How do you think MTSO can figure this way of working into her business plan?
Posted By: nm on 2006-05-30
In Reply to: IC status - anon
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- How do you think MTSO can figure this way of working into her business plan? - nm
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That's why I plan to get out of this business..sm
It's a dead end. The entire health information industry - coding, billing, transcription, supervisors... not to mention other industries - every customer service 800-number you call nowadays is practically in another country. We have to go into fields where it is really difficult to offshore - nursing is a good example.
This industry can take their dictation and send it all overseas. All of it. Eventually it will blow up and they'll be back begging for U.S. workers. By that time, we will have all left the field and the industry will be screwed.
You have to get ATT business plan. Then should be no problem. nm
nm
Try Qwest unlimited small business plan for $25.00 a month
or check MCI. They have been offering $15 a month in my area.
I figure working from home is worth at LEAST sm
an extra $5/hr for me right now (maybe more). Had offers to work in-house. Ability to work from home is the ONLY reason to do MT. Absolutely no point in leaving the house to do MT work.
Small MTSO and bad business practices
I think the reason for late/bounced checks is exactly due to a lot of small MTSOs not keeping business and personal money separate and they do not have a reserve to fall back on in case something happens.
I had one that did not keep her personal finances separate from business and some government agency (she was having legal problems) went in and wiped out her bank account...she still owes me big bucks and that was several years ago. Unfortunately, I kept working (2 months with no pay, stupid) believing things would get better and believed the excuses and lies before I found out what was going on and quit, but could not collect because she had no money left and then she just dropped out of sight (rumor has it she changed her name and moved to a different state).
Another one had the same situation as far as not separating business from personal money and bounced payroll checks (I quit when the first check bounced, lesson learned from the first time). I finally got my money from that one after months of waiting. Needless to say, I will no longer work as IC for small MTSOs. They will lie to you when you ask if they have a separate business account and a line of credit or reserve to ensure payroll is on time even if client does not pay on time or they themselves get into financial trouble.
BEWARE THE CONTRACT THAT SAYS YOU GET PAID WHEN I GET PAID because it means just that and you will have no legal recourse of getting your hard-earned money, definite red flag. 
My thought as a working MTSO...
I read a lot about IC complaining about how much they make. I agree 8 cpl used to be low. However, in today's transcription world, we all should feel lucky just to have a job. We used to worry about our work being sent over seas. Today, what everyone needs to be concerned about is electronic medical records. I am a working MTSO (meaning, I have to transcribed also to make a living), and in my area the going rate for a service owner to get the contract is between 12 and 13 cpl, then you have to pay a Transcriptionist 9 to 10 cpl, someone to fax or deliver finished product, equipment costs for client to call in to your system, do all the work the transcriptionist wouldn't do because the dictator may be too difficult, speak to slow, et cetera, and I am in the hole by at least 2 to 3 cpl. Thus, the reason I have to transcribe myself in order to make a living.
I also do not have benefits, but I for one knew this when I chose to work at home. I became an MTSO when I got tired of not having control over my work. There are many days I wish I had never left the hospital where my workday consisted of an 8-hour shift, not 20 hours a day, and when you were sick, you could stay in bed.
When you do take on new accounts, you have a hard time finding anyone to work. I know because I have an ad on the Job Board to which I only received 4 responses to, out of those not one person had the qualifications I had specifically asked for in the ad.
Before you flame me, I know there are companies out there who treat their transcriptionists like dirt, but not all of us do.
MTSO owner, who appreciates and respects all of the IC who work for her.
A company/MTSO can offer an IC a job working certain hours
that they need coverage, and it's up to the IC to agree to working those hours, or not take the job.
If you hired an IC to repair your roof, would you want him working daylight hours, or since he's an IC can he work on the roof from midnite to 8 a.m. if he wants?
Don't worry just find out and then have a plan A and plan B
I have gone through something like this but not with that company. I too am the insurance provider for my family and there are preexisting conditions, so a private policy is no good.
First of all, I work elsewhere but had the same situation. I fell short of line count, but not because of me, because they did not have enough work, and I like many others cannot make quota because of the way they count lines. Then, on last paycheck there was a negative on insurance money taken out of check. I thought I lost insurance, but found out at the end of the year, they did an audit and found out that I overpaid all year and so I actually was owed money that check.
In the meantime, I found another job but have to wait 90 days for insurance. Can't find a policy to bridge the 2 jobs, insurance is on my mind all the time. My heart is with you. Personally I am getting the 90 day meds, working on my second job which will become my real job and if I lose the insurance, Cobra will kick in in case of disaster so that is like major medical.
Sorry such a long post, but I suggest: Not to panic. You probably did not lose insurance. Call the benefit provider to see you are still covered, not the employer. If you are not still covered, get 90 days of Rx if your plan covers by mail and be billed, immediately get another job which is a better place to work anyway (I found one) and in 90 days you will be okay. Some places like Disriter cover the first of the following month, but I would not necessarily suggest you work somewhere which is not so great just for insurance. You can consider TransTech. That would be my suggestion. Sorry for such a long post. But this hit a nerve and I wanted you to understand some options, as I have gone through it. Good Luck.
