Your "Two Cents" is probably what you're worth per line.
Posted By: XmasMT on 2008-12-23
In Reply to: I am amazed by how many ungrateful MTs there are - my 2 cents
nm
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3 cents worth
I just started doing QA for 3 cents a line. It's my first shot at doing QA and just want QA experience, but I often feel I'm wasting my time since I'm doing this part time. My first check will be sad.
2 cents worth
Thanks, I really think it depends on you and what you are comfortable doing. I have worked some really bad jobs before, but as long as I did my job nothing everything went smoothly.
I just have to put my 2 cents worth in and
say that it has become ridiculous what companies are offering for those of us capable of editing, which requires years of being an MT and being well-versed in all specialties, etc. With all this experience, we're supposed to work for virtually nothing? I think not. I would plead with everyone on these boards not to accept low pay for editing...or for transcribing either. It has become sadder than sad.
My 2 cents worth
Every transcription company has something bad going on... In an effort to keep my stinky job, I won't tell you the name of the company, but here's what goes on....
They are cheating us out of line counts every day in may ways.. skimming money off the top. Am working harder and more used to the account I'm on. In the beginning, I had less reports transcribed and more lines than I make now... get it... more lines, more reports, less lines. How can that possibly happen? Checks are short... they make it impossible for you to hit your quota so they don't have to give you benefits. When I ask about this, they beat around the bush so you just don't get it - you end up scratching your head and saying WHAT !!!???
They want us to work all day and all night every day and night and try to make you feel guilty if you don't.
Okay, I'm off my soap box. Later people.
Here's why it's not worth 2 cents...
You make the assumption that there is a consistent amount of work at your example of 9 cents/line. I have spent a very long time trying to find the right combination of work that would allow $18+ per hour. You are dismissing the *common* occurrence of overstaffing, losing accounts, low volumes, etc.
You really should read the legitimate problems and complaints that hard working MTs have before you lump us all in the 'spoiled' category. I am so spoiled I'd like to not have to choose between food and paying the utilities!
VR would have to pay 6.5 cents to be worth it... nm
what iswrong
My 2 cents worth
I never actually worked for MS Hicks. However, I did test with her. I have 14 years experience with psych transcription. I was also the supervisor of 4 other MTs at a psychiatric clinic/hospital for 12 of the 14 years. I tested with Ms. Hicks. She never gave me a format to follow; so, I followed an example of one I was used to using. She said my transcription was 100%; however, my formatting was wrong and said she could not follow someone who did not follow directions --  I told her that she never gave me a format to follow --- she basically said tough luck.
On another note, I even find her advertisement looking for an MT as condescending.
Personally, I would not work for her.
No work, my 2 cents worth
We are human resources. I hate the word. That makes us disposable commodities instead of real people. This business is like being thrown into a shark tank.
Right on Jasper, I'm with ya - my 1.4 cents worth
X
Aubri - my 2 cents worth
Forgive me if this comes through twice - I got sideswiped by the need to validate my email, etc... have not been on the boards in a long while! I agree with the above post, seems like there are some angry folks out there.... I've been with AuBri on and off for many years. I'm currently working part time for them (while managing my own transcription service company, since finding additional work for myself meant that I did not have to lay off my people!). I have found AuBri to be good peoples, who pay a fair line rate, and pay on time. The work is good, and steady so far (though that could change, 30 years at transcription tells me that!) and all in all, I'm very glad he had an opening for me when my own accounts started going to the Dragon, and suffering from the overall economic climate, etc.... I've been a service owner for 20 of the 30 years I've been in the business, and I'm enjoying switching back to more transcription and less management. I've been on both sides of this, and I'm glad I called them! Again, if this goes through twice - my apologies! Back to work for me!
I also work for 8 cents a line. I left a job typing OPs for 10-11 cents sm
to take a clinic job. I made an average of $17-18 an hour with OPs, now make $16-17 an hour, but the work is easier on me. I do not call that poor pay. I type 200+ lines an hour. True, it isn't the $26-27 an hour I was making 10 years ago at a hospital, but that's gone for good. I have excellent skills, make better than 99% on QA at any company I have worked for, and some of those have been very demanding.
I'm afraid the people that are expecting to make $20-30 an hour in MT are going to be disappointed. A few can still make that amount, but for the average good transcriptionist, the pay is much more likely to run $15-20. Benefits are pretty much gone. However, I feel that what I'm making is considerably above what I could make in another field, unless I decide to teach, which I will not do. Still, I make more than I would at Walmart or Burger King, or even a secretarial job. It's my choice. Good luck to you.
So you guys feel you're getting paid what you're worth with VR?
I'm not trying to be snarky. I've never done VR, so I'm trying to understand.
You're happy with your paycheck with VR? Do you find the files to be as bad as the original post implied?
