Eventually, VR will be the industry standard.
Posted By: sm on 2009-02-25
In Reply to: Not all companies use VR. Many realize - SM
The way I see it, the options are:
A. Learn it now; find a platform and a company where you can make decent money.
B. Keep job hopping for the next few years as straight transcription is phased out bit by bit, company by company.
C. Find another profession.
Eventually, the straight transcription will only be available when creating speech models for new dictators.
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What is the industry standard...sm
Tried to post this on Wednesday, will try again...I need to know what is the industry standard conversion for minutes dictated to minutes typed? Not how much do you do - but what is average for one hour dictation - how many hours typed. Bosses think we're taking too long but we do not get automatic demographics and need to look on log sheets (if they arrive and if they're correct) for everything from patient name to referring doctors, addresses, patient #'s, etc. So I need to give him an "average" number of hours dictated equal "X" amount of hours typed taking into consideration the lack of information, the searching we must do and the various typing speeds. I'm not going to "judge" anyone's advice - just need some input from those that have been there. Thanks for sharing.
Industry Standard for VR Pay?
What is the industry standard for VR pay? Specifically for someone just starting out.
yea but it is industry standard!
and also as i put in my email to my doc... the templates and macros BENEFIT YOU!
Industry standard also means no pay sm
for headers or footers and no pay for spaces. Make sure you know exactly what they are no longer paying for. It probably will be those 2 items, which is why you are having trouble reaching incentive.
Industry standard used to be 65 char and font didn't matter...
but that's all up in the air now - sometimes lines are gross lines, sometimes it's character count divided by 65. If you are on a line count that just takes characters and divided by 65, then font doesn't matter. It might SEEM it takes you longer to make your line count but not really relevant.
What goes around DOES eventually - sm
come around, and I think we MT's need to help it a bit more then we have been in the past. Regardless of who wins this year's election, and who our elected officials are next year, WE need to start lobbying and pushing for reform in a messed-up healthcare system that allows patient reports to be sent out of the United States. And we need to push for a change from the current policy of REWARDING hospitals, MTSO's, insurance companies, etc. for offshoring what should be strictly AMERICAN work.
They say "the pen is mightier than the sword", and who better to write letters and emails, newspaper editorials, blogs, letters to the editors of newspapers, etc. than MTs, who have a superior command of the written word, and who know firsthand what's really going on in the medical world, and how it hurts us, and ALL American patients.
You're right...I eventually was able to do it...
after reading a thread on Productivity Talk. 'She' wouldn't even really talk to me about it..."just send the $25." I felt she could have at least been a bit more helpful, but she really wasn't at all. The conversion instructions didn't work when I followed them. That as over 3 years ago. Maybe they are better now, but I just don't care for how SpeedType works. Period. I would resell it to someone, but I don't think they would thank me.
What I see makes me think US MT will eventually
sda
Eventually the India MTs will not need
I think eventually all companies will be doing
almost 100% VR and we will definitely be taken advantage of then, getting paid 3 cpl. I will not work for that and that's why I want out of transcription ASAP!
Why is this being allowed to happen, isn't it eventually
If American workers are forced out of their jobs so foreigners can work for cheap, making the owners of these companies richer, what happens to consumption? The avg American is too poor to consume much, driving other American businesses into the ground. Soon it will be a monopoly, there will be no middle class, just poverty and the filthy rich making money off foreigners.
Hey, it's called CAPITALISM....Something will eventually run WM out too.
THere was a uproar years ago when supermarkets came into being, then the department stores... Who the heck shops in Mom N' Pop stores anymore? And who can afford the inflated prices. Capitalism is the best system, no matter how much you don't like it.
I notice that too. QA will eventually catch up to them.
dd
Look at it this way, he will probably need it for more than 1 class eventually; or my daughter
needed Word which at the time I did not have, so our alternative was for her to stay after school and use their computers as I could not afford the program then.
don't laugh: it WILL be called that eventually s/m
and if not, it's not like everyone wouldn't know the difference. Scary!
