There must be a personal talent factor to it. SM
Posted By: EditScripter on 2007-07-05
In Reply to: VR - mt
So many say they lose money, I'm another who definitely makes more editing, i.e., significantly more than double the line count, but then I'm not a fast typist, so shifting a lot of the emphasis from fingers to reading and editing decisions works for me. Now, if only I had fast fingers, too...
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Oh boy, glad to see we're still rewarded for experience and talent...
NOT... I guess I wouldnt be as offended if I didn't know what these MTSO charge their clients, especially hospitals. I realize they have to stay competitive with India, make a profit ..blah blah, but let's share some of the wealth with the talent behind all that work. I think for 6-7 cpl they might be able to get a newbie..but yet...somehow, they EXPECT experience, not on my dime i.e. 6 cents. LOL
the key factor would
be do they consistently have an abundance of work?
Luck is a factor
but are MT companies all so bad? If you have been at 10 companies in 10 years, and all were bad, that is very bad luck and I feel for you. I've been with only 1 company for the 2-1/2 years I've been doing MT and have had no problems with them. Good account, good supervisors, good pay, occasionally run low on work, but rarely. I get very nervous reading that so many companies out there are horrible. Actually a lot of people think my company is horrible from the posts I read here, but it hasn't been for me. I'm going to be nervous if I have to look for a new job.
definitely a deciding factor there. I am already stressed
with my current situation and huge cut and turned down a few other offers b/c high ESL would be MORE stressful, so good to know. thanks so much for the heads up...are you a TT?
It's that 'ol GREED factor, again! - no/msg.
x
you didn't factor in what you would have spent
working in an office - clothes, shoes, gas, vehicle wear-and-tear, driving in bad weather, lunches, travel time (what's your time worth to you), make-up (I only wear make-up when I'm going out), laundry (I wear my sweats twice before washing), office donations/kids selling stuff, manicures/pedicures, pantyhose (I count that separate from clothes cuz it's a PITA to wear).
Then there's all the stuff you miss out on cuz you're working - kids' school programs, ball games, dance recitals, on and on.
I'd love to make more than 9 cpl, but the truth is a lot of us don't even make that. You have to weigh the good with the bad. I'd rather make a little less than have all the stuff above to deal with. I never got in this biz to become a millionaire. I got it in to be home and I wouldn't give that up for a few extra bucks!!!!
Some things to consider that factor into line rates. sm
There are two sides to this. The larger companies like MQ, Spheris, Transcend, Keystrokes, et AL have a lot more accounts and more volume so they make their money on volume and can pay more. They also have more overhead than smaller MTSOs and need payroll people, recruiters, benefits people, etc.
But here is what no one considers: If I pay someone 0.09 per line, I have to pay taxes and unemployment on them. My portion is 15% between SS and unemployment. Benefits such as PTO and the portion I pay for insurance and 401K (there is a fee to the employer to have someone run it at the company that you have your 401K with), etc cost me approximately 22% more. So actually, 9cpl + 37% = 12.3cpl. Add the cost of doing payroll, bank fees, liability insurance, etc. and there is not a whole lot left over. Most hospitals will not pay more than 13cpl, some 14cpl. My break-even is 13.2 cpl. This is normal; I talk to many MTSOs at MTIA meetings and on my own. The big ones above are the only ones that make a lot of money, but their companies produce a lot of lines every month.
Do I make good money? Yes, but I put in a lot of time getting accounts and keeping them happy, doing the juggling act to keep my employees busy on good accounts. Payroll takes time, recruiting takes time, sales take time PLUS a lot of accounts take a lot of day-to-day work.
I am not complaining about being an MTSO, I just want you to know that there are two sides to everything and the industry changes prevent us from paying more than 7 to 9 cpl. Factor in offshore driving our costs down and those companies that undercut everyone, and small MTSOs may go the way of 8-Track Tapes.
I see the industry going to just 10 companies or so and hopefully they can stay in business too with speech recognition, offshore and everything else that comes along.
Sure, factor it in, but no one knows what the future holds and MTSO has no control over those
:+
Agree. It' hard to use that as a rule-out factor nowadays.
Where you live doesn't factor in when you work with nationals.
When you work on-line, companies will pay the same regardless of whether you live in NYC or in some small town. I live in a small town and I am nearing $40,000 as an IC for 2 national companies. My pay is not based on where I live or my cost of living, rather on my production. I am paid 8 cpl, but because I use an Expander and can transcribe 250 lph, I make a decent wage.