Do you feel better now? !! Business is business, most of it should be confidential. Why post on a
x
when docs give mtso a check, then mtso pays you?
nm
Trying to build his business? He's been in business over 15 years!!!!!! sm
I also had a hard time, nearly impossible actually, getting paid. The owner does this on the side; he is very involved with other things.
Isn't she an MTSO owner - which MTSO ? Just curious. n/mnn
nnnn
If you don't know what is confidential, you have no business being in any business.
This is confidential information and should not be divulged. It is one of the biggest problems a co can have. If you have to ask...well I won't be able to explain it to you
Ditto.. Over 13 years experience working in hospitals doing all types of reports, currently working
for a national etc.. and Spheris told me I didnt have the qualifications. What cracked me up was the hospital I was working at at the time contracted some of our work out to them.. What a joke..I was good enough to work for a hospital and gave them work, yet not qualified enough for them. What is wrong with this picture.
MQ same situation. No pay for working holidays, no pay for working weekends nothing. Now noone works
much anymore and so they jerk the work out of the accounts to some place that throws it back with a lot of bad bad quality. This is the NE region. I dont know what the others are doing.
I know how to figure it,
how do you qualify for it? The account I work on never offers that, the most they offer is an additional 0.05 per line when they are behind.
Let's figure this out. sm
I am currently working for 10.5 cents per line, equipment furnished, and I get two weeks PTO per year, plus health insurance for $21.00 a payday and that insurance includes health/dental/vision/life, and direct deposit. Compare that to FN, no insurance, no bennies, no direct deposit and, at most, 10 cents per line. There are several small MTSOs out there who provide benefits and pay as I am describing here. Why in the world would you work for a company who provides no benefits at all, not even direct deposit, for 10 cents a line? I just don't get it.
I don't think anybody has been able to figure that out yet
You'll find a few people posting that it didn't affect their line count, but the majority of posters did lose big going to the platform.
Nothing to figure out, really. sm
They no longer pay for demographic info, headers (client letterhead), footers (signature line and DD/DT block/initials), CCs, etc. Add that all up times each page and that is a lot of lost lines, possibly hundreds of lines per day.
GO FIGURE!!! That is what is
what is wrong with our society, no one wants responsibility for there own actions. If you screwed up, and I know for a fact that some of you were not doing your work, because i am the MT that turned you in, then take responsibilty for your screw up. Quit blaming everyone at Shapin for your laziness. And now that your gone, I have your job and I absolutely love it. So I guess I owe you a thank you.
Not sure how you figure that one
Never heard this one before - trying to convert minutes to lines!
.9/line is not a bad rate, depending of course on the specifics of the work (type, difficulty of dictators, TAT, etc.
200 minutes could actually be very few lines if the dictator is a pauser... or a lot of work if they dictate like Robin Williams talks...
Ask for more details.
How do you figure your cpl?
How do you figure your cpl for editing? I don't get it.
D&L - go figure
Poor them, to hear them tell it, every body is lying on them and telling stories. I do not understand how they have Transcriptionist working for them. I have not heard a one that has gotten a check on time and one that they know will clear. Living from paycheck to paycheck and fearing a bounced check would scare me off for sure. Yes they have client's - they do not know what is going on - but I say let the owners type the reports, for sure the clients would not last a week with her skills. Everybody complains, but they remain there - can I just ask why - i would rather work for less than work and worry about a check.
here's the way I figure it
Okay, so 45 minutes of dictation equal 2700 seconds, say 1 hour per 1000-1200 seconds on average typing between 150 to 200 lph, counting referencing time and proofing time, I would say about 2-2-1/2 hours average of actual transcribing time.
It would seem that if you can't figure sm
out correctly how to calculate $25 an hour, you're not going to be able to reach that. 
how do you figure that? If i'm doing less
the company makes less off of me as well.
Cheating out of money would more likely come from charging the client by the line and paying the Transcriptionist per report, among other ways.
Hon, if you can't figure out how to
do that, you need to work on your computer skills - LOL.
I figure...
...NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS! I would assume that I am doing such a good job that they have no reason to contact me.
how do you figure that?
Just curious
what I can't figure out is why any sm
interviewer/supervisor/owner or whatever would even tell that story to an employee much less a new-hire. I sometimes wonder if folks just do that to make themselves sound important. Personally I could not care less what goes on with other employees. I do my work, do it well and expect a paycheck. If that doesn't happen, then I am outta there.
you can figure that one out. Just figure sm
out what you make working at home and the number of hours your put in to make it. Compare that with the hourly wage in a facility. Most facilities still pay hourly and some have incentive plans.
I figure around
30-35% for all taxes.. For myself, I figure I'm saving gas, clothes, time, and car repairs by being an IC at home.
Trying to figure out why you would come here with those problems.
nm
I can figure out the percentage, but...
How does one go about figuring their estimated tax?
According to what I've read on the IRS site, we have to pay estimated taxes. Well, great. I can estimate my income at what I'm making now, just starting out, but I don't see my income staying this low, so I would eventually be underpaying. I could estimate it at a higher amount, but what if I don't make as much as I think or hope I will? I can see where getting a refund is a good thing, but I'm more worried about underpaying.