Bleach works but disintegrates it eventually.
dd
Also, any action you eventually may take will have to happen in her state - not yours. nm
x
I started MT to gain skills to eventually work....sm
outside my home. I was working another small business from home too and had been home for 13 years total. My MT skills got me a job as a secretary for the Army. My first position didn't pay a lot, but it was still about $3.50 more an hour than I could find anywhere else locally. In August 2006, with promotions etc., I will have had total increases in salary of 45% in two years. My next move is to start taking some college courses (which my employer will pay for) and applying for positions with a more defined career field. Having a hard time figuring out which field, as I have a lot of options/opportunity.
Working from home served a huge purpose, but since DH is also self-employed, my current job adds a lot of security to our family in terms of health/life insurance, retirement, paid vacations, etc. I added up the cost of all my paid benefits vs. paying out of pocket as an independent contractor, and they were worth another 35 - 40% of my salary, which will increase once I start taking college classes.
If you are not looking in the medical field, gear your resume towards your other skills. MTs have a myriad of skills (research, computer, organizational, listening, following instructions, bookkeeping). If you are an independent contractor, you are more than an MT, you are a small business owner, which puts a host of additional skills on your plate. Get creative and look at some on-line resumes in different fields, you will probably be surprised how many skills you have.
When I decided to look for a job, I researched all the highest paying companies/opportunities within the distance I was willing to travel and only applied to those companies. It took about a year and a few interviews, but I eventually got exactly what I was looking for. I still get calls from some of the places I interviewed/applied offering jobs.
My goal is to eventually add commentary and humor/satire/etc...sm
I'm not talented in all those areas and hope to attract other MTs who are. There's no money in it at this point, unfortunately.
Jay
That's a Shame, Becka, I hope you can eventually collect your pay! (EOM)
.
it does get easier and eventually things make sense to you even when you can't understand -
I was doing a Irish doctor, I could understand the medical terms pretty well, it was the easier, more normal words, I had trouble with. Because of the lilting and very fast way he said it "three arteries and a vein" nearly drove me insane.
not only the MT industry
making changes with insurance. DH works for one of the large telephone companies. We now have to pay for a larger portion of our Rxs when previously they cost us nothing, plus office visit copays also increased. It's still better than not having insurance at all. But, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer!
What does this mean for the MT industry? sm
I saw this *** and wanted to share this with other MTs. What is your interpretation of this? Are we going to be out of work for good because I'm thinking electronic medical records are going to replace us, or am I misinterpreting this statement? What is your take on this?
"...President Obama has also talked about the need to computerize all medical records in five years, creating a huge opportunity for information technology jobs and data entry jobs."
It's the same as any industry...
You have the bottom, the top, and the in between. I happen to be closer to the top, but there are so many others who are not at the bottom. And if you knew me, you would know that I do not have the 'screw everybody else' mentality... and it's not really fair to accuse me of that based on my post, which did not mention anything even close to that mentality. I just do not believe that we have it so bad in this industry, that's all. I think we should spend some time looking at the positives versus the negatives. There are so many people out there who have it way worse than majority of the MTs here.
State of the MT industry
Obviously, you work some place that pays very well and you might even have secure employment. If so, that's great. Some of us worked for companies that were sold or sent all their work offshore and we had to take jobs where we could get them. Don't be so quick to judge other peoples' choices. It's true that in some companies, wages are lousy, but do you really think you'd be a fry cook at the clown's over working from a home office? If you are earning great wages and have a good job, I sure hope you're able to help other MTs find something as good as what you've got.
If this industry has become amoral it's because:
MTs for the most part have always been treated poorly, no respect and low pay. We have to stand up for ourselves and not back down from our line rates because no one is going to look out for us but us. No, not even the docs and/or the OMs, surprise, surprise! I say she should go for the full monty. They get to see more patients and therefore have a higher income. Why should she have to settle for a lower income because they're smart and use time-saving macros?? 
Men make more than we do in any industry.
Sucks, but that's the way it is.
I agree - as with almost any industry (sm)
you have to find your niche and the place you can call home. IMO and experience, you can make $60,000-$120,000/year in MT if you find the right hospital, your own accounts, MTSO and/or area of transcription and increase your skills constantly. After say 4-8 different gigs and nothing works out, then MT work is probably not for you. Same for any job, whether it is tech support rep (my former career), mortgage broker, service tech.
Industry pay is sinking.
