I've completed the survey & I hope all

• Well people, here's your chance - Voice recognition survey SM
  • Oops, guess it didn't attach properly..sm - Voice recognition survey SM
    • I've completed the survey & I hope all - MTs will do it.
  • Where's the link? - nm

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program.  Not an "online" program.  I actually went to a college and attended classes which include A&P I and II, Medical Terminology Greek and Latin, and Pharmacology in addition to a number of computer courses.  That's in addition to my Bachelor's degree in English.

Then, of course, there is my 13 years experience as an MT before I decided to move into QA.

   The following speaks of my personal experience with Cobra - Insurance premiums out-of-pocket for any reason are an expensive undertaking (they are also tax deductible if you meet deduction requirements).  I was appreciative of having the option of Cobra because of my personal circumstances.  If you are considering going without health insurance for any amount of time, I would suggest that you may be gambling with more than your health.  One emergency surgery or health crisis not covered can cost you everything - I know because it happened to me.  Hospitals and physicians are bound by no debt code - they will sue you and take your home, business, car, pots, pans and the shirt off your back if they can redeem a penny for it.  They are not required to accept a payment plan.  My hospital told me that an indefinite payment offered by me to start of $100 every 2 weeks to start was not worth their time and effort.  A bit of trivia - I was employed by this same hospital for 10+ years.

COBRA guidelines are set by the Fed - all rules must be followed to the letter by all parties.  My premium was 120% of what my original premium while employed with the company was.  I went the entire 18 months during which my premium was raised once - without warning - if you fail to pay the premium exact to the penny, by the exact postmarked indicated date, you are terminated from the plan.  I was nearly terminated with the premium increase which arrived in a separate envelope along with the premium notice.  There are no exceptions to the rules governing Cobra - this works sometimes in your favor and sometimes in the ex-employer's favor.   After the first premium increase, I called 1 time each month on the same day and asked if there was a premium increase -  the point being don't take anything at face value when dealing with this issue.

        These guidelines also direct what happens when your Cobra involvement ends or if you terminate it before the 18 months are finished - there are also exclusions which may make the amount of Cobra coverage available longer than 18 months.  The day your Cobra ends, you have a set number of days to get involved with another plan - if you choose Cobra, make sure someone explains what happens when the plan ends, and if you are told "nothing" or "you are on your own," ask someone else who knows that they are talking about.

      If you choose Cobra, you need to speak to whomever administers the plan - some companies hire a third party, others do not.  Make sure you get all the facts.  

      There are obvious negatives but one thing is an absolute positive, if you meet all the guidelines each month and pay the correct premium on time, you will have continuation of your health coverage and time to plan for the future.  My research led me to understand that I might find a cheaper interim plan, but I might just as easily lose that plan for any number of reasons, leaving me high and dry.  I personally could not risk this.  I saw an earlier comment about not letting coverage lapse and preexisting conditions - If there is a plan anywhere which does not have a preexisting clause of some type for every new enrollee, I would be very surprised.  I talked to about 14 carriers over 6 months.  Not having a lapse in coverage or not exceeding the cushion of days provided by Cobra between policies is most beneficial, I feel, when you are applying for new coverage on your own - Companies are much more receptive to someone who has existing coverage as opposed to someone without, for obvious reasons.  However, this varies from ins co to ins so and you need to do your homework.

    One last thing, I cannot speak for every state, but I called our State Insurance Commish - wonderful lady whose staff went way out of the way to make sure I was fully clear on what my Cobra rights were. These people were totally on my side! I highly recommend this phone call to anyone trying to get health insurance.  The state is not allowed to recommend an insurance co; however, they do have ratings and data that you may find very helpful in choosing coverage.

I spent many, many hours learning about and personally experiencing this process - I hope you find something helpful here.  Whatever happens, I wish you the best of luck! 

reports to the doctor the same way... secure, safe, easy.  I purchase the space from startlogic for $90 a year. Hope this helps!

Could anyone tell me if they are an IC or an employee and who they work for?  I am trying to find out if I should change all of our IC's to employees or not.  Also, could you tell me which one you like better?

Thanks

I hope I posted this in the right spot! Kind of new to this forum, especially with posting messages.  I downloaded a medical transcription survey from 2007 from the MTIA web site which I thought was very interesting and would like to share it with you all if you have not read it.

I loved the summary point stating "Doctors do not generate revenue, documents do. Accurate and complete healthcare documents are essential to a doctor's and institution's revenue cycle."

I remain hopeful and optimistic that in the future that we will once again be recognized for how important our jobs really are.  All of us can go out and get ourselves a medical secretarial position or other positions in the medical field, but it takes a special talent to do the job we do, and I think many people who think our jobs are not worth the money we deserve, possibly can't do OUR jobs.

This is the link and if it does not work, go to the MTIA.com web site, search under press releases and it is the Bentley MT survey for 2007. Hope you find it interesting.

http://www.mtia.com/Downloads/MTSurveyReport-Preliminary.pdf

Do you believe that:

A:  Poverty is mostly the result of poor choices in life, either by yourself or by your parents and grandparents before you, thereby setting up the vicious cycle.  Early parenthood, out-of-wedlock births, no father in the home, recycled boyfriends in and out of a home, lack of early childhood stimulation with books/toys, lack of routine and academic expectations, etc. 

OR

B:  Poverty is societal.  Poor people have no choices in America and no real opportunity or ability to raise themselves out of poverty.  The way to end poverty is to increase social programs until people are not living in poverty anymore.  Poverty is societies fault and the government's fault and therefore theirs to fix.

Which is preferred, Notebook or Desktop for working 8+ hours per day doing MT?  Any specifics you'd like to share about processor/memory would be helpful.  Upgrading my computer and deciding which would work best for me.

I have the opportunity this spring and summer to speak to MTs and business owners in various parts of the country, and one of the topics I'll be discussing is voice recognition editing.  After working with it for a year, I have my own opinions on the subject, but I'm hoping to collect information from other MTs who have been performing both editing and traditional transcription for the past 6 months or longer.  Your participation would be greatly appreciated.

The link to the survey is: http://www.webstream.us/survey/index.php?sid=1

Jay

asking about how MQ can do better.  We got a letter telling us the findings 9 months later and on it apparently lots of MTs beitched about no pay increase and they are looking into it.  That was 3 months ago. 

MQ is too busy plotting and planning how to rip off the clients and MTs to be bothered with the current problems.  They have a bazillion managers but no one seems to be able to keep the simplest things done on a timely basis. 

used DocQscribe, but I have used Meditech, Cerner, Vianeta, the Precyse platform (I can't remember the name), Dolbey, and  Lanier platform I think was called Cequence (?). 

Out of all the different platforms I have typed on, I have liked EXText the best.  In my opinion, it's very user friendly, easy to learn, and I really like ESP which is the built in abbreviation expander.  Plus it is very easy to create your own normals which I love.  My fingers literally never leave the keyboard because there are macro keys for everything.  You can use your mouse if you prefer or learn the function macros.  I love it.  I think I'm more productive on EXText than with any other platform.