How to handle this re: charging account sm

How do you handle an account with a doctor who is constantly changing things?  I'm talking about a guy who will give an entire 4-5 sentences then have you go back and delete and change it.    I'm getting really, really tired of typing it all out only to have to go back and delete and retype. 

Do you keep track of how much you deleted and charge for that also?  It is really cutting into production.  This isn't occasional either.  He does this at least once, if not several times, in EVERY single report.  It is like the man can't string together thought.  Not to mention it is frightening how much things change sometimes.  I wonder often if he is talking about two different patient.

• How to handle this re: charging account sm - NewBMT
  • I know what you mean... - scribe
    • This one is a mush mouth on top of it. Somedays I think I'll go mad! LOL - NewBMT

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The equipment you have will last for a long time so there is not that much to get into business.  13 cents sounds okay, 1  to 1 1/2 cent higher than I charge but I am out in the NW area.  I do pick up of tapes, printing, delivering, use of "sticky paper" etc.  But I average $30 to $45 per hour depending on the clinic.  I haven't raised my prices in a while as I feel it is good money for me.  I buy transcribers off E-Bay, some last for a long time, some not so long.   I am planning on going digital in the next few months but I don't feel it is fair to pass that along to my clinents.  It is my decision.  Will still have to deliver back printed material.   But you have to get those accounts and keep those accounts so charge a fair price -- the docs have more overhead than we do -- make a decent living and provide an extra decent service and you will do okay.   I have said many times -- my accounts have been with me the oldest now 16 years -- psych account and my shortest is 5 years.  They pay on time, have never had to ASK for my check, never a bounced check, and always Christmas bonus and a Birthday present.  So that is why I keep my prices a little lower and spoil them a little but in the long run -- for five years now -- have not had to look for a new account/client and I know that they will not go overseas.   I have had my share of those accounts that stayed with me for a little while until they got something cheaper and those that were just not for me and so that is why I will do most anything to stay where I am right now until I retire in 7 more years.     I put in about 25 hours per week on these accounts as an IC and make $38 K per year.  So for me it fits just right. 

I was offered the opportunity to type for a doctor that is moving in wiht another group of doctors and need a transcriptionist. I have typed for other clinics in the area, but these physicians only paid by the hour.

I am wondering if it would be in my best interest to see if they wont pay by the line or character. I have never done this before. I work full time at a hospital and will be doing this at home in the evenings.

Any information on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks

My charges for copies depend on who it is and how many copies.  I had one guy who wanted to use me and my little inkjet printer as a personal photocopy shop.  I was charging $.10 per copy to cover paper and ink, but he'd want 20 copies of each page I typed.  Finally, I told him to go to Staples to make copies because I wasn't going to do it any more.  I was driving there every few days for more ink and paper anyway, and he was just someone I didn't want to do business with.

I don't charge my other client for carbon copies because he usually only wants one or two copies.  Besides, he pays me really well and I've been typing for him for 8 years.  When he wants full color copies of digital pictures printed out, however, it's at least $1 per page because it chews up the color ink cartridges so much.

Right now McDonald's in our town starts employees at $8/hour and pays benefits and some school benefits.

I have worked 30 years in transcription and make less now than I did in 1985.  That's 20 years ago.  I know more and earn less.  In fact I am a fraction above poverty level.

If you don't think MQ is getting ready to take us all below poverty level right down there with Mexico City, just hide and watch.  Or rather, sit here and think you are with a "good" company.  I didn't, because they are making millions in profit off your hard work and not sharing a penny of it with you. 

In the old days an employer spread the wealth of the company with the employees who made it happen.  This group has never heard of the concept.

I can agree with you.  I used to run a small "word processing service" as it was called back in the 80s.  I was competing with others and I figured one high-paying job was worth more to me than a bunch of inexpensive jobs.  My fees were higher than anyone else's.  I charged $25 an hour for anything other than regular text, be it medical, legal, foreign language, technical, editing, compiling bibliographies, checking footnotes for correct site within the text as changes were made....  I had more work than I could handle and it was all by word of mouth.  I had to hire 2 others to help with the overflow and still turned down work.  Would have continued except for needing to care for terminally ill father.  I had graduate students trying to book me years in advance to do their dissertations. 

Cheap doesn't work.  Not in the long run.  You do indeed get what you pay for. 

Hey gang !   Today I went my family's podiatrist for  the first time for an ingrown toenail.  As soon as the doc sat down with me, and saw my chart, he commented on my occupation of "transcriptionist".   Within 30 minutes I left his office minus an ingrown toenail, and plus a new account doing his transcription ! 

And this is going to be a lucrative account - 20-25 office notes per day, x 6 days a week.  Yippee !

Question - how do you guys bill your private docs for office notes?  He said some notes are only 1 paragraph, while some can be 2 pages.  Doc said he'd prefer to pay by the page. So should I charge a 1/4 page price, 1/2 page, full page?  How would you guys handle office note charges ?   I will be emailing the files, btw. 

Thanks !

Now I have been in the business for a good while and besides Trans"scam" I came across another company that charges for software.  Fast Chart.  They use both DocQScribe and EditScript and will charge the ICMT $7.50 per pay period if you do not meet a particular line count every pay period.  Now, although $7.50 is not that much, I have worked on both of the programs (in fact, still working on Editscript) and have NEVER been charged to used it.  What are these companies trying to do to all of us. ..geez louise. 

I was wondering what the general rule here is.  Lets say that you type an office note and then months later the doc wants you to add to it.  Do you charge them again for the text you already typed, or do you just pull it up out of your computer's memory and only charge the doctor for the new text added to the document?  This happens to me a lot, and I would like to know what the general rule is. 

