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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I didn't get the letter, just a $600 phone bill.

Posted By: stroker on 2008-01-07
In Reply to: Help - KS/ATT long distance (sm) - mt

Their unlimited is only 5,000 minutes and you can use that is 2 weeks or less.  You need to use a service like Vonage.  Comcast and Time Warner cable also have digital phone service.  It uses your regular phone wiring, they just attach something on the outside of your house and you use a modem and it is truly unlimited long distance.


If you want to keep your home phone it takes about 2 weeks to get the service.  If you want to keep your home phone and just add a new line they should be able to do it in just a couple of days.  I have mine through Time Warner and it is $34.95/mo because I also have my cable internt through them.  Vonage is cheaper, I think $24.95/mo. 


I've only had my service about 3 weeks, but the sound is very good and I've had no problems using it wtih my C-phone.  I wanted to keep my same number, but didn't want to add another phone line to keep costs down.  I have call waiting but can't get it to work with the C-phone so I got voice mail for an additional $4/mo so I can still get messages even if I'm working. 




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phone bill
Vonage is reasonable and offers a plan with unlimited long distance. I have had it for about 6 months and am happy with it. They also offer the option of paying yearly where you can save even more money.

company-paid phone bill?? sm
Crazy question, have high speed internet and AOL for my mail. I do not have unlimited long distance. Is there any company for whom you would not run up a huge phone charge, could not do that! Crazy question, I know - but doesn't hurt to ask.
If the bill is currently in limbo, why would they assign the same bill number to another bill?
I'm not trying to argue with you here and I think that outsourcing is a very important issue that needs to be addressed by congress.  What I'm saying is make sure you have all the correct information.
Didn't you get paperwork, offer letter, etc? sm
If they offered you a position and are already so far as setting you up with your account I would have thought you would have already filled out the required paperwork and sent in copies of your Social Security card, etc. (so you would know which company hired you).  That said, there is only one Keystrokes of which I am aware.  I would call them. 
Didn't you get the phone call?
Even though our cost of living is probably about 5 times that of Bangalore, some genius has decided that compensation should be 'equalized'. That's about as much explanation as you're going to get. At least in my phone call, they tried to say that they conducted a survey of MTSOs and determined that we were way overpaid, so in doing the global calibration, they have determined that we won't be hurt too badly. While no specific mention was made of VR, I'm wondering if that's going to be plummeting down to the 2 cents that we thought must be a joke in a prior posting.
Didn't you get the phone call?
Even though our cost of living is probably about 5 times that of Bangalore, some genius has decided that compensation should be 'equalized'. That's about as much explanation as you're going to get. At least in my phone call, they tried to say that they conducted a survey of MTSOs and determined that we were way overpaid, so in doing the global calibration, they have determined that we won't be hurt too badly since we'll be closer to what all the other American MTs make. While no specific mention was made of VR, I'm wondering if that's going to be plummeting down to the 2 cents that we thought must be a joke in a prior posting.
Thank you. I went to Walmart today, and guess what, they had one phone and it didn't work!. Go
NM
The Indians didn't get a raise, but I'll bet the CEO of the phone company did!! nm
x
I didn't even receive the courtesy of an e-mail, phone call, etc. sm
I thought the test was very easy. I've got 18-years of experience, sent a cover letter (that I spent an hour on) in addition to my resume and got not response whatsoever. The least an MTSO could do is say, Thanks, but no thanks. Daily applications, cover letters, and testing without so much as an email is beyond frustrating!
I got 100% on the phone interview, and thought the on-line test was easy, but they still didn't h
x
Worked on C-phone for 10 years with 1 phone line
nn
We are ALREADY footing the bill and have
.
It has to do with how they bill their customers. nm
s
every wonder if they still bill the company cpl?
xox
What company were you with that sent this $$$$ bill?
NM
A bill you pay is different than getting paid.
The benefit of the doubt is given in this instance.  In this case, the pay date should have been the 5th since the actual pay date is the 7th, then the money should have been there on the 5th.  This is a paycheck, not an authorized bill coming out of your account.  The work was done, and the pay should have been there.  My company always pays ahead of time if the pay date falls on a weekend day.  It's a matter of courtesy. 
Sure, and pass the bill on...
to who exactly?  The consumer?  The American people who are already being ripped off when it comes to healthcare?  Some of you just want more and more and more, but you have no clue as to where this mystery money will come from.
C-phone - I purchased a c-phone from someone in Oklahoma but never got it. *sm*
First she told me her grandmother died. Then she told me she mailed it. Then she told me her daughter was having chemotherapy. Call me naive, but I thought she was sincere and cannot imagine anyone using their daughter as an excuse. If this is the same person from Oklahoma, I sure would like to know about it because now I want my money back.
You are right. Even Bill Gates dropped
the whole idea of VR, saying that it could not be perfected enough to be profitable for the software company who manufactures it. You are also right in that if something inferior is sold to someone and it doesn't work properly, they won't even think of using it again. In my experience, the C-phone worked the best and even WP5.1 for speed and from my point of view for making the most money. I also used to use Mac and found it to be very fast and efficient.
ICs should foot the bill, not employees.

