Medical transcriptionists and medical transcription editors (healthcare documentation specialists) work as employees or independent contractors for hospitals, doctors' offices, or medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs). Both full-time and part-time work is available. Most MTEs telecommute from home-based offices as employees, sub-contractors or as self-employed independent contractors.
According to the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to decline slightly from 2014 to 2024. Although fewer workers are projected to be needed as speech recognition software and other technological advances make workers more productive, more job opportunites will stem from transcriptionists who retire over the next decade, creating opportunites for new healthcare documentation specialists. The number of individuals who have access to health insurance is expected to continue to increase because of federal health insurance reform. The increasing volume of healthcare services will result in a growing number of medical tests and procedures, all of which will require documentation.
Industry certification credentials as a Registered or Certified Healthcare Documentation Specialists (RHDS and CHDS) can be obtained through testing with AHDI. New employment opportunites are actively being created for individuals with both healthcare documentation and medical coding training. Starting in 2016, the AAPC Certified Documentation Expert Outpatient (CDEO®) credential will validate a documentation professional's expertise in reviewing outpatient documentatnion for accuracy in the support of coding, quality measures and clinical requirements.