The mentoring program does not pay 8-1/2 cents per line. Believe it is like 6 cents.
n/m
Do they still pay you 5 cents a line and 2 cents if you send anything to QA?
xx
I have a problem with 7 cents and 8 cents a line because
...when I started 15 years ago, my very first MT job started me out at 8 cents a gross line, then went to 9 cents a gross line after only a year. I was SOOO happy and proud of myself for choosing a profession that paid so well - I imagined myself making a lot of $$ once I had 10 or 15 years experience behind me...
Well that never happened; in fact, it all went backwards, pay wise. The company I worked for back then sold out to a national, and of course the pay was cut, and 9 cents a gross line was never to be had again, at least not that I could find. I am considered living in poverty now. I started out great but have ended up very badly.
I think my own personal problem is that it's hard for me to let go the fact that I made good money just starting out and how everything I had ever learned about jobs, careers and pay was that the more experience and education you have in a particular field, the more your pay goes up as each year passes. Well my pay has been consistently taking a nosedive for at least a decade now. I actually have to work MORE to make at least as much as I did years ago, and it's killing me health-wise as far as my wrists, my legs, my neck, my back....
It also kills me that I'm going to have to accept 7 or 8 cents a 65-character line when I made so much more than that 15 years ago.
I suppose to someone who's just starting out, 7 or 8 cents would seem pretty good, though. Maybe that's why I haven't been able to land any jobs with my resume. They may not want me with my years of experience, probably want a newbie who will be more grateful about such low pay. I dunno.
I could just kick myself for wasting money on MT school those years ago when I could've spent it on a career that would actually LAST and where I'd be making great money after being in the same field for 15 years. There's just no reward to this business. None at all, IMO.
I would NOT recommend this field to anyone just getting started. To me, it's a dead field.
I'd have more freedom working at McDonalds (for a number of reasons), and, believe me, I've been considering taking a local job around my home for minimum wage. At least I'd have a consistent paycheck and would know exactly what I'm getting every 2 weeks, then build from there as far as another job or two.
Well anyway that's all. I really need a job. I'm going down, going under, and it's a shame because I do very good work and have all this experience but no one seems to want me, even the low-paying companies. Oh well.
Oh, they make money off us. Line rate is 17 cents a gross line.nm
z
that is sad, you're right, NO job is worth all that
/
You're not missing all that much. Not worth
being anxious over. I know they hire NJ MTs, so it must be a specific hospital account that won't let NJers in. They are often the middle man, or third party, or pain in the neck, between a hospital account and an MT. It sounded great on paper, but was not fun once working. Good luck.
at 12 years you're worth 13-14
Doubt it.... It all depends on what aspect of this business you are in. If you work for a company, you are worth what rate they are willing to pay with or without many years of experience. The experience helps in that you can get through reports quicker.
However, is then someone with 5 years of experience only worth 7 cpl? Who knows he answer to that question?
If you have an MTSO, you set your own rate dependent upon what is expected from you by the client. When you are an employee, you are paid what they consider the going rate which is usually very low. You then must produce as much as possible. I'm glad the MTSOs have QA because if I had to spend more than a few minutes on research, I'd leave a blank.
In the old days, the doctor reviewed the reports and filled in the blanks. What happened to that?
We "think" we're worth more? We are!
In any other profession knowledge, skills and experience are worth more - not less! Regardless of what MTSOs want to think, this is NOT assembly line work that any trained monkey or person off the street can do! I defy the geniuses in management to actually type one horrendous ESL mess after another for an 8 hours shift like we do...and then let them say what the job should pay!
Don't bother - they're not worth the time
(oops) - "Two Thumbs UP"!
..
10 cents per line
so does AccuSTAT, Wisconsin for ER work!!!
This would be cents per line.
If it were more like 65-70 cpl, it would be characters per line.
CPL = cents per line
Then of course you need to know how they define a line. "Standard" is 65 characters is a line, but that might be with spaces or without spaces being counted. Also, not all companies a define a line this way, and it could be gross line (anything on a line, even one character is considered a line), or it could be a character line (with or without spaces).
But...CPL means cents per line.
MA 3 cents per line
Yes, yes. I worked for them for one whole day. The only reason I applied was because I was born in Mass (but now live in AZ) and it was an editing job, which I wanted to try doing, since I trained MTs for so long and edited their reports, etc. Anyway, the supervisor, Bobbi, was an absolute tyrant nightmare. Training was done over the phone, and she was so nasty and bitter, she made you feel like you had never done a thing in the medical field ever before. For example, I was not following what she was talking about as far as her formatting statements, and she was going on like, what are you talking about???!!! I had to take a Valium and Rolaids, and then she told me to go ahead and transcribe some reports.......I have been doing transcription over 20-years, and wanted to just edit. Well, she said she was going out for the evening, but there should be no problem with the system and sending the reports on after I transcribed them. Well, there sure was. I contacted the lady that was her assistant, and SHE ragged on me for contacting her. I said, 'sorry, I can't send the reports. Something is wrong with the system, so I am just going to email them to you, so you know they have been done at least. The next morning I woke up and emailed Bobbi that I am not right for this job. Nobody is. That has been years ago, and amazingly she cannot hold on to anybody for that Editor job. It was so bad, I cannot remember the name of the company - Maybe something like Infomatics, or something. She was an absolute horror. Don't work for her. You will not be happy........
