I just wrote my state senator the following..
Posted By: MT3 on 2008-05-23
In Reply to: OUTSOURCING! - MT
Dear Senator: You may or may not know about a recent sale of Medquist, Inc. Transcription Services selling 70% of their stock to an India-owned company as of 5/22/08. In 2007, Medquist fired over 1000 employees to prepare for this sale. CBAY is known for firing US employees and hiring employees in India to do US medical transcription. We desperately need your help to address the issue of outsourcing of US medical records thereby losing confidentiality of our medical information, social security #s, birthdates, and much more. including further loss of jobs for US workers. We urge you to pass 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.
Any and all help you can give us in regard to keeping jobs in the US will be greatly aprpeciated.
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- OUTSOURCING! - MT
- I just wrote my state senator the following.. - MT3
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Well, they have senator Frist, whose
family owned Columbia, then HCA, whatever they call it this week. He is also an M.D., one who stopped and rendered aid, if I remember correctly, in Florida a few years back. In places like Sugarland, a record number of docs and professional healthcare workers are turning out for these town halls. There is obviously quite a movement going on here. GP, Wonder if you have gotten your hands on HR3400, the pub version healthcare reform. Having too much trouble on this old nag I'm using to get around much anymore.
To write your senator/congressman
I just put in the name of my senators and I got directed to a home page and I could then E-mail him direct. Which I did telling him that if all of our jobs go overseas then no one would be working to pay his salary. They need to start taxing these companies that do this as they are missing out on a lot of FICA and fed taxes, etc. Don't know if it will do any good but I put in my two cents worth for all of you losing your jobs. Also wonder if the price is going DOWN to the clients, that would be interesting to know.
Good luck to all of you.
Yeah Senator Frisk
He was our senator when we lived in Tennessee.
Yeah Senator Frisk
He was our senator when we lived in Tennessee. Yes, I have my hands on HR3400. One problem, I suppose, with retirement is one has time to research, think and re-think and more importantly to act. Medical professionals in my area are simply outraged and they are plenty vocal about it. Town Hall meetings are packed and medical professionals are flocking to them.
Dennis Kucinich - he is a senator, economics,
and what we need is advocacy. Unions, not so much. They were not even able to help nurses from my past experience.
actually, you can write anyone in the senate, congresspeople, but we are in need of desperately is representation...
firstly, a union is only as strong as your weakest link and from my firsthand experience it is way too easy to pit women against women, and administration are pros at this. you cannot get women to agree on anything, really. no offense but just fact from my experience.
secondly, http://www.paulgraham.com/unions.html
thirdly, our sister MTs in Indian, Philippines, etc. would have to be educated and approached somehow.
Unless something has changed, health insurance rates vary state by state, so we may not have the
info you need. I'm an IC so I don't have benefits.
You are correct. The state that rules is the state the employee lives in.
My state laws has is spelled out in their Code. If another state does not withhold, they are fined heavily and if they don't withhold for years, their fines are pretty bad. I worked for a Florida co that did not withhold income tax for my state even after I brought it to their attention in the state code. They kept saying that they would eventually and never did. After two plus years and when I left, I made it known to my state all the conversations, the state refunded me all late fees they charged me and then said they were going after the company in Florida because they had many employees in our state. They deserved it. They knew better.
The state you live in or the state where the MTSO is located? nm
nm
If company is in state that has no state taxes
they are not required to take out state taxes. It's enough to keep up with your own state tax law code, could you imagine having to stay abreast of 49 other state tax codes? The cost would be huge and ultimately passed on to us by lower line rates. Regardless of who owes the tax, someone has to pay it. Just a matter of convenience I guess.
Not state by state, federal labor law - sm
and you don't have to be asked. If you work it, asked or not, they have to pay time and a half OT rate for hours worked over 40 in a week.
Taken right from U.S. Dept of Labor -
An employer who requires or PERMITS an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work. Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)MUST receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest.
Extra pay for working weekends or nights is a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee (or the employee's representative). The FLSA does not require extra pay for weekend or night work or double time pay.
