Hey! For all you who blame MQ for lowering the bar in the industry, driving the cpl rate SOOOOOO low
Posted By: MT$$ on 2005-07-17
In Reply to: I hope this proves to all MTSOs who say they are forced to lower their rates that if MQ can get 20, - sm
How do you fathom that one?? The small MTSOs are charging peanuts, while MQ is charging 20 cpl. And these companies are SMALL - I know. So, hmmmmmm...maybe big bad MQ isn't to blame for that condition in the industry? Interesting, very interesting...sounds more like the small MTSOs have plummeted our salaries into the dirt, if this is supposed to be an example!
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I have not had a raise since 1994, should I blame Clinton or Bush? At any rate, see inside...
Musky Income Myths
by Alan Reynolds
Alan Reynolds is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute and a nationally syndicated columnist.
Democratic presidential candidates advocating really humungous tax increases -- Howard Dean and Wesley Clark (until he withdrew on Feb. 11) -- appear to have lost ground to two favoring merely enormous tax increases, John Kerry and John Edwards. It would seem to follow the latter two should rethink their plans before challenging the only candidate who thinks tax rates are plenty high enough, George W. Bush. Amazingly, however, the Democrats are pulling out the old "income inequality" card. It worked so well for George McGovern and Walter Mondale.
Business Week says Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards "believe a Democrat can repeal top-tier Bush tax cuts with impunity because income inequality has widened under Bush." Taking a less partisan and more statistically defensible line, the Socialist Equality Party says, "Until the Bush administration, the Clinton years saw the greatest growth in social inequality in American history."
Such claims suggest the top 20 percent, or 5 percent of families, have been collecting a rising share of "our" personal income -- hence "income inequality has widened under Bush." Any candidate who says that has to be lying. The latest available data on income shares is for 2001, and they show no increase in inequality.
The recession was no picnic for top earners: There were 690,000 fewer managerial jobs in 2002 than in 2000. If these cash income figures included capital losses, they would reveal ample pain among "the rich" in 2001-2002. The poverty rate did rise from 9.2 percent to 9.6 percent in 2002, but that was still lower than the poverty rate in any year from 1980 to 1998.
To defend President Clinton from socialist egalitarians, prolonged increases in real output per worker (like 1996-2000) translate into increases in real income per worker. Since there are typically two workers in top income groups and less than one full-time worker in the bottom income group, it is mathematically unavoidable that the gap between two-earner families and no-earner families must grow wider whenever the economy is doing well. Real median income among families with two full-time workers was 43.6 percent higher in 2001 than it had been in 1991 -- an annual increase of nearly 4.4 percent a year. Families with no full-time workers did not do that well.
Most important, it is simply a statistical hoax to make long-term comparisons between the average (mean) income in any top income group with averages in lower groups. That is partly because the upper threshold on the group just below the top rises over time whenever real incomes in general are rising. As a result, increases in general prosperity mean incomes that once would have been large enough to make it into the top 5 percent no longer qualify.
Census figures say the top 5 percent collected 21 percent of all personal income in 2001, up from 20.3 percent in 1993. Measured in constant 2001 dollars, however, a family needed more than $164,104 to be counted among the top 5 percent in 2001, while anything above $136,539 would have qualified in 1993.
So long as that threshold kept rising, the share at the top was almost certain to rise, too. After all, an average of all income above $164,104 is almost certain to be larger than an average of all income above $136,539 simply because all incomes between those two figures were included in the top average in 1993 but excluded in 2001.
For the same reason, it makes no sense to compare long-term growth of average income in any top income group with growth below. Only the top group has no income ceiling, and the lower threshold defining membership in that top group rises whenever incomes in general are rising.
Because only the top group has no ceiling, increases in a small number of very high incomes (e.g., trial lawyers) can make the mean average in the top group rise much more than the incomes of typical members of that group. This is why it is considered misleading to refer to mean rather than median income as "average" in every other case, and why it is particularly misleading in this case.
Rising real income also raised the definition of the "middle class." The lower and upper limits defining the middle three-fifths were $20,262 to $64,241 in 1975 (in 2001 dollars) and $24,000 to $94,150 in 2001. Periodic fables about the "vanishing middle class" miss the obvious: Those who "vanished" moved up.
