It's this kind of narrow thinking, though ...
Posted By: donex3 on 2009-08-01
In Reply to: It is with me, but - A. Sertive
... that leads to big problems. See, you, personally, may not feel like you're being harmed. And the company's sure getting what they want. Sweet deal, right?
Not really.
Taxes that should be going to the government are not - and you may just be one person with a small amount of taxes, but you're certainly not the only IC at your company, and your company isn't the only one that's illegally using employees as ICs.
In addition, because you're working like this, it means your company can artificially keep costs down, which in turn makes it EXTREMELY difficult for companies who want to hire - LEGALLY - employees and pay them livable wages to remain successful, grow, and improve the situation for transcriptionists.
The selfishness in thinking this is okay saddens me, but it confuses me even more that people don't understand that, with time, doing things legally will make everything better for everyone - even you.
And I think the saddest argument of all of this is the If I wasn't an IC, I wouldn't have any flexibility one.
Here's the deal:
In the last 10 years, working at home has become much more prevalent, as has flex time and the concept of doing what needs to be done and going home. The last two are true for many, many in-house jobs, as well as jobs done in the home.
While, back when internet transcription was first getting started, we could be 'kept in our place' by companies saying 'you're just lucky you can be working at home,' this is no longer true.
'Getting to stay at home' is no longer as special as it was, and I daresay that any one of us could find another job working at home - the schedule we want - and making nearly as much money if not more, if we applied ourselves and stopped being afraid of change.
Given all of this, why can't we ALL (companies, health care providers, and transcriptionists) find mutually acceptable solutions that are based on respect and appreciation from BOTH sides - and still stay within the law?
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Now that's the kind of simplistic thinking
Now that's the kind of simplistic thinking I was referring to: I don't commit crimes so I don't care if I give up my freedoms...
Scary sad - you just don't get it. Who said we can't have technology advances AND keep our freedoms?
YOU have to now trust that THOSE operating the surveillance won't abuse BASIC civil rights... something even law-abiding citizens cherish - at least those with their thinking caps on. We already know they WILL abuse them to meet an agenda. But hey as long as they don't abuse YOU, right?
Thank you.. It was just what I was thinking... Rude kind of entered my mind but I let it go..
She obviously was offended by my post.
Too many questions, need to narrow it down...
You've asked a lot of questions here, may be putting some folks off from taking the time to answer.
I would suggest you start by deciding what your priorities are...do you have to have health insurance or other benefits? If not, IC usually/sometimes pays better and offers more personal freedoms. Do you need the more flexible schedule that IC sometimes offers, or are you okay with commiting to a set shift/schedule?
Is your experience primarily acute care or clinic? are you more interested in one than another?
You will get different responses based on whether you are looking for IC vs employee, also full-time rather than part-time, acute care vs clinic, etc. You are the only one who can decide those things, but I think once you do, then you can ask some more specific questions, such as which companies have good benefit packages for full time employees.
The MT field certainly isn't what it used to be, like it or not. But as far as I'm concerned its still as good a place as any to make a living, especially with the benefits of working at home which to me are hard to put a price on. Good luck to you! 
I work for Fast Chart. If you will narrow ... sm
...down your questions, I'll give you my honest opinion. I'm very happy there, but everyone's different, you know? What things are really important to you in a company? If you want to chat live, you can usually find me in the MT Cottage chat room (www.mtcottage.com).
=)
It is a very narrow field to get into and we love our jobs!
Certainly if you have a reputation as a job hopper, etc., you'll not get into this field easily.
I feel it is really a privileged position and I have no intention of telling anyone the company I work for!
again could you narrow down northeast, maybe county/state info would help
nm
At first I was thinking that you were being unrealistic, not thinking about taxes, benefits, etc. bu
surprised to find that you are not asking the moon. Let me clarify a few things: Rates charged are not as high as 0.25 per line, but no one that has U.S. employees goes as low as 0.115 or they would not be able to pay their bills. A more realistic range is 0.125-0.165, and that top end is hard to find, most falling at 0.14-0.15 per line.
The rates of pay you propose are very reasonable IF the following is true: These are seasoned MTs who do not need a lot of hand-holding, QA or blanks filled in, unless a very difficult/impossible doctor.