With 9 years experience, I was offered 5cpl for straight typing. Nuts if you ask me. Yet the company filled the positions with that pay.
The going industry rates are....sm
Around 14 cpl, 65 character line for transcription, 6-7 cpl for editing.
You can "thank" overseas competition for these pricing because they actually will quote around 8-10 cpl for transcription and 3-4 cpl for editing.
Stinks, doesn't it?
I remember when we used to be able to get 18-20 cpl, gross line and could pay the MT 10-12 cpl and all were happy. Gone are those days - I wish they were back!
You could mention where the industry is going
at all because it may offend someone. The funny thing is that some of the course outlines on line may give you some great material to go by as it explains it pretty well on some of those sites. I think it is a great career, so I may be biased.
Please do this industry a favor sm
CHARGE WHAT YOU ARE WORTH AND NOT A PENNY LESS!
I mean it. The last person I talked to about this has her own company. Clinics she charges 14 to 18 cents a line, depending on the difficulty and the logistics of the office. Nope, does not include printing or tapes, they have to call in, period.
For hospitals, she charges 22 to 26 cents a line and she gets it. She usually types as many of the OP notes as she has time for and doesn't sub them out because she likes that. Any lines she does herself goes into the corporation at 100% and she pays herself a salary for all her work, not by the line for MTing she does. She has 20 yrs of experience, all of it in acute care.
She says, DO NOT sell your skills short. Don't try to undercut someone to get the job. Remind these people that they get what they pay for and deliver on every promise, but don't make promises you can't deliver on 99.5% of the time. Incorporating is good, better than not and I know all of the reasons behind that too.
I wish you every luck.
What is the future of IC in this industry?
Wide-spread IC, I mean, such as we've had in the past? Sorry for your situation, Blondie. The reason I ask is that the company I'm working for is making it a real priority to make employee MTs work their agreed-upon hours so the work can be kept in TAT and the clients will be happy and not break off blocks of work to send elsewhere. I'm wondering how you think the end of the work-whenever-and-as-much-as-you-feel-like era would affect the large numbers of IT workers. ??
More industry lies...
1200 lines per day at 8 cpl is only $96.00 per day. At that rate, if you worked eight hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, you would earn just over $35K. Who does that? Anyone working full-time for an MTSO can expect to earn less than $25K and you will rarely, if ever, see a raise. This survey is, as they say, in no way scientific. It is all designed to make people think it pays to be certified, which it does not.
Do you have any connections in the industry?
If not, you might as well forget it. The people/companies that land accounts are the ones that know people and have connections at the hospitals, offices, etc. If no one knows you from Adam, then they aren't going to give you the time of day.
There is no standard and most of us are not
privy to that information.
There is no standard.
It will depend on how much experience you have and how well you are doing with the work. My first company kept me on QA for 6 weeks, although they typically kept new MTs on QA for the first 12. My second company kept me on QA for 2 days, and for my current company I sent 3 reports through QA and then was released.
Definitely not the standard. I would not
work anywhere where I had to pay to use their software. Keep looking, there are good jobs out there.
the pay seemed standard
BUT good luck getting on. I was hired, given a start date, and 3 weeks later finally quit because I had 3 different people asking for the exact same paperwork that had been sent.
Me too. It's always been the standard for a
reason, because it makes it easier to read. It's a crock & I don't plan to quit putting 2 spaces after a period.
Unfortunately, this is the standard.
If 4 cpl is the VR rate, then you are getting paid, but if they had stated a certain number of hours or days for training pay, then you should receive that amount specified as training pay. If they simply said you're paid for training, that could very well mean that you will be paid your training rate for your 1.5 hours of training. What company is it?
Try the Department of Labor and Industry.
You can turn them into the State Attorney General's office, BBB, FTC, as well. And small claims court. I would send a certified letter demanding payment first with the threat that if they do not pay by XX date, you will pursue further legal action against them.
Heartland - the heart of the industry!
Heartland is the best company I've ever worked for in the transcription business.