Different state to state. You would be surprised to find
IC can be defined differently state to state. Even the IRS cannot come up with a definitive set of rules. You would be surprised how many ICs actually get unemployment in some states. If the unemployment claim form asks specifically if you are an independent contractor, do not lie, but if it does not, do not volunteer it. Let the company prove you are a true IC according to the rules of your state. All you lose is a few minutes filling out the claim form. I would only do it as a last resort. If you can find work fast, by all means go for it, but the way things are now with all the VR and off-shoring, it is a backup if you cannot find work. No one should go hungry because they are afraid to file for Unemployment as an IC.
did you see what she wrote
Hey, did you see below where the cheerleader wrote that I need a lawyer? Funny isn't it? Hmmm.... I'm thinking First Amendment applies! Sheeeshhh
Do you see what you just wrote to me? sm
Read your second paragraph with all the caps and personal attacks? I did not do or say anything that justifies you calling me miserable. This is a board where adult professionals post opinions. I posted mine and I guess you don't agree with my opinion. For you to suggest that I need social skill and that I a NASTY as you cap it and MISERABLE is provocative and looking for an argument. I will not take the bait but I just will point out that you are overreacting and provoking here.
Do you see what I wrote under the post?
It does not matter what I believe anyhow. The fact is the company believes you have to be a QA person for 5 years. I believe you should to do their accounts, yes, because their accounts are acute care, in depth
called and wrote
x
I already joined and wrote him! sm
I pray that they will get theirs in the end. Justice will prevail!
Yes, I wrote them twice since testing, but got no
s
Somebody wrote in the forum that they did
nm
Wrote this a while back.....sm
Never got published, but maybe you can get some points from it....
RE: YOUR CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL INFORMATION GOING OVERSEAS
I am a medical transcriptionist, and I am also a patient of several doctors in the United States of America.
I have a story that needs to be told to U.S. Citizens. I shall remain anonymous, but I do feel that whoever breaks this story to the public will have done them a great service.
In an effort to save money, at the public’s personal expense, many patient records (voice dictation) from the United States are going overseas to be transcribed (mostly to India). This means that possibly even YOUR confidential medical and personal information (such as your Social Security number, address, phone number, etc.) is going overseas. The world climate in which we are now living makes this is a very dangerous situation.
I do have a financial interests in this issue, but I am also a US citizen who is very concerned about my personal medical information getting into the hands of the wrong people and feel that the US government should put constraints on this.
All people are created equal and I am very sorry for the people who would no longer profit from this business overseas should our government put an end to it; however, I do feel that the US public has a right to know what is happening to their medical records, as they are their legal property. At the very least, they should have to legally consent to their records leaving this country.
Thank you for your attention to this.
Concerned Citizen
I wrote it and can't find it either
I just wrote in about the MT from MDI asking where to go...I can't find my reply either! Glad you saw it. Now I know I'm not going crazy.
Suzanne Gabric
If you read what I wrote more carefully
you would see that I said it is fine as long as they tell you up front. Which they don't. Which means it isn't fine.
In other words, I was being a little sarcastic :)
I misread what you wrote and apologize.
My response below was a result of my misunderstanding!
My apologies, MtMommyof2!
That sure sounds like AHDI wrote it. It sure is
Or maybe even FBI - one never knows how deep their dishonesty runs.........
Dude, I'm poking fun at what you wrote! LOL.
x
I'm curious who wrote that post...
...if they are WebmedX mgt trying to mislead? I know of no accountso f theirs still on regular transcription and I asked as well. I hate editing. Two years later it hasn't gotten any better and I make SO much less it's rediculous. It's easier the majority of the time to type the whole report from scratch and make pennies on the dollar for doing same. :(
Ok. So for each report you wrote down the word count?
then compared it? Just wondering. I probably won't do it because that would just take up too much of my time but wondered how you did it.
Just to clarify, I wrote the first few MTSO posts
But this is not mine. However, I have to agree that some MTs look much better on paper!!
Based on past interviewed, there is the information I wrote down
I cannot guarantee this information is 100%, and anyone with more accurate information feel free to chime in, but I have interviewed with several companies over the past few months, and here are the notes I have taken on what was offered by Webmedx and Axolotl:
Webmedx Acute Care = probably includes ESL dictators
Axolotl Clinic Work = probably easier/better dictators
VR/ASR:
WMX = Starting to covert accounts to ASR
AX = Unknown
Insurance (Single): Axolotl costs more per pay period than Webmedx.
Pay Days:
WMX = 26 (every 2 weeks)
AX = 24 (twice monthly)
Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance:
WMX = Eligible after 90 days
AX = Eligible after 30 days
Flexible Spending Account:
WMX = None
AX = Eligible after 90 days
401K:
WMX = Eligible after 1 year, with NO MATCH
AX = Eligible after 90 days with partial match
Eligible Tuition Reimbursement:
WMX = Unknown
AX = $2,000 per year
Working Holidays:
WMX = You are expected to work the holiday if it falls during your regular work schedule, unless you request it off in advance and there is enough coverage.