How about a scale based on experience and accuracy of 0.09 - 0.105 per line (acute care), and $1.15-$1.30 per report (radiology)?
The VR one is tough as everyone, MTs and MTSOs and facilities are still feeling their way on this. As an MTSO who was an MT, I feel that VR editing is as difficult to do as regular transcription. I don't think that it should be substantially less pay or charged less as the end product is still the same.
Funny thing here? My company already follows that scale. We should work together, not at odds, to reinforce this industry and bring it back to where it should be, right here in the U.S.A. with a decent paycheck.
I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me......
exactly what constitutes "good reason" for my home phone number to be given out to anyone by Lee as it was?
I'm sorry. I went to work and then had to come back to ask this question. I even looked up *confidentiality* in my Webster's trying to find the loopholes.
Thank you.
She was very kind
and all, but Lee or someone should know that she is misrepresenting herself. She should know that it's OK to say, "I am new to Keystrokes and feel that this is a great company to work for" instead of lying and saying "I have worked for Keystrokes for X amount of years and they are great" when she had only been working there a few days. There is no need to lie to people.
I am using one, but it must be the right kind
At some point, and I think it was when I installed Express Scribe, I could configure my footpedal. Try to do it, and if it won't let you - then you don't have the right kind of footpedal (it's either 9 or 13 pins, I can't remember which).
What kind of pay for V/R? nm
x
What kind do you like and what don't you?
Is is the work types, or the dictators? What I don't like are the long pauses in dictation. I have heard a couple of the dictators seem to hit a pause button, but most of them don't know how to do that.
What kind of changes? nm
x
What is the use of this? I have been getting this kind of
run around also, but why would companies treat MTs this way... no loyalty breeds no loyalty in return. I hate to say misery loves company but seems like more than we have had this happen. How to stop it is another question. IMHO.
Actually, I kind of see it although we
did it to ourselves. Suddenly, you were supposed to be Super Woman, it was the new version of Once Upon a Time. Get a degree, get a job, earn the bacon, fry it up in the pan, etc., somehow you end up being the one who gets the kids and hub up and out the door, taken to the doctor, drop off the dry cleaning, excel at work and keep a clean house and by the way, don't forget to look spectacular at all times. of course, if you are in a bad mood, your hormones must be at fault. Been there, done that, got the bumper sticker and the T-shirt which I now use to dust furniture!
you are EXACTLY the kind of sm
person I am talking about! Was there any point to that? I am not whining. I am stating a fact that there is no point in folks reacting to other people like YOU are reacting. Sounds like you are attacking! The ability to disagree and just down right nasty are two different things and you fit the latter.
May I ask what kind you have?
Maybe it's just Hughes, because my experience has been pretty crappy. I do know that an ex in Missouri had some little rinky dink company; he paid half what I did ($39) and had a signal that was twice as fast as mine and didn't seem to have the fluctuations. I assume that rinky-dink got its feed from one of the big ones but was never able to figure out who. There has to be something better than what I've got now, but few people even have internet in my area except some of the city dwellers with DSL(where populations get up to about 723!!!)
I have a car but if I said which kind
I am sure I would be called management which I definitely am not.
Thanks so much and that is what I was kind of
afraid of. I applied for that one on the job board because of loads and loads of orthopedics experience but they want you to have Dictaphone or the equivalent. I do not have Dictaphone and not sure that I have the equivalent, I have never worked on it so I am not sure what they are looking for.
That's exactly what I was thinking
 I didn't see anything about 10 cpl for ESL accounts. Thought I was losing it.
Could you tell me why you think this. I was also thinking of looking into them.
:
What I was thinking!
x
Exactly what I was thinking.
nm
I am thinking that..........
I am thinking this is a former disgruntled employee who acts like they are still employed. According to other posts in the past it seems some on here post info as such. Possibly they are trying to stir something up. Search it out on your own to find out fiction or fact and make own judgement.
i was thinking...
if it was a total of 150 reports and they paid the $3 for only the first page of those 150 and the $1.50 the other 149 pages, that would still equal almost $230/day. Did I do that math right?! Sounds good to me!
that's what I was thinking
NM
Thanks.....that is what I was thinking too.
