you didn't factor in what you would have spent
Posted By: mtroadie on 2008-03-09
In Reply to: my logic/sm - radmt
working in an office - clothes, shoes, gas, vehicle wear-and-tear, driving in bad weather, lunches, travel time (what's your time worth to you), make-up (I only wear make-up when I'm going out), laundry (I wear my sweats twice before washing), office donations/kids selling stuff, manicures/pedicures, pantyhose (I count that separate from clothes cuz it's a PITA to wear).
Then there's all the stuff you miss out on cuz you're working - kids' school programs, ball games, dance recitals, on and on.
I'd love to make more than 9 cpl, but the truth is a lot of us don't even make that. You have to weigh the good with the bad. I'd rather make a little less than have all the stuff above to deal with. I never got in this biz to become a millionaire. I got it in to be home and I wouldn't give that up for a few extra bucks!!!!
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the key factor would
be do they consistently have an abundance of work?
Luck is a factor
but are MT companies all so bad? If you have been at 10 companies in 10 years, and all were bad, that is very bad luck and I feel for you. I've been with only 1 company for the 2-1/2 years I've been doing MT and have had no problems with them. Good account, good supervisors, good pay, occasionally run low on work, but rarely. I get very nervous reading that so many companies out there are horrible. Actually a lot of people think my company is horrible from the posts I read here, but it hasn't been for me. I'm going to be nervous if I have to look for a new job.
There must be a personal talent factor to it. SM
So many say they lose money, I'm another who definitely makes more editing, i.e., significantly more than double the line count, but then I'm not a fast typist, so shifting a lot of the emphasis from fingers to reading and editing decisions works for me. Now, if only I had fast fingers, too...
definitely a deciding factor there. I am already stressed
with my current situation and huge cut and turned down a few other offers b/c high ESL would be MORE stressful, so good to know. thanks so much for the heads up...are you a TT?
It's that 'ol GREED factor, again! - no/msg.
x
Some things to consider that factor into line rates. sm
There are two sides to this. The larger companies like MQ, Spheris, Transcend, Keystrokes, et AL have a lot more accounts and more volume so they make their money on volume and can pay more. They also have more overhead than smaller MTSOs and need payroll people, recruiters, benefits people, etc.
But here is what no one considers: If I pay someone 0.09 per line, I have to pay taxes and unemployment on them. My portion is 15% between SS and unemployment. Benefits such as PTO and the portion I pay for insurance and 401K (there is a fee to the employer to have someone run it at the company that you have your 401K with), etc cost me approximately 22% more. So actually, 9cpl + 37% = 12.3cpl. Add the cost of doing payroll, bank fees, liability insurance, etc. and there is not a whole lot left over. Most hospitals will not pay more than 13cpl, some 14cpl. My break-even is 13.2 cpl. This is normal; I talk to many MTSOs at MTIA meetings and on my own. The big ones above are the only ones that make a lot of money, but their companies produce a lot of lines every month.
Do I make good money? Yes, but I put in a lot of time getting accounts and keeping them happy, doing the juggling act to keep my employees busy on good accounts. Payroll takes time, recruiting takes time, sales take time PLUS a lot of accounts take a lot of day-to-day work.
I am not complaining about being an MTSO, I just want you to know that there are two sides to everything and the industry changes prevent us from paying more than 7 to 9 cpl. Factor in offshore driving our costs down and those companies that undercut everyone, and small MTSOs may go the way of 8-Track Tapes.
I see the industry going to just 10 companies or so and hopefully they can stay in business too with speech recognition, offshore and everything else that comes along.
Sure, factor it in, but no one knows what the future holds and MTSO has no control over those
:+
Agree. It' hard to use that as a rule-out factor nowadays.
Where you live doesn't factor in when you work with nationals.
When you work on-line, companies will pay the same regardless of whether you live in NYC or in some small town. I live in a small town and I am nearing $40,000 as an IC for 2 national companies. My pay is not based on where I live or my cost of living, rather on my production. I am paid 8 cpl, but because I use an Expander and can transcribe 250 lph, I make a decent wage.
This is only my third year as an MT and I have been with one of my companies for a year and a half and the other one for 8 months, so it doesn't take years and years. I did have to change jobs a few times though until I found the right companies and the right accounts that I could make money on. Some of the accounts I worked in the beginning had so many ESLs and the platforms were so slow that I knew I could never make any money there.
You've spent a whole day on this SM
because you were posting this morning when I visited. Am I to assume you've already secured employment somewhere or did you just decide to spend today and probably the rest of the weekend doing nothing about a job?