AX = Rotating. If it falls during your regular work schedule, they try to spread it out so no one is working all the major holidays.
Yearly Bonus or Pay Raise:
WMX = never heard of anyone getting a raise
AX = Anniversary $500 bonus (minimum)
ISP, incoming dictation snafu, or Acts of God preventing you from working:
WMX = Full-time: you have to make up the time or take PTO, preferably the same day
AX = Depending on the circumstances, you may still get paid and only have to work your regular schedule
Full-Time Status:
WMX = If you fall below 35 hours per week for three consecutive months (no matter what reason), they automatically drop you to part-time status.
AX = Unknown
I wrote this email and sent it to the Toledo Blade newspaper.
Dear Mr. Zerbey:
I wanted to make you and your readers aware of the situation that took place at Heartland Information Services (owned by HCR Manor Care-parent company-Toledo based company) today, Monday, May 8, 2006. In a mandatory conference call (for the chosen employees) Kathy Clemmons, VP of the US based operations and Colleen Neidert, HR Manager promptly told all of the US based medical transcriptionists and some Quality Assurance employees and auditors, that we no longer had jobs with Heartland Information Services. Kathy Clemmons stated that over the past 4 to 6 months Heartland had been looking at ways to become profitable for HCR Manor Care by increasing their business through new contracts with hospitals and physician practices. Apparently, according to Kathy Clemmons, VP, that did not happen and the company decided to look at ways to cut costs. Kathy Clemmons, VP stated that it cost Heartland 5 times more to pay the US based medical transcriptionists versus what they pay the medical transcriptionists in India. So, needless to say, here I am typing this email to you as one of the employees given a permanent layoff as per Colleen Neidert's (HR manager) words in the meeting. All US based MTs are employed until July 7, 2006 at 2:00pm, at which time, all computers are to be turned off and work as a Heartland employee ceases. They are offering the computers that employees used to work on from home offices for an astounding deal of $800. They are going to show the $800.00 on the time sheets as income and then deduct the federal taxes and then we will also be responsible for the state and local taxes on the computer. This is the severance package. Of course, we can opt not to take the computer and send it back.
Noticeably absent from this mandatory conference call was Dennis Paulik, President of Heartland Information Services. I thought that was rather professional and courteous of him. He destroys the lives of hundreds of employees and their families and then does not have the courtesy of firing his own employees! Great guy he is!
How many more jobs are we, as United States citizens going to lose to India or China? How much longer are we going to turn the other cheek? What is it going to take to stop this raping of our own country of jobs and lives for that matter? Who will have the nerve and strength to say enough is enough?
What will the hospitals and physicians' think when they learn that all of their dictation (legal documents in a court of law if there were to be a lawsuit) are being transcribed by nonEnglish speaking individuals? What will the patients of these facilities think? How is the HIPPA law being enforced overseas to protect the rights of patients?
The bottom line is money obviously, for Heartland and HCR Manor Care, but if given a choice, I know without a doubt, the American patient and American physician and hospital and healthcare facilities would choose quality and accuracy 100% of the time over an underpaid, nonEnglish speaking, half the world away individual listening to and transcribing their vital information pertaining to their actual lives in some cases.
I am one of those unfortunate individuals fired today. I worked my heart out for this company as did so many. We worked weekends, holidays, overtime, we worked when others were sick or on vacation or to cover shifts when individuals did not call in to work. We worked and worked, always grateful in the most humble of ways, grateful for our jobs with Heartland.
Heartland, the name itself, the heartland of America, not India, but America, all of the great American cities such as Toledo, Ohio; Madison, Wisconsin; Omaha, Nebraska, and Rockford, Michigan. What will happen to us now? Where do we go from here? Sure, we will all find ways to continue on, we have to, but what about the next company, the next American citizen working hard to live the true American dream, what happens when it continues to happen? Where does it end?
God Bless us all. May we be blessed with great, American based jobs.
I would be most grateful to you if you would place this email on the Editorial page or even the front page of the Toledo Blade. I am a full-blooded American just telling my story and the story of hundreds of others today. May you find it in your heart to hear the cries of the American worker, simply trying to live the American dream, only to be replaced by the Indian worker, trying to destroy the American dream.
Thank you for listening not only to me, but I hope my words expressed what so many of us former employees are feeling tonight here in the Heartland of America.
