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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

A flyer for individual docs:

Posted By: s/msg on 2009-05-31
In Reply to: Well, at least the PR guys will be kept busy... SM - Zorba the Kat

*If you're like most doctors, you never read dictated medical reports, anyway! Yours, or anyone else's! So why pay through the nose for something you'll never look at?*

*At AchooQuist, we understand the needs of busy docs like you.... men and women who laugh in the face of malpractice suits. That is why we've tailored our MT services to suit your busy, careless, greedy lifestyle.*

*When you joint the AchooQuist team, you'll pay what YOU want. (next-to-nothing). And you'll get exactly what you pay for.*

*We GUARANTEE it.*


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    A good mix. I don't mind ESL docs. I think that some U.S. docs are worse! nm
    nm
    Anybody else get a flyer from ProScript? n/m

    n/m


    No flyer, but in 2005, they were only paying 8 cpl until you hit 1400 lpd. Any mention of
    s
    he's not looking for individual MTs
    He's looking for a group that collectively can handle 5000/day.
    I have the individual coverage
    and it's about $17 per week.  United Healthcare, good plan.  250 deductable.  I wish I could help you more but I know my regular doctor is on the plan so I am quite happy with the coverage.  Hope that helps.
    It's not so much the school, it's the individual.
    x
    CUT-THROAT INDIVIDUAL
    I know who you are too, and what goes around comes around!
    What a pathetic individual

    I know what you're alluding to, even though you are too much of a coward to say it outright.  If you can't say anything nice, or heaven forbid be supportive of this individual, then just keep it to yourself.


     


    I, too, work for OSi and have for a few years.  It's bad enough that you come on here and trash the company, now you're making personal attacks?!  Go crawl back into your hole! 


    Oh yes they can! It depends on the individual sm
    QA person, of course. There certainly are some with very strange ideas on the interpretation of transcribed work (they don't take time to read the entire report to get the proper context) and some with vendettas. There are rotten apples everywhere.
    How can you know for a fact how much another individual is capable of doing? sm

    I have tried to ignore your constant negativity, and I do feel sorry for you because you must have an unhappy life to want to always rain on everyone else, but enough is enough.


    I average 300-350 lines an hour, at 11 cpl that equals over $33/hour.   I have been an MT for over 30 years now, and have been blessed with a natural ability for speed and spelling, and, although there are new things to learn every day, I do not have to spend the majority of my work day looking up things. 


    I am not trying to be adversarial, and it makes no difference to me what you believe.  I cannot believe I even got sucked this far into defending myself against some stranger.   I wish you well, and hope you have a job that you enjoy as much as I do mine.


     


    Merry Christmas :)


    I have individual coverage and I pay less than $100 per month. They pay
    the rest. I think it's definitely more for family coverage and I am not really sure what those rates are. I would just call and ask them. They're really nice and helpful.
    I have BCBS individual policies for myself and
    my last home-living son. When all my children were still at home, they had individual policies that they could take with them.

    It was cheaper for me to do buy each of us an individual policy and know that I can keep us insured 100% of the time regardless of whether I changed jobs or not.

    The plan I chose for ours has a $5000 major medical deductible but we have not ever had to use hospitalization and I can pay out $5000 one way or another. Office visits are covered 100%. That was my main concern as I wanted the routine items covered. I can handle facing the other big ticket items. I also wanted the lowest premium possible. It was a great bargain for us.

    Reports for any individual company. nm

    Is that individual or family and what is the company?
    nm
    This is why I prefer group over individual..

    The bottom line is that.. When you have group insurance, you have a set rate, along with everyone else, regardless of your health insurance..and when it renews each year, it will only go up based on the group's rate, nothing to do with your personal health history and it is generally better benefits overall. Now, you have a private policy, can only afford one with a huge deductible (major medical)..well, during the year, you had an emergency surgery, heart attack..whatever.. Well, first off you have that preminum which is high, then you have all of that deductible to meet, upwards of $5000..THEN, your shocked at renewal time that they jacked up your preminum about $200 a month..and then your stuck..You can pay that outrageous amount or go without insurance because another private insurance wont touch you will all of your medical claims in the past 10 years. If they do touch you, it won't be cheap. So, your bad to square one.. crappy insurance at a bad price or signing up with a company for okay rates but better insurance.


    I thought I was smart not keeping my group insurance through work because it was $400 a month (deductible $1000 etc..) so I went and got myself a family plan through private insurance for ONLY $196 a month.. Yes, then I had a $5000 deductible and come to find out my prescription benefits were only 50% instead of the $10-40 I had been paying. One of my son's prescription cost us $100 a month with that great insurance, and it would have only been $25 on my old group policy. Yes, I was saving a lot of money..NOT. I did check into my private insurance to get a policy similar to my group one.. and imagine that.. they wanted over $1000 a month for decent insurance. So, no thanks. I'll stay with group..It's worth it in the long run.