Check out mtjobs.com, find a post for them, you'll be really glad you did. They are fair, always there to help you. They have great benefits, and one of the few companies where you are not just a number at the other end putting out reports. When I call them, they answer. No automated lines. When I have a problem? They fix it, right now. It doesn't get much better than that. :0)
Men appear to be making more income in this industry
I have worked with a guy here and there. It amazes me that they are able to make more. In one position, there was a guy in a position to distribute work who funneled the canned op reports (vasectomies primarily) to one guy on my account. Another is one I am working with now who somehow convinced those hiring him that he required a certain amount of money to raise a family. And he gets it. Seems to me that this is favortism. The "it's a man's world" frame of mind.
Has anyone else experienced this?
They've done nothing in the entertainment industry
Time to double your dosage and take a nap, dear. Sounds like you've gone over the deep end and are taking this way too personally.
You need to get out more.
Tell that to the cruise ship industry.
dd
The industry is changing and as it stands
now I would not recommend this field to anyone, but I am not worried about not having a job, at least not in the next 5 years. I am good at what I do and can do any work type, can do ESLs with little problem, have done QA, so I feel like there will always be a job as long as I want it. The pay may never get any better though.
There aren't that many jobs available, but there are so many people looking for work that a lot of companies don't feel like they need to pay to advertise. Check with employment agencies or temporary agencies. I worked for temporary agency years ago and got offered full-time positions with every place I worked.
Not sure what your career of choice is in, but you can get just about any degree on-line, or at least do all the basic courses.
Not sure of your financial situation, but if still paying for technical school, going part-time probably won't work for you so you could go to school or get in some type of internship for whatever you wanted to do.
You can sit back and wait for someone to knock on your door and offer you your dream job, but you'll most likely die waiting, or you can get your goal and work towards it. If you aren't willing to do that, then you are stuck where you are.
Article? As in one? This is an entire industry, and
has been going on for decades - I believe it was the 1960s when the food processors and dog food conglomerates figured out their partnership would profit them both. Its not an article, and to think so is honestly just ignorant. Also most huge dog food producers are actually other companies that have no interest in dogs at all - Del Monte and Heinz are in the dog food biz. Have you seen labels lately of the name brands that now claim to have some tomato enzyme in them? I can't recall the name, but it is literally a tomato enzyme that they claim is a new discovery for being great for dog joints. Its literally the tomato swill that Heinz and Del Monte use to have to throw out as its the slop that lands on the floor after Ketchup production, etc. Now, they just hose it into vats and throw it in the kibble ooze with a fancy label that most consumers fall for- tomato enzyme. I only wish I was making this up!! And its not a scam industry nor are we extremists. Most of us don't promote any brand at all - best thing for Spot and Fido is boring old meat, marrow bones and a few veggies steamed, and brown rice. The leftovers that our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents used to feed their dogs - table scraps - were fine! Again, do the research. Decades ago, dogs used to have an average life span of 20 to 25 years - now its 10. Cats used to live longer - 30 years - now its 15. And our parents and their parents would have laughed hysterically at the thought of spending good $ on Gravy Train or Alpo. We have been "had" as American consumers, and you are actually gonna argue about it! Your vets - bet they support Pedigree, too, which is absolutely garbage - dead animals and loads of corn filler, which, by the way, most dogs are intolerant of. They don't digest corn well. But its cheap for the manufacturers! Pedigree is well known for keeping lots of vets on its payroll to praise its products - gee, ya think they might like the $$. There are thousands more vets who know Pedigree and the like is garbage and are finally getting the courage to speak up about it. They are getting sick and tired of treating the animals who are NOT benefitting from this dog food. Nope, sorry, but way more than 1 article - its knowledge, and knowledge is wisdom, and wisdom is priceless.
I'd love any advice also. I'm new to the industry...
... and anything that will help me up my productivity is greatly appreciated. I love this board and the ability it provides to get advice from those with more experience. THANKS!
No, we who have worked in this industry don't have a good
we've been sold up the river! Can anyone say OFFSHORE?! That is the very reason our rates of pay have gone down the tubes. How COULD anyone maintain a good attitude? What I post to newbies here is just fair warning. No one can make any kind of living on 5 cents a line. Newbies are also fodder for crappy MTSOs. It may sound negative, but it's the absolute truth. It's pretty sick when offshore companies are now training US MTs. My suggestion to anyone thinking about going into MT....don't. Find another line of work. There are other things out there you can do.
And the healthcare industry DOES have integrity?
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