This is for a hospital
That's what I'm thinking and
y
Thinking of doing ASR
I've been an MT for about 20 years - 7 years with MQ. I used to do on average about 300+ lines per hour on my primary and made a pretty decent living. With ASR, I've gone down to an average of about 239 lines per hour. Plus, they pay us about a penny a line less on ASR after you do a 60-day trial. I tried quitting the ASR, but if you do that, all you get is the really crappy dictation, so the ASR becomes the lesser of two evils.
My theory is that, since the ASR system apparently learns as we make corrections, that MQ is going to keeping sending it to us while we teach the system. Then, when the ASR system has learned all it can and is doing perfect work, they'll ship all the work to India and pay them (the Indian ME's) 2 cents a line to edit it.
If I were you and I were making a decent living doing regular transcription with a high line rate, I would not consider ASR. I think the only ones who make any money at the MT's who did not produce huge amounts to begin with!!
I would NEVER recommend MQ. They're all about the bottom line and I guarantee, MQ ASR will be going to India -- just give the machine enough time to learn.
That's what I was just thinking
They sent me an attachment that had a bunch of questions like what version of MS Word do I have, version of windows, etc. They even asked me if I would buy a foot pedal from them for $60! On the top of the attachment, it had my full name and state that I live in. Hopefully I don't hear from them again!
I'm thinking....sm
I have been an MT for 10 yrs. Been on a 5-month break and just recently started hitting the job search more seriously. I've already been off for five months so what's another few weeks (hopefully no longer) when I could just avoid the exasperation of the last couple days and not embark with them at all. Just received an e-mail that they once again cannot locate an attachment I sent them, which I have sent TWICE. This is just too screwed up to even dabble in while I keep looking. They drained me.
that's what I was thinking, too.
nm
Not yet. Thinking about it though
I'm just afraid of change, whether it will be better somewhere else. Things have been okay for me at OSi up until now, but things are changing. Things have gone on the last several months that have really started to take away my enthusiasm for my job there, and now this. There are people there that I really like, and then there's one that has made things not so nice anymore. I've gone places there, so leaving would be a step back in a way, but with what's going on now with the new partners, and with what I know is going on with certain accounts, I just am not comfortable staying here anymore. I think more changes are coming, so I probably should just go now. I just don't know.
Thinking about what I want
I heard back from a position I applied for. The person is asking me about what I want in an MTSO & I thought I'd share:
No micromanagement. I will work the hours I say I will work and if I’m doing so, leave me alone.
I don’t want to hear about everyone else’s mistakes in a nasty e-mail where you threaten to dock everyone’s pay. Address the issue with the individual.
No demanding I work overtime & then being unwilling to pay extra. If you ask me in a civilized manner I will see what I can do to help.
No new and creative ways to rip the MT off. I don’t care about your VBCs. I want to be paid for my time and typing – including templates and spaces.
A company which pays on time.
Low ESL, while I can do ESL it doesn’t mean I should have to do so continuously because everyone else has cherry-picked or they just can’t do it – they need the practice, I don’t. While it’s true I can make money on ESLs because they tend to say the same thing over and over, when they don’t, they are a royal pain in the @ss.
Pay equal to my experience level.
State of the art equipment – No DOS! No cumbersome software wasting MY time looking up patient demographics.
I think I might prefer ER or clinic, I can make more money with those than with op notes, even though they pay less per line.
A company that DOES send positive e-mails and keeps its MTs up-to-date with feedback from the accounts and abreast of latest terms.
Anyone thinking about going IC?
Just wondering if anyone is thinking about it, or is doing so soon?
Exactly what I was thinking....sm
I am so hurt over it and I keep thinking....what am I going to do if this credit check becomes the norm? I will never be able to pay the bills then. Also, I used to be employed by them many years ago and did a fantastic job for them and was sought out by them, tested very well, and then offered a job, did the paperwork, and then apparently kicked to the curb without even letting me know why or the fact that I didn't get the job afterall. It's not the correct way to deal with anybody, good or bad credit! Merry Christmas.
What are they thinking?