    Are you looking for individual or family coverage?
    X
    Maybe you could solicit work from individual
    and give them a good rate for paying CASH. Then no one could prove who you were working for.
    No, Diskriter is owned by an individual - they have never been linked to MQ - never will -
    never ever ever ever never - if they ever did join with MQ, I would quit in a heartbeat and never go back to the field of transcription.
    Their individual insurance is $52 a mo and their dental and vision
    run it up to about $60 a month. If you leave, you also get to Cobra the dental and vision together at $30 a month. I know because I left and went back. Nice folks.
    Can anybody recommend where to get individual insurance affordably sm
    for self-employed MTs that doesn't exclude pre-existing conditions?  My husband just lost his job and we haven't received the COBRA papers yet and it has been over a month.  I have health problems and really cannot afford to be without insurance so I thought I would ask if anybody here knows of good reasonable insurance for the self-employed but more importantly one that actually will cover something!  Thanks so much!
    What a charming individual you are -- thanks, and Merry Christmas to you. :-) nm
    x
    Yes, my husband is self-employed so we have individual plans but...
    the preminums keep going up and up. I realize they also do when you work for a company, but since they get a group rate, the hit isnt as hard as when you are self-employed. Once you have a medical condition and your self-employed, the rates are horrible. I am going to check into some of our plans here locally just to see. My husband and kids are on their own individiual plans and they do have a copay but all we could afford was the cheapest plan which does not cover a lot and like I said every year we get hit with higher preminums just to end up with less coverage. It is very discouraging.
    Very affordable for individual, high for families, sm
    but I think all insurance is high for families. 6 holidays, a few days PTO until you've been there over 6 years. (and they keep changing the PTO yearly).
    Pros and cons dependent on individual (sm)
    In my own case, I was never a power producer MT. There were several reasons, but suffice it to say that though I always made quota, I never really soared past it. My transcripts were always nearly perfect, though, and that got attention and I got asked to do QA.

    I am a better QA person than I am an MT, both because I have a knack for hearing things other people can't, and for finding the answers in books or on the Internet. And it allows me to do my typing in shorter bursts, which works better in conjunction with my health issues and honestly, my attention span. (I joke that I'm both OCD and ADD, and my QA job is easier on both of those than straight transcription.)

    I have a friend who's just the opposite. She's a fantastic MT but hates doing QA. She hated dealing with others' mistakes and was uncertain of herself when having to make a judgment call about something. She also can transcribe fast enough that she makes more money on the hour transcribing.

    So, overall, yeah, I personally think it's more a preference. Different strokes...
    That is individual and the company is paying a big portion. sm
    That is the employee portion. They were having problems getting enough people interested last year but I guess they have enough now!
    To answer your other question, they may hire MTs for individual departments
    like Renal Transplant, Orthopedic department, etc. They do not have hire for their MR or radiology department as those departments are outsourced.

    You could probably get in a specialty practice.

    I know Rothmann Institute hires on-site MTs for their Hand Center - Orthopedic surgeons. They have an office in Center City, a satellite office in King of Prussia, and another one in Cherry Hill, NJ.

