Great advice, thank you! nightmares

• Poll - Romey
  • Robotics...it has always fascinated me since ready - FutureMT
    • SM - Romey
      • not sure about you, but we have several wild animal care and education centers... - FutureMT
        • Great advice, thank you! nightmares - Romey
          • Ooops, my NM stands for nightmares in my expander, NM - Romey
            • I LOVE that, I do it all the time and I get such a laugh...(nm) - FutureMT
  • I'd go directly to college, which I've done and I'm in my late 40's too. - sm
    • What did you go to college for? nM - Romey
  • New career - ABBY47
  • Opan a large stable and board - me
  • probably train MDs in private practice to use VR - Snow Bunny
    • some one should teach them grammar - and manners too
      • I've had very little in the way of problems - Snow Bunny
  • theres an old saying... - sm
    • I read that, too. I love to cook, too, but I wouldn't want to be a chef or caterer. - been thinking about this a lot
  • I'd go back to being a bartender. - MTME
    • But at least nobody can puke on you thru your - MQBummed
  • I am thinking of where my talents lie each day. - Want out also
  • That's an easy one... - SM
  • Going into medicine. I have 2 MT friends - Busy MT'ing
    • Poll - anon
      • Poll - anon
      • question - Romey
        • Sorry - Romey
  • Probably medical records or unit secretary - njmt
  • Went to school and got my CPC - diddles
  • Leaving this - Me Too
    • Thanks - Romey
  • poll - anon
    • Think I'd become - Sick of whining
    • What I Did - EMTEE

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and by the way, I'm always amused by the "doctor's wife being the office manager" thing. What a joke. Obviously it's some insecure shrew who feels the need to keep an eye on her "investment" if you know what I mean. That's all too common, unfortunately. Same with nurses who end up "flinging" or "marrying" a doctor they met at work. "If they'll do it with ya, they'll do it to ya" in the words of Dr. Phil, and in my words, "you don't sh*t where you eat".

Wow!  Thank you all for the great advice, it really helps to get the support and advice and opinions.  I have decided now to go for it... .16 per gross line and hope that the chiro's will accept that offer.  If they don't agree, I guess I can then decide whether to keep the same arrangement or find something else.  It's time to venture out of my comfort zone. 

Thanks again, I am always so impressed by all the help here on this board!!   

for me, it works! Most docs pay $1 a page where I live - which is horrible to me! And the particular docs I transcribe for have "normals" set up where I might transcribe 2 or 3 paragraphs at best per report - everything is just pretyped as a normal, so I am more than happy with the $3. That's why I have the account and other's don't! Even if its 2 lines on the final page, that is a page. I tried to explain paying per line, and the doctors got glazed eyes.... I made a note myself of the brands of equipment others have recommended in lieu of Sony and Panasonic, but I must say that mine have lasted for over 2 years without a problem, and I got them used. I still wouldn't buy lots of equipment unless I had lots of $$ floating around! I have C-phones and foot pedals galore that I have bought and never used once....Well, again, good luck to you!

when it comes to dinner, treats or toys.  They have to be separated during dinner, separated to be given treats, and sorry to say, don't have much in the way of toys.  The rest of the time they can be practically right next to each other and nothing has ever happened.  Two of my dogs are greyhounds, so one little scratch can send us off to the vet's office, so I've learned to be very careful!

Perhaps somebody on here can give me some advice......Back in August 2004, due to my husband losing his job, we were forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  At that time we provided our attorney with copies of income tax returns dating back to 2000.  At that time, we were on a payment plan to repay taxes from 2000 (roughly $1300.) We had just filed 2003 taxes and only owed a few hundred dollars.  Most of this underpayment of taxes was due to extra jobs my husband worked as a police officer.  Anyway, we were told not to pay the IRS anything as the debt from 2000 and 2003 would probably be discharged.  Bankruptcy was discharged in January 2005.  We never received any correspondence from the IRS letting us know that we owed anything from those years.  We ASSUMED that it had been discharged.  We took another hickey in 2004 (they year we filed BK) as my husband had to cash-in his retirement since we lost our house and had to find a place to live...that check was in the amount of $25,000.  Though we did have income taxes taken out when we received the check, I guess it threw us into another income tax bracket and that year we owed a little over $3000.   When I filed my 2005 taxes last year, we were due a refund of over $4000 as my husband still is not working from the severe depression of losing his job and I am the sole breadwinner for the family.  Long story short, the IRS took the $4000 I owed and spread it out over the the taxes that we previous owed for 2000, 2003 and a little of 2004.  Their method of dividing the tax refund was odd as instead of wiping out the oldest debt first, they wiped out the 2000 debt but left a couple hundred of the 2003 and took a little off the 2004 debt.  UGH!!! 