And YOUR time is well spent here, right? nm
Same here, another day spent jumping from one..sm
account to another trying to get my lines. My primary does not have enough crumbs to keep a mouse alive! I keep on keeping on but am actively looking for another job now.
What you need personally to cover your bills should be the deciding factor. And what you MIGHT earn
m
Time spent in demographics
Are there any company platforms out there where the demographics are already in place? I could just scream sometimes trying to be a detective to get all the demographics in place only to have a one-liner follow. Sigh... is it just me or are there others with the same frustration. It's difficult to make rate when demographics have to be researched and the patient name sounds like Blavopvoskitapove. Thanks for any clues on this.
At least you have work. I spent the money
I agree that the QA person there was very rude in the short time I stayed (believe me it wasn't long).
I just spent a lot of time checking the web and the
personally attempt it. Maybe you will get some good feedback from people who actually work there, but there was enough information here for me to realize it may not be the place for me personally... I will see if you get any responses, because I am wondering if there are good things there too... Good luck to you!
get a life MT; you're spent
 you looked here too didn't ya?
Soulmates....I think if people spent more energy
on positive things, they'd have quite a lot more to offer this new company. If we all sit around feeling sorry for oh my where has this profession gone or we're doomed, then that is what the outcome will be. Show the new owner that you care and just do a good job. People do lose their jobs in this profession. It is NOT ALWAYS to another country. There are U.S. MTs that will underbid you in a heartbeat and get the job done just as well. Everyone wants to blame offshoring, but I do not believe that to be the case in every instance that someone loses an account. You'll read posts, I lost my account, but never the details of well I was two months behind and really didn't care about when and how I got the work done. Doesn't everyone look for someone to blame? I call these kinds of people blamers. JMO.
"Hard economic times"=we spent $ on M-Tec, sorry
If you spent more time typing and less snooping, sm
maybe you'd make more money.
I spent years in the hospital setting
had no clue about working from home, did not know there were companies even doing transcription from home. What also gets me is the fact that people will state they do not have work, sitting by waiting for it to come in, working all kind of weird hours to make a line count. It is no wonder and the MTers are to blame if the companies take advantage of them because they let them. How one can wait on work day after day is a mystery to me.
I just spent about the last 5 years doing work I hate because the money -sm
was so good. Which is more important to you? Sounds to me like you'd rather take the one with the type of work you enjoy more. It didn't hurt me to do that work all that time. The money was so good, it made it seem more enjoyable. Isn't it so nice though that you have a choice!
IMO look elsewhere...I spent a lot of time waiting for work rather than working! nm
x
I found an article stating they have already spent over 6 months
already in place to take over immediately. I found it on their website if I'm not mistaken.
I left them not long ago. Way too much time spent talking to
tech support because of technical problems or glitches with their system. I probably averaged 90 minutes a day down-time trying to get everything in order. Their transcription platform is not the best in the world from what I saw.
ERROR: 1.60 PER MINUTE OF TRANSCRIPTION, HOWEVER, HAVE THE TIME SPENT WAS PASTING
NM
That is why I left. I spent days sitting in front of the computer, checking for
work every 5 minutes (or less) for 8+ hours trying to get work. On my days off I used to work 12+ hour days to make up lines, but then they hired people for Friday-Monday work and then there wasn't extra work to make up lines. I would get up at 3 or 4 a.m. and try to get work. I gave it a good try, frequently asked STM for more work, went over her head. They didn't seem to care, meanwhile I'm taking $300 to $400/month out of savings to cover my bills.
I wasn't productive on MeriT. Too much time spent entering demographic information...
There is no roster to pull patient names from, so you have to type what the docs say, and those ER docs speak at lightening speed. I spent more time trying to get the patient name right than I did typing the report. I really, really hated that.
The insurance cost is double for Transcend but insurance probably doesn't factor in for her.
I have heard more good things about Axolotl than Transcend, although it seems Axolotl may be less flexible with your schedule and someone told me that QA was pretty strict, which should not matter either if you have worked for a hospital and know what your QA score is.
Not unethical, when you factor in the unethical companies
She's just another MT trying to make a living like the rest of us. The old way of taking it 1 job at a time while you dump 4 fly-by-nights in order to find one that is honest and actually PAYS its MTs, can lead to lots of between-job time with no pay at all. MT has become a cutthroat business, and in order to stay in it, one has to sometimes turn the tables on these unscrupulous MTSOs. If EVERYONE did, you better believe they'd clean up their act pronto.
I didn't say I didn't care, I just don't understand
why the sudden outrage over HL offshoring.