    Hope this helps you!
    agree,the pay is going to vary based on individual experience
    nm
    ExText line count for individual reports? Is there a way? nm
     x
    You know, its just so much dependent on the individual posters. That's what ruins the thread whet
    good or bad about a company, and wish as we might, we just cannot make some MTs have any class, or behave like an adult.  I don't think people would bash the positive posters. In fact, normally they don't, but its how the positive posters post! Most times, they just come in bashing and defending their company, and that never works! In fact, if they just realized how bad they are behaving, while they are so outraged and trying to protect their company, they actually make the company look worse - know what I mean? We all shudder and think, Uggghhh, glad I don't work with her.  Or whatever! Or if they just post totally out of the blue, like "Gee, ya know, Joe Blow Transcription is just the BEST - a dream job, and I am just sooooooooooooo happy here. (and then you can bet your next paycheck that there just happens to be an ad for help at JBT on the job board, posted 60 seconds before the "cheerleader" post. Those happy posts are just insulting! And same for the negative posters.  We all love the infamous "Joe Blow Transcription Sux", and they don't even have the brains to put "nm", so we all waste our time and follow the thread to see WHY JBT sux, and there is no message! These are the obvious disgruntled MTs who got the axe, and for probable good cause! But when people are upset enough to come on the board and post their grievances:  a. we SHOULD lend them a sympathetic ear, even if we work for the same company (perhaps more if we work with them - they are a coworker on the same team after all), or b. we should at least let them voice their probable valid grievances. We could all benefit from their grievances, as these companies really do have a history, or pattern, of behavior.  And when there are runs of these battles over a company, as upsetting as it may be for some of you to read or see, it is a very big RED FLAG and indicator that something is wrong in these companies - maybe it gets fixed, maybe it doesn't, but SOMETHING is wrong, and I sure like to know before wasting my time!  Been there, done that, and have even not listened to some valid grievances about companies, applied, been hired, and crushed to find all the complaints were 100% true and still not fixed! So, negative as the posts seem, sadly they are indicative of the condition of our industry! Let these companies know we are communicating about them - it turns up the heat for them to FIX themselves!
    Haven't noticed - do you keep track of individual report counts?
    nm
    I've had private individual policies and you pay a fortunate for bad coverage.
    You either get stuck with an awful deductible or a policy which limits coverage. So, that is not always a good option. If you want a decent cheap premium, you get what you pay for.
    For decent private individual policies, it is very expensive for a family.
    Unless, you have a $5000-7500 deductible and a 50% copay on prescriptions which is bad for us because my son takes medication that costs $160 a month.  If we went with a policy equal to what my job provides, the premium is over $1000 a month. With my job, I am paying about $400 a month for family coverage.
    Could be because all they can get from the docs is 11 cpl....nm
    x
    ESL docs
    Im having a very hard time with all the discussion that I see on the boards regarding ESL doctors  -- I have been in this business 20+ years and it takes time to develop an ear to be able to understand ESL doctors  -- if you have a friend who is an MT, have her on instant message and ASK what the doctor might be saying  -- there have been times too, with her and my experience where she has played her stuck spot back and I heard as clear as a bell what the doctor was saying  -- unfortunately, the schools with their training don't do ESL doctors and this is the reason that 99.9% of the companies wont hire without experience - PLEASE resign yourselves that ESL docs are going away unfortunately
    with ESL docs, you just never know..sm
    You could have great ESL dictators, and at .09/line, you would be paid at least close to what a good Transcriptionist is worth (still not enough as our wages are pitiful now). On the other hand, if you have really terrible ESL dictators, that .09 could easily become comparable to making .05/line if you have to slow down to understand the doctor. With ESL's, you really don't know until after you have made that commitment. However, as a previous MTSO, I would never give one person all of the crappy dictators. Rather, I tried to distribute the work evenly to give everyone a fair shot at a decent line count. Good luck in your decision. Try bargaining. Tell them you feel ESL doctors are worth the extra compensation because often times your hourly production is decreased because they do not dictate proper English sentences, mispronounce words etc, and tell them you believe the work is worth .10/line and you will strongly consider the position.
    Docs
    who eat, slurp, roll hard candy or lozenges in their mouth, sniffing their nose constantly all while speaking....especially the eating while dictating drives me CRAZY!  It is just like having a rude person standing right next to your ear eating smacking his food.  GRRRRRRRR 
    the docs may not NEED it but its sm
    not for you to decide. If thats what they want and you do their work, then you do it or you don't work. I don't like it either, but they don't dictate their reports to suit the lifestyle of your or me. I don't understand why people can't see its the profession, you aren't going to change it. you need to get a new profession.

    As far as the grocery clerks and weekends, etc. etc. They don't all call in sick and not work. Years ago when some of these supermarket chains were union, they made good money and those people worked their hind ends off, weekends, nights, holidays the whole bit. I know because my hubby is now drawing retirement from one of the chains. Seems to me we have a whole generation of younger folks that don't want to work but like the other poster said, they just want to p*ss and moan!
    ooops. I mean that individual plans suck..not stick as I stated in previous post...NM

    Rotten docs

    Dear Doctor:


    While I have a great deal of respect for what you do, you aggravate me.


    Please, when you are addressing a letter be courteous enough to include the CITY and the STATE, and if you spell something don't spell ROAD for me, because, trust me, I learned how to spell road in the second grade!


    Don't make me search for 15 minutes to find something your lazy ### could have read off the chart, because I only made 14 cents to type that letter, and my time and skill is worth more than 60 cents an hour. 


    And while I am venting, how about you say pheochromatoma, instead of feo, if that is what you mean.  Don't be so lazy my job is 100 times harder.


    If thats all they can get from the docs, get a different account!! There are more out there
    I'm tired of these companies expecting IC work for 8 cpl, have a set schedule and thats even when I'm offering to do ops mainly!! Thats disgusting. I can just as easy do the basic 4, have a set schedule and not have to pay my own social security and taxes! Dont take it!
    No ESL docs, no op notes (as far as I know) SM

    They are mainly consults, soap notes, some radiology.  You use their templates and get paid for headers/footers.


