When my company merged with a bigger one,
Posted By: sm on 2009-08-27
In Reply to: Merger; yes or no answer please - NorCalMT
cpl pay stayed the same for a while, but eventually they readjusted the 'tiers' that their MTs worked on. No matter what 'tier' we were on, our pay was lowered approximately 15%. QA took a harder hit; some of them were cut 30%. They have plenty of work, but it's impossible to make a living doing it, unless you work 7-day weeks, 365 days a year.
So I would venture a guess that for the time being, things for you will stay as they are. They can't change everything at once, even if they wanted to. Physically impossible. But after the initial 'shake-out' of MTs who leave immediately, and those who stay for a while until they find other jobs, and those who stay to give the new company a chance, get disenchanted and leave later on, has finally occurred, and some of the other nuts and bolts of merging 2 companies are finally in position, eventually they will start to scrutinize MT pay. Those at the higher end of the pay scale will undoubtedly either find themselves re-tiered at a lower cpl rate, or else with horrendous accounts that cut the lines they're able to produce, and thus their pay.
Having just spent $16M to purchase MDI, you can bet they're going to want to start seeing some returns on their investment, and of course, the suits are going to want to see some extra cash for themselves for all the 'good work' they've been doing. [snort!] So when they start looking for places to cut their costs, guess whose pocket it's going to come out of?
The big companies are ALL this way. I believe the best chance for a decent-paying job is to find a small or medium-sized MTSO to work for. Only problem is, that's what I did a few years ago. A great company, decent pay, good accounts. And they were gobbled up by one of the current 'Axis-of-Evil' MT giants.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the future there are NO small MTSOs -- only 3 or 4 of the mega-large 'McMTSOs'. My company makes it no secret that they want absolute domination of the industry. I'm sure the other biggies have the same aspirations. Then it'll all boil down to cutthroat competition, price wars and back-stabbing, all the while flinging U.S. workers aside, and sending EVERYTHING offshore, because if hospitals no longer have a CHOICE whether they offshore or not, that paves the way for MT to become a 100% foreign affair.
I do believe, however, that if a company reaches a point where it has all or most of its workers offshore, they should no longer be allowed to have their offices on U.S. soil. They should be forced to move to India completely, corporate offices, CEOs, and all. It's about time the Suits developed a taste for curry, themselves.
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My company merged with MD-IT
a few months back. So far - so good. At this point, I don't have anything bad to say about them. Good tech support. Very helpful and good natured support. Personal opinion here - I think their platform could be tweaked for optimal time management but overall is not bad to use. Pay on time and when they say it will be there. No problems of any kind for approx. four months (time gets away from me and I think it is about four months).
When my company merged not too long ago,
in the beginning nothing changed. It would be impossible to suddenly change things overnight, and the dust needed to settle.
So we still worked as if we were with our old company. Same accounts, same software, same management, and paychecks had the same old company logo on them.
Eventually we all signed something - I don't even remember what it was, but nothing, obviously, that made any kind of an impression on me.
We eventually changed insurance companies - several times. Each time, the coverage shrinks, and the co-payments grow.
We had a few teleconferences in which the new owner spoke of the new company, and the changes we could expect in the future. (One was that we could expect to make more money on their new software. That didn't happen).
Bit by bit, changes were made in things like the software we used (many changes, as time went by). Changes in the website, a few changes in management at a time. They weren't all let go en masse, but one by one, our wonderful managers 'left the company'. Different QA people, finally a different logo on the checks, etc.
They changed from paying by the keystroke, to paying by the line. I was suspicious of that, but checked the new method against the old, and the pay was the same. Until, of course, they eventually 're-tiered' everyone, and cut everyone's pay - MTs, VR people, and QA.
We did get emails from the new company, but not that many, just when needed. I don't remembe4 how long we waited before we heard anything, but I don't think it was very long. Most of our information at first came through teleconferences, and through our immediate supervisors. I would say the supervisors are the ones who provide us with 90% of our information.
We lost an account or two, gained an account or two, so I didn't see any change in workload, other than one of the accounts lost had been mine, so I had to move on to something different. I don't like working for a company that offshores, but although my eyes are peeled for something different, I do have to keep working while I look.
Some people left immediately, others later on, and of course, new people have been hired. I do notice a slightly higher amount of ESLs and less-desirable work, as I'm sure the better work is going offshore. The software changes were like any software changes I've ever experienced in MT. They're all the same, really, just a few different buttons to push. Each has it's pros and cons. I personally liked the simplicity of the old software - you have to jump through more hoops to do simple things like add addresses for carbon copies. Eventually, things actually levelled out a bit, and I was starting to increase my lines on it, when we were hit with a substantial reduction in pay with the 're-tiering'. I haven't been able to overcome that obstacle to financial security, and so my search for either a 2nd job, or a new one altogether, has taken on a new urgency.