After numerous phone calls to the IRS in May to determine what the heck was going on with the refund as I expected to get back a little of the 4000., they advised me it was tied up in the bankruptcy division.  I talked to 3 different ladies at the IRS and all of them were extremely rude to me, no matter how polite I was to them.

Here comes the worst part.....yesterday I get 4 certified letters from the IRS, 2 addressed to me and 2 to my husband...informing us of intent to levy due to unpaid taxes.  I called the IRS yesterday and once again explained the situation that we were unaware that we owed money from years prior to the bankruptcy and that I had also submitted a request to work out a repayment plan.  The IRS rep, another rude woman, got snippy with me when I was trying to explain to her the reason why I could not get a loan to repay the tax today.  She promptly told me, "No is a sufficient answer....I don't need to know the reason why."  When I told her that since my husband is not working and I have the only income, I could maybe eek out $50 per month.  She said, "Oh...that's not enough.  That won't work at all."  She also said, "You don't want the IRS to put a levy on your property (which I don't own anything for them to garnish, other than my wages.  She then tells me she needs to transfer me to another department to work out a special circumstances repayment plan.  Of course, I was on hold for 20 minutes and nobody came to the phone; then we were disconnected.  I've been trying to reach the attorney that handled my bankruptcy to ask his advice and see what to do about the IRS.....That IRS customer service rep made me feel like a criminal and she spoke to me in a threatening tone.  They wait 2-1/2 years, never bother to send a notice to say that we still owed for the prior years and now they're making my life miserable for an amount of less than $4000.  Oh, and I told the lady that I had filed an extension for 2006 taxes but now had all my paperwork and would be working on them this weekend.  I further stated that I felt pretty sure that I would be getting another large refund since I'm the only one working.  I swear, I don't think the ding-dong heard a word I said.  Truly amazing they come after my pittance when there are rich people out there that owe 10 times what I do.  What really scares me is my parents just gave me a 2001 Toyota Camry that is easily worth $7000 or $8000 dollars.  I really need that car and now I'm afraid to get it titled in my name for fear they will take my transportation!!!  Not to mention what they could do to my bank account....and I have 2 teenagers I'm trying to raise.  Maybe this will force my husband to get off his rump and do something besides odd and end cash jobs that don't pay anything.  I had major depression a few years ago and I know it is bad but he kept telling me to get over back then.....I'm trying to turn the other cheek, but I can't do this alone either.

Has anybody out there been through anything like this that can give me some advice.  Sorry for rambling!!

I have been an MT for over 10 years.  I also am getting burnt out, tired of my job, day in day.  However, I do love transcription and make excellent money at it, have grossed over $50,000 per year the last 5 years.  I decided to go back to nursing school and am very happy with my choice.  However, over these 10 years of transcription I have had my ups and downs.  My biggest issue with being at home working is lack of socialization, being home day in and day out with just the kids and the animals really gets to a person, sure hubby is home at night and thinks working from home is the easy life, thus the return to school and boy has my overall enjoyment of life changed once I realized I was the problem, not everyone else and I needed to find myself again.

Anyway, my biggest advice to you three-fold:

1.  Get into counseling for yourself, find out who you are and what your needs are, whether or not you think you need to, I sense you are feeling overwhelmed and need someone other than your family to talk to that can be nonjudgmental to your feelings and needs.

2.  If you're only making $100 after you pay preschool you can either keep doing it and be miserable, or quit because you are lucky enough to have a husband who can support the family without your income. (See how fast his mind changes just by losing the income you do have as to whether your job means anything.)  Or look for a different company or office that you like more and are more productive if you really want to do transcription (lots of fish in the sea as far as companies).

