Yes, six files is ridiculous. I think we've all done ..four hours of testing to find out

we're offered a whopping 7 cpl. Why waste our time. I'm not a genius but I can tell you in three files or less whether someone knows what they are doing. I've seen graduates from MT programs that have blown my mind with their no concept of punctuation or just English at all. That definitely shows up in less than six files. Let us test and move along to the next disappointing test that will come back with a joke of an offer. Gotta love it!!!

• Testing process - None
  • Yeah, you get to see how good or bad their voice quality is!! nm - nm
    • More than 1/2 the time you don't get actual facility samples, tho, just - some actress reading a part. nm
      • Not my experience. I've gotten real dictations sm - nm
  • I took what I felt to be an extremely - sm
  • Yes, six files is ridiculous. I think we've all done ..four hours of testing to find out - OrthoMT2
  • sm - I agree
  • testing - Elspeth
  • I wouldn't do it. One of each basic 4 types or a few clinic - notes is enough. nm
  • Six different files is a lot... see message - anon
    • Testing - MT'ing

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That is extremely odd. Well they must have something up their sleeves. Well I will be working elsewhere part time as well as with MQ as I have no intention of sitting 40 hours with no work from Amherst and be expected to have 150 lph with no work. What is all this window of work time they said they would be giving everyone. I figured all along they would do away with SE. I have already been looking around and ordered a new computer  to send theirs back.

Wouldn't mind having something extra especially with Christmas and general winter expenses coming up but working a FT job and really don't want to do another 20 hours on top of that. 

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.