Are these people employed at Keystrokes or are they contracted MTs paying for long distance and equipment?  Ehhh?     


Do you have employees or do you have ICs?  I see a difference there whether you are transcribing in an RV or an office, still the same should apply.  If an MT is classified as an employee, the employer should provide equipment free of charge and pay any and all expense incurred while that person is employed.  IC is a whole different ball of wax.   


You'd do better to bill by the audio minute; I'd bill $0.75 per minute of audio.
x
Can anyone tell me what a "standard MT" is. Bill Baker is SM

looking for them and since I live in the southeast too, I want to know what that is.


Here is a petition to sign for HR 427, a bill regarding
that very thing. Please forward it to everyone you know as well:

http://www.rallycongress.com/support-for-h-r-427-nabopia/1585/support-h-r-427-notify-americans-before-outsourcing-personal-information/
Like Bill Clinton read the big bible...
he used to tote around on Sunday photo ops!
Re: The Calif. bill: The "Governator" shot it down. (no msg)
.
Mark bill and envelope "CONFIDENTIAL,"
address to doctor personally with a handwritten note attached to your bill stating, Will you please have someone take care of this? This happened to me. The office manager was embezzling funds which he knew nothing about it until I brought my bill to his attention. My bill has been paid immediately in the 15+ years since then. Good luck.
ask your senators and representatives to support this bill
One thing you can do is contact your senators and representatives and encourage them to vote for the following bill:

S. 810/H.R. 1653
Clinton (D-NY)/Markey (D-MA)
Prohibits American businesses and health care organizations from sharing consumers’ personal information with foreign affiliates or subcontractors without consent from consumers. Allows consumers to “opt out” of having their personal information processed overseas and bars companies from denying service or charging consumers more as a result.

Go to http://www.congress.org for a very user-friendly way to identify and contact your elected officials on the State and Federal Levels.
No, but one place would do it after we sent a copy of the bill with our invoice, or mailed it
s
Big facilities contract out MT through administration. Drs have no say, they dont pay the bill.
:+
Wow .. thanks for letting me know. They bill themselves as a small, caring company. sm
The pay isn't much, but I was just going to use it to supplement my income while work is light at my regular job.  So much for caring ... who needs their pitifully low offerings anyway?  Bah humbug ... LOL
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 :)


 


 


paid by direct deposit on time, and you submit the bill nm
nm
I can handle micromanage and cherries, but its the bill collectors I want to stay away
You see, to me it is more than worrying about micromanaging and cherry picking. I have been in the biz long enough to develop a rough skin. It is when I do not have enough money to pay the rent or car which bothers me. So, I take the shift least wanted b/c there will be work there, I allow micromanaging and say I will do better next time, and I learn all the toughest ESLs without complaint. You see, no one can control another person, and one should know no job is perfect out there. The only thing a person can and should do is mature-up, quit whining, and get to work so the roof stays overhead, the pantry has milk and bread and the car is still outside. Of course, that is my 2.5 cents.
C-Phone = Connexions Phone

Dictaphone is a company and one of their many products is a C-Phone.


http://shop.dictaphone.com/productDetail.asp?id=27


RE: Not MQ-Letter

I have to agree with you on this--why does everyone need to be called personally and I never thought about that, was the call being recorded?? But would they not have to tell you that??


 


Something just does not feel right about this. The packet is coming out in Oct, our all the packets different,after you get the packet will you have to sign something to agree to that pay rate to continue with your job, and is all this heading to a merger with Spheris at the first of the year. When I was called , there were no answers to any of my questions and honestly I think the person on the phone was not prepared for any questions, just to ask you if you got the packet.


 


Some of the offices that have been closed so far have surprised me, especially Warminster and Atlanta, and now Houston and an office in Ohio is closing. I hope it is not the one in Columbus, that is a great office.


 


Where is this all going???  And all I want to do is work, if there was any!!!


yes really. it was in my letter.
under 'highlights of the plan':
#6: "opportunity for paid time off for part-time employees and PTO of up to 18 days per year for full-time employees.."
Next letter
Y
Anyone else get this letter ?