This is only my third year as an MT and I have been with one of my companies for a year and a half and the other one for 8 months, so it doesn't take years and years. I did have to change jobs a few times though until I found the right companies and the right accounts that I could make money on. Some of the accounts I worked in the beginning had so many ESLs and the platforms were so slow that I knew I could never make any money there.
What you need personally to cover your bills should be the deciding factor. And what you MIGHT earn
m
The insurance cost is double for Transcend but insurance probably doesn't factor in for her.
I have heard more good things about Axolotl than Transcend, although it seems Axolotl may be less flexible with your schedule and someone told me that QA was pretty strict, which should not matter either if you have worked for a hospital and know what your QA score is.
Not unethical, when you factor in the unethical companies
She's just another MT trying to make a living like the rest of us. The old way of taking it 1 job at a time while you dump 4 fly-by-nights in order to find one that is honest and actually PAYS its MTs, can lead to lots of between-job time with no pay at all. MT has become a cutthroat business, and in order to stay in it, one has to sometimes turn the tables on these unscrupulous MTSOs. If EVERYONE did, you better believe they'd clean up their act pronto.
you took this quite personal
you are really sticking up for MQ here, I don't understand your anger at this poster
Nothing personal
Just responding to a condescending post. You're also way off about ''major quality issues''so the LOL is on you--Sure hope you're more accurate in your QA duties.
Not personal
Of course our anger is directed towards the companies and not toward any worker trying to make a living. This is an emotional topic, but we have a right to make a living too. These companies started in the USA, benefited from Americans and then decided to go overseas not to provide a better service but just to make more money. And not only are jobs are affected but also the loss in tax revenues.
Sorry, but personal or not
You have set a double standard by saying keep the personal remarks out of it when you opened it by making IMHO a snide remark about MTs who want to keep American jobs in America by working at times that non-Americans workers normally cover. In the middle of an otherwise very well handled discussion by those affected by the merger, IMHO I do not believe you did service to Transcend by having made the remark you did. Even other Transcenders have posted that it did not prove useful to cover other shifts and had difficulty finding enough work.
Indeed you have a right to your opinion, but if it is respect and support you are looking for, perhaps consideration to what you have to offer would get different results.
No. I have 2 personal systems --
one desktop and one laptop. I can do whatever I want with those systems.
My personal advice to you
Don't give up!
Since you are just beginning there are many factors that are probably preventing you from doing more lines. For example, do you look up words and/or medications frequently? If so, for obvious reasons, this will slow you down. Second, if you are not quite used to DQS, then that too, can slow you down. Also, take into consideration how many words you type a minute. Everyone is different. Some people can type 65-70, while others, can type 80-90 and that can also effect what you make. It also depends on your accounts you are on. There is no doubt when I type for ER accounts and use their standards, I get more lines - bigtime!
Like I said, just don't give up. We all started out slower and have only gotten better. You will improve with time!
My personal experience has been...SM
I've been there via Total eMed for over 6 years now. I have never been out of work for any longer than I chose to be.
I also never have had a problem meeting minimum, even if I did change accounts a couple of times within the period. It's not that difficult if you've got the basic entries in your expander.
Good experience with supes overall. They've allowed me to change my schedule and flex whenever I needed to. Benefits and HR teams very helpful.
Co-workers are THE BEST! Helpful and willing to share tips and information.
Pay is on time, benefits are reasonable, and they are working to improve with MT input.
Of course a large national won't make everybody happy and it's not the right fit for everyone, but if you must have benefits, you could do far worse than Spheris.
Personal names. How would you like to see your own name
trashed on this forum? If not, maybe you shouldn't do it to this man, either.
my personal protest
In honor of my fellow MTs who are soon to be exHeartlanders I, personally, am not going to buy a thing on Friday, July 7, 2006--- nothing, not a gallon of gas, not groceries, not an ice cream cone-- not anything. I'm sure that no one will notice but I hope you will join me anyway.
I think this is outrageous. It seems to me that if Heartland conglomerate laid off 1 top executive one $71 million salary would make a nice little lump in their profit margin instead of laying off 151 MTs!! How outrageous is that! Today, in the minds of politicians America is corporate America, working Americans are just a souless, faceless mass. What's it going to take to change their minds... a revolution?
that's why I would never EVER use my personal equip for any
that's what you get for using your own stuff.
Just my own personal opinion but - sm
I think that the child labor laws that have been put in place in the last 10-15 years has a LOT to do with horrible work ethic youngsters have today.
