Saw on paper that pay was only 6 - 8.5 cpl. Is that what you guys will be starting at, or staying
Posted By: at? nm Wanderer on 2005-08-06
In Reply to: Medware info needed - Sweet Pea
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- Medware info needed - Sweet Pea
- Saw on paper that pay was only 6 - 8.5 cpl. Is that what you guys will be starting at, or staying - at? nm Wanderer
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Do you recommend starting with clinic notes or acute care when just starting in the MT field?
!I realize this question may be better suited for the new MT board, but this board is my favorite)
I am considering accepting an acute care position, even though I am just out of MT school. However, I don't want the learning curve to be so steep that I fail before I even begin. I would also like to have a smaller pool of dictators to transcribe from as opposed to many.
Also, are there more ESLs in acute care versus clinic/dr office work?
What has your experience been? Would you do it differently?
Thanks for any insight!
There's a lot more staying than going,
and plenty that have come back after finding the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence after all. They are good to me! and i make more $ than ever elsewhere.
Why are you staying?
You obviously hate it. You are spewing venom everywhere. So why are you still there?
I'm Staying at TT. (sm)
I went into this job KNOWING I was not getting paid for headers and footers. I don't know any company that does pay for them, so it's no big deal to me.
I am also disappointed in the insurance hikes and am waiting to hear something, BUT the costs are still LOWER than the insurance I have now and with very low deductibles. I would only be saving $100 a month by going with TT's insurance as it stands now, but a $500 deductible is way better than $2000 we have now.
BTW, I also must foot the bill for this insurance. I am not sole provider for my family but pretty close to it, at least for 6 months out of the year. I don't think the grass is greener anywhere else and I'm staying.
Too many MTs look for the perfect job. There is no such animal. So, all you guys that are leaving just because of the above 2 reasons, go right ahead. It just means more work and $$ for me, and I appreciate it.
Yup, I am staying put
at TT!
I'm staying...sm
I've decided to stick it out. I know they said we would keep our same accounts, but I also know that those words are just that, words, and aren't guaranteed. I will stay for now, but am keeping my options open just in case they decide to switch me to a crappy account where I cannot understand a single doc. I just got used to these docs and would like to stay with them (and, they aren't the greatest, but at least I'm used to how they dictate and can understand them now).
Why I am staying with MDI
I have one of those high-ESL dial-up accounts, too. When I first started, I did not think I would ever round the learning curve, but I did and now can easily do more than 1200 lines per day. Be patient with yourself. Bayscribe is a wonderful platform that is elegant in its simplicity and is easy to use. The liaisons are really wonderful people and the QA are intelligent and kind people. Tech support is great, though I seldom need them. I have been in this business for many years (was an MTSO for a while and handled huge hospitals for the State of California before the state went belly-up) and I can honestly say I have never worked for a company that has the integrity and goodness MDI does. Hang in there! I am betting it will get better for you. Again, be patient with yourself. MDI is extremely picky about whom they hire and if you have made it onto the team, you doubtless have the right stuff.
I would recommend staying away from
That is all they do, lie and run out of work! Have you tried Keystrokes? I think they might be hiring. I do not know much about them but it might be something to consider.
" plan on staying right where I am and see it through the end"
Well, you do have staying power. 
Staying at home
Hi: Our children are grown and gone and I still choose to stay at home. I like the flexibility that I have working as an IC. I like making as much or as little as I would like to. I like being off when my husband is so that we can spend time together, go see our children, travel. I even take my laptop with me when going to see kids so that I can work if I am scheduled. I could not do that working in an office environment. I agree with the other poster. You take the good with the bad. You pick your battles. Also, after working at home for so long, I'm not sure I'm a candidate for working in an office environment! That would mean wearing a bra every day! Hope you find the answers you are looking for.
Well we aren't staying
a very large portion of the MQ staff is leaving, the majority of which as I can guestimate have been with MQ for many, many years, made them what they are. I myself have 12 years in with MQ and am done in 3 weeks. Don't get snotty with us...