Got letter in mail --  inquiry about 'opportunity' for my service to hire on 50+ MTs including dictation platform - something about an MTSO losing 98% of its hospital business in November and wanting to place these MTs.  ?  I'm wondering if these poor MTs even know about it yet ??


Letter
I received this letter today, and I don't even work for SPI.  I did work for Cymed (long before the merge), but have been gone from there for 2 years now.  I wonder if it's anything I need to worry about.   
Did anybody get a letter from SPI

I am a former SPI employee and got a letter from the company who did our paychecks today saying an SPI employee had left a laptop on a plane that had our personal info such as SSI#, bank info, etc. and the laptop had not been recovered.  They are supposed to have a 1-year free deal with Equifax for a credit watch.  This is really scary to me. Was wondering if anyone else got this letter.


Letter
Yes, I also received one today.  There is a thread below that was started about this, and I posted to that.  I have actually never worked for SPI, but I did work for Cymed 2 years ago.  It's so scary to think that my personal information might be at risk.  I think it might be best to enroll in the coverage now.   
SPI letter
I also recieved the letter. I worked for Cymed. My sister used to work for an insurance company and recieved the same letter. She has been monitoring her credit report but has had somebody try and change the address on a few of her credit cards. What next and how incompetent are people.
letter
Does anyone have any samples of a letter that you would send out to doc's to get their business.
I got the same letter
My letter said I had to become an employee because of state regulations - I assume this is for Massachusetts where Focus is located? That doesn't seem to make sense to me since we are located all over (I am in Kansas). I've been an IC with Focus for a year and haven't had too many problems but do get updated account specs just about everyday. I can only keep up with 1 account assigned to me bec. I can't remember everything for 3 accounts. I am content with staying at Focus but only if I can pick my shifts and days to work.
letter
Wow! Well written. I posted here last week and was called a suck-up, but I still think you are right. I do my own share of griping, but having been an IC, I know what you say is true. I'm much happier being an employee. MUCH less stress. Try working for a federal prison and not getting their work back - I never had the guts to be late, even though they were at times late with the tapes and my paycheck. I only went to being an employee within a company because of a severe, chronic illness in my son. This works best for me now, staying at home and being here for him, not running around picking up tapes and delivering sticky progress notes. By the way, what does MTSO mean? My guess is MT service organization, but I'm actually clueless.
This letter should be followed up by a letter to
*
No letter here! nm

Weekly? Services are lucky if they get paid twice a month. Generally, services bill out to their
/
You bill 30 days behind, and they snail mail it so it's late - about 40 days from invoice
No way jose - they even messed up their direct deposit payments
Can we talk - about this MQ letter!

The first sentence that sent me tossing my cookies was "...we would like to thank you for your continued service and support.  we know the key to our success is the people who work so hard for our customers every day".


 


PLEEZE......I have not had one centilla of a raise in over 5 years!  So we know what that sentence was all above.  Your thanks and $1.25 will get me a bad cup of coffee at Huddle House.


 


Next - that's the whole reason for this letter if you ask me - the little ditty from WINSTON AND STRAWN, attorneys at law.


 


They wanted MQ employees to cough up DOCUMENTS (document preservation).  Of course the attorneys for the MTs' class action suite are also searching out those very same documents.   How quaint.


 


And that graph about "over the past several months with your help and input we have been working on developing a pay plan and comprehensive benefit program that will enable us to set the standard in the industry."  Nowhere in that whole paragraph did it mention statutory MTs.  It addressed them in the salutation of the letter, but never in the paragraph about the pay plan of benefits if you notice.  and lord help us if MQ is going to set the STANDARD for the industry (which they have single-handedly devastated all by themselves).  They did not make profit through solid  business means, they made their profit off the BENEFITS we as MTs made previously and which they through smoke and mirrors merely shifted over to their profit column.  That didn't take a genius - just underhanded business.  I could do that too, take what used to be benefits and change it to the profit monies. 


 


And in this letter they further have the nerve to claim:  "While we believe that the claims raised by the three transcriptionists appear to lack merit..."  How about the thousands of other MTs who also believe it to be so, and the hospitals that back them up?


 


I have to go pour me a drink. 


No. The only letter I have received is the
September 2nd letter announcing the upcoming Rewards Plan.

Yes, if ASR pay is being reduced that is a pay cut. It is A pay cut. The above post made implication that there was a pay cut across the board, "... the pay cut ...".

I just don't see a need to be careless with that kind of assumption.

I have received nothing about the ASR reduction. However, I do not do ASR and it may have only gone to those MTs.