When I was growing up (I'm 38 now,) my parents put me to work. I wasn't really contributing to the household bills but I certainly was responsible for purchasing my own clothing and paying for any of my personal expenses. I was 12 the first year I bought my own school clothes.
I knew what it meant to work, how to save my money, and how to tell the difference between wants and needs fairly early on.
Child labor laws were put in place to protect BUT they have also hurt us. I think they should be re-examined.
By the time a kid is legally old enough to work in our state (16 years old,) the years have past when you can instill good work ethic in a young mind.
No wonder the kids expect to have everything handed to them. They are used to it and can't handle it when their support is taken away.
Any wonder why so many 20-somethings and early 30-somethings are going back home to sponge off mom and dad? Any wonder why so many of those same people are dumping their kids off on mom and dad to raise? Nope!
Sounds personal
 You must have some major quality issues
don't have personal experience with
in an earlier post, they said something like the lines would be longer than usual (meaning smaller margins/fonts), and they only pay $1.50/page. I would want to ask about what the length of the lines and the average length (or lines) per report to make sure the pay is fair.
Say there are 10 lines at 65 characters per line per report, that is 15 cpl; but if the font and margins fit 90 characters per line, then it is not such a good deal.
And how many trained MTs have done phone interviews? Seems they would be advertising to a different work pool. I kinda wonder if they know what they're doing.
personal experience...
Very, very nice people, very conscientious. Platform all right, but line counts seemed to take longer to make for me. Had to have unlim. LD and that was the big problem for me. I also spent a lot of time dialing into accounts looking for work. Good QA, good tech support. Wish it was all via Internet. I also did not want to be responsible for my taxes (just lazy, I guess!). DId like the flexible scheduling. If you want to be IC and don't mind the LD, it's a great place.
I don't have personal experience
with Apex, although I hear it's pretty cool. My account is still on DOS and I have absolutely no problem with that. We have DOS and internet accounts, so I would recommend them to anyone who doesn't have access to high speed internet. I've been there over 4 years and do quite well. There's a new pay structure in place recently as well. They're worth checking into. I do work a lot of OT but I don't mind since I'm a single mom. The money is good, and I work extra when my baby is with her dad. It works for me.
Just personal experience, that's all.
.
No personal experience with either though
Keystrokes would be my choice based on what I have read on the boards.
No personal experience, but..sm
I work for MQ and posted a frustrated post a week or so ago and received a private email from an MT who had left MQ recently and went to JLG and she loves it there.
I talked with them 10 or so years ago when MQ bought out my company and they seemed nice and I would have taken the position, but just had too much on my plate at the time to move jobs - and then MQ got better for me, so I stayed.
Ready to leave again now and after getting that email from a fellow co-worker, I think I'd try JLG.
From personal experience
From personal experience with over 20 years of acute care and moving to radiology, I think it is easier for an acute care MT to move to say radiology or pathology than it is to go the other way. Radiology and path can be challenging as well, but I think what really slows me down with acute care is the drugs and all the labs. Not that I'm not familiar with the terminology, but just because the numbers for me anyway, slow me down. I think it can be OVERWHELMING to transition from radiology to AC. I say this with some certainty because I have worked for companies when I have been responsible for training radiology MTs to do acute care and training acute care MTs to do radiology. I just think it's an easier transition TO radiology FROM AC, not the other way. I hope you will be able to hang in there and stick it out. Sounds to me like the recruiter doesn't really understand what each job entails. Unfortunately, the recruiters rarely understand what our job entails. I'd talk to your direct supervisor rather than the recruiter if that's an option.
It is my personal favorite by far! nm
nm
I can only tell you my personal experience sm
which I did. Anything else would be gossip. I was not an MT with them so cannot speak from an MT standpoint. ESLs were not bad - but things have changed drastically since then - found out later they did overflow for Medquist and not sure now which accounts are really theirs.
Personal Choice
While I understand the sentiment of your rant, the reality is you're blaming someone else for your choices. If you want to be a REAL IC, then ditch the middle man, go get your own accounts and deal with the client directly. Explain to them that you only want to work when you feel like it, or that you only want good dictators, or that you can only type if your family has nothing else on the schedule. Pay your own taxes. Carry your own weight.
Yes, there are many companies treating MTs like employees and calling them ICs..... but they COULD NOT do this if MTs didn't CHOOSE to work through a middle man.
If you are an IC, you should be presenting a contact TO THE SERVICE (not the other way around) with your rates, you availability, etc. Have you done this?
And being new is not a reason for being under-trained. It means you don't have the skills if you are catching flak. A service is under no obligation to train you. They ASSUME if you are calling yourself an MT that you have the skills that intimates.