Deb
QA at 2 cents per line...
Is this fair pay? Tomorrow I have an interview with a company that pays 2 cents a line for proofreading. This seems a bit low, but I dont have anything to compare it to. This might be a good opportunity to learning something new and get some experience in QA - since it seems like QA might be the way to stay in this industry a bit longer with all of the offshoring and VR now.
6 cents a line!?!?!
I have almost seven years experience and some people have the nerve of offering 6 cpl IC status. I think that is crazy. Even if it is the same doctors and no ESLs. I have worked for a couple of places where I make 8 cpl and have the same doctors and no ESLs. I could understand if I were a newby or I tested for them and did bad. They never even tested me. They just send me an email stating what they offer.
at least 4 cents a line
I got my first editing job for 4 cents per line. 2 cents is slave labor.
3 cents per line
Are you sure they didn't mean 3 cents per line added to 7.5 cents per line?
Their ad says 6 to 9 cents per line; not 6 to 8 (nm)
xx
I get 3-1/2 cents per line..nm
d
8 cents a line...
I regularly see people posting that 0.08/line is very low pay. I have only been paid by the line for the past 2 years...before that I was paid hourly and worked for a hospital. When I decided to work at home and saw that I could expect to get paid 7.5 to 8 per line...I thought that was decent. I regularly type between 200 and 300 lines per hour...so even at my minimum that is $16/hour....I can't make that at Burger King.
6.5 cents a line?!?!?!
No wonder Spheris doesn't give a rip about keeping their top-notch employees.
And why should they care that MTs with decades of experience are walking away in droves, when they can just get some newbie to work for peanuts?
No offense to you personally, but the MTs who are willing to work for next to nothing are driving the entire MT profession down the drain.
I started 23 years ago at 8.5 cents a line.
If we keep devaluing ourselves, how do we expect MTSOs to place any value in us either?
'Nuff said.
6.5 cents per line
sdf
only 6 cents per line
You probably should try to get your own accounts, by calling doctors and/or putting an ad on MTStars like I did with my resume and my specialties, because doctors' staff do look at it. I should know, I am doing a major account because of it. I wish you the best.
I believe it was 7.5 cents a line, even
with 17 years' experience. Plus their software and system did not sound efficient.
Umm, take the 4.5 cents/line!
Even at a moderate pace and 100% reading of each report, that is more than $11.00 an hour.
5 - 7 cents/line..........
I bet it is for voice recognition
I would do QA for 2 cents/line
If all I had to do was fill in blanks, with ZERO proofreading and feedback. 
At 6 to 8 cents/line?
Are they kidding?
Pay is low - 0.05 cents per line
I'm not sure what platform they use.
It's 8 cents a line, it's in the ad. nm
Here is my 3 cents (per line)
I SO agree with what you said. Loved the platform (EditScript V8) and the account was really not that difficult & good sound quality. However, they had too many people trying to train the VR and sometimes it was a mess. The 3 cpl for the VR is RIDICULOUS, especially when on some reports it would be quicker just to manually type the entire report rather than edit. I was told I could not use a word expansion program, so I HATED that part. We also could not copy/paste repetitive phrases of dictators from another report due to alleged HIPAA violations. I truly don't see how a generic phrase or even paragraph for a procedure, as long as patient names are not mentioned, is a violation of HIPAA. I think it has more to do with training the VR program.
My pay was relatively on time and accurate, but it just was not worth my while at 3 cents per line. I also hated the panicking e-mails and the nastygram e-mails I received CONSTANTLY. The nastygrams were just a blanket e-mail to everyone saying if they didn't do this or that they would be TERMINATED and constantly crying wolf about backlogs when at times there was no backlog! I don't consider 4 jobs to be a backlog. I now work for a small service where I am getting top dollar (12 cpl weekends) for relatively easy work & am happy that I quit. Maybe someone else will do fine at TTD and will like to work that way. Maybe they will make a lot of money at 3 cpl, but it sure wasn't me.
3 cents a line for VR
In order to make $20.00 an hour, which is what I make most days, I would need to edit 666 lines an hour. Is that even possible?
Hmm.... 666.....hmmm
3 cents a line for VR
In order to make $20.00 an hour, which is what I make most days, I would need to edit 666 lines an hour. Is that even possible?
Hmm.... 666.....hmmm
Nada...... Can't complain though, great line rate is worth no extra gifts at X-mas. nm
x
Huh? When did 9.5 cents base per line become...
nm
I think you said you are making 10.5 cents/line, but you still have - sm
taxes taken out of your pay, approximately 30%, right? I realize you have other benefits, like paid vacation and health benefits, but you are still having taxes taken out.
I was offered 10 cents/line. I think they pay very well! nm
x
Pay is six cents gross line.
x
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