Hourly wage for Med Rec Reviews in Cali
Posted By: Jamie on 2009-06-23
In Reply to:
It's been many years since I've charged for med record reviews and have no clue what the going rate may be. They are for QME reports. Anyone have any idea on what would be fair to both parties? Thank yew!!!
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
We do get hourly wage
during down-time and the only approved down-time is meetings and computer malfunction. Lack of work was not approved so if there is lots of work available we have no worries, if not then we will be scrounging around for work. I don't have time for that. 
I will have to ask my supe if that is how it is because that is how I understand it. If so, I maybe putting in my 2 weeks notice.
That's a great hourly wage!!
s
seriously, do not compare an hourly wage job with
nm
At this point, not much! An hourly wage and
what is a typical QA hourly wage for experienced QA
wondering what a median QA hourly wage for an experienced QA
Opinions: Do You Think $12.00 An Hour Is A Lousy Hourly Wage For An Experienced Medical Transcripti
Opinions?
I work for an agency, type for a major hospital - no hourly wage - just production. nm
x
Doesn't matter, IF you are not paid an hourly wage, i.e. a set amount no matter - sm
how much or how little you type, say $12.00/hour, you do not get OT. As someone mentioned here, certain jobs are exempt, and as most of us are paid a flat rate of .08 cpl or .09 or .10, whatever it is, that is all we get regardless of how many hours under or over 40 hours we go. If you want OT then go get an in-house job or get a job doing something else.
Cali MT here
I don't believe the companies would get away with the NJA gig that they pull where you are logged in to the time clock but there is no work, so you have to keep looking every few minutes to see if anything has popped into the que and then when work comes in they expect your to work 8 hrs of transcription time. I used to work for Edix before it was Spheris and that was what they pulled on us. My acct. was in Tx. and the phone lines kept going down, we were still expected to keep checking to see if we could dial in every few min and then we had to work 8 hrs after the lines came back up. With the laws now they would have to pay overtime for that because technically we were logged into the system for over 8 hrs and anything over 8 hrs in CA is OT.
16 cpl sounds right for Cali
But are you keeping track of all of your expenses? You are able to write off a lot of expenses. See a tax consultant. 
Not easy out here in Cali. Some people
into a 1-bedroom apt, or do the roommate-thing. I'm lucky enough to still live alone, but am also in a very old place that I've been in for almost 2 decades, and the paint is literally peeling off the walls. Even though we earn PTO, I haven't used it because I can't afford to go anywhere. My sis gave me some money to take a short vacation, and I spent it on food. At least I live near town so I can walk or bike to the market, and not use gas to get there. I've also been buying clothes at Goodwill, and/or accepting a friend's teenger's castoffs. Balanced diet? Fugetaboutit! I eat whatever's on sale, and friends sometimes give me their leftover food. Anyway, if something doesn't change for the better in the world of MT - (and SOON!) I could probably make more money and have better bennies working at Starbuck's. Plenty of job opportunities, there, seeing as how there's one on every street corner downtown. ;D
REVIEWS FOR FAILURE
The things being taken off on for the review is pathetic too. "During this hospitalization" being marked wrong because the reviewer states the dictation said "during this hospital stay", etc. and so on. These so called reviews are jokes. We are educationed professionals and don't appreciate slave driver tactics.
Mixed reviews
I can't speak for all of them, but my experience was that while they help in terms of lowering interest, you are still going to be stuck for years and years because that is the name of the game with credit card sharks...
The politicians have made it even easier for the cc companies to "enslave"
people by making is really really hard to declare bankruptcy - and there are many legitimate reasons for filing bankrupt. NOtice how minimum payments went up right after that law passed? It's no accident.
You can usually tell which companies are professional and which aren't... but pay close attention to the fees you are paying them to cut your interest... They get a kickback from the credit card companies on top of that fee - make sure it's not out of bounds. Good luck (free advise: cut up all cards except for one!).
WEBMEDX - reviews?
