15 years ago, I charged .22 per line to big accounts. Now I have been forced down to .13 per line.
Posted By: MTSO on 2007-08-29
In Reply to: Do you always believe what your employer tells you? - fostermommt
This is in part due to offshore companies, in part due to newbies coming in and underbidding to get an account but not being able to service it and then the account expecting everyone else to meet that price. The market is being driven down by many forces, and it is not pretty. I used to pay .14 per line (gross line too) and now pay my subs 0.08. It is not something I wanted to do, but something that was necessary. With only 15 MTs, I feel the squeeze more than some of the big companies out there, but cannot grow and keep up the same standards.
Healthcare in general is not the money-maker it once was, and transcription has taken a hard hit over the years.
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Line rate charged to client
I am trying to find out what MTSO's are charging for line rates in different areas of the country. Please let me know.
Thanks
A line is a line is a line. Doesn't matter if we are talking about radiology or acute care.
1600 is not a fair minimum requirement. Sure you can achieve 1600, it shouldn't be the required minimum.
Means a line is a line is a line, even if it only has one word on the line
it is considered a line.
Actually, there a lot of accounts that are on-line (approximately 30%). sm
All of the ortho accounts are on-line, some radiology, most clinic and some basic 4.
some rad accounts pay per line/some per report.
I would call and ask them these type of company policy questions. They are nice people.
This place is for the hands-on side of day-to-day working for a company and those experiences encountered.
Most KS rad accounts are by the report with a few by the line. sm
By the minute in radiology would kill your pay as most are under a minute.
The only reason the one MedSurg account is by the minute is because their system has a lousy line counter that was not accurate, so KS managers told them that we could not use it and they figured out a way to do it by the minute. I have worked on that account in the past when they were in a bind but I do radiology 99% of the time.
Welcome to Keystrokes! They definitely have the best rad accounts out there!
Of course the bottom line is that with the new platform anyone anywhere can get into all accounts in
all offices so it really doesnt matter where you are. I think MQ is probably just going to dump everyone into accounts that are behind and totally eliminate overtime or any kind of bonuses, etc. That is already in place in the NE so just a matter of time.
Well only if you get your own accounts or are paid gross line.
There is no way a transcription company will pay you that much. I have one of my own accounts too and make 12 cents per gross line, and I make around $50 per hour on average.
QA per-line pay? Guess that accounts for all the nitpicking...sm
If they have to make their lines, they'll nitpick you to death with their corrections du jour. And back and forth amongst them, if there's nothing there they'll find something there. 
"a line is a line" means gross line.
Gross line is a line, no matter how long or short.
12 years ago I charged a penny a word
nm
Made my line count from day 1 and off QA on FOUR accounts first week sm
Yes and it is the truth, thank you very much. I did get my line counts from DAY ONE. Getting to 1100 is easy, it is getting from 1500 to 2000 that is real work.
I would say that 2000 lines a day is DOABLE. Week one, made my 5500 lines. New pay period, have 12,000 for 2 weeks. I am shooting for 100 lines a day more each week until I hit 1500 lines a day, every day. I will then increase by 50 lines a day until I am at 1700 to 1800 every day. This is where my budget tells me I need to go.
I also work an IC position in addition to TT. I have about 500 lines a day there, just put in an hour or two, rarely three and for now, I need the money.
TT is wonderful in many ways. I often find errors from other MTs in old reports being from the month I have been there. Some are not as careful as they should be and are after line counts. I am after line counts too, but it was not my first goal, getting of QA was my first goal. That and I give a flying crap about my work! It would be good if they did audit after an MT is off of QA or if we had a system to report errors we find, but there aren't these things. Oh well.
They treat me nice and have lots of work. THAT is my business, not the way the company is run or what they do.
But meanwhile as they take accounts probably by offering very low line rates until the client sees
what they got the MTs that lost the accounts scrounge around trying to get new accounts. Rather sad.
Is it easy to get line counts on Precyse radiology accounts?? sm
anyone using dial up with radiology accts, are you getting good line counts? i've done a search on archives and reading info about the company. anyone else radiology-wise care to share their experience?
thanks!
They really dont pay enough for having most ESL accounts. Hard to get a good line count
and then to only make 8 cpl. It really is not worth it. Chartscript is not productive in my opinion.
which companies pay fair line rate with designated accounts? nm
x
TransTech accounts are ALL very quickly going to VR and pay is half line rate
If you like VR and the pay cut, then TT will be a good fit for you. If you are experienced and will let someone pay you less than you are worth, then go for it.
Other than accounts going to VR there and MT pay cut for editing VR reports, TT has been a good fit for me. I am very disappointed in the recent VR pay cuts.
They are changing platforms and cutting our line rate in half as the accounts go live with VR.
I have 11 years experience and am on 9 cents a line
and I'd say 9.5 cents per line is pretty good these days!
What about those who made 12 cents a line only a few years ago
you have no problem with reduction in pay, are you serious? making less money is truly okay with you because you sympathize with those poor administors and owners of the companies who should have the money instead.
I respect your talking about bad work habits but what type of transcription to you do, what percent ESL may I ask? You do realize it is not humanly possible to jump through all the hoops just right now to make that kind of money, not unless you are lucky enough to work on 'good accounts' which are usually saved for those who also do QA, and for new people or whoever gets or however they get it I have no idea.
you must type so many lines a day, but your quality better be 98-100% or you lose benefits and pay and also you must never complain or speak up about anything or you will get the worst dictation on the system only to have your work gone over with people who are paid hourly so they can pretend quality is what matters when we all know what really matters is the hospital saving money for the CEOs and their families.
if anyone cared about the patients, I mean truly cared about the patients as we are expected to do, the whole system would not have gone to capitation and nonprofit to a for-profit business. Halls in hospitals would not be filled with patients who have no one to help them and who lie there moaning and groaning while the nursing staff is cut back to less than skeleton crew, or any kind of ancillary service is outsourced and moved out of the hospital to save money, no matter that elderly people suffer because they may not be able to drive all over.
