You don't have the facts
Posted By: Lillybelle on 2007-09-21
In Reply to: They do not send work to Focus...sm - Transcender
Interesting. I got the facts from the recruiter. So, maybe you don't know what's going on there.
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Transcend-The FACTS and only the FACTS
This comes straight from the SEC filing for year ending December 31, 2008, submitted March 11, 2009. Yes, it is public information and anyone can look at it. Keep in mind, all the narrative is from Transcend’s point of view and they are trying to keep and/or get people to buy their stock. So you will have to read between the lines as far as if they will/can meet the needs/wishes of their MTs/Medical Language Specialists in the years to come, or if they will turn into another company too large to keep their employees happy.
Regarding the MDI-MD acquisition:
TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC. (NASDAQ: TRCR), the third largest provider of medical transcription services to the U.S. healthcare market, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Medical Dictation Services, Inc. (MDI) for $16.2 million.
Founded in 1981, and headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, MDI is a leading medical transcription company with approximately 450 employees providing service to approximately 30 customers located predominantly in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, MDI had unaudited revenue of approximately $13.7 million, and currently has an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $14.3 million.
Below are SMALL excerpts of the 64-page SEC filing. I chose sections which I thought would shed some light on where Transcend currently is and where they plan to go, so not only the new MDI-MD transcriptionists but also the current Transcend Transcriptionists could possibly stop stressing about what their future holds.
HOPE THIS IS OF SOME HELP TO YOU.
TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC.
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Delaware |
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(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
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One Glenlake Parkway, Suite 1325,
Atlanta, GA 30328 |
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Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 |
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Transcend Services, Inc. hereafter known as the Company
EMPLOYEES
As of December 31, 2008 the Company had 749 full-time and 423 part-time employees. These included 587 full-time and 418 part-time medical language specialists, virtually all of whom work from home. One hundred and twenty three full-time and three part-time employees work in operations to support and manage customers and medical language specialists. Thirty-nine full time employees and two part time employees work in sales, research and development, implementations, and general administrative functions. Neither the Company nor its employees are currently a party to any collective bargaining agreement. The Company has not experienced any strikes or work stoppages, and believes that relations with employees are good.
As of December, 2008, approximately 65% of the Company’s total volume was processed on the BeyondTXT platform and 35% was processed on other platforms.
Management plans to gradually increase the percentage of voice files processed through BeyondTXT speech recognition from 24% of total volume in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to approximately 40% by the end of 2009.
Speech recognition technology will allow us to produce the same volume of work with fewer medical language specialists due to the productivity improvements the Company is able to achieve, and may open the market to a new pool of professionals.
In mid-2006, a portion of work began to be processed offshore through partners in India. Volume processed offshore has gradually increased since then.
By the fourth quarter of 2008, the Company had increased the percentage of work processed in India to approximately 19% of total volume. Management plans to increase this percentage gradually over the next several years and believes that in the long-term (5-10 years), market demands could drive the mix closer to 50% domestic and 50% offshore, but in the intermediate term (2-5 years), the mix is expected to gradually grow to about 30% offshore and 70% domestic. At some point in the future, the Company may decide to establish a transcription operation offshore, but currently is relying on partnerships as the preferred solution.
The Company’s income before income taxes has improved in 2006, 2007 and 2008 due in large part to improved customer retention combined with new sales, increased use of speech recognition technology and increased use of offshore transcription partners.
The Company provides medical transcription services to the healthcare industry. The Company’s mission is to provide accurate documentation of the patient / medical provider encounter on-time at a fair price. Transcend’s customers include hospitals, hospital systems, multi-specialty clinics and physician group practices in the United States. Transcription services consist of three primary phases:
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Phase I: Dictation Capture. In this phase, a physician dictates the results of a patient encounter or procedure into a number of different voice capture systems, including hand-held devices, dictation capture systems at customer sites and telephone dictation capture systems located in Transcend’s data center in Atlanta, Georgia. The result is an electronic voice file that is ready for processing. |
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Phase II: Voice to Text. Using a workflow system, voice files are either routed directly to medical language specialists (MLS) to be transcribed (typed) or are routed through speech recognition and natural language processing systems which produce a draft which is routed to the MLS for editing. In certain cases, documents are routed through Quality Assurance teams as well. The result is a text-based report that is ready to be returned to the customer. |
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Phase III: Distribution. Completed reports are distributed to the customer electronically and are either interfaced to the customer’s electronic medical record and/or hospital information systems, printed at the customer’s site or faxed to the customer. |
The Company provides two primary medical transcription options for customers: (1) the provision of transcription services and technology using the Company’s proprietary BeyondTXT workflow platform or (2) the provision of transcription services using the customer’s proprietary or licensed third party transcription system. If the customer does not have its own transcription technology or no longer has the desire or resources to maintain and upgrade the technology they do have in place, the BeyondTXT platform provides a turnkey solution. If the customer has invested in their own transcription technology and wishes to keep their system in place, the Company’s transcriptionists access the system and perform all transcription services using the customer’s system. Management believes that our ability to serve a customer regardless of their use or non-use of our platform is an important factor in our success. As of December, 2008, approximately 65% of the Company’s total volume was processed on the BeyondTXT platform and 35% was processed on other platforms.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Medical transcription is either performed in-house by hospital or clinic personnel or outsourced to local, regional, national or offshore vendors. Hospitals and clinics may choose to outsource for many reasons: (1) the shortage of qualified medical transcriptionists; (2) the unique and burdensome management challenges of managing a 24/7 operation that must deliver critical patient care information quickly; and (3) the high cost of equipping in-house personnel with the hardware, software and support necessary for their jobs. Successful transcription companies make use of technological advances in Internet access, speech recognition, security, software and hardware that allow remotely located, highly trained personnel to function as well as (or better than) in-house employees. Management believes that the principal historical competitive factors of price, accuracy and turnaround time are expanding to include other factors such as speech recognition capability, electronic security, hardware redundancy (to protect against data loss) and data integration. In addition, management believes that the ability to recruit, train and, most importantly, manage personnel nationally and internationally will lead to further outsourcing, and that only those companies prepared to compete using resources outside the customer’s local market will prosper.