Not enough work at my current job - need a company that offers ER-only work. Anyone work for them that could share an opinion? Would love also to hear how much they pay. Thanks so much!
Thanks. It seems to get such good reviews..
It is slowing me down so much, but now I have to start all over again. 8( oh well....
Check reviews.
Horrible with both suppliers. Law suits, etc.
PEER Reviews
Has anyone ever been through a PEER Review? I have a PEER review on Friday and am not sure what questions will be asked. The position is for a part time data entry clerk in a Diagnostic Imaging Center. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you.
For anyone who reviews records, how do you charge?
Many moons ago when I worked for a medical group and the transcription work ran low, I asked if I could take a stab at summarizing records for medical-legal patients. It was a nice change of pace, and the doctors loved getting out of this chore. As an employee, I was paid my usual hourly wage. If anyone does this as an IC, how do you charge for it?
I'm thinking by the hour would be the only way to go unless it were really straight-foward, i.e., reviewing reports in the order received, date of report, name of provider, basically copy typing test results, diagnosis, and conclusions.
Some doctors might ask that the HPI, PMH, etc. be read through, looking for discrepancies in the history or pre-existing similar conditions and commenting on that, which can take a good deal of time to do to come up with a short line indicating no discrepancies, making cpl not the way to go.
I know different areas of the country would charge different rates, so I'm not looking for specific charges but a general rule of thumb, if there is such a thing. If you charge by the hour (or by the line), how does that compare to what you make per hour (or per line) doing straight transcription?
Thanks for any input!
Also try www.makeupalley.com for reviews on beauty products;
Well, I've heard rave reviews about (sm)
The Surgery Word Book too. I'm thinking of make it the next book on my wish list. I recently purchased the Stedman's Medical and Surgical Equipment Words, but from what I understand now I should have gone with the Surgical Word Book instead. Oh well, never can have enough books can we? 
I have found great reviews on Kapersky. Do you know if...
they offer a free trial? I just downloaded Webroot Internet Security and it's "supposed" to be pretty good. I've got it free for 14 days. Thanks!
I think the amount of work sent to QA is is very bad idea to limit that. I can understand QA reviews
but to limit the amount of work to QA to get a bonus which is my understanding will cause people to not send things to QA when the dicator makes an obvious error and you dont want to chance correcting it. There are extremely bad dictators and depending on where they are dictating the noise can be horrendous on the phone lines or cells or whatever they are doing. My goodness, you have an attitude.
Low wage
that seems awfully low. For instance if you were making even 9 cpl you would be working for 11.25/hr. Who can exist on this? My current supervisor tells me it takes about 30 or more charts to equal 1000 lines. That would take an entire 8 hours and then some maybe. This is very discouraging. I don't like this platform so far.
WAGE
Of course it is lousy. Illegal aliens in my city make more than that flipping burgers. What an insult to us that someone would offer that amount.
Wage vs Need/Wants
At first glance, yes, $12.00 seems low. However, I live in the northeast and I know I cannot survive on that rate of pay. Maybe in other parts of the country $12.00/hr is very survivable. It all depends on your needs/wants.
At $12/hr you are grossing $480/week, $960 bimonthly. Around here, health insurance coverage for one ROUGHLY averages $50/week. Now you are netting $430/week before taxes. Dental plan? Deduct another $10 or so per week. Down to $420/week before taxes. Figure out your monthly expenses and don't forget that ever present anvil-over-your-head factor for unexpected bills. Also, don't forget you need to save some $$ too - after you buy food and pay the monthly bills! Hmmmm...I am getting this image of a rat on a treadmill.