Do you pay the tax on what you've ACTUALLY made in a quarter (it kind of sounds like it) or do you go about estimating your income, say you figure you'll make $20k a year, and put 25% of that away?
Confused.
Just figure out average of how much (sm)
you have made per hour for the last, say 24 weeks. If you consistently make under $15, I'd go for the salary. If I was over most of the time, I'd go for production. Figure out what would be a fair amount of time to go back. Good luck.
You WHAT???? That's your paycheck. You should figure it out on your own. sm
Do they hold your hand all day too?
Figure this, if you did 300 lph, it would be a whopping
300 x 1.5 equals $4.50, less than minimum wage and many times when you have Filipino MTs as well as offshore MTs, everything is 100% listen so it might be difficult to get more than 300 lines an hour, but let's say you could do 400 lines an hour, that is 3200 lines a day, that would be a whopping $47
QA editors are specialists in our field and this stinks to say the least
easy way to figure
An easy way to figure would be to type a document and count it with spaces and then without -- even use MS Word -- and that will tell you the difference. Even if your line count program sounds double for caps, underlines, bold, this will at least tell you the difference between the two.
Well, I think you are right and it is strange that no one can figure it out. I am also considering
not working for anymore companies that use it. I think I lose about 75 lph at least. That adds up especially at todays rates or MTs.
Six figure income??? sm
Billers and Coders post says six figure income......yea, right!!! Same post several times.......looks suspicious to me. Maybe if you owned the company, you could get six figures....
Then she can intellectually figure out how to
do it herself! Sorry, but it does not work that way. Its the expansion system of MQ, not her intellectual property! Nice try, though. LOL
Here's a chart to figure that out-sm
This link has a chart that shows examples and tells how to figure that out.
On this chart, you'd be making about $22 more typing 55 cpl at 0.08 rather than 65 cpl.
http://www.medicalese.org/line_count.php
They are always hiring, can't figure out why though.
Not like there is a huge abundance of work. 
I just couldn't figure out
what company and if so, why say CMTs only and then not put the rate of pay. I will never be a CMT either (20 years in MT field) and I think I can pretty much do what any CMT can do other than pay $300.00 for worthless initials. I know a CMT and she got offered less than me at my company. So, for whatever its worth (probably nothing), I just thought I'd ask about this one-liner ad demanding CMTs for a maybe account as to what the pay would most likely be since they are demanding certification.
My SIL graduated from a course and thinks she's certified; I had to tell my brother that she's not certified until she takes the test by those ladies. Anyway, the client has the ultimate say-so, not the BOS. So even if you pass the test, does that mean you follow those guidelines? Doubt it!!!!!!!!!!
I think that a company could figure
out who you were if they read these boards a lot of times because of what you say, or if you bring up a certain situation. Sometimes things are so specific on here that if you are in the company and know the employees, you could figure out who it is. One reason I don't e-mail or respond to e-mails I receive, you never really know who is on the other side.
You need to sit down and figure out what your expenses
will be to handle the account. Then figure a reasonable profit margin to create your rate. If you pull a figure out of thin air, you may well end up losing money instead of making it.
I can't figure out why you are ripping sm
this poster. she is posting her experience with MDI and her opinions about IC status and I agree with her. Also you need to look at your spelling and quit knocking somebody else.
Sure can't figure out why telling the sm
truth upsets you so much. I will put this MT way too long up against you any day of the week as far as quality and quantity! I am fed up with folks on here acting like anybody who has been doing this for 25, 30, 35 years needs to retire. For your information I am 53 years old, far from being too old to do anything. I have seen the stinking changes come along in this profession that have forced wages and line rates down the tubes for experienced MTs. I have listened to the complaining of the newbies who don't want to do the work it takes to succeed in this business, the ones who want it all right now etc. etc. and its sickening. Somebody needs to tell the truth and stop walking on eggshells around folks like yourself.
Oh yeah I almost forgot......even with wages and cpl going down, us old-timers still make a good wage because we have done the time and got the experience and don't have to have our heads in a reference book or the internet every other word! But you don't get that proficient until you have done this for a long time do you?
If you knew what you were doing, you would know the difference between a real question and a question by someone who is just too lazy to look for themselves.
You get over yourself!
I never could figure out why, when the train - sm
whacks someone (who 99% of the time committed suicide), the whole rail system has to come to a halt for an investigation, and hundreds of people on the train are late for work.
Investigate what?
Cause of death = 'Hit by train'! How hard is that to figure out?
I am hoping they figure it out too.
I am having a really hard time thinking that TT would so quickly turn their backs on their MTs. I just hope they soon figure out that paying 50% for VR is ridiculous. They should be able to tell by the paychecks people are now getting. Will they care, probably not, but one can hope. I don't know what platform you are on, but I hope the one I am on is not supposed to be the better one, not that it is horrible, but can't imagine how it could be worse on another platform, it definitely wouldn't be worth it.
Are you the one who couldn't figure out IM?
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