I wrote AAMT, the President, and my senators tonight...sm
I'm also going to write my local paper and contact some news organizations.
To Mary K - I totally agree...I thought you wrote a
great letter and I hope you get some response to it on a national level..the public needs to know about this as is concerns THEIR medical records! I applaud your efforts and hope something comes from it!
Oh Geez- i didnt read what I wrote - correction in msg
Has anyone else gotten late paychecks from Meridian in the past.
I was up working half the night. So please dont hound me.
I didn't see that in her post at all. In fact I wrote something similar...please sm
I believe what she meant was similar to what I wrote which was that I felt a majority of the nasty posts probably came from isolated people that take crap all day. These types normally get walked on because they aren't outspoken enough in real life to say what they feel. Then they anonymously come here (or other boards)to take out their pinned up frustrations. It's merely an opinion and you know what they say about those.:)
The reason I believe this to be true is because I've encountered way more nasty people on-line than in real life. If some of the posters said the same nasty remarks to a person's face that they do hiding behind a screen name, #1) They'd get fired. #2) They'd have NO friends.
#3) They'd lose a few teeth.
Think about it.
I wrote to their HR department, which is the only contact I could find for them, last week, but no r
x
I'll say! Wrote off $82 million as "goodwill impairment"
NM
oh geez "always... all the time" I should read what I wrote before I post. sigh
.
They should take out state taxes for the state
nm
It varies from state to state
nm
Varies from state to state
My own state recognizes partial unemployment, too, when your work gets cut down to half of your regular workload/income.
They must deduct FEDERAL taxes.. NOT STATE taxes.. if they took out state taxes.. it would be FLORID
which would only have to be refunded to you for you to pay YOUR state what you owe them which is nothing but a pain... be glad they weren't handling your state tax.. and I think in this case.. if someone at the IRS told you they have to deduct YOUR states taxes.. it is that person who is uneducated... they only have to deduce federal income tax
I am not sure which State
The person I had E-mail contact with was named "Suzanne". I have no other info.
Thank you.
Perhaps not in your state.
NM
State tax
No, I'm sorry, but deducting state tax is a cost of doing business and it is a very small cost to the employer. Medware is a lazy, greedy corporation, and that is why they don't deduct state taxes.
It is very simple to do payroll nowadays - it's all on computer and the payroll programs have all the states' information in them and all it takes for Medware or any employer to pay the individual states is to electronically transfer the money, which is set up at their bank.
can you tell us what state they are in so I that I do not
make that mistake?
My state too...
Of course he wouldn't want to see them. He refuses to see reality all around him. He still thinks we have it soooo good. I agree with you. Heaven help us all if the Haliburton puppet becomes the legal ruler when the present king steps down.... hopefully his health issues will preclude that. Oh, yes, I do wonder if his medical records are transcribed in India?
Don't pay them yourself. I did not and my state says they
are going to take action against MedWare. My state apologized to me for charging me late fees (I refused to send in state taxes to the state because I was an employee and because it was written plain as day in my state law that they should be taken out by the employer). I was with them for 3 years and all those years I got charged like a $10 fee each year for paying state taxes late. My state REFUNDED all my late fees to me and apologized stating that they were investigating the practices of the company. Don't know whatever happened with that, but last I knew they were looking into it. My state did not penalize me at all so by refunding all their late fees, that tells me that they know it was not my fault.
Each state has its own law regarding
this. Some states have a 3 day requirement, makes no difference whether you quit or got fired.
I am not sure in your state...
However, Unemployment Insurance also covers underemployment in my state. That is if you are downsized and can prove you are making less than 70% of what you made before, you are eligible to draw partial unemployment benefits. That may be retroactive (I believe there is only a 1-week waiting period), and may help your immediate mortgage trouble.
The caveat is that you have to be actively looking for work but basically that means you have to have made 2 job contacts during a week, which would be very easy to do in this profession.
It would be worth checking into for you as unemployment benefits are usually paid weekly. You may find yourself in better shape by next week already. Good luck!
What state are you in?
When I worked at home for a hospital in New Jersey, I received state disability pay when I went on maternity leave.
State...
I live in Maine, which makes it difficult because I am not close to any of these companies. There are not many hospitals around here and they outsource to companies like what I already work for! I am just stuck and it is frustrating me...I just find it hard to believe that there are not more people out there in my situation!!! I feel like I have been discriminated against because I am young because most MTs are older (not that there is anything wrong with that) and that is something I have had to deal with in this job a lot!!!
Their state. sm
The state the MTSO is in.
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