Making a decent line count

I agree it is possible to make a decent living at Transcend.  I seem to get a ratio of 70% VR and 30% straight typing. I'm not sure how this is determined, but that is how it always turns out at the end of each pay.  Yes the key to making money on the VR is using the hot keys.  If you are motivated, goal oriented and have a good work ethic you will be fine at Transcend.  They are great with letting you flex your hours and also offer to give 1 on 1 training for VR if you ask for it.

• If you work with Beyond Txt with Transcend what - me
  • Making a decent line count - Making a decent living
  • Transcend - Sue
  • Thanks for the response. I have an interview tomorrow - OP
  • Mostly I agree with Connie - Annie
  • Transcend - Connie
    • I only got through a few days of training - before I had to leave for personal reasons, but (s

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signed off the report I was typing.  Those lines didn't add immediately, but sometimes they do that.  What concerns me is that when I signed that job off and the next one came up, not only were the other lines not added in but they were LESS than they were before I signed off previous job.

I thought I noticed this happening the other day, but figured I just wasn't paying attention.  Today I definitely noticed it.  For some reason it changed it's mind and took 8 lines off my line count.  What the heck? 

Am not really ecstatic with the way things are going anyway  and then this confuses me. 

Please, someone have a realistic explanation so I don't feel paranoid and cheated here. 

Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth.  It would be great to be paid 10-11-12-13 cents per line (as an employee not IC), but that is not a reality in this job market.  Yes, MTs will take jobs that pay 7 cents per line, but that MTSO is not necessarily underpaying or demeaning the MTs that work for them. 

Bottom line is that you have to do your homework because, yes, there are people who can make a living on 7 cents a line and will take those jobs.   It really depends on your skills and how dedicated you are to making your maximum possible lines per hour.  The MTSO that is offering only 7 cents a line but has easy dictators can actually pay you more per check if you type more lines per hour than an MTSO that is offering 10 cents a line but has horrible quality, ESL dictators, nasty QA, etc and you can barely type 100 lines an hour because of it. 

MY TIP:  When you interview, ask what the approximate minimum and maximum lines per hour that the other MTs that are doing EXACTLY the same accounts that you are going to be doing are achieving per hour/day/pay period.  If the recruiter/MTSO will not tell you that information, you probably don’t want to work there anyway so just terminate the interview before wasting any more of your time.  The slowest MTs are probably new and the ones achieving 200-250-300 lines per hour have been there a long time and know the account(s) forwards and backwards.  If you plan to make that MTSO a long-term employer, you will have a pretty good idea of what you can potentially achieve if you stay there long enough.  Don’t let them tell you the “average” of all the MTs that work for the company or what their perfect employee Suzie Q types.   We all know every account is different, so Suzie Q who just started last week and is already doing 150 lines per hour may have easier accounts than the one you are going to be working on, so that is not very representative of what your account(s) is really going to be like.  Ask specifically about the accounts you will be assigned to and don’t let them distract you.  Again, if they don’t want to tell you, terminate the interview. 

According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, in 2004 !!!, the MEDIAN hourly earnings for a Medical Transcriptionist (probably  mostly hospital and office based) in May of 2004, was $13.64 an hour. 

Just for reference, it seems like most MTSOs have a 6000 lines per week minimum production standard which is about 150 line per hour (40 hour week) on average for full-time MTs.   

·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.07) = $10.50 per hour.

·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.08) = $12.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.09) = $13.50 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.10) = $15.00 per hour. 

If you are one of the highly trained experienced MT and type 200 lines per hour on average, you are even better off. 

·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.07) = $14.00 per hour.

·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.08) = $16.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.09) = $18.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.10) = $20.00 per hour. 

The median hourly earnings in 2004 was $13.64 per hour.  That was almost 4 years ago.  With a minimal 2% per year cost of living/inflation increase, by 2008 the median hourly earning should be about $14.76 per hour.       

2004 --------- $13.64

2005 x 2% = $13.91

2006 x 2% = $14.19

2007 x 2% = $14.47

2008 x 2% = $14.76

So, in my humble opinion, if you are an experienced MT with 5 or more years of experience, when you call that MTSO offering 7 cents per line the accounts you will be assigned to should be easy enough so that you can make an average of 210 lines per hour within a relatively short period of time.  If they say their experienced MTs are only doing 175 to 200 lines per hour on average, that MTSO is drastically underpaying their experienced MTs and it is time for you to move on.  If they say their MTs are averaging 250 to 300 lines per hour, then that MTSO may be worth looking into further, even if their starting wage is lower than what you originally thought you should be getting paid. 

I think if WE ALL start doing this, the MTSOs will start to figure out that we are not going to work for companies that underpay our skills and experience.  If enough experienced MTs hang up on these companies, eventually they will figure out that the recruiters/supervisors need to be more honest with us regarding their pay structure and the difficulty of their accounts. 

Some food for thought !! 

More information from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: 

Medical transcriptionists had median hourly earnings of $13.64 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.50 and $16.32. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.67, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $19.11. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists in May 2004 were:

If you want more information, check out the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web page for Medical Transcriptionist. 

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm

I have had the same accounts for up to 15 years.  On my surgeons with even charging 12 cents a line I can often make $50 to $60 an hour with their consults.  I think it is fair.  They pay within 48 hours, never a bounced check, got $500 Christmas bonus.  I can do them in my sleep.    They never question my line counts.  It is 60 characters to a line and gross lines, not character count.  On a consult for breast cancer, that is 3 to 4 pages,  probably type 50 lines as the physical is so standard.  If I charged more I would feel like I was ripping them off.  I make a decent living and so  pass it onto them.   I gross over 11,000 lines per month with them and work 5 to 6 hours per week.   They like the smaller amount per line.   My other is a clinic that I have a lot of auto corrects set up and still make $35 an hour and so why charge them an arm and leg when I am making decent money.  My sub's make close to $25 an hour as they aren't quite as fast as I am and don't use as many quick corrects but at 8 to 9 cents they average 250 to 350 (psych reports) per hour.   So we are all happy.     Half way through the year I myself  have made $26,500.   And that is with a slow June. 

I currently work for an oncologist and I do not get paid by the line, but rather a straight salary every month. Can some one tell me about how much typing is involved if expected to type 1800 lines per day??

Thanks

Tammie

see not really being the 1 that you get? 

Then you need to be doing more than  1000 to 1500 lines per day.  So work on getting you line count up.    If you want to make the big bucks, gotta put in the time and effort.  Or like you say get your own accounts but it takes time, dedication and hard work to have your own accounts like the poster below says.  Good and bad to both but bottom line is get your line count up -- if you can. If you can't you need to go somewhere else where you can.   

I figure my own line count, I am an IC.  I use gross line count now, so the 65-character line count is a new thing for me.  I know they divide the characters by total lines and just wanted to make sure that was the correct procedure to figure -

thanks for the help too!!!