The reason for staying
The reason I continued to work for D&L was not because I was making it rich, they never paid any of us well after years of working for them, most of us were still at starting wages of .06 cents a line. I worked for them because along with about 12+ girls we were trained and brought into them through an individual, knowing nothing else. When asked for references, D&L refused to give them, we were stuck and unable to move on because of no records of our work history. I did not work for the Big Account that they lost and nor did most of the girls that I know, but they are still not getting paid and desperate to move on. Most of us live out in the country area and do not have access to big city accounts. We just have had a difficult time moving on. That is why we put up with the constant cons of where our checks were. D&L is in big trouble and for anyone that is out there still working for them, keep all of your work records and when applying for jobs, just tell them the truth. Hopefully, some of these companies will give us a chance. If you have a lot of work to do for D&L and they still have not paid you, GET OUT NOW. File your complaint with State Labor board, filing with check fraud will only work if you have a bad check. They have been making up all insufficient funds checks because they know that is a criminal offence. They keep changing banks, and that is concerning. Good LUCK to all of you, this has really been a tough few weeks for all of us. 
I NEVER said I was staying or would never leave -
but my wanting to pursue other companies has nothing to do with the holiday pay policy (since I'm PT, I don't even qualify). I'm just saying, if you want to log on, get your work done, and get a steady paycheck, OSi can be that place for you - it has been for me for the past 2 years.
Vonage residential - staying away from anything
x
Is there really an advantage to staying local? Most
It doesn't seem there's any more guarantee of stable work from local MTSOs than the national ones.
If you do want to stay local but work at home, also try Southern Transcription Services, located in Taylorsville, I think. They have a good reputation. Google them for their web site.
right; and I did not quit my old job, ended up staying with my old job.
nm
And how would you like staying at the office 10, 12, 14 or more hours trying to get in 8!!
I for one have probably vented enough about this subject, which is the very reason I got laid off from my previous job (because I was challenging this treatment). I do not think it is legal, but when I asked to have a third party brought in on the matter I was laid off. It is awful to make an MT feel like THEY are not doing their job if they are not meeting minimum requirements when it is the company who is causing it in the first place due to mismanagement. And FYI to you management people out there, we do have a separate life besides sitting in front of the computer for hours on end. Just because we are at home does not mean we are necessarily available after our **shift.** How would you like to have to go back to your office night after night after your workday?
The paper says 45 days.
I hope it isn't 45 working days.
paper work
I currently work for Phoenix and the paper work they send is for your use. It explains the doctors accounts and also has examples of the doctor work, so when or if you have a question, you can refer to these files. It is your choice to print them out or not.
I believe they have both, DD and paper check.
Extext and Escription, in my opinion, are the best platforms out there. Extext is a little more difficult, but Escript is totally awesome and very user friendly. TTS has had pay issues in the past (which you will find a lot of negative posts on here regarding that). I have worked here for almost a year now and have never had a single issue with my paycheck. Always on time! Feel free to email me if I can help further.
I haven't seen an MT job in the paper since the mid-80s!
X
carbon paper... sm
Not just onionskin but erasable onionskin... oh, yay!
Pale green eraser pencil with brush on the other end for boo-boos.
I'm going to bet that most dictators under the age of 40 have absolutely NO idea what they mean when they say CC to Dr. Jones...
If you are an IC, the printer, ink and paper are tax
x
First check will probably be paper
NM
I think the first one is paper check. nm
nm
and .... that is no different than with paper records, so ...
nm
The Ops could be staying in-house with the rest of the work being done by MW. nm
s
Last week we were staying caught up with TAT so I guess
you could consider it a slow week, this week we are out of TAT again, so things are back to normal.
Seems like the good ones are staying a long time
I know many who have been there 2, 3, and some 4 years. Volumes are up right now, and we've had several new accounts go live in the last couple of months as well.
