Business Overview:

If you are looking for a lucrative business you can run from your own home, you should consider starting a medical billing business. Medical billing is an online business idea that involves the process of contacting insurance companies on behalf of healthcare providers to facilitate payment of claims to those providers. The healthcare industry is booming, and that trend continues to hold steady whether economic times are up or down. In addition, the aging baby boomer population is adding more and more claims into the system every day. Many doctors’ offices are unable to keep up with the claims and constantly have to stay on top of insurance companies to get paid. This is where a medical billing home business can help. Outsourcing medical billing to a third party allows medical offices to concentrate their efforts on the patients’ care. Many physicians’ office workers are simply not qualified to handle all the finer points of working with different insurance companies. Medicare, in particular, has plenty of rules that can make it difficult to get claims paid. As you can see, this industry is in desperate need of experts to work with medical claims. Starting a medical billing business can turn into an extremely rewarding venture. Once you’re trained—or have hired people to work for you who are—there is no limit to the volume of business you can build. This is a highly scalable business idea. You can start out working by yourself and build it up to a large-scale operation with many people working for you. You can choose to have them work for you in an office or hire them to work out of their own homes. This is a highly flexible business that can suit your needs as a business owner.

A day in the life of a medical billing business owner:

A typical day for a medical billing business owner will begin with a check of any new claims. You will enter these claims into your billing software. Next you will need to follow up with insurance companies about previous claims that have not been paid yet. If you receive notification that payment was made to one of your medical offices, you’ll then want to be sure to note that in your software. If you have medical billing personnel working for you, you’ll check their assignments and make sure they are following up properly with the insurance companies.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be small to mid-sized doctors’ offices needing your services to contact and follow up with insurance companies so their claims can be paid.

What You Need to Start:

• Computer
• Medical billing software

The Good:

• The healthcare business will always be in need of medical billing professionals.
• Start-up costs are low.
• Return on investment is high.
• No previous medical experience is needed.

The Bad:

• If you are not a detail oriented person, it is likely you will not be able to keep up with the claims and the doctors’ offices will not be paid on time.
• Dealing with insurance companies can be frustrating and time consuming.

Resources:

• American Medical Billing Association
• Wikipedia on Medical Billing
• Healthcare Billing and Management Association

Technorati Tags: medical billing business, medical billing home business, starting a medical billing business

Business Overview:

If you’re thinking of starting a bookkeeping business, it’s important to know the strategies for running a highly profitable service. Owning your own home based bookkeeping service can easily be started on a small, part-time basis and then be increased in size until you have a staff of bookkeepers working for you. Because nearly all businesses require bookkeepers, your bookkeeping business plan should target small, medium, and large-sized companies. Many businesses now outsource their bookkeeping as a way to trim costs and keep personnel overhead low which makes this a great online business idea. Every financial transaction that happens in a business must be recorded, which is why bookkeeping services are in such high demand. Owning a bookkeeping business commands respect. While certification is not required, it is available in the form of becoming a Certified Public Bookkeeper (CPB). With the advanced software packages that are now available, many bookkeeping business owners no longer require certification of their bookkeepers because the software now tracks much of what the bookkeeper used to be responsible for knowing. If you’re looking for fast entry into owning a business, consider starting a home bookkeeping business.

A day in the life of a bookkeeping business owner:

A typical day may start with organizing the day’s work by determining the order to work on each client’s finances. If you are doing the work yourself, you will then spend time working with the financial information, entering it into the appropriate software, and sending requested reports to your clients. If you have a staff working for you, then you would assign them their work for the day or the week. Part of each week will also be spent invoicing your clients for payment, answering any questions they have, and obtaining new clients for your new business idea.

The Good:

• This is a highly professional business that commands respect.
• Nearly every business requires bookkeeping services.
• The owner of a bookkeeping business has a highly flexible schedule.
• Increased earnings are available for those that want to obtain certification.
• Easy to start as a home-based business.

The Bad:

• The financial and tax regulations change every year, requiring an update in software on an annual basis.
• In difficult financial times, many small businesses close so the bookkeeping business owners may lose some of their smaller clients.

Resources:

• American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers
• National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers
• National Bookkeepers Association
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Bookkeeping (Wikipedia)

Technorati Tags: book keeping business, bookkeeping business plan, home based bookkeeping business, home bookkeeping business, starting a bookkeeping business

Business Overview:

If you’re looking for a career that will enable you work at home with great freedom and flexibility, medical transcription might the best career choice for you. A medical transcriptionist (MT) listens to medical reports that have been dictated by healthcare professionals and transcribes that information into a report format. Transcriptionist services are used in all branches of healthcare from pediatricians and dentists to chiropractors and counselors. Some doctors’ offices and hospitals now use voice recognition software. This means as a medical transcriptionist you will be editing a report that the software has already transcribed into a rough draft. Whether transcribing or editing, two things are certain: You can have great flexibility in working at home and you can control your income by how hard (and how smart) you are willing to work. If you want to be in a high-income bracket, you can start your own medical transcription business. You would have other MTs working for you, and you can expand this business idea as much as you like. Most doctor’s offices and hospitals now use digital dictation, which makes this the perfect online business idea; you never have to leave your home to do your job.

A Day in the Life of a Medical Transcriptionist:

A typical day as a medical transcriptionist would find you in your own home with no commute to get to work. You would retrieve the dictations over the Internet that were assigned to for that day. You then would transcribe or edit each report, carefully proofing each report before marking it as complete. If you run your own medical transcriptionist business, you would be overseeing the other MTs that work for you. This might involve answering their questions, listening to parts in the dictation where they are stumped by new vocabulary, and arranging their schedules. As a medical transcriptionist business owner you would also be responsible for bringing in new accounts and invoicing your existing clients.

The Good

• MTs are largely able to determine their level of freedom and income. They can choose to be employees if they want benefits or can be independent contractors and have their own accounts.
• Most medical transcriptionists now work at home over the Internet. There is no commuting, no professional wardrobe needed, no office politics.
• As a medical transcriptionist you have many career options available to you: Employee, statutory employee, and independent contractor.
• Medical transcription jobs offer an extremely flexible career that can change with you as your life does. You can move between part-time and full-time work and between needing benefits versus wanting higher take-home pay.

The Bad

• Medical transcription courses are often required before you can land your first job.
• The career of an MT requires sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time.

Resources

• Medical Transcriptionist Work
• Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity
• Advance for Health Informational Professionals
• Medical Transcription Industry Association

Technorati Tags: medical transcription, medical transcription business, medical transcription courses, medical transcription jobs