Medical Language Specialist Salary
Also known as medical transcriptionists, medical language specialists listen to recordings made by physicians and health professionals and translate or transcribe the medical terminology, editing for grammar and clarity. These specialists may help produce such documents as medical history reports, autopsy reports and referral letters. The salary of a medical language specialist depends on the industry and location in which he works.
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Salary
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Medical language specialists in the U.S. earn an average salary of $33,350 a year as of May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The salary scale ranges from $22,430 for those specialists in the bottom ten percent to $45,700 for those in the top ten percent. While formal training is not always required, transcriptionists with an associate degree or certification will likely face better job opportunities and higher wages.
Common Employers
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Most medical language specialists work in either hospitals or the offices of physicians, where they earn an average salary of $34,480 at the former and $32,410 at the latter. The industry with the third highest level of employment for this occupation is business support services, where medical language specialists earn $31,040 on average annually. In outpatient care centers, the pay for these workers is $32,870.
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Higher Salaries
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Other industries, while employing fewer medical language specialists, may offer higher wages. Transcriptionists in dentists' offices earn above $36,000 a year as do those in management, scientific, and technical consulting services. Medical language specialists in scientific research and development services earn an average of $36,270 a year and those employed by insurance carriers earn $37,980 annually. Medical and diagnostic laboratories pay the highest wages at $38,680 for medical language specialists.
Location
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Cost of living will affect the salary of a medical language specialist. Massachusetts and Alaska are the two highest paying states with salary averages of over $42,000, followed by California at $41,100, Hawaii at $38,950 and New Jersey at $38,750. The metropolitan area of Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Massachusetts is the nation's highest paying area for medical language specialists at $67,360, followed by Framingham, Massachusetts at $53,990.
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