Yes. I think a lot of my problem is staying focused. It's hard.(sm)
Starting tomorrow morning, I am going to really try to keep my behind in my chair and stay off these boards. I could improve my counts a lot too, I'm sure.
Not staying back in the dark ages
VR is definitely the thing of the future and I am already there, which most of the others on here, like it or not, will be before long. I can just see it now, the ones going kicking and screaming, or like the 1 about a month ago, jumped ship because of VR, got another job and OMG, the new job immediately went to VR. I am keeping up with the latest technology, I will welcome others as they have to switch.
Same theme, staying at home with the kids
This is just the most idiotic thing to write. I joined up with this profession before mothers only went into it so they could wear PJs and stay at home with Jr. That is a sorry reason to go into this job in the first place. I don’t find my job grueling, never have. Apparently you must be in the wrong place because your spouting off is wrongly placed. Discrimination against women and children. Please spare me from this. I am going to throw up in a minute.
No. The paper they make you sign
says $125 (I guess to reimburse them for sending it to you in the first place) and for returning it.
Do be aware . . . paper checks only! (sm)
They don't offer direct deposit, just mailed, typed, handsigned checks, which can be very hard to cash.
They don't communicate very well -- hard to get someone after 3pm EST if you have a problem.
At least one of their major accounts still uses a DOS platform and requires you to have this weird token thing that changes passwords every few minutes to log in. You also have to get their footpedal and software. So, if you're using their tools, their token, etc., how can you be an IC (since part of the definition of an IC is that you provide your own tools)? Another company the IRS needs to look into, IMHO.
The DOS platform is so slow you can't make any kind of lines. Instant Text works, but there is no way to save normals.
My son was about 17 when he asked me what carbon paper was! nm
X
That's funny didn't know they had it in the paper
I was told they recently moved somebody from another dept within the company to fill that position. She is definitely entry level, completely different field. Just goes to show.....
We may not have had to type on sticky paper
but MTs breaking into this business have their own set of challenges. I am a little tired being looked down on as a new MT, only 5 years, because it is so much easier. I beg to differ.
I went to school to be an MT. I have under my belt a 2-year Associates degree in Medical Transcription and a CareerStep class. I was hired by a national company who promised me a constant account with 2 backups, and I did not lie about my experience. I was at goal my first day of traning and have always had QA scores above the required average.
In return, I went to work and printed sample after sample after sample as we had over 100 doctors in my primary account alone. I learned new voices, new ways of pronouncing medications, and that some people still use kilograms as a unit of measurement. I faithfully made note of every blank I left and its correction so it would not be a blank again. I studied not only transcription but the other doctors names, specialties, area hospitals, local physicians, nursing homes, lakes and recreational facilities, highway and route numbers, and pretty much every possible place a person could work in the area.
My secondary account did not get as much attention initially, but 6 months after I started, my account was yanked and sent to India (where they no doubt know more about US geography than I do), so I repeated the process over again. So far I had made it a year and learned clinic notes, routine procedures (sometimes called OP notes), consultations, and ER transcription.
I had not lied about my experience, but it really didn't matter because one day I woke up, went to work, and was getting discharge summaries from a teaching hospital that I have never heard of. I was told that since I am doing so well that it was time to move on. LOL...it was more like no other team in the company could type that account so we got it. I typed it, cried, and typed it some more. Pretty soon, I was literally not making enough money to pay my bills after I paid my health insurance. I was not making my quota, which I had always regularly exceeded, and I was worried that I was going to lose my job for not producing. By the way, I am at a whopping 6.5 cents a line at this point.
I went looking for a job. I was recruited by a smaller MTSO by their president. He said that they were very supportive, like one big happy family, and they jump on a conference every month just to hash out any issues they have. I even got a 1 cpl raise. WOW...but, I am 3 months short of your 2-year minimum exeperience requirement. (I didn't lie).
I got the job anyway, and after 3-1/2 years, I have never jumped on a big ole conference call or had the opportunity to hash out any issues. Since being there, I have learned 10 accounts (repeat above learning process times 10), and I am still one of the highest producing MTs they have.