And no, I'm not a supervisor for any company, I'm not a service owner, I'm just a grunt who realizes that I'm an adult and a professional and I DO get to decide what the trade-offs are for doing my job.
No personal experience, but...
... I have a friend who works there and DESPERATELY wants to get out. I think she said she's on something like 50 different accounts (!) which is completely untenable because she gets them at random, and there's no WAY anybody can be expected to learn 50 different sets of account instructions, so that slows the production waaaaay down, because she constantly has to look things up.
As always, others' mileage may vary.
Keep the personal remarks to yourself.
You are entitled to your opinion, but so am I entitled to mine, and I am always willing to engage in honest debate about any point. I am also willing to agree to disagree. But making personal wisecracks crosses the line, and does not further the discussion.
As for me being 'untrue,' you don't know the first thing about me, who I am and what I'm made of, so unless you can prove to the world at large that you really DO know me (which you don't), again, keep the personal remarks to yourself.
and YES did have personal conversation with Liz
I was part of a package that Transcend purchased.
I recievied all kinds of welcoming emails etc. It was unfortunate I did not receive emails infroming me my team lead had left, who to contact with problems etc.
My mother was hospitalized shortly after the acquisition. When I called to inform me TL I was told you are expected to produce every day.
At that time in the northeast we were unable to travel due to ice etc. (which incidentally was where my accounts were, which meant VERY little work), so I bought a laptop and camped out in the ICU.
At no point was I ever allowed to take family leave. I was expected to look for work 24 hours a day in case there was a job...........no easy task when dealing with a mother with cancer, a broken hip, Coumadin allergy, aspiration pneumonia, blood loss etc.
My mother went to heaven and I did take some time off for the funeral etc.
When I returned I was told I had made some mistakes (??? no wonder......I did not want to work in an ICU) and it was not a good fit.
And yes, ******** was aware of this.
posting personal info on the net
It's gotten very scary, especially to people who are trying to get a nut case out of their life ie: victims of domestic violence, etc. I live in a large metropolitan area and our county clerk has property records on the internet. All you have to do is type a name in and see if you can find who your looking for.
Our local YWCA where I volunteer has tried to stop this, but he says that the records are available in person, always have been ..well, it takes a person a lot more effort to go down and dredge through them in person...duh. So again people, just be careful.
It is a matter of security not personal. nm
nm
they supply you with everything - you are not allowed to use your personal
computer for their work. Be forewarned - When you get their equipment, do not play or surf the internet for anything other than work related. They do monitor it. Use your own personal computer for personal emails and surfing outside of work related things.
I just left there for personal reasons but i can tell you-sm
that it is a good company to work for. You set your own schedule and they send you work. The pay is great, as stated by other poster 10 and 11 cents, and you type in your own Word or WP program.
DO NOT POST PERSONAL INFORMATION. (SM)
If you cannot follow the policy of no e-mail addresses, names, or phone numbers, you will be banned.
A Reply By E-Mail service is available when you want to provide an avenue of contact.
Good for you! I'm not telling, either! It's personal! nm
x
It unfortunately will be personal when they lose the account. sm
Is there any way to trace where accounts go?
You're exactly right! Oh, and please do not track me down at my personal
Big no-no. No-no.
Keep the flowery stuff for personal.
When you are applying for a position, you want to look as professional as possible. You want the company to know you are the best candidate for the job. It is not the time to be warm and fuzzy. I myself would be concerned if someone presented a flowery resume. I would assume they are too laidback and would be more interested in visiting and such. But if it works for you........
Four Seasons Transcription; anyone with personal (sm)
experience with this company? Is the Vianeta platform easy to use? Did it seem like line counts added up appropriately? Was the company organized and easy to work for? Did you have plenty of work? Sorry for all the questions. I just want to make the ''right'' move. Thank you.
Wrong! That's just your personal perspective.
I'm very happy there. My manager works with me. I'm making more money this year than the previous years. I have PTO and insurance.
I think it's a great place to be!
not always true - from personal experience -
clients were told that I was editing all their work - I was not.
Personal info from survey's
Oh, it asks enough info and you can count on it collecting your IP address, that is all it takes to find out exactly who you are. This survey may be free - but you can bet her future survey's will cost you to take, and once she has all this data, you can bet your sweet bippy her site to access all of this information is going to be a pay site! She is not interested in improving anything in our field, she is only interested in $$$$$ she can make collecting data and making this data seem like it means something.
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