From post down below by HD Wallen

• Anyone work for Aces UP Medical Services ? nm - noname
  • From post down below by HD Wallen - they have accounts that only pay them 8 cpl.

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I am the person who accepted a job with this company and then moved on to clients who offered higher pay.  I am writing for a couple of reasons, the main one being that the type of negative responses posted below really demonstrate how fractured this industry has become.  People are at each other's throats because of low pay, long hours, and general frustration on both sides of the coin, the worker bee and the company.

First, I would like to say that the person I dealt with at this company was nothing but honest with me from the start, and I think I was straightforward and honest with her.  Yes, the compensation was a good deal lower than I wanted, or needed for that matter, but my interaction with her was so good that I thought that perhaps we could make it work.  Sometimes, as you know, you will get a great dictator whose dictations you can zip through, and the faster you type, of course the more money you make.  The dictators I was given to transcribe for were, for the most part, extremely good.  And when I came across one who was so slow that I would have made no money at all, they offered to give me other dictators.  They were trying and so was I.  Had things not worked out the way they did, I think I probably would have stayed with the company.  They seemed both honest and willing to try to accommodate my desired work schedule and workload. 

I am a single parent and have been in this business for almost 18 years.  This job has allowed me to stay home with my kids and raise them and support them.  Looking back, I do not know what I would have done without having had this job.  Paying for daycare and a daily commute certainly would have made things more difficult for me than they already were. 

I am certainly not a job hopper.  I worked in my first job as a medical Transcriptionist for free so that I could learn the business.  I stayed at my second job for about 14 years until voice recognition shut down our small group.  I have been with my current, small company for a couple of years now and they, too, are good to work for but do not have enough work for me, having recently lost a large account to escription.  In somewhat of a panic, I responded to several job ads I found on this site, after recently doing a 200-piece mailing to local docs hoping to land some work.  Having been in this industry for so long, and wanting to continue working from my home with some flexibility to accommodate my children, I really felt that at this point in the game, my marketable skills were limited in terms of working outside my home.  I am the only player in the band here and being away from home anywhere from 8-10 hours a day would be very difficult for me, yet I have to work full-time to support my family.  Working outside would mean paying for more gas for my car, not being home for my kids, and all the other expenses that go along with working in an office, which is all I know how to do. 

I accepted the job from HD Wallen's company fully aware of what the compensation was.  I started out in this industry making .06 per line years and years ago and certainly felt that for .07 per line, this company would be getting a very good, solid, reliable transcriptionist to work for them.  Of course I feel that my skill as a transcriptionist is worth more, and it truly is a skill.  I care about the work I produce and do lots of research when transcribing in the hopes of being as accurate as possible.  Paying the mortgage and having Christmas for my kids, though, takes precedence, so I told them I would give it a try, hoping that, in the long run, things would work out.  Personally, I would prefer to work for a company because when you are on your own, you have all the additional responsibilities of billing and dealing with the clients, which can be very time-consuming and difficult.  I have had my own clients as well as worked for companies, and working for a company is certainly easier. 

Shortly after starting with them, I received two responses from my mailing.  Having given up hope, I was quite surprised to receive these two telephone calls, and even more surprised when I was offered a substantially higher line rate.  I had no choice but to call this company back and tell them that I would have to go with the higher rate of pay.  I offered to help them out if they found themselves in a bind over the next few weeks because I felt badly about agreeing to take the job and then reneging.  I tried to handle things as professionally as possible since I don't like to leave any job on bad terms.  I am pretty sure the person I was dealing with understood my predicament because she even offered her company's services to help with any overload I might have in the future.  In all, I have to say my short experience with this company was quite good and I think they would be a very nice company to work for.  I am going to hold on to their number in the event that I need to call them back for work.

In their defense, I must say that I think they, like the rest of us, are struggling in this business.  The competition is so fierce with outsourcing and escription and voice recognition that we are all looking at lower rates of pay simply because there is always someplace else to go where hospitals and doctors can pay less.  They often don't care as much about the finished product as we transcriptionists and smaller companies do because they are slicing their transcription budgets down to bare bones.  That leaves us worker bees forced to work for less and the companies forced to charge less and, therefore, pay less if they don't have a huge volume of work.  Other than the larger, national companies, I really don't see these smaller companies lining their pockets any more than we, as transcriptionists, are lining our pockets.

