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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Lucky at-homers' - no "in-office" abuse

Posted By: AM-MT on 2008-12-20
In Reply to: Something I don't understand - Me

It's a nasty tradeoff:  Work from home and receive less pay and benefits, or work at the office and receive higher pay and benefits while being berated, verbally abused and micromanaged at the office.


Screw the benefits - I'll take a peaceful life ANY day.




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Lucky at-homers' - no "in-office" abuse

It's a nasty tradeoff:  Work from home and receive less pay and benefits, or work at the office and receive higher pay and benefits while being berated, verbally abused and micromanaged at the office.


Screw the benefits - I'll take a peaceful life ANY day.


Same here--weather stinks for work at homers - good riddance to FL. nm

That's abuse! I wonder how far..sm
some of these MTSOs dare push.  I would demand to get paid for the extra work and time.
Lucky You ... I was not so lucky to work with that platform
Meditech - it was awful. I kept getting promised that my account was going to ChartMatrix, but it never happened and the Meditech system was SO slow. I loved TH, the people, etc. - so if you can get an account that is on ChartMatrix - hop on it. But, avoid the accounts that are on Meditech because I don't think they are EVER going to convert (and I waited quite awhile - couldn't take it any more).
But then you would be "in the know" and
they cannot have that. Personally I like being left alone because the more contact I have with them, the more I hate the company and my job!
How are you "in the know".....
Just curious how you are in the know. They are definitely keeping within TAT, so it seems.
Never have I seen such abuse of power
the ones who cake walked into their positions of power don't know what to do with it, there only about 2 really good account coordinators and QA forget that, it is all messed up
That would be very easy to abuse
anyway. My company is very honest, and QA is great and fair, but I'll bet that's not the case with a company that says it won't pay for a report with a single error.

I take errors very seriously, but I find this very suspicious. If the problem is that serious and their QA hasn't been effective in coaching the MTs, then their MTs need more training, not severe pay docking.

If they can't get more training and errors continue to be serious, then they should be let go.


Exactly the same as what happens with domestic abuse -
..
Stop the abuse!

A few months ago it came to my attention that the company I work for does not pay their employee status medical transcriptionists overtime pay. The company took on a new account with about 50 physicians and did not hire anyone to do this work, so it was on the shoulders of us medical transcriptionists who were already working full-time hours to get these jobs done. We were receiving up to 5+ e-mails a day being hounded to get the work done and being told that the owner has to pay a penalty for anything out of the 24 hour TAT time. In many of the messages we were told to, not come crying to them come the slow season and we didn't have enough work to buy Christmas gifts or pay our electric bills. So, I asked if they pay overtime for anything over 40 hours a week. I got a reply saying, No, but you have my undying gratitude. I informed them that this was against the law, and that they might want to check out the Department of Labor web site and read up on labor laws. They did not think that they had to pay us over time, because we were paid by the line. Keep in mind that this is a fairly large company! I informed them that they had to convert our wages from paid by the line to paid by the hour and pay us time and a half! Bonuses do not count as overtime pay. They actually increase what the company owes you as it increases your normal wages. After that, I never heard anything back about this. Now, once again we had an update on your platform, which left us out of work for up to 2 days for some. Again, we start getting these nasty e-mails for us to work overtime to play catch up. We got no compensation for the time we could not work while we were waiting from them to fix all the bugs in the update! This is a direct quote from the owner -- it never ceases to amaze me the number of calls I receive around the holiday season from folks telling me they need help with presents for their kids. It never ceases to amaze me the calls I get from month to month from folks telling me they can't pay their electric bill. It never ceases to amaze me the number of calls Kathi or Jennifer or Angela make begging for help on an account and are told no. What really blows me away is that some of those same folks who call me are the ones not willing to work when the work is there. We all know that from mid-November to mid-January there's a bit of a lull, so why not make hay while the sun shines as my dad used to say? This e-mail was the last straw for me. I will post my reply. I encourage you to read the reply, so you too know the laws. We are not slaves working in a sweat shop! I thought I'd share with you some of things that we, as your employees, have been dealing with. First, did you know that during the, slow time, if we are sitting at our computers for 8 hours waiting for work to come in and we only manage to snag 2 jobs you need to pay us at least minimum wage for every hour we sit there and wait for a job! It is the law. If you do not want to do this you have to lay people off so that we can collect unemployment benefits. If people who work in-house have a slow day do you not pay them? Let me tell you, the law sees no difference as we are all employees. Second, if you ask people to work overtime you by law have to pay them time and a half. I explained all of this to the HR Department months ago. The line rate increase for producing more lines or a bonus does not count towards - us just making more. You have to add up which each person makes and convert it into per hour pay and then pay us time and a half. Third, the way you pay. If there is a holiday or we take a vacation day we automatically get the lowest line rate, which is 7 cents per line. If there is no work the day before or the day after a holiday and we cannot get our 12000 lines in, and then there is work on the holiday date and we work, we do not get the 10 cents a line holiday pay - due to know fault of our own! Fourth, I never got a bonus check for getting someone a job with you as I was supposed to. Also, I think there is some trickery as to your bonus system going on. We have to get at least 1200 lines a day for 10 our of 14 days, again if we are sick, take a day off, or a holiday we do not get it. Also, I was led to believe that to get the bonus we only had to get our 12,000 lines in 14 days to get the bonus. I was waiting months to get a bonus. haha funny right. Well all of these things are not so funny to me. Fifth, it is not very professional for the owner of the company to send out e-mails like this. The last e-mail you sent out was complaining that we were not keeping up with our TAT when YOU took on new doctors without hiring more people..and did not pay anyone overtime..and then blamed us MTs, some of whom were doing double time, for YOUR lack of preparation. Now again, as most accounts are behind on TAT, you send out this kind of e-mail, complaining to us. We did not ask for you to upgrade the system and not have all the bugs worked out. Most of us were out of work for a couple of days, and of course we will not be compensated, and we will get the lowest pay now. A few weeks ago we had a small upgrade that crashed my computer! I was out of work for over a week waiting for a new computer...again...without being compensated. Do you treat your in-house employees this same way? Again, a reminder to you that the same laws apply to us at home. As my dad says, poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine, and don't ever trust anyone who says trust me.