Again, I was handed a gift by my MTSO. I was given the opportunity to work on their self-described second hardest account because I was doing so well. Again, the message was sent by waking up one day and seeing it in my queue. I decided to be a team player because the company line is if you can do this, you can do anything. You will make bank.
Eventually, I was given another opportunity to help out on an account. This soon became my primary account because no one they trained on it could do it, and the account I was hired to do (and loved) was given to someone else. I figured if I was doing harder work (and the hardest they had),after 3 years I should get a raise.
No, I couldn't have a raise because they still had my primary account related to my pay scale. It didn't matter that even if I begged, I couldn't get that work. I was still what they considered a Level 1 MT. Shame on me, I went looking for another job.
I held that job for 1-1/2 weeks. I spent 3 days in training after waiting 2-1/2 months for my computer to arrive. It then took me another week to track down my production supervisor to be able to start working and get samples for my account. In our phone call, she apologized for taking so long (insert baby crying), but she was very busy as they had taken away her assistant and not replaced her (insert long pause as she IMs someone else). She was very hard to get a hold of now (insert baby crying again) but she would do what she could to get me started. I typed for 5 days and had 3 unanswered questions that were critical to me doing my work. I came back after a 2-day break to an e-mail that she was going to be gone for a week at a production supervisor meeting. Yes, I quit and without notice.
I was wise enough now to have not given up my current contract, and I decided to accept that they were going to pay me when they felt like it, but I was not going to take Level 1 pay for doing Level 3 work. I assumed that account full-time in June. I was off almost $800 that month even with the increased line rate (so much for making bank). By September I was back up to the production that was normal for me and raised my contract to 14,000 lines. Then last week, my boss tells me that we are backed up in OPs in this account.
I said that I would take them on as I had been practicing on them for quite some time. As I expected, my production dipped again. I knew I was not going to make 7000 lines, and I IM'd my supervisor that if I was going to be set for all OPs, I would need to readjust my contract back down.
The tizzy fit that she threw defies description, and I am back wishing for a new job. I told her simply that either we are in trouble for not meeting production or we are in trouble for not being a team player. I cannot produce 7000 lines of OP notes in a week, and I am not being terminated for not meeting my contract goals.
Is it fair that you have a single priority report that needs to be typed, and all I have to do is read the account notes (all xxx pages) and type it, BUT you are going to bash me if my production is off.
It is really easy for the MTSO
or management or whoever does it to complain that the quality isn't there or line counts aren't being met but wouldn't consider paying an ounce of training time to compensate you.
My husband is also self-employed. If I said to him, I know you regularly make xxx dollars an hour, but this is an emergency, and you are the only one who could do it, so would you mind spending 20 or 30 minutes learning how to do this. I know you may never have to do it again, and I won't pay you any more than what I normally would no matter how long it takes you, but would you do it to be a team player? I would STILL be taking that flying leap.
When you were back typing on sticky paper, did you regularly worry that you were going to have to stay an extra hour in the evening because the report you were on was taking too long? Did you spend your evenings researching doctors in Bullhead City, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio, and in some little known town in Louisiana that has a clinic but barely even a zip code? Did you have to use Mapquest as one of your transcription tools so you could figure out where this guy on this account is from? Did your boss come to you and say there is a clinic 300 miles away that is behind, and I volunteered you to do their work? Don't leave, now, until you have 1000 lines in. And don't WHINE.
PS...how do you know they don't whine in India.
so, it wasn't put on paper that you are terminated
nm
LOL!! DVD player for staying more than one week!!!GOOD Grief!!!
Must be really awful!!!
This is the thing that concerns me about this field. Pay is staying the same not increasing!
Every OTHER medical field, nursing, therapists, techs, etc. are all experiencing the yearly salaries going up. Transcription compensation is not increasing.