The market for medical transcription services is sizable. The total annual market potential for medical transcription is estimated to be $12 billion, of which an estimated $5 billion is outsourced. These figures include not only hospitals, but also physicians’ offices and clinics. The Company focuses primarily on the hospital market. There are approximately 4,900 community-based hospitals in the U.S. (hospitals accessible by the general public) with approximately 800,000 beds that comprise the Company’s primary target market. If the average annual market value of transcription services per hospital is $400,000 (our estimate), the Company’s primary target market is approximately $2.0 billion. The market is highly competitive and fragmented, with several thousand transcription services companies nationally. Management believes only a dozen or so competitors have revenue in excess of $15 million.
Demand for medical transcription services is growing as the demand for healthcare services increases. Macro-economic trends such as the aging of the baby boomer generation are projected to have a major impact on the demand for healthcare services in general and should lead to a corresponding increase in the demand for medical transcription services.
HISTORY OF THE COMPANY
We were incorporated in California in 1976 as TriCare, Inc. (“TriCare”) and reorganized as a Delaware corporation in 1988. TriCare completed an initial public offering of its shares in 1990. In 1995, the Company acquired Transcend Services, Inc., then a Georgia corporation, by the merger of Transcend Services, Inc. into TriCare and changed the name to Transcend Services, Inc. The historical financial statements of the former Transcend Services, Inc. became the financial statements of the Company and include the businesses of both companies as of the effective date of the merger. Between 1993 and 1995, the Company acquired five medical transcription companies.
As a result of these transactions, the Company now operates in one reportable business segment as a provider of medical transcription services to the healthcare industry.
In 2004, the Company introduced the BeyondTXT transcription workflow platform.
On January 31, 2005, the Company acquired Medical Dictation, Inc., (MDI), a Florida-based medical transcription services company. During 2005, the Company’s field operations were reorganized to form customer-centric teams that are responsible for all aspects of production, quality and customer care. Effective December 30, 2005, certain assets of the transcription business unit of PracticeXpert were purchased.
By early 2006, the Company began processing significant volume through the Company’s speech recognition solution and, throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008, have steadily increased the percentage of work which is electronically converted and then edited versus transcribed (typed) from recorded speech. In mid-2006, a portion of work began to be processed offshore through partners in India. Volume processed offshore has gradually increased since then.
On January 16, 2007, the Company purchased certain assets of OTP Technologies, Inc. (OTP), a Chicago area medical transcription company, for a purchase price of $1,110,000.
On January 1, 2009, the Company purchased certain assets of DeVenture Global Health Partners (“DeVenture”), a Canton, Ohio based medical transcription company, for a base purchase price of $4,250,000 plus potential consideration based on results for the first six months of 2009. The Company does not currently expect to pay any additional potential consideration.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Transcend’s sole focus is providing medical transcription services to the healthcare industry. The Company’s strategy is to succeed in the marketplace by successfully executing six key strategies.
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Provide unparalleled service to customers |
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Increase market penetration |
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Sustain technological leadership |
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Attract and retain talented professionals in the U.S. |
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Increase utilization of offshore resources |
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Successfully complete and integrate acquisitions.
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Provide Unparalleled Service to Customers
The key to the Company’s success will always lie first and foremost in providing excellent service to customers. The Company retained 98% of customers in 2007 and 2008, which is believed to be superior to most of our competitors. Management believes that customers who are consistently receiving high quality documents on time at a fair price are likely to remain our customers year after year. Satisfied customers provide sales leads and referrals that help us drive new business. Accordingly, the Company has an ongoing program to monitor and improve customer satisfaction which includes continuous monitoring of transcription production statistics relative to contracted standards, periodic customer surveys and a dedicated regional operations support organization that maintains regular (often daily) contact with customers. Management believes that regional operations managers provide a competitive advantage in sustaining customer satisfaction. As our regional operations managers typically come from a Transcriptionist background, they possess the expertise to continuously improve quality. In addition, they provide customers a central contact person in the organization who is directly responsible for resource scheduling and quality control and can quickly resolve any issues that arise. The Company practices continuous quality improvement with the goal of improving the level of service over time.