Glancing at the job board just irks me. This Denise Workman with SW Transcription offering a whole .06-.08 per line for exp acute ESL work. Pulled up their website out of morbid curiosity to see no where on their site is a physical location, which normally means they not US based. Of course they want US employees for acute work because their .02 per line employees can't hack it yet. Shows on their site they charge .10 to .12 per line to their customers. My feeling is this company is an Indian company disguising itself as an American company. It's either that or these two women running the company are disgraces to the American transcription society. That's my feeling.
Yes, that's what I was thinking too
This is a relative of mine who has told me this story. I knew it didn't sound right. I also had a feeling she wasn't working her schedule, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was it. She seems pretty devastated today about the whole thing, but I'm not sure she should be surprised.
I've been accused of never believing what she tells me, so just wanted other opinions on this. Thanks to all.
That's what I'm thinking
I'm thinking I have the ability to do more work on my own schedule rather than just 8 hours with one. I appreciate your perspective into this as I needed to hear from others that are doing it already that it is the right thing to do or at least plausible.
I was thinking that also...sm
I'm trying not to worry so much like I did at first. I've only been doing radiology for 6 years and it's my favorite so I hope I can do this. Right now, I'm just glad I got the position. Thank you for the assurance.
I was just thinking that before. An old saying my mom
would tell me, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Funny how as we get older these cliches seem to make more sense to us!
I was just thinking that... a lot of it has to do with me
because as I have aged, I have had a lot on my mind, and also having a family with more responsibility took some part of my brain power. When I was single and up to about middle age the sky and energy and time I had to work was the limit. So was spending money on me, me, me. But now that I have gotten older, I have slowed not only because of age, but because of other things taking up my brain waves. On the plus side, my quality is much better so I provide better service to the patient. It is hard to come to the conclusion that sometimes we make less if we are slowing, but at least I still earn a decent living and know that I am providing good quality care to the patient. That must account for something, but does not necessarily pay the bills.
Thats exactly what I was thinking
what is in store for us now....I hate the unknown.
Thinking
It's really difficult to move from one platform to another at this company. It's almost impossible, actually. There must be a lot more to it than we know. Maybe their profit is somehow connected to all MTs on one platform staying on that platform regardless of whether or not they have work? I know it sounds really stupid, though.
Since everyone is an employee, and US Labor laws should still apply, I wonder if any of the MTs who lost work on EditScript, who they won't move to Dictaphone, have bothered to file with unemployment for reduction of work. I think the unemployment office calls this partial unemployment or something like that.
Anyone thinking of going to QA, this is for you SM
Just don't. If you think you are bored out of your gourd, treated like a factory worker and unappreciated now while you're doing MT, becoming a QA person is worse.
The QA jobs are production-based in some form also, even the hourly jobs. You are expected to do XX amount of jobs per hour or per day and be on the system at XX:XX and off at XX:XX. Believe me. You'll see the same people sending their work to you to fix or do EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It's really a thankless job and at least with MT, you are the master of your own ship, you are responsible for your own work, lines and jobs. It's just something to think about.
I have also been thinking about them --
Do they hire only employees or are there IC/SE possibilities as well?
What platform do they use? Did you get to set your own hours/days?
You said they started you at a decent line rate, was it more than 9 cpl and are you an employee or IC/SE? I know that the line rate is affected by this.
Thanks.
That's what I'm thinking.
Too much Fox news coming from that posting.
That's exactly what I was thinking...
It seems that they want someone with a certain level of quality, someone who can jump right in and get started. Is it fair to want someone to adapt so quickly? Maybe not. But they have the right to assess an employee's skills and decide whether it is a good fit or not. What might be difficult for some, may be easy for another.
seriously thinking about
I think I can make it work if I stay but I don't know if I want to - employee status and all. I think I will probably send out some resumes and see what happens to help me make a better decision on whether or not it is worth staying.
I could and I would but thinking about sm
it, I don't know you and I better not right now. I will tell you they are in Atlanta GA
That is what I was thinking! sm
I'm glad I didn't type all 21 charts! Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me this. I'm getting very frazzled with the testing, resumes, emails, cover letters. I haven't really had any definite possibilities, either. This is so frustrating! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
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