While they may increase the RATES the ability to make the more money is not there because of VR, taking away the header allowances, more difficult accounts, more ESLs, stricter QA, etc., etc. slow platforms that require information inserted that you don't get paid for and anything else that lowers your salary. If hospitals are looking to slash their transcription budget, they are going to pass that onto the service and the service will pass that onto to the employee.
I know transcriptionists that were making 45-50K in 1987 working 40 hours and now they are making 35K and often times working more than 40 hours to make that lower amount. Or I hear people say I can make the same money but I must work much harder and longer hours. I think wow...you have to work harder and longer to make what you made in the 1980s.
Other occupations have gotten consistent raises without the need for more hours and I don't think employees would put with up it. Imagine a well qualified R.N. being offered a 1987 salary? The hospital would have a hard time hiring nurses. But the transcription service environment is so competative if they can offer the work cheaper and cheaper while guaranting accuracy they will get that contract. So in order to stay in business they have to find a way to pay the Transcriptionist the least amount of money to see their profits which they need to stay in business.
Of course if transcription is all you know and you don't to work in an office or get a job at Starbucks you keep going and accept the pay because we really have no control. You have to work with what they offer you.
On the front page of my morning paper
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/214991
I see a big ad in my paper for Heartland IS, many bad reviews on this board.
Stuff about them being sold and on their website is a big picture of....India? I am sort of new to the business, one of the MQ SE in the middle of the shuffle. Are there any companies that are stable? I am tired of stress.
I don't think so. What you see on paper or on the screen in black and white.
If it were me, I certainly would ask specifically the HR person or MTSO. Pick up the phone, dial their number, and ask. Never take a job, unless you know how and what you are getting paid for.
I do believe it means without spaces, but I could be wrong. Things change so fast in this industry, what it means one day, does not necessarily have the same definition tomorrow.
Tradeoff between paper use and system speed (sm).
If I have too many reference lists up in Excel and Wordpad, my system bogs down; Microsoft products are such memory hogs.
Any Spheris employees get paper checks?
Just had my direct deposit changed to a paper check. Since payday is tomorrow, am wondering how long it will take to get my check--I am only two states away from HQ. Thanks!
Any Spheris employees get paper checks
Wow, I was expecting it Monday. That's good to hear!
I DID type on sticky paper and an IBM Selectric
Yes, I did stay an extra hour because a report was too long. The difference was I got paid for it and appreciated for it.
I agree with you. The cheap exploitation of the third world has driven a high percentage of this field into filthy trash and many of those managing it into slumlords. It went from MTs working from home to fill a need to just dirty bloodsucking middlemen looking for a place to weasel into and make a buck off the backs of others.
What do you mean that you have Thanksgiving with your family? What do you mean that your arms or back hurt after no time off for months? What do you mean that you need time off for a mammogram? Geeze. It's sick. It's just disgusting. I'm in it only because I've done it so long I'm not quite sure what else to do. I'm back at a hospital so I can be a PERSON again. The difference is night and day. I'm finding the hospitals are grossing-out on it, too, and outsourced MTs are thought of as those poor things and somewhat pitiful. Like a necessary evil they are trying to figure a way around.
LOL .. I'll bet you are write. UGH on the carbon paper ... sm
We typed in triplicate, so had to correct 3 documents each time I made a mistake. Forget the good old days in this case ... I am going to give my PC a big hug right now! 
Webmedx first pay date DD or paper check?
Just wondering. I know every place does something different. I asked my STM, and she is trying to find out for me, but i thought this might be faster.
mean black character on white paper
also called virtual black character or VBC. Spaces not paid for. Never do it. This is just horrible.
I wish I had kept the article out of the paper on Transcend outsourcing
The home office located (as you might know) close to Atlanta and it was listed as a top company for Georgia but was I surprised when the person speaking made no bones about their outsourcing and the reason they STATED for it, lack of American MTs. Well, ladies, who do you feel about that? I am sure someone posting on MTstars has this article because they did last time. Hopefully they can quote word for word.
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