Increase Market Penetration
The transcription industry is large and highly fragmented. In addition, it is currently estimated that 60% of transcription volume is still performed in-house. As a result, management believes that the Company is well-positioned to increase market share both by winning contracts with hospitals who are now actively considering an outsourced solution and by taking business from competitors. Management believes that the level of service provided by many of the Company’s competitors can be very inconsistent. As a result, the Company is often asked to submit proposals on new accounts where Transcend will replace a competitor. In addition, the Company believes that smaller competitors are increasingly unable to keep up with advances in technology and lack the capacity to give customers assurance that they can consistently meet turnaround time requirements. As a result, the Company frequently wins new customer accounts from customers who have outgrown the capabilities of their smaller providers. The Company’s tested and proven infrastructure enables it to serve substantially more customers without a significant increase in fixed costs. While continuing to focus on day-to-day customer satisfaction, the Company intends to add new accounts to the existing customer base to efficiently utilize the capacity of the infrastructure and established customer-oriented support organization.
The Company intends to grow by focusing the sales team on potential new accounts and utilizing the operations management team to increase services to the existing customer base. The Company’s target market is focused on community hospitals with over 100 beds. Based on experience, this target market can realize the most benefit from services while still allowing the Company to provide superior customer service at a reasonable profit. The Company targets new business from hospitals where there is not a current relationship as well as affiliated hospitals of existing customers. A telemarketing partner is utilized to help identify hospitals within the Company’s target market that are interested in transcription services. New business leads are also generated from regional operating managers, who receive referrals from the administrators they work with daily. Management anticipates continuing to add sales resources to help deliver revenue growth.
Many hospitals are members of group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”), which provide value to their members by pre-screening the best vendors for a particular product or service and pre-negotiating terms and conditions with the vendors. The Company signed an agreement in 2008 with one 1,400 member GPO and will attempt to secure additional GPO contracts in the future in order to increase market penetration and accelerate growth.
The Company also expects to continue to win new business by working with technology partners. Technology providers, such as Nuance and 3M, license their proprietary transcription platforms to hospitals across the country and refer the transcription work to preferred service providers like us. Management believes Transcend’s size and superior customer service make the Company a preferred provider to these partners.
Speech recognition technology represents a sea of change in the transcription industry. The Company has invested heavily in fully integrating speech recognition technology into the BeyondTXT platform. The Company licenses the speech recognition engine, natural language processor and various editing tools from MultiModal Technologies, a leader in the industry, under a September 2006 agreement that renews annually at Transcend’s sole option through September 2010, with the last such option period ending August 31, 2011, and thereafter if mutually agreed by both parties. The Company’s speech recognition solution requires no physician training or change in physician work habits. Voice files are collected in the same manner regardless of whether the job will be transcribed (typed) or edited using speech recognition technology. Once a physician’s voice profile is built that meets predicted quality criteria, future work from that physician is edited. When a medical language specialist is presented with a draft document, they listen to the voice file and edit the document as necessary. Their edits are fed back into the voice profile, which learns over time in order to continuously improve the quality of draft reports.
The use of speech recognition technology in BeyondTXT results in a more efficient transcription process and leads to lower direct costs and higher gross margins while allowing the Company to offer competitive pricing. The Company’s medical language specialists earn less per line of text for editing, but their increased productivity generally allows their total compensation to remain unchanged or to increase. After the cost paid to MultiModal Technologies, the Company is still able to reduce the average cost per line of text. This is a key defensive strategy against pricing pressure in the industry.
Management plans to gradually increase the percentage of voice files processed through BeyondTXT speech recognition from 24% of total volume in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to approximately 40% by the end of 2009. Longer-term, the percentage of transcription volume that is edited using speech recognition technology is dependent on such factors as the mix of transcription volume that is processed on the Company’s platform versus customer platforms, the percentage of dictators for whom high quality voice profiles can be built, and the ability to hire, train, and retain editors.
Attract and Retain Professional Staff
One of the Company’s critical success factors is the recruitment and retention of the industry’s best knowledge workers, including medical language specialists, application developers and service professionals. The goal is to be the best company to work for in the industry. Management believes that there will be a shortage of qualified traditional medical language specialists in the future. There are two domestic solutions to this problem. First, workers will be attracted and retained by offering competitive pay and benefits, stable and responsive management, a predictable abundance of work, a stable and efficient platform, career development opportunities and the opportunity to work from home. Second, speech recognition technology will allow us to produce the same volume of work with fewer medical language specialists due to the productivity improvements the Company is able to achieve, and may open the market to a new pool of professionals.
Increase Utilization of Offshore Resources
The Company operates in a global economy in which medical transcription services can be performed efficiently and cost-effectively by offshore medical transcription service organizations. Customers have differing views of offshore production. Some believe it allows them to realize improved turnaround times and sometimes obtain a lower price without sacrificing quality or security of data. Others remain committed to domestic-only medical transcription. From management’s perspective, offshore production allows the Company to improve turnaround time by providing consistent staff at night and on weekends; alleviates the need to hire as many domestic medical language specialists in a tight labor market as would otherwise be needed; and reduces cost. Management plans to meet customers’ needs by providing services using a combination of domestic and offshore labor. In July 2006, the Company began subcontracting a portion of work to offshore medical transcription firms. By the fourth quarter of 2008, the Company had increased the percentage of work processed in India to approximately 19% of total volume. Management plans to increase this percentage gradually over the next several years and believes that in the long-term (5-10 years), market demands could drive the mix closer to 50% domestic and 50% offshore, but in the intermediate term (2-5 years), the mix is expected to gradually grow to about 30% offshore and 70% domestic. The growth in offshore volume is not expected to displace the domestic workforce, which the Company expects to grow over time. At some point in the future, the Company may decide to establish a transcription operation offshore, but currently is relying on partnerships as the preferred solution.