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like I said below major abuse of power
only 2 account coordinators worth their salt, if they cake walked into their position they are on a power trip and don't know what in beans they are doing, QA is just a mess that is pathetic esp. the upper crust there.
Totally agree, some do abuse QA
I've done transcription and done QA.  Some are just too lazy to pick up a book or even Google something.  Grrrrrr . . . it's a pet peeve of mine. 
I live "in the sticks", too....sm
and I use satellite for my internet connection. The only problems I have had in the 2+ years that I have had it are connectivity problems when the weather is extremely bad (in which case, one should not be on the computer anyway) and I have had 3 service calls, mainly related to wiring and improper initial installations issues. Other than that, it has worked well for me. However, there are some companies who do not accept satellite....JLG and TRS come to mind, although there are probably others. You just have to check out the ads and go from there. Best to ya!
living "in the sticks"
I too live where there is no DSL or cable option. I use wild blue satellite. It is fairly affordable, though more expensive than DSL, but it works great - I started out downloading with dial up, and the difference is wonderful. You can Google search wild blue to check out the service closest to you.
I am an employee, and they ARE flexible (as long as you do not abuse)...sm
and there is still plenty of work. Medware has different accounts and platforms so just because 1 account/platform does not have work does not mean that they ALL do not have work. I have worked for other companies that have had NO work, and so far have not had this issue since I have been with Medware. As a matter of fact, the ONLY time work has been low is around a holiday (usually the day after) but picks up VERY quickly, so not an all day thing. I have been with Medware for over a year and am VERY happy! HTH.
ick, sounds like no respect for anyone, worth abuse? NOT. run
xx
Oops typo! meant "in there"
nm
go back to my message "In the Know" and click on the
.
BTW I meant "In transcription I have" sorry for typo.
I guess you both hit a nerve with me here and my fingers went faster than my brain. Sorry!
correction..."in order to work as an MT in the US"
...
I meant to say playing euchre "in between calls." nm
x
notice the words "in my opinion" haha...WMX was awful for me
you are not going to bully me, I got enough of that at WMX
The main office was in Bolingbrook but they built an office in Yorkville last fall. SM
I think that the owners live in Yorkville, so it was built close to their house. Nice office, just pretty far out.
Just curious, is the MQ Nashville office the old Lanier office? nm
nm
I don't work in the office and never claimed to. I am just saying that since the new office open
October with everyone of the admin staff in one place, these problems do not occur any more.
Can't get paid in the office if you don't work in the office.
JLG has MT's working at home, not in the office, not to mention working out of state.  The mail is the only way to get paid since they have temporarily suspended direct deposit.  The only ones getting paid on time are the ones that do work in the office, like the management and people answering the phone. 
Closed FW office, Indianapolis office too. nm
xx
Lucky you.

Not OP,  been here years and leaving shortly.


lucky you
you guys are lucky to be working. i need a job. just relocated to NC.
if you are really lucky you can
:0
I wish I was that lucky!!! I pay $900/mo
x
consider yourself lucky

It's better you find out how horrific the communication is now than waste your time getting hired/quitting your other job, and them jerking you around.


Take it from someone who knows EXACTLY where you are coming from.