It's impossible to tell what new changes this place will throw at us in the future. It's been a quiet summer, but I suspect more changes will thrown at us before too long. I wish I could say I'm optimistic about the future, but these days that's pretty hard to do.
My best advice is to at the very least, have a 'Plan-B' in mind in case things at the new place don't go the way you need them to in order to survive. I would say don't panic or make any rash decisions about what to do next. Whenever I've done that in the past, I've regretted my hasty move. But be vigilant in keeping abreast of changes as they happen, research what you can, and check their website often for changes. Often the first news of change goes to the clients, not the MTs, who are always the last to know everything. And don't let your guard down, either. Big companies are always out for themselves, not the employee.
Much bigger and better than TT
Advise you to stay where you are.
It seems to mostly be the bigger
corporations looking to make an even bigger profit off our backs, paying much less but charging the same - not so much the smaller MTSOs.
MDI-MD has not merged.
x
Does anyone know which MDI merged with
The MDI in Maryland or Florida?
Thanks.:)
Bigger ain't necessarily better!
Just because someone works for a national doesn't mean their accounts aren't overstaffed, they don't have a terrible platform that breaks down virtually every day, (sometimes for 8 hours at a time), and they don't constantly run out of work. I simply can no longer afford to remain with my current employer, which is a national.
I'm a hard-working, loyal, dependable, dedicated person who takes pride in her work and doesn't like to switch jobs. I'm not looking for my next job; I'm looking for my FINAL job.
All I want is an HONEST company with a dependable platform that actually works, an abundance of work (with no overstaffing/bait-and-switch games) and decent medical benefits. If it's a small company, that's fine. I just want to work for an ethical company that I can trust and respect, and one which is willing to pay a fair cpl rate. (To actually receive respect and some loyalty in return would be the proverbial icing on the cake.)
Is there such an animal out there somewhere? 
Bigger yes, better, NWIH.
nm
Once the kids are bigger sm
I'm going into EMS. I'm an EMT now and going to go to paramedic school. Each and every day you get a chance to make a difference in someone's life doing that. I've wanted to be a paramedic since I first watched Emergency! years ago on TV, and once my children are all in school, I'm going to do it!
The bigger picture sm
I am an MT as well and have been in this business almost 20 years. There are some who have more years invested in this line of work than I do, but 20 years at one job is a long time, and for those of us who have worked at home in this business for that long, it is very difficult to reenter the public work world IF there is a job out there that we might qualify for.
I agree with you in that the entire industry is suffering and has been for the past few years, but when I see company after company not giving raises and, worse yet, cutting line rates, I think it is time to look for employment outside of the MT world. You won't find a better situation in another MT company. They are all swimming in the same murky water and circling the same drain.
No, it's not just MTs who are being impacted, but this is *MY* profession (or what's left of it) and *I* am being impacted with this company's decision to find another way for me to make even less in my paycheck while everything around me...utilities, groceries, gasoline, insurance, etc....is rising to the point that I simply cannot afford to live any more.
I'm a realist as well, and what I see is an entire industry crumbling under the weight of top-heavy management and slave wages for the ones how pay that management. It's time to move on down the road.
They merged as of 08/09/06. In a few months,
from what I understand Cymed will be called PSI. So far no changes at all for MTs. PSI Transcription is a Philippine-based company that was purchased by an American Company and is headquartered in Nashville, but on their web page, it says USA, Philippines & India. Yes, they outsource - but so does CyMed and, so far, CyMed has been a great place to work even with the outsourcing. Their line rate is about the same as everywhere else (around .08/line base) with no pay for spaces, but their software is so good that you can still make pretty good money. I'm happy there. Good luck to you!!
No, MDI-FL merged with Transcend. nm
They actually merged after I worked for them.
I am not sure in regards to insurance as I didn't need it. The recruiter will answer all of your questions. I was doing VR and some straight typing. Once you adapt to their program it is a nice set-up if you like VR. I would STRONGLY suggest contacting the recruiter. She is very, very nice and she will answer all of your questions up front and be very honest. I even asked account specific questions, and she was willing to give me the information. If she does not know, she'll find out and get back to you. If you truly want facts and not just opinions, contact the recruiter by e-mail. I found her to be very, very communicative. I am not allowed to divulge what I was making there as I signed a paper saying that I wouldn't. I think it is safe to tell you that if you have experience, they pay very well. They paid me what I thought was near the top of what is available in regards to pay from nationals. Just e-mail the recruiter, she's great!  You can also e-mail me if you'd like.... 
Formerly SecureMTSource merged with
x
Yeah. They merged with SM
MRC and MRC became part of the Big Q.