Successfully Complete and Integrate Acquisitions
The Company intends to increase market share through acquisitions and believes that the Company is the third largest of the more than several thousand medical transcription providers in the United States. Technological developments such as voice recognition technology and the need to provide customers with an off-shore solution are making it increasingly difficult for smaller medical transcription businesses to compete effectively. As a result, management believes that the Company will be able to make acquisitions on an opportunistic basis that will enable it to grow the business. When the Company acquires these businesses, it is often able to add the acquired companies’ customers to the BeyondTXT platform and to eliminate a substantial portion of their overhead. It is expected that acquisitions will be financed through a combination of cash on hand, debt, and shares of the Company’s common or preferred stock.
For customers who already have their own transcription workflow system, the Company provides outsourced transcription and/or editing services on the customer’s platform. For example, the Company has a partnership with Nuance to use their eScription platform, which is a popular hosted ASP solution that can be licensed by healthcare organizations. Customers contract directly with Nuance for the system implementation and contract with us for transcription services. eScription is speech recognition-enabled, allowing the Company to provide editing services to those clients in addition to traditional typing services. The primary advantage to this business model is simplicity—there is no proprietary workflow system to develop and maintain. There is, however, less opportunity for the Company to leverage technology to improve profitability. Some customers have legacy systems they have developed themselves. Over time, the Company expects to migrate customers with outdated legacy platforms off of their own systems and onto BeyondTXT. The Company provides services on numerous platforms: other notable examples include ChartScript (a 3M platform), Dictaphone (a Nuance platform) and Meditech.
CUSTOMERS
As of December 31, 2008, the Company delivers dictation and transcription services to approximately 154 hospitals and clinics with recurring revenue generally under long-term contracts or other arrangements. The average level of annual revenue generated by each customer was approximately $316,000 in 2008. The top 10 customers accounted for approximately 27% of 2008 transcription revenue, averaging $1.3 million of revenue each.
Revenue attributable to one contract with Providence Health System—Washington for four hospitals totaled $3,728,000 $3,269,000 and $3,017,000 or 8 %, 8% and 9% of total revenue for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. As of December 31, 2008, the Company had separate agreements with approximately 44 customers who are owned by Health Management Associates, Inc., a single healthcare enterprise. Revenue attributable to members of Health Management Associates, Inc. comprised $10,267,000, $9,611,000 and $8,473,000 or 21%, 23% and 26% of the Company’s total revenue for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
On January 1, 2009, the Company purchased certain assets of DeVenture Global Partners, Inc. and acquired approximately 30 customers with this transaction.
COMPETITION
The Company experiences competition from many local, regional and national businesses. The medical trans
Facts
Once again, you do NOT have your facts straight. I never said the doctors were not providing wonderful healthcare to their patients, just not wonderful dictation to MTs. I'm a damn good MT and I do more than my share of ESLs, but if any MT gets those dictators for 8 hours a day, 98% of the reports, we all know their line count is going to suffer, just of sheer frustration. Of course, you get any ESLs with any company, but there are better accounts, and any good MT knows they can get better line counts with better dictators. My point, once again, is if any MT has the skills and experience to get a job where you have better accounts w/better dictators (notice I said dictators this time, not doctors since you seem to be so picky about my wording), then why should anyone have to put up with terrible dictation all the time when you can make a better line rate and get more lines with a different company. And just so you know, these dictators can't even fill in their own blanks. I personally played back one particular ESL dictator's report to him and asked him what the blank was. His reponse was, "I don't have a clue. Just do the best you can with it." So, how can they expect us to be able to figure it out without compromising quality? I sent the report with a blank and let him fill it in with whatever he felt should go there. My attitude is the attitude of any MT out there who is trying to make a decent check, especially if they're single and trying to support a family. My atttitude is what landed me the job I have now where I make 2 cents more per line than TransHealth, get better benefits, have plenty of opportunity for advancement if I so choose, and have much more flexibility than the job I had with TransHealth. If you like transcribe ESLs so much, why don't you just move your ESL-loving butt to India? You will have no problem getting plenty of ESLs there.
Facts
FACT: There was ONE pay cut, not two, and it was temporary.
FACT: Karen was not let go, she quit. I know that there was a lot of confusion when she left and she still has a lot of files (or did last I heard).
FACT: Although the situation was not discussed with all of us, I asked Lee (when she answered the phone one day) about a discussion I had previously had with Karen and she was not insulting about Karen. She said that the "fit was not right" and that she was sorry that things did not work out as Karen is a wonderful person. I think that all was good when she was a transcriber for the company and that things changed after she did hiring.
FACT: There are over 100 of us (I do not know an exact number) so obviously there is a lot of good at Keystrokes. Their customers are happy or they would not be around for so long.
FACT: You cannot please all the people all the time.
no facts
No, they don't outsource to anyone else.
FACTS?