    I don't know if everyone makes the same, but I make 8 cpl (55 characters per line) without spaces.  I compared it to the normal 65 characters per line with spaces, and it is equivalent to 8 cents per line with spaces.  So, not too bad...just average I guess. 


    But the dictators are really clear and there are a lot of samples.  I think the work is pretty easy.  I think it makes a really good p.r.n. position. 


    Good luck with whatever you decide to do. :)


    Chickadee


    You need to realize that about 80 pc of the docs sm

    practicing acute care in this country are ESL.  It is what it is. 


    I like them a lot better than the native English speakers, who slur words, like to play with the language.  ESLs learn one way to say it, and they say it that way every time.  You just have to get used to it.


    TransTech and ESL Docs
    Well, you know...ANYONE who wants to continue to be a Transcriptionist had better become proficient in ESL docs. They are here to stay. If you had YOUR own business you would take the accounts to. I can do them. I moan a lot of times when I see a particular doctor's name come up for me to transcribe for, but it's all just part of the job. Like I said, better get used to it as there are more and more foreign doctors every day. I transcribe and I get paid and I don't feel cheated ONE bit.
    All the decent docs have

    TransTech did a big hiring blitz back in October last year for a new account, but the account almost immediately started going to VR, so the doable dictators left in a hurry!


    The jobs that get sifted towards the MT's out of VR machine, thus, are the very difficult dictators that should be warned about their dictation habits.


    The ExSpeech (editing platform) is very awkward and time consuming, so it is a catch 22 for the MT's. ExText has a good spell check and is easy platform to learn.


    TransTech does not allow the MT's to check/verify our lines in the manner in which, in my opinion, we should be able to do. The CTRL I function does not give even a close line count and our pay stubs do not show it either -- just the word *piecework*. We can go to iChart; however, it does not show an immediate line count nor the jobs or line count per report -- only a total line count for a period of time per TransTech's counting method. It is a lot of trouble to go to iChart to get an immediate line count each time you choose to check your pace. We should be able to do this right from the platform/software that we are working in, IMO.


    It seems our lines have been much harder to obtain in the past several months -- I suppose more to the dictators shuffled our way from VR, than anything that Transtech is doing with the line counts. I can't imagine them messing with our line counts in any form or fashion, as some companies have been accused of doing.


    VR is the way of the future in order for the companies to be more profitable for themselves, so this is what we have to look forward to -- those of us who remain in the MT profession.


     


    They use their own software. You get docs
    s
    all those horrible docs got you
    Schizophrenic? You're like one of those people who sit in a bus & just starts telling and calling people names with no thought. All bark, no bite.
    Number of docs
    Are there any companies that assign a certain number of doctors?  I have too many to EVER make a good line count.
    Docs using PC's instead of charts sm
    The younger docs are now carrying laptops into the examining room, no more charts. My husband and I had extensive, large charts (which we earned through serious stuff) and now they have been replaced by the young staff coming in with a laptop, no more charts. I was not brave enough to ask at my last visit but I will this visit, Where are our huge charts? Mine used to make comments about the large chart and too many papers. I wanted to say, Do you ever read any of those reports? Very curt, very non-caring attitude, told me last time had had input all my allergies (which are serious) into his computer. I am really worried as my husband and I have been through a lot. I think they could very easily print a H&P from there if you went into a hospital. Two of my clients used to do open heart surgery and they would ask me to print out a H&P from the chart just before the surgery. Some of those people they had not seen in years. I explained that I would not do that as the patient could have developed an illness since last seen. You gotta thank computers for replacing us. Between outsourcing and electronic medical record, we are becoming distinct as the dinosaur. Just IMHO from this area anyway.
    When I was inhouse the rad docs liked it
    And at that hospital those same docs were pushing for VR.  Most of 'em liked to goof off for hours wandering the halls telling jokes, then wanted to read like mad when our MT staff was down to a couple night people, and whine that we didn't get it all typed for them to sign off before they went home.  So I think its fitting its going to bite them in the butt.
    assigned docs
    On my account, I have one doc that I am assigned to. My main priority is his work for that day. If other MTs are out or busy, I can be asked to help them out. It is hit or miss. Last week I did 10,000 lines (my hands were killing me) just helping out for the MTs on vacation.

    The other account I work on is a pool, so I go there when I am done with my assigned work. This week, my doc is out and I am only working in the pool. It is backed up and getting further behind, and it is mostly very short jobs (20 seconds), so I much prefer my other account.

    I understand there are some new docs coming on, so hopefully this will pick up.

    I love having a few assigned docs since I get to know their style and makes my job much easier.

    There is pretty much an even mix, but my ESLs are better than the US docs.
    I am very happy with my account, my pay and the way I am treated.