Working in healthcare doesn’t have to mean donning your scrubs each morning and sitting in traffic to get to the busy hospital or physician’s office. There are actually several legitimate work-from-home healthcare positions available, and we’re going to give you all the details on a select seven of them.
Working from home is a dream for most of us, and it’s great news that a field like healthcare actually offers such positions. If you’re looking to have a more flexible schedule and work from the comfort of your home while making a decent living, these seven healthcare careers are for you.
The best part is that you can also attend online school for healthcare, so your education and work can all be done from the comfort of your own home!
1. Medical Transcription
Physicians don’t always type patient notes and other information out or write it on paper. Sometimes, these notes are recorded via voice, and then someone needs to transcribe them into medical documents. This is where a medical transcriptionist comes in.
Transcription makes it far easier to share this medical information, because the written word is often easier to understand than voice. If you can type fast, have a good eye for detail, and a good ear for words, medical transcription could be right for you. It’s flexible, making it the perfect work for a stay-at-home parent or someone that needs more flexibility than a typical 9-5 can offer.
You can usually find contract work as a medical transcriptionist at major medical companies, but there’s a chance that things like AI could replace human transcriptionists in the future. For now, this is still a viable work-from-home medical career.
2. Billing and Coding
When a medical procedure is performed or care is given, those medical forms will be submitted to insurance companies for payment. However, those forms are often confusing, or else not written in a standard way. Physicians and other healthcare professionals have different ways of saying the same thing, and there’s plenty of industry jargon to get around. This is where a medical coder/biller comes in handy.
You’ll act as the translator for these documents. You’ll read, understand, and translate medical documents into standardized codes for billing. This ensures that billing is accurate and efficient, which makes the entire healthcare process that much smoother.
3. Case Manager
Case managers act as planners for patient care. They’ll effectively evaluate a patient’s needs and help develop a long or short-term care plan (or both) for the patient. You’ll be the patient’s point of contact, so you’ll often interact with them directly. You’ll also interact with providers and specialists, and change the plan as the patient’s needs and condition(s) change.
In some cases, you’ll also monitor the patient’s insurance plans and costs to ensure their needs are being met. Essentially, you’re the planner for their entire healthcare journey, so it’s a big responsibility. This means it’s not the job for everyone, but if you’re caring, compassionate, responsible, and dedicated, this is a good fit for you.
4. Phone Triage Nurse
If you’ve ever had to call one of those after-hours “ask-a-nurse” lines, you were likely greeted by a phone triage nurse. Patients will call with all kinds of questions, from the severity of an illness or disease to questions on medications, medical procedures, or just to complain of pain. You’ll be equipped with the skills to answer any and all questions, or else forward the questions you can’t answer to someone that can.
This is a flexible position that’s often able to be done at home. You’ll likely have a set schedule that will be during the evening hours after offices and healthcare facilities are closed.
5. Medical Insurance Agent
While being an insurance agent technically falls under the insurance industry, it’s still a viable work-from-home option that’s mostly dealing with the medical field. The only difference is that you’ll be helping to handle the insurance side of things, rather than clinical care or administrative medical duties.
If you’re a good salesperson and great at talking to people, this could be the right fit for you. There are openings that allow you to work entirely from home as well.
6. Telehealth Nurse
Telehealth is on the rise in the wake of the pandemic, and it seems pretty likely that the concept will remain long after the pandemic has passed. After all, if you don’t have to travel to a doctor’s office, why bother? Telehealth makes check-ups and other health appointments more convenient and accessible.
Telehealth nurses can work from home, taking telehealth appointments throughout the day or evening hours.
7. Medical Writing and Editing
Medical websites, journals, and other publications need experienced writers and editors to streamline and process good content. You can do medical writing and editing from the comfort of your own home, and some positions don’t require you to have any prior medical experience. This is a flexible and simple job that you can do on your own time, or as a freelancer.