It seems that we live in an age where each person feels that his/her opinions represent true facts. There are facts and there are opinions. Most value judgements (such as whether a company is good or bad) are just opinion. Why can't MTs figure it out that what is good for one may be awful for another? Seems simple to me. Now, don't get me wrong. When a company has some really terrible attributes, such as not paying or paying with bad checks in a setting of doing it over and over and not just making an honest mistake, we are then talking about facts when we call this a bad company. It is no longer just an opinion.
Your facts just don't add up!
Actually, I just returned from a nice long walk on the beach, thank you! The Pacific Ocean is my backyard, and I spend a lot of time walking, biking, skating, swimming, and playing Volleyball at the beach!
By the way, we do have a short pier that you can take a long walk off when you are done wasting time testing and interviewing with other companies for whom you have no intention of working.
How can you possibly know whether a company is better or worse than Medquist until you actually work for them? You make absolutely no sense whatsoever, which makes you the perfect MedQuist employee!
Get your facts straight.
Do you know how many times I went to my company and sent letters, and emails? I mean I went all the way to the TOP.. you know how many responses i got...or offers to call and discuss with the supervisors.. ZIP--NADA...and by the way, these companies should value their MTs... who do you think is doing the bulk of the work... QA and MTs while the others travel around, buy new cars, boast how they have a 6-million dollar business. YES MA'AM. An owner told he has a 6-million dollar business. Hows does that grab ya?
Get your facts straight. sm
The pay cuts were a business decision not financial problems. I make more here than I ever made anywhere else. Checks bounce? I was one of the 8 and received the letter from the bank, my fees paid, etc. Then they changed banks and there have been no problems. Lack of work? Never. Lack of pay? Never. Maybe you weren't good enough.
She said they were doing away with all ICs - I have no facts for you. You should ask your team
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Yes, these are facts. No doubt about it.
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Better brush up on your facts
They no longer let new hires use their own computers.
As for your opinion, to each his own. One has to simply search recent posts of these boards to find many views from those who are very unhappy at Webmedx and who state the company has declined in several ways over the last year.
My facts certainly are straight!
Be advised, Transtech certainly isn't the BEST COMPANY OUT THERE either.
Been there, done that, ain't working for me.
I don't take to kindly to companies who screw with the line counting system so that they make money and we suffer, and believe me, my facts are STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW
Maybe you should check your facts...
The last I heard there were accounts that are approximately 50% ESL and approximately 75% ESL. I seriously doubt you are on a 99.9% ESL account. If so, you must be in a world by yourself. Sorry, but I doubt it.
And here are even more simple facts about
I have been with them for 2 years. I work PT (6 hours/day). My average for last pay period was 163 lph. Yes, I exceeded production for PT (6000 lines/pp), I always do and did even when I was FT. I don't understand the complaints or the inability to meet production. The DI honestly takes all of 2 seconds on MOST (I aint saying all cause I don't work on all) accounts. I have worked on 6 different accounts and all but 1 have ADT feed...I am sorry it didn't work out for you because Amphion is one of the best nationals out there...good luck!!
get your facts straight
Acusis did NOT send our work to India. The layoff was due to the loss of a major account. Acusis US work stays in the US.
and I'm saying get facts before jumping, so what?
slow down, be smart, line something up in case and research the issue.
crap happends sometimes, sometimes not. make and educated decision.
and I'm saying get facts before jumping, so what?
slow down, be smart, line something up in case and research the issue. Things happends sometimes, sometimes not. make and educated decision. That is what I would do. you would up and quit. No problem.
get your facts straight
the work is not being sent overseas....every company is going through cost cutting measures to tighten their belts...maybe if you SWATs werent gouging the company for so much hourly pay, us lowly MTs could have had a chance to get promoted??
ever think of that?
State the Facts
This is in reply to all the negative feedback regarding FutureNet. I usually do not get on these boards because of all the negative feedback, but this requires a reply. I worked for YOG for 12 years as did most of our employees here at FutureNet. I believe a lot of you know me from there and know I am honest and have a good reputation. This negative feedback being posted here is just pure junk. FutureNet values their MTs very much. That is why, if someone has not worked in 3 or 4 pay periods we give them a call to see if there is anything we can do to help. We NEVER ask them to leave a full time job to work for us. That is simply NOT TRUE. Yes, we do get low on work from time-to-time, so does every other service, but we find work for our MTs, especially those who are W2. We have been around since 1993 and have a good reputation with all our clients (abour 70) and MTs as well. Please do not listen to these negative remarks. I invite any of you who wish to do so, to email me or call me and I will be happy to discuss anything you would like to know. Again, we do appreciate our MTs and do whatever we can to keep them happy. Rita Smith
Get your facts straight, please!
There was not an earthquake in Oregon yesterday that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale with lots of damage and lots of injuries. There was not an earthquake in Oregon yesterday that measured 5.2 or 5.4 on the Richter scale either.
http://www.pnsn.org/recenteqs/
Here are facts from my experience.
I was confused with someone else. I had conversations with Carlotta, and she would say, We talked about this before. You said this previously. I told you... We hadn't. Some of the conversations were downright bizarre because apparently more than one of us complained about the same thing.
We were constantly asked to go above and beyond, and 110% wasn't good enough. Stretching was required every day. Do 100, 200, or 300 extra.