3.  Find a local "mom's" group where you can get out and socialize.  MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) is an excellent one that is nationwide, they have a website.  Also Mom2Mom is in a lot of areas.  They provide a once a week time for moms with kids the same age to get together, socialize, (some offer spirtual guidance some don't) and each week a different mom takes a turn watching everyone else's children at the facility that hosts it so the other moms can talk about things they have in common.  Every stay-at-home and work-from-home mom needs to socialize with adults, without their kids, or they will have a nervous breakdown eventually no matter how much they love their kids.

Sorry so long but it does get better but you have to take the first step at making yourself happy.

I know this isn't MT-related, but it has gotten me so upset that I can't work, so maybe it is MT-related after all.  Anyway, if anyone has been in this situation, can you please tell me how you successfully handled it?  My son wanted to go away for the weekend and asked to use my credit card to secure a hotel room.  We went online to Hotels.com and found a nice place.  I put in my credit card number and was given a room confirmation.  I then received an e-mail from the hotel telling me there were no rooms available.  I called the hotel and they told me I would have to address it with Hotels.com since they were the ones with my credit card information.  I called Hotels.com and they told me that my card had been swept for the entire amount of the stay ($276.00!) but since there were no rooms available, the money would be credited back to my account.  I got my credit card statement yesterday and they only credited back $71.00 of my money, causing me to incur and over-the -limit fee of another $29.00.  I don't know where to turn to get this problem resolved.  Do I call Hotels.com and ask them to reimburse my over the limit fee?  Do I call my credit card company and tell them that it was Hotel.com's fault for hitting my account for the whole amount when they said they weren't going to?  If anyone has been through this kind of thing before, I would really appreciate your input.  Needless to say, I will NEVER use Hotels.com ever again!!  Thanks in advance for your help!

I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice to give.....I have been debating changing jobs.  I currently make $15 an hour doing transcription in office.  The delima I am having is that the whole reason I started doing transcription was so that I could work from home.  I have been doing transcription for 4 years and my job is really easy and I am happy with the money, there are however other down falls with the company and I am not able to have the flexability of working at home, therefore dealing with the stress of not being able to always be there for "home" things.  I have three school age kids, and they are all very active.  My question is....Do I have a chance of finding anything else working at home or do I just try and suck it up where I am at???   I really have not started looking, so I am not sure what is actually out there.  I hate changing jobs, but I also don't want to settle. 

Just need some outside help and opinions! Thanks, KL

Want opinions about something which has come up at work and need some advice. I am the lead Transcriptionist in a department with three other people.

Last year, one of our physicians in the practice was fired and rejoined another practice in town. He currently has a lawsuit against the company about the firing.

Today, I saw letters typed by one of the girls in the my department for this particular doctor. (because this patient switched physician groups). Apparently she has been working for him on the side since October of 2004. I am not sure if she is still typing for him or not.

My question is this, would this be something you would bring to the manager's attention, talk to my coworker, or just let it go.

On one hand I feel she is being dishonest and not loyal to our current company. I do not know if she is saying anything about our practice to the other doctor or not. Also at looking at the letters, she set them up exactly the same way we do. Isn't this considered a conflict of interest?

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!

I worked for a multispecialty medical center for 6 years that shut down and sent all transcription out to a service.  I got a job with spheris.  I love the company itself, they are great.  But the problem is money. This is my first experience with production pay. To make what I made by the hour, I would have to produce 1500 lines a day. I am now producing about 1000 a day more or less, depending on how much research I need to do, if my cable or power goes out or if their server goes down or is slow.-- I do ER, consults, admit and discharge summaries,  no operative reports. Cant really use a lot of expansions, only for simple phrases or individual words,  no macros, mostly straight typing. I figured once I got used to their system and compiled all my provider samples and got my Expander glossaries pretty much built  I would improve, which I have, but I really cant see myself ever doing much more than 1200 a day, and that would be with no "P" breaks. I am still having to stop multiple times during the day to enter drug names in my drug glossary so I dont have to look them up all the time to see if they are generic or brand names-their spell-check doesnt have automatic caps, which is another problem for me because I am having a hard time training myself to hit that shift key, I am constantly entering text into my expander.  The terminology is not a problem for me.

I am reading that a lot of you guys are doing 400 lines an hour.!!!  My previous job didnt have a word expander, so I know I need to utilize that better. How do you do it, what am I doing wrong, what can I do to improve, do I need to just forget it and apply at Home Depot? I LOVE transcription!!!!