The question you ask is not simple. You have to figure out if $12/hour is good for YOU. It is just not a survivable wage in this part of the country, especially if you have dependents that eat like horses, go to colleges far away, and you live in a state that taxes you up the wazoopie and only has two seasons: winter and 4th of July.
wage
Oh yeah and the wages being offered are even insulting for a newbie. Can I say how disgraceful this is for "trained professionals" to be offered this. The newbie wages run around 8 cpl...but why at 5, 10 or 15+ years is it fair to still be offered that?? Employers please show us some respect and pay us what we are worth. Remember everything in life is "you get what you pay for." These companies wonder why they have such a HIGH turnover rate, HELLO pay us decent wages!!!! Just think if you broke a typist wage, proofreader wage, English major wage, and everything else we are considered and added it all up it is WAY MORE than we get!
min. wage
Oh yeah it is possible to make minimum wage on some accounts especially when you are a newbie. Start out as a newbie and have one of those hard learning hospitals with a lot of ESLs who you hardly ever type the same one twice and add in many residents. Also add in more than just the basic 4 work types on that account such as psych. discharge summ., echo labs, holter monitor reports, treadmills, etc. that you only do every once in a while and aren't familiar with. With all those factors which I have on one of my accounts it is possible to make min. wage. But I have gotten better it seems. I know some people will say why do an account that is so difficult for you? If I can conquer this I can say I have done something I think. It is just a job and as a newbie I can't pick and choose without much exp. so I put on my big girl pants and do it. Just explaining how you could make min. wage with the right factors.
minimum wage is Fed
I know some cities/counties and I guess states have their minimum wage requirement to allow a business to operate. I know some cities in NJ (where I live now) won't allow a business to operate unless they pay minimum around $9/hour. But minimum wage is a Federal standard and is set at $6.XX an hour - that is for all 52 states.
And it is illegal for anyone to pay less. Actually, I found out that if you are working for someone on a production basis and it comes out to less than Fed. min. wage, you can actually file a complaint and recoup wages.
Minimum wage in NY now $6.75 hr - sm
Working at Burger King is looking better all the time!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/nyregion/01minimum.html
At least minimum wage
I worked inhouse for a company. We did not have to be there at any certain time, but we did clock in and out to show how many hours we were there. This was, as the other poster said, to make sure we made at least minimum wage. Also, they figured this by the pay period, not by the day.
Not around here you can't. Minimum wage. sm
I live in the midwest in a rural community. Wages are lower.
IC and minimum wage
I have read on the forum where an IC should make minimum wage. Is this no matter what her line count pay equals? I am new to being an IC and have just accepted a position with a service. Is this true with every service? Do they have to pay you minimum wage? Also, if the service is not in the state where you live does this make a difference? I just figured you were paid for what you produced.
minimum wage
7.00 an hour would only require you to type about 90 lines an hour. Let's say minimum wage is $10 an hour, that would only be 130 lines an hour - I do that in 15 minutes even with my ESL doctors... I say if you are only making minimum wage, this is probably not the field for you to be in.
Less than minimum wage
AND a bad platform, and you are staying? There are jobs out there for way better pay, but you have to start looking! With your four years experience, definitely do not settle for 7 cpl!
I have months when I clear $1500 and I have months when I clear $2000....the difference is ME. Over the past 8 years I have learned to work smarter, more efficiently, and that it is a necessity to have the tools to work with. What good is it if I become an expert swimmer but I'm stuck in a bathtub? If my company's platform would not let me do better, then I'd be testing for other jobs. You are the only one who can do a thing about your income situation.
minimum wage
Walmart pays minimum wage with infinitesimal increases over time. Work schedules are constantly changed to keep the employees off balance. The work is extremely exhausting and at least in our local area, they have a very hard time attracting employees, so there are some real tough scary characters working there. Across the street at Target, it's a different story. Employees are well-groomed, happy, and eager to help the customers. The stores are always immaculate, and you never have to negotiate around towering stacks of boxed unshelved merchandise like at Walmart, which has turned into a filthy mess most of the time. Considering that Target's pay scale is not much more than minimum wage, we can assume that there are cultural differences in that company that provide a better quality of life for their employees. If you have a choice in your local area, go for Target.
lucky you have not been at min wage
Yes MT, you have been lucky, and I would say you probably are not working for Medquist. Lately, those of us who have been working there for many, many years have found our line rates being cut several times while we are being routed only the worst ESR jobs out there as well as always with a different account where we have to study the client profile (CP) before we can even begin to transcribe. Next job, yet another client, yet another profile with different rules to study. I regularly made $30 an hour before, but with the changes, I have now been relegated to min wage. I'm looking for something else, believe me, but after more than 12 years, it is hard to make a change, especially when you have been so demeaned by your company that has put you in this position in the first place.
