be allowed to use it. Also, get a secure cabinet to keep work-related papers.