Well, you must be lucky...sm
Like the poster below, it took me 6 weeks to get my first check. Two weeks worth of work invoiced on the 1st was not paid until the 27th. That is beyond a long wait for 1 paycheck. Also, while I knew I would not be paid for headers/footers working in Extext, I was quite surprised when I got my check and 30% of the total line count was deducted. Considering the headers/footers only accounted for 5 to 6 lines a report, they were ripping people off big time. What excuse could they have for not sending someone a paycheck?
Lucky you!
I just emailed the payroll person to see about why the check I got was wrong and she says she only issues the check and she can't help me with any issues. I just would love a straight answer from someone and for someone to step up and do what is needed.
Your one of the lucky ones
I am no longer an IC for TTS nor will I ever be again or will i EVER refer anybody to her dungeon. LK has a serious problem with favoratism. If you are one of her goody two shoes that she not only pays on time but gives them all the good work, (cuz yes, she does cherry pick herself and give her favorites the good work so they can make more money) then you don't have any problems. Fortunately but yet unfortunately for me, I was one of those people that she Cherry picked for and when I got paid I got paid well, but I can't live on a not knowing when I was going to get paid. This is not a new problem for TTS. This has been ongoing since February of about 2 or 3 years ago, I can't remember what the year was.

There is no doubt that TTS has GREAT accounts, a GREAT platform, and LK does know how to take care of systematic problems, but she doesn't know how to run a business professionally, unless you are one of her favorites!


How lucky you are?
You must not work for a national!
Lucky?!

Your lucky!  I worked for On-Point MTs and am owed $1400.00 that I will probably never see because the owner stole all the money her MTs earned...


I have a bounced check from one of the payments I recieved and never recieved payment for that or any of the other work I did for her.


Stay away from On-Point now and in the future.  Her name is Bawnie Bartlett and her husband is Aaron Bartlett.


I would say you got very lucky! nm
x
Lucky you
A lot of us did have problems getting paid. There was not always plenty of work either. Sometimes we did run out.
Lucky you....
My emails are never answered. Maybe I should use your name in my subject line in order to get a reply.
Consider yourself lucky
We still have autumn leaves.
LUCKY!
You are so lucky! I have to drive what I can pay for. You are fortunate to have such a generous husband. :)
Lucky you, we are all not so lucky.
nm
Boy you are lucky! (sm)

I can crank out 500 lines an hour but there's no place I've found that allows me to do that.  Sure I can do 1000 lines a day and make $20+ but if I only work 2 hours, 3 max, that's only $60 a day and no where near coming close to making $8000-$9000 a month.


If I could make HALF that a month, I'd shut up and type.  I'd be in heaven and I'd never gripe about my life/job/bills again!


I'm lucky if I make that in 6 months.  You are definitely NOT the norm and I'd hate for people to think that you're making a normal average salary ... the work pool would be saturated and those of us with 16+ years experience and in a normal crappy MT situation would be even worse off.


I hope you count your blessings every day because there are tons of us who wish we were in your shoes!


Lucky?
Gal! Please don't fall for this. Sounds like a bunch of hype to me. Telling you that you are lucky? This is is the jargon of a company who knows it's an employer's market and, believe me, once they get you, they will use you up and discard you without looking back! You will be using your equipment, financial resources, and knowledge to line their pockets. Run the other way.
and you are lucky she does
If she didn't and took all she could, you might be the one who ends up with nothing. Gee, maybe she should go ahead and take it all.
You don't know how lucky you are
Rudeness is their game.
I just got VERY lucky...
I was responding to multiple ads on the job seekers board and MDI happened to have a position listed. I wasn't hired for that one, though. They actually take the time to read your resume in detail and find a perfect fit for you; in my case, the position they offered me wasn't yet advertised. I consider myself very fortunate.

Be patient when you apply. There is a lengthy telephone screening process and once you start, you are limited to 5 reports per day (yes, their QA program is that thorough). I was on a 5 reports/day limit for the first week or so.

The upside to this approach is that you have time to get very comfortable with their formatting and style, and you can use the extra time to load up your Expander so when they cut you loose, you're ready to hit the ground running.

Good luck to you. I honestly cannot say enough positive things about this company.
You are one lucky...
gal (or guy) to have found something so easily and quickly and that sounds just perfect.  I like the 12-hour window. 
Consider yourself lucky!
That place is a mess unless you like a company that changes the terms of your contract, schedule, pay, etc. whenever they feel like it and management that can't communicate properly to save their life!
You must have been one of the lucky ones
DIT does not seem to want to pay anyone anymore other than the office personnel. They've given me two NSF paychecks so far, yet told me funds were there and to go ahead and redopsit them. They bounced again. Now they won't even respond to phone calls, emails or messages left. They even profess to be Christians. Well, if they are Christians, then they sure have a seriously warped idea of what Christianity is all about! BEWARE AND DON'T GO THERE.