My liaison took work for herself. I would be asked to moved to a secondary, and then lo and behold a memo would come out asking for us to help extra.... only then there were no ports/reports available.
My liaison cherry picked.
QA was inconsistent and would say that the account specifics that were in writing weren't correct, and it should be done this way. Except no one bothered to correct them.
There was the crazy cat lady QA (you all probably know who that is) who talked third person through her cats in e-mails.
The final straw was when my contract was changed regarding the demands placed on the MTs, what was considered evening and weekend hours, what days I was supposed to work, and that's when I left.
It's sad to see that it is either still going on or getting worse. I know it used to be considered the elite of the elite, but something has changed, and it's not for the better. Hopefully the issues get straightened out before cronyism and the Peter Principle destroys the company.
Landmark facts
This company ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT have full service accounts. The accounts will each only have a couple of work types to type -- NOT full service. This includes acute care accounts.
This is why on the majority of accounts, the workload runs hit and miss. It varies by the time of day, day of the week.
Landmark lost a few accounts in the last 6 months and then gained a couple back. This is a repeat process for this company.
There are some accounts that show up on a very occasional basis, when the primary service needs Landmark's help.
Get Your Facts Straight
An email was sent out today- the layoffs are over now. 27 MTs, no corporate. Would like to know if that's really what you heard.
Let's face facts about SS...
While it is not fair to judge anything or anyone on the basis of unmonitored, anonymous blogs, created by a competing company in the industry who seeks only to destroy the competition, I can tell you FIRST HAND how a company like SS does not help itself in any way. As a former executive with the company, I can assure you that the rumors and speculation that goes on this blog is merely touching the tip of the iceberg of information,scandal and hipocrisy. Like a snake, the company is poisonous from the head on back to it's slithering, rattling tail. Regarding the MT's- most are fairly normal, hard-working folk whom do the work that is expected and get paid on time. A small percentage of the 200+ medical transcriptionists actually substantially exceed standards, and for that they are handsomely rewarded. The issues have always come from a tyrannical VP who plays serious favorites with certain MT's and supervisors, and several piss-poor field supervisors who seem to thrive on power and authority. Add to that a paranoid executive team that is convinced every employee is tealing from them, especially MT's who are not typing eight hours straight! I know some MT's who can do 1800 lines in 5-6 hours, but if you don't work eight hours a day, you're a thief! This mentality trickles down and out to the field, where these extremely under-trained supervisors take it out on their subordinates, supported wholly by their managers. I predict the company will be folded or sold/bought out in two-four years.
Please send her FACTS
not conjecture.
I and several friends work for CBAY. I'm not in India, I'm not Indian and neither are my friends.
FACTS. If you're going to lie, the whole point of adding validity is lost
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE
YOU POST. You're always trying to cause trouble. I said it before and I'll say it again: IF YOU DON'T LIKE WORKING THERE, LEAVE. Stop your bellyaching. I'm sick of you complaining about low/no work; yet you insist on getting on this board every day and complain about it.
We, who do still like TT, are staying and hanging in there. This is really this first time low/no work has happened since I've been there, over 3 years.
Go away!
No, YOU need to get YOUR facts straight -- sm
They DON'T type while watching accounts (LOL)? Of course, watching the accounts needs their total, undivided attention, right?
We're going to believe that these overworked Leads will put in a full shift watching accounts (lest they be distracted, God forbid) and then put in another shift transcribing their lines? THEY MUST GET SOME BIG OVERTIME bucks being able to duplicate their efforts/hours like that.
And how would YOU know they don't take jobs away from the regular MT's? I suppose the jobs just pop out & disappear from our queues like a magician's trick ... now you see it, now you don't ... only to reappear 10-15 minutes later. (Her Holiness didn't like the dictator after running the job through audio, or maybe it was too difficult for her).
With no hard facts at all,
because today's conference call provided none and was a replay of yesterday's... ''rah, rah, rah, excitement, opportunities, innovation, exciting technology, good question, I don't know, rah rah'' exciting, rah....only some commonsense reasoning - how could Transcend possibly NOT have to reduce statutory cpl to compensate for all the employee ''benefits'' they say they're offering? Medical, PTO, 401k matching, etc? There truly would be no down side for the MTs (other than maybe some scheduling requirements) if we could keep our statutory cpl rates and get all those bennies as well.
Not for a minute do I believe this can happen, or that nobody at MDI has any of these answers. Aren't we currently screaming at our congressmen to READ THE BILL? Do we actually think this agreement was also 1100 unreadable pages? I mean, come ON! This is not rocket surgery to figure out, is it?
Get your facts straight
All MTSOs send out interested letters. This is nothing new. And if they were lying, why would they waste the money on all the paper and postage or even labor if its through email.
They do this so that they can have all the facts they need PRIOR to needing the MTs on new accounts. This helps hasten the process of bringing MTs on board when the accounts start up. This way, they know what ESL levels, accents, production, work types, etc. are for all the MTs. So when an account comes on board, they can go through the apps and tests and identify MTs that fit the bill. Then all they do is call you to see if you are currently working and if you're happy.
Why is everything a conspiracy to you people?
