Not only is there ridiculous discussion

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Here's a link: http://forum.mtstars.com/company/v/1/22251.html

was also about signing the agreement that we would not bring the company to arbitration...as in agreeing never to sue them.

Did you go to about the middle of page 4 -- thread started June 21, 2006.  Begins with:

Anyone turned down offers at Amphion, Axolotl or Webmedx - would like honest opinions

thousand times. THE GRAMMAR POLICE IS NOT NECESSARY.  This is supposed to be a place where MTs can let their hair down. Afterall, they are not getting paid to post, so if it's not perfect, so what? 

Daphne, I emailed you privately.

...it occurs to me that there is bigger picture out there that not everyone is factoring into the equation.  I am an MT.  I transcribe/edit for a living.  Have been at this for 20 years.  The industry as a *whole* is struggling.  Against outsourcing.  Against EMR which is aiming to completely eliminate narrative dictation and transcription as a whole.  Against a huge downturn in the economy.  Against lower census at hospitals, fewer elective surgeries.  Against patients putting off regular care.  Against hospitals wanting to cut costs.  Against front-end speech rec which can eliminate transcription.  Everyone is trying to stay afloat.

Personally I know 4 people in my life - friends and family - who have lost their jobs in the past 2 years.  I know others - in other industries - who have been in a pay freeze, or hiring freeze, or who have had their wages cut.  It's not just MTs who are being impacted.

No -  I'm *not* happy about a possible pay cut.  But I AM glad to have a job.  If I thought I could find a better situation at another company, I'd be looking.  It's six of one, half dozen of the other.  I'm a realist. 

Please don't flame me.  We're all entitled to our opinions. 

...it occurs to me that there is bigger picture out there that not everyone is factoring into the equation.  I am an MT.  I transcribe/edit for a living.  Have been at this for 20 years.  The industry as a *whole* is struggling.  Against outsourcing.  Against EMR which is aiming to completely eliminate narrative dictation and transcription as a whole.  Against a huge downturn in the economy.  Against lower census at hospitals, fewer elective surgeries.  Against patients putting off regular care.  Against hospitals wanting to cut costs.  Against front-end speech rec which can eliminate transcription.  Everyone is trying to stay afloat.

Personally I know 4 people in my life - friends and family - who have lost their jobs in the past 2 years.  I know others - in other industries - who have been in a pay freeze, or hiring freeze, or who have had their wages cut.  It's not just MTs who are being impacted.

No -  I'm *not* happy about a possible pay cut.  But I AM glad to have a job.  If I thought I could find a better situation at another company, I'd be looking.  It's six of one, half dozen of the other.  I'm a realist. 

Please don't flame me.  We're all entitled to our opinions. 

cater to any company in the manner you describe just because a company may be a sponsor.  The reason that we remove content about ANY company is when posters use this site as a sounding board of their complaints posting to the point where the thread flames.  At that point, I will remove the thread and tell posters to take discussion to email until things settle down. 

If you have problems with a company, you need to take it up with them. Sounding off on this forum about the inner workings of any company is innapropriate.  Posters need to use tact when posting.

Many of you know me well enough by now that I would not remove posts just because some MTSO tells me to.

Administrator
MTStars

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content that is posted and remove inappropriate posts and we encourage the posting of factual information.  Administrator

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I received an email today regarding an employment application I had submitted some time ago.  I currently work as an IC and am very happy with my job, so the application must have been submitted at least 6 months ago.  First of all, the email does not state the name of the company that I supposedly applied to.  It is three sentences long and states that they are looking for ICs to work from home.  They will pay 6.5 cpl without spaces!  Attached is a list of their computer requirements.  The email states that if I meet the requirements to contact them and they will direct me to their testing site.

I have about 20 years of experience as an MT.  What is going on with this field that a company thinks that 6.5 cpl is a respectable rate for a seasoned MT?  Not to mention not putting the name of the company in the email...so I don't even know who I'm dealing with.  And, not paying for spaces?!?!?  I will not work for a company that does not pay for spaces.  A space is a keystroke.  It should be counted.  Spaces don't get into a document by magic!!

I have a good mind to respond to this email and tell them exactly what I think of their offer, but then again, it probably wouldn't do a bit of good.

I have to say that I used to be MTSO and while I was not rich, I definitely made more than the people who worked for me...if you don't, even part of the time, then you are doing something wrong and why be in business? And yes, most of the MTSOs that I know (and I do know 5 of them right in my general area) do live in the very best neighorhoods, have 5000 sq foot houses, and if not vacations homes, then quite a bit of money in the bank.

You're not the only person I've heard say this and it's a shame this is happening.  I realize we MTs cannot expect to be paid higher wages when the services are suffering as well. 

But I see too many ways for this whole mess the transcription profession finds itself in now to just fail and do a turnaround.  The government insists on privacy protection of medical records, then allows us to send them overseas with little if any regulation.  What about taxes and Social Security loss due to this?  The Department of Labor gives us our own classification (a bit of recognition for us) but our pay is not on par with other professions in the same classification.  AAMT wants certification to be mandatory but what's the incentive to study and work so hard for it if it doesn't make a much more substantial increase in our salaries than a penny a line? Yes, that can add up, but it should be more, way more.  Physicians want cheap rates with excellent quality but how many qualified MTs are willing to work for pennies before feeling used, frustrated, burned out?  How many young people are willing to enter a profession with such low wages and have to work hard and wait years to achieve even that?  

In the end, I don't see how all this VR and offshoring and underbidding it is going to benefit anyone except lawyers who will profit from suits brought about by privacy violations, malpractice suits due to the result of physicians depending on missing and/or wrong information in the medical record, misplaced records, dictation getting lost in the process of transfer between here and there, etc.  How many service owners will want to continue making as little profit as they do now (small ones)?  I also see coming an overall shortage of qualified MTs who can understand the American physicians who are impossible dictators and the ESLs.   What incentive do the new MTs have to hang in there and strive for this other than a sense of accomplishment but that doesn't pay the bills.  Yes, if you work long hours and/or multiple jobs you can do well, but is this what it has come down to?  And how many will be willing to do this for any length of time when they have other options?

It's all going too fast to prevent errors, serious errors.  I think we will be needed again, hopefully paid a higher salary again like so many years ago, but not until a tragedy happens and America wakes up to how these allegedly cost-saving methods of doing medical transcription is hurting the economy and the physicians start getting only what they are willing to pay for.  There are the lives of the human beings (patients) involved here.  This isn't about producing just a product (like a garment) in another country.   Medical transcription involves too many people in too many areas of medicine to let it totally falter.  Something has to give at some point.

One thing I'd like to see is for the insurance companies to raise the fees for physicians and services who offshore since their transcription is more prone to error than if it was done by a knowledgeable native American MT who knows our language, and also because it leaves the country thereby jeopardizing the patient's protection and privacy since these other countries do not have the security measures that America does.