VR is a much bigger threat to MTs than offshore
They will still need us, but pay diddly for the most boring, exasperating work you could ever imagine. I'd rather lick stamps and put them on envelopes than continue doing this crud. It's terrible - most of the dictation comes out as a word salad and you have to make some sense of it all. Terrible.
The account can get bigger if the hospital uses...sm
several services for their transcription. So, if they decide to start letting company B do what company A used to do, then yes, the account is getting bigger and bigger for company B. Also, Maybe the hospital is part of a large system and company A was only doing one location and the hospital is happy with the work so they start giving them more and more locations, guess what, the account is getting bigger and bigger. There are many ways for the account to get bigger, so she is not lying to you, as I work on one of the accounts she is talking about and that is what has happened. They now need double the amount of MTs they first needed for this account, as they are now outsourcing more work to Diskriter. Make sense?
You won't see some of the bigger ones here. I know for a fact that the owners of sm
KS do not come on here anymore. I went to one of them a few weeks ago, and she told me not to get worked up about the posts on here, that not every company is for every person, just just like every MT is not a good fit for every company.
I just emailed her with the request put here today, and she responded that she would not answer any posts on here; every time in the past that she did, things were twisted around and turned ugly, both with the bashers and the cheerleaders, that MTs with questions should contact the companies directly.
She also asked me if I needed more work as I seem to spend a lot of time obsessing about these posts, which really threw me for a few seconds. On thinking about it, she's right.
Oreilly is an even bigger media
hore. Yes, and so are the ones on the so-called 'left'. And if you think ANY of them give a flip about you or America, you are easily fooled.
The are full-time propagandists - all of them. And they are laughing all the way to the bank.
Sometimes the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Lots of these big MTSO co's are in bed with AHDI, and I have a hunch the whole kit-n-kaboodle of 'em are ridin' for a fall. Or a public hangin'.
My bank did it when it merged with another and I did not find out
until I got their notice of changes two weeks after they began. It was my personal account and both my mortgage and car checks bounced because of it.
Look for the Transcend posts. They merged with
that company.
Me three. I think they merged with Northeast Transcription. nm
.
I think they merged with Transcription Ltd and became MedQuist. nm
xx
Apparently WebM has just merged with M-Tec
I've heard some good and some bad about WebM, but you would need to find our for yourself through the recruiter. I would stay away from companies who are not willing to answer questions before you test. It will save you time. There are plenty of companies out there.
The funny part is I did have a good experience with Transcend albeit they offshore I guess, but I loved the recruiter. I had to leave for personal reasons (death in the family) and when I went back a month later to try and get through the training process, I was told the schedule had changed. This would have been an employee position. I appreciated the honesty, but I could not work that schedule they offered. They were great though in my opinion and I have 19 years in the business.
How big is Transheath and now does this make Webmedex bigger than MQ? nm
Is this an article somewhere? I thought MD-IT merged with SOAP in
s
Proveros has merged with Superior Global...nm
xxxx
Superior Global merged with Proveros
Is this a good thing for the MTs? I've read mixed messages about both of them individually. Do you think together they will make a really good company?
or the small ones do not draw attention. It seems to be the bigger companies. sm
They are the ones mentioned the most, at least the ones that are growing.
Don't forget voice recognition. Bigger threat than too many MTs and
nm
Any bigger companies out there that do 10+ hours flex time?
I'm looking for a job to supplement my income on top of my full-time MT job, but really need one that allows me to log on at any time throughout the week and do, say, 2,000 lines a week or 10 hours a week or something like that.
Are there any companies out there that still offer this or is it too much to hope for? Anyone have a company they would like to recommend? Thanks.
LET THEM KNOW IT IS BIGGER THAN MT BUSINESS - Make them want to do the research and dig deeper
Give them facts that will blow their mind. MT business and otherwise. According to the web site for the Population Reference Bureau, they claim you can not get an accurate figure on offshored jobs (all jobs). In 2008 they said they could only estimate it to be about 30 MILLION. That is the equivalent to the total population in 3 U.S. states. No concrete and credible figures are documented anywhere. Wonder why? Make the reporter want to start with the MT business and branch out. See if they can come up with a figure cutting Uncle Sam's pay and our jobs.
Do not let anyone tell you this will not do any good. Even if some do not wish to participate, enough voices want to be heard. I myself sent a letter to President Obama. This is posted on the main board. Read it. I sent it to the major newspapers, NY Times, whitehouse.com, Washington Post, 60 Minutes, Forbes Magazine, USA today, etc. Make your guy want to do some investigation into this. Ask him to contact credible sources he may have. Ask for feedback.