Here's the facts that you're not sharing...sm
1. There were many MLS involved in the testing phase for productivity on the SR accounts, and each MLS demonstrated a significant improved productivity. I know because I was part of this testing group and on the conference calls with my coworkers who were also testing it. Sure we all initially doubted this could be done but when we started using the program we saw that we could do it.
2. The CEO admitted in a letter to everyone that he realizes that the high producers will more than likely not double their productivity and those people, as well as anyone who doesn't like editing, will not be forced to move to the editing format as there will always be some dictation that can't be edited, i.e. new accounts, new dictators, etc.
3. You're forgetting that when you're editing a report that you move faster through it because you're given a draft to edit. This means less wear and tear on the hands/arms and you actually have the program do a hunk of work for you. I've seen many drafts come through that needed very minimal editing - so basically I got paid to just read the report, make a few adjustments and send it on through. This is especially great for the bad dictators that the system does a great job interpretering their mess and not making me have to fight so much to get through their mumble jumble crud.
4. You may decide to leave and try to avoid this technology, but it's moving through the industry whether or not you like it and it'll find you eventually where-ever you go. I remember back when computers came out and everyone thought the sky was falling.... and we're all still working!
I encourage you to not fight it until you try it - you may find that you love this technology after all! 
Here is the facts versus myths about the SR pay....
I see that some people have posted flat out untruths about the editing pay rates for speech recognition. Therefore I'm going to share with everyone exactly what the memo said as I copied/pasted it and edited out only the 1 word for the other program we work with:
For an existing MLS the company will take the existing blended line rate currently earned by an MLS including incentives and shift differentials and will pay an editing rate equal to 60% of that line rate. For instance an MLS with a base rate of 7.5 cents and a total blended rate with production incentives of 8 cents will earn an editing rate of 4.8 cents with no incentives (poster's note - see that this does NOT state that the flat rate if pay is 4.8 cpl, it's just an example). This first of all allows the MLS who is a current high producer to keep the incentive rates already being earned and will also allow an Editor to make more money editing than typing once their production increases over 67%. Our ***** editors have improved an average of 80% for comparison. We will give the MLS 30 days of full line rate pay on both typed lines and edited lines to allow a time frame for them to gain skill and experience.
Now also recall that the CEO has assured everyone that you will NOT be required to edit - if you don't like editing then you can remain on straight transcribed reports. This does not necessarily mean you'll get the "junk" reports as in the SR world there are various reasons a report isn't SR'd (i.e. new dictators that the system hasn't built a profile on).
Now let's do some math. Let's say that I'm the MLS they mentioned in the example with a blended line rate of 8 cpl and getting 4.8 cpl for editing. Let's say I normally transcribe the minimal 11,000 lines per pay period. This would result in a base paycheck of $880.
Now as this same Transcriptionist if I were to do 100% editing and never ever straight transcribed a document I would need to edit a total of 18,350 lines to get the same paycheck....and I'm doing these lines in the exact same # of hours. HOWEVER, let's say that I do realize the same productivity gain of the average 80% that the people on the other program they use have achieved. This means that I would edit a total of 22,020 and my pay check would be $1056.96 - which means that I have made an extra $176.96 and I'm still working the same amount of hours. If my productivity gain is higher than that, then I'd be making even more.
Now who wants to argue with making more money for working the same # of hours?
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE YOU POST
nm
Just stating the facts, maam.
Wow! What remarkable perceptive powers you must possess to be able to glean personal information from a 2-line post! If you ever get tired of QA, do consider the Psychic Friends' Network. Seriously though, what you refer to as ''answers'' and ''corrections'' are more often personal preferences (varying from QA to QA) and petty nit-picking about poorly communicated, ever-changing rules. You might want to examine, though, why you are emotional and upset enough to post rambling diatribes over MTs comparing their work experiences and pet peeves on an MT forum. Thanks for the heartfelt holiday wishes though (so good to know that you love me!) and for your approval to ''say what you have to if you must''. LOL!
Not trying to start anything just stating facts
But Amphion has just informed me that they are letting me go because I am not making their line count and its the end of probation. I don't know if it is all the extra stuff I had to do in the document information screen before being able to type or I'm just stupid, but I have always made like counts before and have never ever been let go from an MT job before or any job for that matter. I am not going to badmouth them but it is a very bad feeling when I know I did my best. I'm not a newbie either, I have 9 years under my belt.
Not trying to start anything just stating facts
Don't feel bad, I just started there and I know I am not going to be able to meet their line counts with all the looking up things and a different doctor every report. I also have never had trouble meeting line counts before, but this is a joke. Just move on and chalk it up to experience.
Here's the simple facts of Amphion:
I used to work there too. Could not meet my line requirement either. I moved on and am now with a company with a HIGHER LINE COUNT REQUIREMENT and just as difficult QA but I consistently EXCEED their line requirement because their PLATFORM IS MORE FAIR TO MTs. I am not yelling at you, but this subject is being defended by current Amphion employees who are loyal to their company but are not listening to the facts. There are better companies out there who have platforms that are FAIR FOR MTs. Keep looking, and I wish you luck!
Can you support your RUN statement with facts please. sm
I have had no problems, everyone seems great, I type when I want, as much or as little as I want. So far no problems in the few months I have been there, what specifically should I and others look out for????
How is it rude to state facts?