The main reasons some families earn more than others are not as shocking as politicians would have you believe. Consider these horribly shocking Census Bureau facts about inequality:
Families with two people have incomes at least 3 times larger than families in which nobody works. Median family income in 2001 was $51,407. But that figure combines median income of $21,958 among families with no workers and $66,151 among families with two earners. Among married couples where both work full-time, median income was even higher -- $76,150.
Mature, experienced employees earn at least 3 times as much as they did when they were young apprentices and trainees. Average family income was $16,014 among families in which the household head was younger than 24, but $45,978 when the household head was 45 to 54.
College grads earn at least 3 times as much as middle-school dropouts. For family heads with a bachelor's degree, median income was $78,518; for those with less than a ninth-grade education, median income was $25,077.
If all this rampant inequality strikes you as grossly unfair, you should indeed consider electing politicians promising to do something about it. But they can't really do much unless they promise to take money from two-earner families and give it to no-earner families, to take money from those who go to college and give it to those who didn't bother attending a free high school, and to take money from those who are at an age where they're trying to put the kids through college and give it to those in their early 20s.
The taking half of that policy is a reasonably precise description of who indeed would have their pockets picked under the tax plans of Messrs. Kerry, Edwards (and Clark). In whose pockets the expected booty would actually end up, however, is apt to prove as mysterious as figuring out what Mr. Dean did with all those millions he collected with Internet spam
It would be interstate driving, he and I driving as partners so we can
drive hard. The company we are talking with will give us the sleeper truck. I am envisioning MT while he is driving. Obviously, not full-time, though. I just hate to lose my grip with the contract I have - gravy work.
How would I get the internet access? Satelite will be available across country? Can't put any permanent receivers on the truck.
I remind you, this is not MY midlife crisis. I'm trying to work things out to accommodate him.
I am soooooo sorry. Wish I could be there
for you. I can totally feel your pain. Not trying to minimize your doggie, but I had to put my sweetheart lab down about a year ago. Posted on here and the ladies were so wonderful. I was a mess. Now I just woke up today, and her son, who is 9 years old, is having trouble walking. He seems weak in his hind end. I am SO frantic, and crying again. It is sooooooo painful. But they are so worth it. You and your dog are in my prayers.
ACK!! I thought he was soooooo
good looking!! You must be a doll:)
So what are you going to do when they keep lowering
the pay even more? Keep working for the "good" company? I would never work for $.075 per line. That's what I made when I first started out. Let them go offshore if that's all they can afford. They get what they pay for. Personally, I'm worth more than that. I'm not so desperate for a job that I'll sell my soul to the devil and put my kids on welfare.
Tell me, what other industry lowers wages in exchange for doing the more difficult work after the easy stuff has been offshored or sent to VR? Doctors are paying less for transcription, but they're raising the price of an office visit, too. We're charged more and paid less by THEM at the same time.
Soooooo slow computer
I have the XL Dell and recently had more memory put on hoping to increase the speed. I also did the defraging procedure and still seems like doing escription and working in word it is slower than me. I type and the letters are not coming out as fast as they were say 5 months ago. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? I had thought about getting another computer (just don’t want to pay huge $$$$ on one) but also have no idea about a good system to buy. My computer is about 4-5 years old. Thanks.
OMG. That's disgusting. Especially after just lowering our pay.
Lowering IC Line Rates
As we all know, line rates for ICs continue to fall due to offshoring and other issues involved. I can no longer quote a decent line rate or I hear the phone slam in my ear.
Therefore, I've decided to do what I have to do to compete and get accounts, which is lower my line rate to 10.5. Naturally, I am not going to give this large cardiology group a 65-character line for that rate.
What do you feel is fair for me and the group line character-wise for 10.5 cents line? I was thinking of a 50-character line. Your opinions, please.
Thank you! 
