Scipolicy.net

Upon finishing a bachelor’s degree, most graduates are faced with two options: jump into the job market, or pursue further studies. The economic crunch in the last three years hasn’t helped settle the score, either. There are those who think that since job prospects are dim, they’re better off beefing up their resumes with master’s degrees while waiting for things to level out. Others figured there was no use sinking further into student debt, and started sending out applications by the dozen.

This reignites an older question. Does it make more sense to work in the academe or the industry? Should you start cashing in on all those skills you spent the last four years developing, or stay in school and help people who are still on their way? There are pros and cons to both sides, and at the end of the day the only one who can make the decision is you. In most fields, however, you have five things to consider:

Choice: As a university researcher or professor, you usually get to choose your subjects. You get a bit of this freedom researching for a private company, but there’s more pressure to get results, whether it’s a concept or a product—and there are professional relations to consider.

Money: Much of the work in academia goes to getting your work funded. It can get very competitive, especially in up-and-coming fields like computer science and physics. In the corporate world, your employer is your financier, and the …

written by madamejune

Medical billing and coding is one of the many industries that cropped up with the rise of outsourcing. As hospitals in developed countries struggle in a weak economy, they cut down on labor costs by passing whatever work they can to contractors instead of a full-time staff. Medical billers and coders work on the administrative side, either from home or in-house, keeping track of bills, treatments, and prescriptions using industry-specific codes.

In the U.S., the average medical billing and coding salary ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 per year. This depends largely on the conditions of your work—whether you work from home or at the hospital, how big the organization is, and whether you have health insurance and other benefits provided. Medical coding and transcription are usually the highest-paid sectors, as they’re more specialized. A medical records coding technician can make around $45,000 a year working full-time. Medical billing is less lucrative—a clerk whose job mostly involves office paperwork usually makes less than $35,000.

Although the levels of specialization vary, medical billing and coding require the same basic knowledge. Both involve learning medical codes, either to send accurate invoices to insurance companies or to work more directly with insurance agents. This takes anywhere from six months to several years of training, depending on how specialized you want to get. For example, transcriptionists often work from audio files recorded by doctors, who are often too busy to write things down themselves. This obviously calls for better attention to detail, which is why …

written by madamejune

More women are gunning for lucrative medical careers these days, although their male colleagues make almost $17,000 more when they enter the job market, Reuters reported earlier this year.

The pay gap has existed for a long time, but it has widened significantly in the last ten years. Female doctors made only $3,600 less than their male counterparts in 1999, but the difference had gone up to $16,819 by 2008, according to a study at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health.

The findings aren’t all that surprising, according to the study’s head, Anthony Lo Sasso. Female doctors tend to opt for lower-paying jobs, usually in primary care, or simply work fewer hours, he said in a public statement.

What comes as a surprise, Lo Sasso said, is that the starting salary gap is still disconcertingly large even if we take into account the hours, the specialization, and other factors. For one thing, he pointed out, the pay differences exist equally in primary care and specialty fields.

Indeed, the preference for primary care fields, which include pediatrics and family medicine, has gone down from 1999 to 2008. While about half of women finishing med school or training went into primary care in 1999, only about 30% did so in 2008, approximately the same ratio as male doctors.

In an interview with Reuters, Lo Sasso admitted the salary differences were unexpected, and that they couldn’t as yet explain why—there are no observable characteristics unique to female doctors that …

written by madamejune

written by The Scientist

written by The Scientist

written by The Scientist

written by The Scientist

written by The Scientist