I really believe that, as an industry, it is time for us to fight back.  Rather than being at each other's throats, it is time for us to work together to take our work back.  Unfortunately, money always seems to be the bottom line, for all of us -- the transcriptionists, the companies, the hospitals, the small, private doctors' offices.  They want to pay less; we need to earn more.  HIPAA rules and regulations, to me, are almost laughable.  We have to sign privacy agreements, yet much of our personal, private information is leaving the country.  Voice recognition and escription lack much in terms of quality and accuracy, but they cost a heck of a lot less.  So where does that leave us?  Hating the powers that be because we can't make a decent living and they can't offer a more equitable wage.

For myself, I am worried.  Yes, I took on two accounts that pay a lot better, but so far the work has been scarce.  The holidays are around the corner and my mortgage is due December 1st.  At the moment, I have no prospect of a paycheck for the first time in 17+ years.  However, I am tired of sitting back and waiting to see what is going to happen.  I have to make something happen.  And I think that, as an industry, people need to band together.  Technology is the future, there's no way around that, but in our small corner of the world, we need to take back what rightfully belongs here.  I do not wish to take work away from anyone because I know how that feels and what the consequences can be, but when there are perfectly capable, hard-working individuals right here in the United States who want to work and want to earn, I think it is really unfair that we are being pushed aside.  We need to fight back.  But we cannot fight back if we are constantly fighting amongst ourselves because then all of that energy becomes negative and accomplishes nothing; it needs to be redirected to affect a positive change.

Like a lot of you, I am tired, too.  I have worked many, many long, hard hours in this profession, more than I ever would have worked in an office.  I have gotten up at 3:00 in the morning to work, worked long into the early morning hours, worked on Thanksgiving and Christmas, worked just about every weekend, and worked all through the summertime when many of my friends were on vacation.  No coffee breaks, no real lunch breaks, no paid time off, no sick time, no benefits that were affordable.  I have worked when I was sick and when my kids were sick.  But still, the benefit of being home with my kids has meant everything to me, so I have chosen to stay in this field, accepting the good and bad that comes along with it.  I have been very lucky to have employers who were good to me, though, and appreciated the work quality and volume I produced.  But I really feel that we are at a point in this industry where we need to get together and fight for what we know belongs to us and stop fighting with one another.  This site would be an excellent forum for that.  Yes, people in India need jobs, too, and I certainly have no ill will for anyone, but we, in this country, need to live and survive as well.  In this time of terrorism, however, it boggles my mind that our personal information is being sent to India.  If HIPAA regulations are to be taken seriously, we need to bring our work back home.  In all honesty, though, I simply don't know how we can accomplish that other than to band together and form a campaign.  On the other hand, all the technological advances available are difficult for we transcriptionists to compete with.  I honestly don't know where that leaves us; well, yes, I do: right where we are.

I am sorry that this is so long-winded.  I just felt that it was necessary to point out what may be some misconceptions about this company and to reach out to those of you who are as frustrated and, yes, I'll say it, afraid, as I am.  Hope you all have a good day.

Trish

review it.  This way, requests for post deletions won't appear in the newsletter.

Thanks,

Administrator
MTStars

Would you please e-mail me at jcarros213@aol.com.  I "really" need information.  

TIA

mine got erased too..I asked a question about eTransPlus and now it's gone???

Are you a SS transcriptionist?  Will you post your acknowledgement of e-mail?

resumes.  This way they'll probably get a few, but hopefully the MTs will be wise enough to turn them down.

Another good reason not to respond to a blind ad is that it could be the company you are currently working for - or you were working for  (LOL). 

the wrong word of undercutting, but when I became an MTSO 9+ years ago......a national was charging 13-18 cpl to the client and so I went ONE cent below that, 12 CPL.....and I get the work, have had clients for all this time...and I work for a national part-time....

Thank you for taking the time to type all that....much appreciated!!