And having a holier than thou attitude is SOOOOOO attractive!
you are soooooo off base, it really is funny. i am a single woman who
runs my own household. i try to surround myself with smart people, or at least as smart as myself. i am not threatened by anything but the dumbing down of america and lots of that can be seen in situation comedy for the masses. i raised four boys, all of whom are doing very well in life and i can do things i can't do and know things i do not. i am not threatened by them. i enjoy them. i am a student of life even at my age and want to learn and be amused not at the expense of someone else, male, minority, blonds, etc.
My point exactly. If lowering costs is an issue
the Valium in addition to lowering the Oxycontin as I stated
in my prior email. The Oxy is what you want to wean slowly 1/2 tab a day until the last few days do it 2 days in a row, then 1 day in a row, then every other day, then every 3rd day, then off. That is a little clearer and it does work and you won't have any side effects at all with the 2.5 mg or 5 mg of Valium once or twice a day. Then get yourself off the Valium the same way but you would not have been on it too long to just go off, but always best to wean.
Lets try this again. With all the big nationals running us out or work and lowering our wages what
do you suggest.
Charge him an hourly rate. The current rate is
between $15-21/hr. according to your location. If he had to use an independent secretarial service, he would be charged much more. You can look in the Yellow Pages in your area under Secretarial Service and ask them what they charge, then charge accordingly knowing you can back it up.
It's like when you are driving.
You are so used to it that it's just automatic.
Thank you ALL so much!! This has been driving me...
Must be nice! 58 and only for driving? sm
I've been wearing regular glasses for nearsightedness since 3rd grade. Of course vanity put me into contacts many years ago and suddenly, about 3 years ago, I began wishing for longer arms when trying to read something like the side of a Childrens' Tylenol bottle while I was wearing contacts. I told the eye doctor they were making the print smaller and smaller.
It went downhill so fast from there that I either have to wear my regular glasses to see the computer screen or put on the magnifying dollar store glasses over my contacts. Yes I know, time for bifocals, but who can afford them? 
Truck driving
My friend and her husband drove as a "team" before he passed away. She said it isn't as easy as it looks-- especially if you are a woman. She said she had to back the trailers into the loading docks and all the "macho men" would just stand there and stare at her-- apparently they are too "manly" to have their jobs taken by women. Anyway, she said the driving part was fun, but the company monitors you every second via some kind of tracking device and it isn't like I thought-- that you could stop in various parts of the country, etc. There is a lot of technical stuff you have to know about the truck, maintenance, etc., as well. She said she wouldn't do it again.
Dictating and driving
Can you hear me now?? I have a physician who dictates while he drives,and by the way, his dictation goes in and out so unable to get really what he is saying.
How about while driving home - sm
I used to have one who dictated while driving in his car, I could almost see him with the file on the passenger seat flipping through it while trying to drive and dictate at the same time. I could hear the traffic and his signal light going on and off. I am glad I moved to a different doctor before I got to hear something like him having an accident... Do they even know that there is a person on the other end of the dictation???
Thank you so much, it was driving me crazy
nm
This MD is driving me crazy!
Have you guys ever typed for a doctor who instead of saying period at the end of a sentence, he instead says "full stop". I am about sick of hearing him say that. I have never heard of that. Where do these dictators get this crap from? Please let me hurry and finish typing for this man before I have my hair pulled out!!! 
MD driving me crazy
How about the ones who dictate discharge summaries and they don't have their thoughts together before they sit down to dictate and they are flipping through the patient's chart pausing, eating, and carrying on a conversation with another resident in the same room with them. The dictation ends up being 20 minutes long but you get 400 lines out of it. Drives me nuts!!!
Driving directions...
Why am I not surprised?
OH YEAH I love the whole CD while I am driving!!
x
Help. Can anyone tell me what the song is on the commercial on tv where the guy is driving across
the US to San Francisco for a cell phone commercial and he pulls up in front of his girlfriends house in SF and calls her on the cell phone and she comes to the door and there he sits in his car. It is the cell phone commercial for the cell phone with the bars on it. This is driving me nuts. I cannot remember the name of that oldie song.
Oh, yes, I hate driving on the freeways
To think I used to do it everyday. I do think the traffic has gotten worse though, not just at rush hour anymore, and people have gotten crazier. DH says it's because I don't have to do it anymore everyday, but I really think it's worse. I go out as little as possible on the freeways, and with the price of gas, I try to combine as much as I can, and stay close to home anyway. It's hard not to become a hermit.