I'm getting the impression that many of you would rather take half-truths and throw them out there as honest-to-god fact. Where do you think that will get MT as a whole?
Instead of an article truly representing the situation, you get a bunch of MTs whining without knowing the truth of what they are talking about.
The FACT is we are outsourced. India is offshored.
people can state facts sm
without being nasty about it. It not only seems like this profession has gone down in the toilet because of outsourcing/offshoring or whatever you want to call it, but it seems to me that MTs are getting very nasty with each other and that is something we cannot afford to do. We talk about sticking togeter, blah, blah and then I see posts where people are just being nasty for nasty sake. Ridiculous!
Before you post something like this, you should make sure you know the facts. sm
The account was not lost. KS dropped the account due to several factors. The email that went to all the cardio MT's on the account was not correct. Only one portion of the account is not to be typed on, not all of it.
Once again, someone posts company information INCORRECTLY.
KS is going through all accounts and deciding to keep them or not, as some are not worth having. This has been going on for 3 months, and they have dropped 4 accounts that I personally know of as I was asked input on 2 of them.
When stating something, please have your facts straight
I am the person you are talking about. I am not QAd once a year. Where you got that from, dreaming I guess. We are checked every 3 months with pulled reports. In between those 3 months we also are checked and hear back from QA and also if the hospital I do work for has any issues, also hear from them. My QA has never been 97 and last time was a 99%. I am glad my initials are on the report because I stand behind all work that I do. Oh, I might be fast but was told by the higher ups at my company we have even faster. Sorry you cannot make it on VR, quit hating.
You are crazy and need to get your facts straight.
Idiot.
In the absence of hard facts from
one's company, can anyone blame you for trying to glean whatever information you can from others in your situation? My understanding was that only the MTs on accounts directly involved in the switch to VR were notified, and only at the last minute, leaving everyone else wondering what the he!! was going on. If a company has the attitude, ''Sure, I could tell you; then I'd have to kill ya'' what result do they expect? Freedom of speech. It's not just for politics.
Please get YOUR facts straight before posting.
Transtech is not owned by a parent company that does our payroll. Transtech employees do our payroll and send it on to the company which which we are employees of. We are employees that are leased to Transtech. The reason Transtech did this was so that we could get much better benefit rates; and YES we did change payroll companies when this happened, however, I never had any problems with the changeover.
I also agree that bashing your employer does not get you anywere. I have no problem with voicing legitimate concerns and complaints about certain situations, or giving opinions about a company. But if you feel you need to constantly bash your employer, your time and effort would be better spent trying to find an employer with a better fit for you.
I personally have never had any problems with TT. I think they have consistently listened to employee concerns and have made a concerted effort to solve any issues that have come up. I remember when the insurance changed and everybody was in an uproar about our insurance rates going through the roof. That is when the payroll and lease company changed so that TT could give us better rates. I am just an MT who goes about her daily business of doing my job and rarely post on these boards, but I do read them.
As far as work flow goes, this is a never-ending process. All MTSOs have slow periods and if you have been in this business long enough you learn to live with it and be prepared to either set funds aside, have a back up job, or be prepared to get one. This is the nature of the beast of medical transcription.
Of course this is all just IMHO, as I certainly don't want to be sued, which I think was an error on TTs part
Messed up how? Facts to back this?
http://www.ahdionline.org/Portals/0/downloads/OffshoreFAQ.pdf
Your comment is totally ignorant of the facts
Just because you have had an increase doesn't mean everyone will, and calling those that didn't have your experience stupid just shows your ignorance on the matter. It doesn't matter what percentage they give you for editing in the long run because if there is no production you're still taking a loss. What part of that don't you understand? If a person is experiencing the platform freezing up, timing out, crackling and buzzing, all while working with no expander, poor expander, no autotexts, or minimal hotkeys, it doesn't matter one iota if tTranscend paid 100% for editing, they're still losing money in their paycheck. If the work load is low even 100% of nothing is still nothing. Your outlook is not only ignorant of others' problems, it's self-centered and narrow-minded. You deserve to sit all by your happy little self with more work and wallow in the garbage they're dishing out because their reputation is not so well respected anymore. You'll fit in perfectly.
Yes, but just don't give me a cryptic message, I need facts.
:o
Make sure you can prove your facts before posting, please.
This does nothing but create confusion. I talked to someone in management there today (I'm not with Webmedx) and if anyone knows what they're doing, this person does. They are NOT shipping their work out! Now they have clients who choose to share their work with India, but that's not something Webmedx can control, nor does it reflect on their business.
Chicken Little, make sure the sky is actually falling before you speak next time.
I see a lot of well-documented facts, not trash talk
.
Well you're the one implying that these facts are nothing but speculation!
and that was the original problem you apparently had with the OSi postings on here. I'll take your changing the subject as an acknowledgement of the validity of these emails that every employee received, read and was disgusted by.
That post was not a whine. It was just stating facts. sm
I love my job. I love the challenge and the sense of accomplishment. I feel proud of what Keystrokes has become because I have contributed to this success and growth.
Not all of our MTs are problematic, but life sometimes gets in the way of working, and as a KS manager, I help out where I can. This is my job, and I love it, but I realize that it is not for everyone. I am blessed to do something I love for a company I love to work for.
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