Thanks,

Abby 

Would like to know what to charge a potential client that is using voice recog for their discharge summeries, but they want me to cut and paste it into the form on their system. 

Any suggests on how to charge for this since I will not be listening to the actual dictation and doing it.

thanx for any help

For you IC's out there, what is the average charge for transcribing a 60-minute microcassette?   I am estimating about $45.00-$60 at most with 60 minutes of transcripiton.  It takes me anywhere from 5-6 hours to transcribe. Is this about the norm?  I am thinking of raising my rates.  I also print the reports out and deliver too. 

TIA

I'm trying to get my own docs and want to set rates that are equivalent to everyone else so as not to undercut and lower our industry standards. But, I can't seem to find out what rates are locally, soooo, as much input as possible would be appreciated.  Anyway, I know that local family practices have been quoted by the hour, by the minute, by the line, by the page, and so on.

I don't really want to do by the minute -- it makes them feel like they have to dictate at sonic speed. Some of them balk at by the line because no matter what you tell them, they feel like they are penalized for having nice formats. They balk at by the page because they think you will extend it to 2 pages for more money. Then there are the ones who gripe about hourly rates because they feel like you will type slower to make more money. I actually typed a sample tape for a local practice a year ago and based on my rate the office manager figured it up PER PATIENT and said it was too much!! 

I know family practice docs and nurse practitioners don't make that much money but dangit I gotta feed my family too.

So help, please!!!!

They will try to get you to work like a dog, your fingers to the bone.  You just tell him no.  I will work x number of hours a day and that is it.  That is what I did and it worked out fine.   They will try to push you to work 24 x 7 if they can.  That is the way they are (men from India).  Just hold firm and they will accept it.   You need to be "thick-skinned" I think to be able to work with them. 

Merely sent an email. In the subject line put MTSTARS (company name) so when you get a response you have the details.

Merely say, I have a couple of question prior to sending in a resume or testing taking.  This saves time on both sides. 

May I ask, what is the lowest to the highest rate of pay. What pay rate formula is used, for example, by the line, by the minute, by the word, by the gross word.  Are spaces paid, ALL spaces.

some in their ads say "we pay for ALL spaces"  so I guess some companies pay a percentage. 

For instance Medquist does not pay for the demographic screen, the CC notation or the headings. and prob more that is not known. .

You need to know how to convert this to an hourly rate so you know how much you actually are making.

Below is a quote from a company in Texas TSI and I sat down with the calculator and figured some of the hourly rates.  For the most part, way too many lines for most MTs

First off I'd tell my mom that he's a pig and what he has done. 

Secondly I'd never be around him without a recording device turned on in my pocket so that way you can record his comments, and if he touches you or flirts then get a recording of your asking him to not touch or look at you that way and his response.  Then play the recording for your mom and other relatives.

While it may be true your mother may go into denial you need to stand up for yourself.   My mom was a fool and protected my father when she was told about his untoward advances towards women for years.... and then something happened that made her realize that she had been a fool for years and that he was the one with the problem. 

/

I have not had work for most of July.  I am an IC and have been doing this for years.  This is the slowest I have ever been and I'm stressed out.  Luckily, hubby pays the majority of the bills so I am not starving!  I have applied several other places with no luck.  Is this just a summer slow period or what?  How can I keep from going a bit crazy?  I am getting rather depressed.  TIA

I picked up some extra IC work back in May, and since that time have covered for the owner by editing for her while she was on vacation for a week, and then taken extra work as the MT with whom I share dictation from this doc was on vacation for a week, then sick for a week just after return, the next Friday had a family emergency, etc.  This was supposed to be part-time work, and has turned out to be more than I would expect for part-time . . . to the point where when this doc was going on vacation, I was trying to hold out and not say anything about it being too much, thinking that I'd be caught up and fine to take on the work when he returned, but wound up "breaking" with one day left to go, and told the woman it was too much, and she asked if I could just hang in there with her as she was testing another MT, and would reduce the amount she gave me if this girl worked out. 

Well, the doc returned from vacation and I did not get any of his work for about a week, and then the next week (this past week), I was given slightly more work than in the weeks prior to his vacation, although I had already told her it was too much, and it was still the same girl working the account with me.  At the end of the week it seemed that she had hired another girl, but did not reduce my work, just switched from girl 1 to girl 2. 

Sorry so long, but here's the BIGGER problem . . . in the early part of the week, the owner e-mailed with an attached voice file, requesting that I download the voice file and listen to a blank she was trying to fill-in.  I listened (over and over) could not find her sentence, so responded with what I was hearing in and around that area.  She then gave me another location and said that she had two counters on her program and did not know which one my program used, could I listen at xxxx location, so I did, gave her the fill-in, but was a little bewildered as to why she would request my assistance in that way as SHE IS NOT PAYING ME FOR THIS KIND OF HELP. 

Here we go again, yesterday she sends an e-mail with some voice files attached and some sentences with blanks, and she is requesting the same thing, that I listen and fill-in the blanks.  I am just not sure what to do here.  Early on, a couple of weeks after she returned from her vacation, she asked me if I could "proofread" the other girls files for that day as an appointment she had was "screwing her up".  I e-mailed back that, due to my heavy workload, I would not be able to EDIT work for her.  (The girl's work requires editing, not proofreading, which I quickly found out while covering the owner's vacation.)  I thought that I had let her know then that I do not work for free, in a nice way.

I would like to keep the work, but only what I am being paid for, so . . . How would you handle this situation?