You think there are no responsibilities involved in driving a bus? sm
What about all the lives they are responsible for in the bus and on the ground? Most bus drivers are considered "professional" drivers. They must study for, pass tests (written and driving), and maintain a CDL license (commercial driver), pass regular physicals. This also entails no drinking, etc., on time off work as they are subject to random testing. Very insulting. That is the pay scale in NYC, everybody there makes more money.
not suggesting we quit driving, just think.....sm
I just think if we grew more corn, turned corn into fuel, we'd drive that way and NOT POLLUTE either.......*S*
my kids are driving me crazy...
cant wait til school starts again...
Driving a van was actually considered "cool"
x
yikes ! ESL driving me nuts
 Just a quick vent - for the last 45 minutes I have mostly been listening to the sound of her breathing with an occasional "continuing dittation" thrown in here and there followed by more breathing . I even heard someone in the background say "You can push 1 to put it on pause" which she does for a split millisecond and then continues back with her breathing/"continuing dittation" pattern. Not having a good day today.  Beam me up Scotty, Please ! 
Driving to Children's Hospital with my mom - sm
who was visiting at the time, and going to my then 3-y/o's speech therapy. Also had my other daughter with us, then 18-months-old. We heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers, at the time we thought it was like a Cessna or something like that, found out quite differently when we got to the hospital and watched it all unfold on the TV in the waiting room.
Sorry but truck driving is going south also
Also had hubby as truck driver, as well as done team driving --the rates there are going down as many are coming over the borders and able to drive for less. So that profession has dropped 50% as well or at least held its own over the past ten years which is not a progression at all. Even owner-operators are seeing a decline. So it is hitting everywhere.
This is trivial but driving me insane
I saw Matt Lauer named his new son Thijs. Does anyone know how this is pronounced? I can only think of "thigs" (rhymes with figs) and that just seems too weird to name anyone.
I will be shortly - school bus driving - sm
$60 a day for about 3 hours of work, about the same I make for MT. I will be very PT at first as I am only a substitute once I finish my training (10 hours of driving with students is all I have left to do). But eventually I will have my own route, then I will probably cut back to about 300 lines a day, or about $600 a month. Don't want to over do it.
my shortand is driving me nuts
It's running so slowly behind what I am typing that I am really messing up and have not even added that many items to it yet. I need it for a job I have that you cannot use autocorrect, which I love, but have to use shorthand. Is there something I can adjust so it does not lag so far behind
This doctor is driving me crazy... sm
I hear a lot of crazy crap in the background, we all do but this is the first time that I have had a doctor listening to Christmas music - in August. She has it up so loud that I can barely hear her and every now and then, while she is flipping pages trying to get her sh*t together, she will sing along.
Now I love Christmas and Christmas music but this is a bit early even for me. She is driving me batty. 
I have to vent! ASR is driving me up the wall!
When I was started on ASR, I was told it was strictly "voluntary" and that if I did it, I would get a "mixture" of ASR reports and straight MT. Well, not the case. Now everyone has to learn ASR and every report I get is ASR-- even the most horrible of horrible dictators. I keep fixing the same mistakes over and over and ASR has "learned" nothing from the corrections. I still think it is all a ploy to put ALL the dictators on it, no matter how bad they are, just so we will make the same per line as the Indians. My last shift, I had exactly ONE very short report that was not on ASR and all the rest were. Just as soon as I can find another job, I am out of MT altogether. They have totally ruined what used to be a good profession with all their "progress". Well, they can have it!
Don't blame QA!
If your quality is there, you don't need to worry. If you are worried about your quality, don't blame it on QA people. We are not "out to get you," just making sure that we send a quality product to our clients. That is our job. I have been in this business for 30 years. I try to help our MTs by giving them good feedback. It is insulting to me as a professional when an MT with poor quality whines about what QA "did to her." You should see some of the garbage I have to fix daily....Some reports take an hour or more to QA - just one job!! We have productivity quotas to meet, too, and this hurts us. This is why the poor-quality MTs are being gigged in their pay. If you are not a poor MT, no worries, right?
