Excellent post! I copied this post and...

• MTs/factory workers - hdr
  • Well by the looks of the class of people who have entered this - field in recent years
  • Excellent post! I copied this post and... - sis
  • Pay by hour or line - Trombone
    • Amen! AAMT has let us down BIG TIME! - MTPockets
      • I guess I am having a really hard - CMT-me
        • I did not say anything about them getting me a job. - Puhleeze read more carefully.
          • ...and besides, who needs their stupid credentials? - CMT not worth paper it is written on
        • AAMT - Trombone
  • I don't see them paying more than 15 an hour, and thats being - generous. I can't live off that...
  • Here's another thought on the subject....sm - My 2 cents
    • Isn't that the way it is all around? - There are nurses who work...
  • I totally agree - tiredofbeinganMT
  • I agree - me
  • I have to agree... - hm
  • sm - Who me?
    • 2500 a day??? And your work is perfect? - Get REAL.
      • Other jobs can be the same too... - mary
        • If you are paid by the hour-- - Lucky you!
      • line rate - hs
      • HOURLY VS LINE - Patti
        • 5 OUT OF 10 to me is 50%, doesn't - look like real good odds.
          • error - Patti
            • That was NOT how you stated, read - your typing.
              • line counts - Patti
                • Small accounts - pcpeanut
                  • accounts - plus my 2 cents worth - Patti
        • MTs/factory workers - hdr
          • They don't remove eyes based on transcribed medical reports. SM - Becky
            • You are right - Patti
          • You are totally right. - hs

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I think sometimes, in our zeal to get hired, we throw everything into the pot.  We declare that we possess every skill that might help us to make the cut over other applicants.   We're a nurse, we transcribe, we can make coffee, can get grease spots out of a Brooks Brothers suit, drop his kids at day care on the way to work - no!  it's no trouble at all, really! - whatever.  In this case, having your office nurse also be your Transcriptionist probably seemed an attractive prospect, until the doctor's wife figured they were paying twice for what she thought they should be paying for only once. Now these very skills have been turned against the worker.  So your points 1, 2 and 3 are particularly valid. 

I have seen ads for MTs in local papers and the description of duties sometimes says, 'medical transcription, reception duties, appointments, filing, other duties as needed.'  Then I know I don't even want to apply for the position, as I have no idea how I could be MT as well as receptionist.  How frustrating it would be to have my concentration constantly interrupted!  This practice wants a secretary/receptionist they can make transcribe as well.  Lots of luck getting someone who can do both well. 

Any professional should balk at being told that a salary covers 'anything the boss expects' them to do.  Especially if this throws out an established arrangement and doubles someone's work load.  While we all like to be team players, if only the  owner gets a tropy this diminishes our team spirit considerably.

I'm of two minds on this.  I would either agree and simply not bust my butt getting the transcription done until it was piled so high SOMETHING had to change.  Certainly there is a limit to how backed up this practice will allow its reports to become?  Meanwhile I'd be looking for new employment.  Of course, as the reports piled up, you have to know the office manager would be timing your trips to the bathroom with a stop watch and accusing you of wasting time on her dime (as seems to be her nature) but I'm sure you could perform all your usual nursing duties with just a bit less alacrity in order not to appear idle.  Or I would simply call their bluff and refuse to go along (which might be shooting myself in the foot unless I had another job to go to. )

you've forgotten your own words! Your post above is 100% different "flavor" to it, now all positive and cheery! Your first post was 100% doom and gloom every which way, including "raining on your parade", and "if you want to go forward"...God, sounds like she's talking about jumping into oncoming traffic! Here is your quote:

My first boss (the one who hired me as a new grad) gave me some words of wisdom that I haven't forgotten. She said that transcribing at home with small children NEVER works under any circumstance. Either the work will suffer or the parenting will suffer.

****

How can the word "NEVER" in caps be interpreted in any positive way? You took about 8 paragraphs to cover every aspect and completely dash this poor woman's dream.  I'm not blind, I'm not talking about day care at all, I'm talking about the total negativity of your original post! You know exactly what I'm talking about, cause you added some sugar to your second version! And that's much nicer than the first!

I would like to bring up the new technology of VR where the use of word Expanders no longer has the impact that they have with straight typing. 