Whether this works or not - pat yourself on the back!!! Thank you for 30 Million Plus U.S. Jobs and all the upcoming college graduates. We're all behind you. Share your results.
ALL YOU MTs, GET INVOLVED!! You're not working that much right now anyway. Just send 1 letter to a major newspaper near you. Share it with us.
Okay..I'll give ya that one. I came from the MDI side as it merged with Transcend so...
I was offered more than 4 cpl per line on editing and I'm not sure why if everyone else prior had been given 3 cpl. There is no way I would do editing for 3 cpl and trust me..coming from MDI into Transcend was not happy days for us. The biggest problem that I did have was when I found out our work was getting sent to India. Nothing is worse than being told we share work with our overseas partners and have too many days of no work. I have no doubt where it was going. So, never having come from the Transcend side, where you came from, I'm only going to relay my experience and apologize if that is what actually happened there. Yikes..I rely heavily on the MTs and supervisors who came from MDI because I know they watch our backs.
Amherst so we make less money and they get more money for MQ and bigger bonuses. Our guidelines came
from Amherst.
If it merged with Monrovia you are in luck. Monrovia is great. (sm)
I am an SE there for many years now. They want a schedule and you are supposed to be pretty solid with it in order to qualify for bonuses. If something major comes up (storms, computer problems, schedule conflict, etc.) I just call and they are great.
those bonus checks aren't extra money...you would just get tw bigger checks rather than 3 checks
don't kid yourself 
I've been with the company almost 10 years. I know the truth. Hawaii was a company-paid vacation.
.
They do not offshore. The owner's original company was bought by MQ; started a new company, whic
That's about all I know. I would give them a try. They sounded good!
Great company. I've been recommending this company for a long time.
x
Must be a small company. I have never talked to the owner of the company I work for. sm
He wouldn't have time. Why would someone talk directly to the MTSO? Most do not know (or care) about the details just the big picture.
I hope my company flies under the radar. This is horrible what happens to one company sm
after another on this board. The owners must have very thick skin. First TT, then Amphion, now Keystrokes. No one is safe. I hope everyone takes all they read with a grain of salt. I have met a few of the owners of the some of the bigger services, and they are all very nice, including those that own Webmedx, Keystrokes, Execuscribe, Medware, MDI and Transcend. I hate to think how they feel when they read things on here, even though they all say they don't read the posts here and advise against it. I don't know how they don't read them; I look just to make sure that no one mentions mine.
Maybe QA made the decision, not the company, and the company managers are not aware of it. sm
I started with a company that did the same thing. When I went to the manager outside of QA, she fixed it right away. Turns out that the QA manager had made a decision to do that and had not told anyone else.
It does make sense to do that though. Find out if it is a few days or longer and base your decision on that.
Can we ask which company or at least which state they're out of?
Unfortunately, I am going to be looking AGAIN due to offshore.
or maybe it's really a good company. Give me a break. If a company isn't talked about sm
on here, good or bad, it's probably too small to matter and does not offer benefits or anything at all.
Ask insider if her company is in position to take on MTs from other company who are familiar
:+
Loyalty has nothing to do with it until you find the company for you. Be loyal to THAT company.
:p
Let me know if you pursue this company. I would like to work for a MN company as an employee?
Let me know! Thanks!
Chasing work from company to company - Have any of you ever watched (sm)
5 year olds learning to play soccer? The ball is in play and no matter what the coahes say ALL the kids go running for the ball. Maybe we are like that, masses of us going from company to company in search of work. This company has a new account BOOM here we go. Now it is out. Let's go here.
Yep, I think it is a big game someone is playing with us. Not a particularly funny one either.
Why would you want to work for a company with no QA? Anyways the only company that comes to mind is
I worked for in the past which is Medquist NJ Radiology.
Love this company - want to retire with this company...sm
Been with them for nearly 2 years now and absolutely love them. I make my living with them - I don't do this for fun money. I think the dictators are pretty decent - you will always have your good and bad ones. You just have to get used to them. I love the account I am on - been with the same one since I started. They are a VERY fair company to work for.
They are not a Fortune 500 company. They are a past INC 500 company. There is a
HUGE difference.
Just FYI ... the article was in the Rochester Business News. It notes that the person charged with everything was the owner's husband, not Linda herself. It was something that was done at the company that he worked for, not Execuscribe. If their biggest client is going to fill-in reports, I am sure they will bounce back and get something else. I doubt they do not know that it is happening. Any MTSO worth her/his salt keeps an ear to the ground AND has enough contact with their accounts to be up-to-date on changes about to happen, good and bad.
Perhaps you should not be so smug and instead focus your energies on figuring out WHY your customers were able to be taken from you. I hardly doubt that a good business person could be an ex-MTSO because of another service. There is too much work out there.
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