How much is it? answer is less than minimum wage.
You don't wanna go there. Why would you take minimum wage to
work with the public all day at minimum wage or maybe a little more than minimum wage, leave your family for hours and hours at a time, and use basically none of the skills that you obviously have as an MT.
I find it a bit offensive that you would compare working at Burger King as being a better career than being an MT. I, for one, have worked long and hard on becoming an MT and am learning something new every single day.
Sounds like you need to work for a company who appreciates you and will pay you well. They are out there. You just need to look.
Min wage in WA is 7.63 but they are proposing a $1 increase. nm
$$
Minimum wage for down time? sm
Was wondering if anyone has any information about being compensated for downtime - specifically how the department of labor views the complete lack of compensation from these companies? How do they get away with expecting you to work a set schedule, logging in, and then just sitting there? I don't know of any other job - employee status - where this would be tolerated. And, this "flex" thing...how many of us can continually log in throughout the day, on a whim? Many of us work 2 jobs, have kids, other obligations, etc. Wondering what my fellow MTs have to say about fair compensation and what they have found out? I think running out of work weekly, if not daily, and then having to work crazy hours just to get some minimum lines in is not only nuts, it could be in violation of some laws here. I think we are at least owed minimum wage if there is no work. Any opinions? I am going to research this.
Not every state's minimum wage is the same.
Ohio's is $7.00 now and some states higher than that. I don't understand why a job that requires reasonable skills would need to be paying no better than "state minimum wage".
making minimum wage
I may just be crazy here, but I do not see how anybody could possibly just make minimum wage on this job. At 8 cents a line, that would be only typing less than 75 lines an hour, and even at 5 cents a line it would be less than 130 lines an hour.
Do people really and truly sit down and type for an hour and only make 5.85 an hour?
Only actual employees get min wage.
I am making more than minimum wage.
NJ is $7.15. I average between $13 and $15 an hour, sometimes more, but each hour I work yields a different line amount depending on the type of account I am on. I switch between 4 different accounts. As long as I can produce the same amount of lines everyday I am happy. Sounds like you are to, so not sure why you are concerned if people are making minimum wage in this field or not. Why do you care?
That's the only way to make a decent wage --
Can't enforce minimum wage for ICs.
based on my skillset, not the skillset of other MTs. That could actually lower my rate. I have never accepted any low rates and never will. I'll find another line of work before I'll accept 7 cpl rates. If that's what a place offers, they get no more of my time, period. Yes, I'm a very patient person and went through many bum interviews before finding the right fit, but it's worth it not to compromise.
Besides that issue, I agree with you 100% about AHDI being a crock. I don't care what other health care professionals they choose to represent as long as they take MTs off their list entirely.
making minimum wage..
Most of the time the company's minimum requirements for your shift would equal at least minimum wage, so if you don't meet your line count and therefore are making less than minimum wage and they have to pay you the difference, they probably are not going to keep you as an employee -- at least I would not think so.
I don't work for them but I think they can get away with paying less than min wage
becuase you are an IC and not an employee.
If you're an employee then, yes, I'd say you'd have a leg to stand on but if they have min line/production requirements then more than likely those min requirements would equal out to at least min wage so it would still fall back on you. These MTSOs are usually pretty savvy about getting around legal issues.
Radiology Editor wage for midwest
Although I am not a Radiology Editor, I am a Radiology Transcription Supervisor in the midwest (teaching hospital). I think QA/Editor positions should pay more, or at least the same as MT positions. I think $20-$22/hour is more in line with the job requirements.
Oh, and $10 an hour is considered a "good" wage here.
Not...
If a state has a minimum wage, how can a company (not MT) pay
that companies have to at least pay minimum wage?
|