Don't blame QA
You go girl!! My thoughts exactly....
i don't blame you there
now if others will do the same, we could actually have good debates/venting sessions; I appreciate your answer
I don't blame you at all. We did the same
for my nephew and I will get a list of music alternatives from my sister and post for you.
Keep up the good fight!
can't really blame them 100% either
I've learned to take a more pragmatic view of the problem rather than blindly placing all the blame on the doctors themseves. Rather, I place the majority of the blame on the shoulders of the government and the insurance companies for driving up the costs not only to patients but to the providers. Practices have found that they've got to cut back somewhere. Some have turned to EMR, some are using voice recognition, and some have resorted to going the cheapest way possible, offshoring, to create the documentation REQUIRED by insurance companies and the government in the first place. Though we may debate the morality of sending American jobs overseas, they're not doing anything illegal.
The biggest problem I have with offshoring, as my friend once put so eloquently, is "I wouldn't want my medical records to go to some country we're going to be at war with in a few years." (thanks, AK!) We Americans are expected to abide by government-imposed HIPAA laws, but does that extend to offshore companies? They say they are HIPAA compliant, but who really knows? Which "government" agency watchdog do we have to protect our privacy in these other countries? Gee, we're having such a problem with identity theft, wonder why?
I've taken to asking any new physician that I go to who will be typing my medical record after this office visit. If they say they sending it to some really cheesy company in India or even refuse to tell me who, I walk. How many of you do the same thing?
Can't really blame them.
You are working for them actively IN their system.
I wouldn't bat an eye at it. I say kudos to the hospital for protecting patient information and upholding HIPAA appropriately.
I did not blame anything on anyone.
I simply stated a fact. Some MTs are incapable of making a successful transition to editing. I did not blame anything on anyone. Do I think that the measly pay rates offered by some companies for editing are fair? No. There are also companies that pay a reasonable, but not great, pay rate for editing.
I will reiterate what I said before. If you cannot make a living on what you make doing editing--then don't do it. Period. Bemoaning the fact you can't make decent money while your bills pile up accomplishes nothing.
So, you blame this on QA? How do you know
"Anonymous" and "Untouchable?"
Don't speak for me. You don't know me. I have always wanted to deal directly with the MTs. There are other QAs who agree with me, too. But we have been told in may meetings that just will not happen.
Of course, I would imagine the anal ones who should not have their QA jobs would not like to do that, because they could not back-up their corrections. But I stand behind mine. I would rather talk directly to the MTs -- lack of communication is good for nothing but misunderstandings and bitterness.
I am not out to get any MT. I will not make a change in your report unless it is an outright blatant medical terminology mistake or a formatting error.
Why are you so mean? You don't know me. I wouldn't be nasty to you. I have never done anything to you.
Bitterness is not good for anyone. Why don't you place your anger towards the QA who is giving you troubles? Turn that QA in. Keep doing it. If more MTs would speak up, then the ones who should not have jobs will be held accountable.
I know what you are talking about. I understand. I see it myself when I look at completed reports and I see what some QA are doing. It is wrong. But not all of us are the same way with our jobs. I have always tried to be professional and helpful to the MTs. I leave notes with info that they might need concerning the particular report, and even thank them for their hard work.
I am sorry you feel so hateful towards someone who never did a thing to you.
Supplies and driving to and from, time printing - no less than .12 cpl.
Why is it that court reports are so well respected and their pay never an issue?
I feel like I am stealing when I ask to be compensated for my knowledge, experience and reliability. It is basically the same work, one is in legal field and one in medical field. What is up with that????
Grandson driving his little jeep. Cute! nm
*
How much is gas where you live and have you changed your driving patterns?...sm
Gas is $2.99 here and going up 15 centstomorrow as the state is putting the gas tax back into place that they lifted temporarily after Katrina.
I've been trying to cut down the driving I do as much as possible. I'm sure glad I work from home! I was planning to go to Florida to visit relatives in October but am delaying that until the prices come down. I'm not interested in paying $100 in gas to make that trip!
Why does not driving equate to staying home? (nm)
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