The healthcare industry is one of the few these days that continues to provide job opportunities to qualified individuals, and that number only looks to increase in the coming years as the massive baby boomer population grows older and the number of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals shrinks (as it is slated to over the next several years).
Add to that the growth of people looking for alternatives to daily commutes and traditional jobs and what you have is a growing menu of positions in which healthcare professionals may work from the comfort of their own homes. So if you harbor the twin goals of working in a healthcare profession and running a home based business, here are just a few occupations that may fit the bill.
1. Medical Billing and Coding
This type of work-at-home position is already fairly common, and you can even take online courses to learn how to do it. The more difficult proposition is finding medical offices in your area willing to send you files, so you might have to spend some amount of time working in an office setting before you can begin operating from home. But it won’t be long before you’re submitting medical claims to insurance companies on behalf of your employers and following up for payment while sipping your coffee in your living room.
2. Medical Transcription
As you might have guessed, this job requires you to transcribe medical notes from an audible medium (tapes, digital files, etc.) to a textual format. It might sound simple, but you will have to get some credentials under your belt in order to secure work, mainly because you need to understand medical jargon, including abbreviations and the like, before you can be successful in such a position. And like billing and coding, you may be required to do some in-office work before you can move to the home sphere.
3. Virtual Assistance
This isn’t technically a healthcare profession, but you could specialize in catering to clients in healthcare fields. For the most part, you’ll act as an answering service, screening calls, emails, and correspondence for your clients. But you may also be asked to do any number of clerical tasks such as data entry, scheduling, and so on. Luckily, you can do it all remotely.
4. Acupuncture
Since this health service is not technically considered medical in nature, there’s no reason you can’t operate your business out of a portion of your home (although you should certainly contact the Chamber of Commerce or Zoning Commission to make sure that you are allowed to do this in your area and that you have the proper permits in hand).
As more and more westerners seek out alternatives to a system that relies heavily on medication, holistic healers have enjoyed a surge in popularity. So if you’ve studied acupuncture and you hold the appropriate credentials (as required by your state of residence and/or practice), there’s no reason you can’t set up a home-based clinic and start adjusting Chi.
5. In-Home Nursing
Technically, this may not be considered a home based business since you’ll be working in someone else’s home, but it’s a po-tay-to, po-tah-to kind of situation. Online insurance providers like medicalinsurance.net may not be as popular as Blue Cross, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still insurance companies. In any case, home care in the field of nursing has become quite popular, both with patients and practitioners. So if you’re looking for an occupation that lets you be at home all day (even if it is someone else’s home) this could be a good option.