I could go on and on but it no doubt will be lost on where you are at.
This country seems to be becoming more 'sadistic' and less compassionate day by sorry day.
where were people like you when the money was flowing freely, were you protesting for lower pay - do you want to take lower pay right now because I am sure your boss will oblige...
Years ago figured 10 words/line at .01 cpl gave us
s
C-phone accounts aren't any better, not enough work to make line counts there either. Sigh
nm
Hmm...I was getting 0.005 cpword 13 years ago,figuring 10 words a line, it was 5 cpl, beginner's
s
Not by the line but 1400-1500 radiology reports. 2-1/2 years. nm
nm
Yes to old reports! Their ExText has all the regular functions except line counts are done on line
s
Thanks for the info! Do you *feel* like you make more with a gross line v. character line? (nm)
Oh, they make money off us. Line rate is 17 cents a gross line.nm
z
Keystrokes has very few accts on line using ExText. Most use Cphones/2nd line. Lots of Rad
s
What line rate does Medware pay for 28 years experience but no CMT status for an employee, also
is the pay higher for IC?
They never change, 4 years ago a Xmas, they lowered everyone's line rate, I left then
NM
Could someone help me with the figuring out of gross line versus character line? sm
I have generally been paid by character line, 65-character line. Now, I have had job opportunities offering to pay gross line but it like 3 cents cheaper than what I am being paid now. A few places I have read that gross line is MUCH better, but is it much better if the pay is so much lower? Please explain how it works or equals out. This position has offered me 6 cents per gross line - what would that equal out to in character lines? Thanks...so confused...
Spaces are not taken into account with gross lines....a line is a line...sm
if there seven words on a line.
or two
one
or a full line of typing...all of the companies that I have worked for define a gross line as 1 inch margins, 12 pt courier font....does not matter what we type in margins or font.....we convert all reports to the 1 inch margins and courier 12 font and then count the lines. not the blank spaces between the lines.
Hope this helps.
I left MQ for TT. The base line rate was less at TT, but overall I make more per line with the
shift differential (I work second shift) and the incentive plan (I have never once failed to make at least an extra half cent per line on incentives - most of the time a penny). I was scared to death to make that move, as I had been with MQ since back in the Transcriptions Limited days. I have to say, though, that it was the best career move I have ever made and I have never, not once, regretted it.
I hope that was of some help.
Line counts - the lower the line count requirements
the harder the account and problems with trying to get production off the platform the company uses.
I see they pay on a VBC line. Isn't that a huge paycut from a 65-char. line with spaces? nm
x
Made 1200-1600 per week paid on a gross line for 5 years!
It CAN be done. The key is either a really high line rate or canned text over and over again with very small accounts. I had a little of both and then some harder stuff thrown in. It also helps if you work like you are on fire most of the day. Needless to say, that gravy train ran out of juice and now I am back to *normal* pay of around $750 per week at another company. SO many variables out there with the *how much do you make?* question.
Actually, SBC does allow it. I had my line changed to a business line and talked with a sm
supervisor who okayed it. As long as I am listening to voice files, and not one computer talking to another, faxing, etc., it is within their guidelines. :-)
Ask what is a line. I was offered 6 clp for a 42 black character line sm
that seemed to strange, but really it was not so bad. Came out pretty close to a 65 k/s line at 8.5 to 9.
Line By Line...... any info on this company?
Thanks!
Any info on Line By Line Transciprion?? nt
x
Any info on Line By Line Transcription please???nt
x
A gross line is any line that has a character on it, so even if
a line just has one character on it, it is considered a line. If you are getting 6 cpl per gross that is approximately equal to 8 cpl based on 65 characters. Sometimes the font on a gross line can make it be less than that though.
NEVER believe the company line. Do line count for yourself.
p
Line by Line Transcription....anyone have any info?
Thanks!!!
I don't have a second phone line ... cable modem for the internet, regular line for my C-phone.
If anyone wanst to get through to me while I'm working, they have my cell phone number.
And, as I said, some accounts are using wav files -- no doubt soon all of the accounts will convert. Hope so ... would make it easier (less expensive) to work when traveling. :-)
Lots of good companies out there -- hope you find one that fits :)
WMX - line count. Was working along and noted line count accumulation (sm)
signed off the report I was typing. Those lines didn't add immediately, but sometimes they do that. What concerns me is that when I signed that job off and the next one came up, not only were the other lines not added in but they were LESS than they were before I signed off previous job.
I thought I noticed this happening the other day, but figured I just wasn't paying attention. Today I definitely noticed it. For some reason it changed it's mind and took 8 lines off my line count. What the heck?
Am not really ecstatic with the way things are going anyway and then this confuses me.
Please, someone have a realistic explanation so I don't feel paranoid and cheated here.
Worked on C-phone for 10 years with 1 phone line
nn
Line by Line out of Texas. NM
Nm
QA pay is 0.015 per line; yes, 1-1/2 pennies per line. No thanks. nm
x
They pay per net line not per gross line..sm
I work on Escription and they pay net line, all characters counted on entire document and divided by 65 to get one line count.
Bottom line: What does it pay per line?
.
A gross line is not based on characters. A gross line is
anything on the line constitutes a line, so if you only have 1 word on a line it is still counted as a line. A gross line at 8 cpl roughly translates to 10 cpl/65 character.
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