I am doing editing and when I talk to others they were doing 300-400 lines with straight typing and word expanders.  Now they are editing that same work and perhaps doing an average of  400 lph and yet making half as much money.   It is an entirely different skill set learning to navigate quickly and get the work edited for speed, something which I am struggling with.  I would love it if editors would share their speed tips but usually all the posts I get go something like this:  I do 500 lines and hour and make more money editing OR I had to take a pay cut editing but no specifics as to why or how to build speed.  So that is not really helpful as to why there is more or less $ with editing.  I use my keyboar and not my mouse.  I am working as hard as I can but I only can do maybe 100 more lines tops with editing than I can with straight typing but my pay has dropped by 50%.  I don't see editing going away so to that end it seems as if the pay is dropping in transcription.  Does anyone else see where I am coming from????

like you think the MT's control the pay in the MT world? Either you need the job and you take it for the pay or you have another option. MT's without another option will take the job at 6 cpl, or 4 cpl or whatever. When working at McDonald's becomes an option that is equivalent to MT work, then MT's will choose McDonald's. 

The Transcriptionist is just ONE cog in the wheel of the whole industry. If people continue to look at only the MT's part, they miss the big picture. If all it took were people saying Let's all stand up together and demand better wages, then why couldn't the cashiers at the grocery stores across the US do the same thing? They can't. Because it they don't cashier for $8 an hour, there's somebody else who will. Same thing has happened with transcription. If you don't take the job at 6 cpl, somebody else will. It might be somebody from India (which you so quickly discounted) but I'll let you in on a little secret. The people from India who are doing MT typically have 2 master's degrees. They are hungry for work. They are intelligent, competent individuals, willing to work hard. They might have a little bit of a quality issue right now because of the language barrier, but it won't be long before you have lots and lots of Indian MT's with 2 years experience, who have learned from their mistakes, who have learned American idioms... and then you are really going to see the bottom drop of out the market.

guidelines.  If URL does not work, the link is also included so you can paste and copy in your browser. 

If you hire an electrician, a painter, or a roofer (as examples of independent contractors), you do not tell them HOW to do their work or WHEN to do their work.  Just try doing so and see how many contractors you can obtain. 

Today, we have these large companies not only telling us how to do the work for which we have been trained, but when to do the work (specifically, what days of the week and what hours).  Certainly, the quality of the end product must meet the client's approval or the contract can be cancelled.  It cannot be cancelled on the grounds of not working specific days or hours each day to fulfill that contract.  If you sign a contract specifying you will produce 1000 or 1200 or 1600 lines per day and you meet that production, a client (the MTSO) cannot fault you if you produce the agreed upon lines in 4 hours, 6 hours, 3 days, 2 days, etc.  When requiring you to work a specified schedule of x number of hours producinig x number of lines, then it becomes employee-employer status, not one of client-independent contractor status. 

Also note the evalutation system below.  I would saying doing QA in evaluating a contractor's performance is an evaluation system.  Would you?  What about being  put on probation or fined (as some companies are now doing)?  Does that point to employee status?  Can you put a roofing contractor on probabtion or issue a fine?

And...just read the section on training.  An eyeopener for certain. 

Below are the guidelines.  I say we ICs start filling out the misclassified workers form.  If we are treated as employees, then we need tax relief.  If MTSOs provide employee status in some states and not others, AS WELL AS hiring ICs, then an IC cannot be required to adhere to the policies and procedures that their employees are required to adhere, and that includes WHEN the work will be performed and HOW it will be performed.  The guidelines are clear. 

I'm not afraid of broaching this subject for fear jobs will go to a third world country.  They are going there at a rate faster than the speed of lightning anyway, and nothing we as ICs or employees can do will stop it.  They are going there because it is a cheap, cheap way of doing business. 

***************

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

Independent Contractor

The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if (the person for whom the services are performed) has the right to control or direct only the result of the work, and not what will be done and how it will be done or method of accomplishing the result.

People such as lawyers, contractors, subcontractors, public stenographers, and auctioneers who follow an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the public, are generally not employees. However, whether such people are employees or independent contractors depends on the facts in each case. The earnings of a person who is working as an independent contractor are subject to Self-Employment (SE) tax.

Evaluation System

If an evaluation system measures the details of how the work is performed, then these factors would point to an employee.

If the evaluation system measures just the end result, then this can point to either an independent contractor or an employee.

Training

If the business provides the worker with training on how to do the job, this indicates that the business wants the job done in a particular way.  This is strong evidence that the worker is an employee. Periodic or on-going training about procedures and methods is even stronger evidence of an employer-employee relationship. However, independent contractors ordinarily use their own methods.

Misclassified Workers Can File Social Security Tax Form
Workers who believe they have been improperly classified as independent contractors by an employer can use Form 8919, Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages to figure and report the employee’s share of uncollected Social Security and Medicare taxes due on their compensation. See the full article Misclassified Workers to File New Social Security Tax Form for more information.