She didn't say they didn't offshore at all s/m
What she did say is that if the work needs to be done here, it stays here (paraphrased a bit, I think).
That is not lying and saying that they don't offshore work, as was stated by another poster above, but saying that if the client wants the work to stay in the US, they will keep it here. Sheesh.
She didn't say she didn't have a family. A family isn't just kids. sm
She also said she didn't have kids. Why do you think you're so much better BECAUSE you have kids? I am so sick of that attitude. I don't have kids, never wanted them, but have been discriminated against in jobs because of it. Everyone figured since I had no kids I could work all the time. I said NO! Just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't have a life or that my life is not important. 
BTW I work part time too.
Thanks! Not sure why I didn't think of that
but that is what I will do from now on!
Thank you - I didn't know. :) nm
x
Are you sure she didn't say she has been
a recruiter for years (not necessarily with Keystrokes)? Because I was hired at another company a number of years ago and she was the recruiter, maybe there was a misunderstanding?
I did all that and it still didn't come up....oh well
I think there is just trouble with imail. This happened to me the day before yesterday too. To get to the MQ board click on forums (left blue menu) then click on company forum, (you obviously did that) but then look to the blue menu on the left and now Medquist appears under company board and before offshore board. See ya there.
What $125? I didn't see anything like that.
And there's a charge if we return the computer before three months? I heard they were the absolute best company out there. I simply can't make a decent line count. I sent out three resumes on fulltime local nonMT jobs yesterday because I haven't been able to earn a decent steady income doing MT for a year now. I'm not going bankrupt over this. I don't see why it has to be this difficult. I'd be totally loyal, stay with a company, and move into a more responsible position if I could find the right company.
I didn't know that.
So those who are moseying along, getting in their 11,000 whenever, are making as much as the ones who work really hard to get their line counts into the incentive range?
I wonder if there are any other companies out there that reward mediocrity? If so, maybe it's time to lower my own personal standards to fit in with the new trend.
you didn't
Boy that was quick! Like I said, it was my oversight and I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. You didn't deserve it.
I didn't get it either.
x
I didn't think that was possible
NONE - no cable, no DSL? How can that be in this day and age. I only have 2 choices here - Comcast or Verizon DSL. Verizon is out for me and it is a drag when Comcast has outages all the time.
I do work on an a/c where I've worked using dial-up with Comcast down - uses Quadris with VPN server. Worked just fine on dial-up. No problem getting into VPN at all, and able to type & save reports quite well.
Another a/c - uses IDX with no VPN - didn't work w/o high speed.
Definitely can't use dialup tho for any voice files. Only for a/c's with phone dictation.
As to foot pedals - try eBay. Plenty of other sites where people are selling equipment.
If you didn't know before - know it now
They didn't used to, but they are going to now
they are starting up a pilot program offshoring a certain number of jobs per day to test the waters in what is pivotal to the industry. Yada yada yada. So they didn't before, but they will be soon. It'll come back to bite them in the you-know-what. A bigger threat to borderline MTs is VR.
When I was there they didn't pay for that
downtime, either. 
AND I didn't say she should be, I said
that everywhere ELSE I go they are falling all over themselves. If you had the experience I have, you'd know what I mean. And since I never talked to her other than to say You emailed me and told me to call you... and she said she'd call me RIGHT BACK, and those were the only words I ever spoke to her, I don't see where any attitude would come in.
I do know that any company/any hospital would be GLAD to have me work for them. I have received nothing but praise for my work. I have worked long and hard to gain the experience I have and it has paid off. I have had my own hospital accounts for years. I've never had to beg for a job; they are offered to me quite readily. Sorry if that bothers you.
Please tell me that you didn't (sm)
use this as an excuse not to pay them. This would certainly be reason enough to get rid of them, but I don't understand why you would not set their pay straight.
Didn't like it
I tried to like Amphion as well, but it just wasn't the company for me. I also hated the DI screen fill in and I found the clinic notes to be dull and not very mentally stimulating. I left within a month and I'm happy where I am now. The people are very nice but I also found the supervisors to be not very helpful.
No, she sure didn't. Sorry! nm
nm
Thank you..I didn't even get to the SM
part about how PROUD they are to low-ball on rates the way they do. Why such pride for driving down rates in the areas they do business? There are MTSOs out there who quote a FAIR RATE based upon their overhead (including the rates to pay good MTs) and Shapin seems to be quite proud of the fact that they quote such low rates to their clients to get accounts.
I didn't like it sm
When I worked there, it wasn't organized, ran out of work and the operations manager was pretty nasty at times.
Things may have gotten better since then, but I doubt it.
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