I had a similar experience, had a cow when I got the bill from the hospital - sm
Posted By: Laura E. on 2005-08-14
In Reply to: a bit of advice re health insurance. - fg
I did not know I needed PERMISSION to go the ER (any ER).....I had taken a bad fall while skiing (back in 1995) and had my friends drop me off at the ER when we got home as my leg was killing me and I had hit my head too. Got a bill for $1500 or so saying it had been denied. I promptly called up the insurance company found out my "error", explaining that I did not know I needed to get "authorized" before a trip to the ER, etc. I had to go through a little red tape but was able to get them to resubmit it and have insurance pay for it. --So it may take a couple phone calls and maybe a letter, but it is worth the effort!
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The doc charged $500 I don't see that as a rip off - the hospital bill though - sm
for $5K is a bit outragous and has nothing to do with the doctor actually. I hope she has insurance.
If he has surgery, wait until you get the hospital bill for that sm
I had knee surgery a couple of years back. Three days in the hospital and the bill was almost $20,000. The surgeon's bill was $10,000. I can just imagine what the cost will be with today's inflated prices.
Similar experience
Yes, I just had a similar experience like that. Funny thing, I thought the recruiter should have been a little nicer to me, unless he figured out quickly that he didn't need me. Had to sit and listen to him on his soap box for 15 minutes.
Another similar experience
I talked to a gal (not actually a recruiter, but one who runs a MT placement service) who had the same condescending attitude. She talked incessantly about her outstanding credentials, incredible experience and MT ability. I realized 2 minutes into the conversation that I did not want to do business with her. Then I pointed out she had misspelled some words on her website. I never heard from her again. LOL
I just went through a similar experience.
I have 15 yrs experience and have been away from doing MT work about a year and a half. I applied at several companies. I, too, failed the first test I took. 
Turns out that the new AAMT BOS rule which I wasn't aware of is that on numbers 1 thru 9 in a sentence, you have to use the digit and not spell out the word, i.e., 5 instead of five. Once I clued into this I passed several other tests and am now back to work. I'm sure you just as skilled as you ever were!! Don't lose your self confidence. I agree that the best thing to do is brush up on AAMT BOS. Good luck!! 
I had a similar experience
Good for you and you should be so proud and what a lucky little dog! :)
We rescued a tiny little Shih Tzu almost three years ago now. She had an injured eye that the owner never took to the vet to be treated and her eye had to be removed. :( A rescue place took her in and had her eye extracted and they had her spayed. She had ear infection, worms (so looked like she was starving), and kennel cough as well. We got her and I had her to the Vet every day for the first week. She was SO sick I thought we might lose her. Our vet was great and just charged me for medication for her. She looked awful too because the owner had hacked her matted hair. It look like she got caught in a fan! She was just horrible looking. You wouldn't believe the difference in her then and now photos! :) She is the most loving, sweetest little girl. She is treated like a princess too!
We have two male Shih Tzu as well that we love dearly. One has a lot of medical problems we are dealing with. I tell my husband I do MT to pay for their medical expenses. :D That is just part of being a responsible owner. We are going to be doing allergy testing on our middle "child" tomorrow and start him on injections as he has SO many allergies and has secondary problems due to this.
Anyway, our Shih Tzu snort water too. I find putting my finger under their nose where it makes them breathe through their mouth usually will stop it. Sometimes you have to do this a couple times. This is very common in short nosed dogs. Ours even drink out of water bottles so don't do it as much as drinking out of a bowl but still do.
Yours might be doing it more so due to the kennel cough or bronchial infection. It sounds like to me, by your description, that is more like a kennel cough. Mine have all had kennel cough and yes they did get their immunizations for that but did you know that that injection only covers a few strains of kennel cough so they can still get it?!? I didn't know that until all three of mine got it and had the vaccine!
Best wishes. :)
I had a similar experience with Spheris.
Try a smaller MTSO before you even think about giving up on your MT career. Put your resume out on the MTstars resume database off the Job Seeker board. I was ready to throw in the towel after dealing with two large nationals right in a row. They put me on the most difficult accounts, ran out of work, bounce me around for coverage. I couldn't make my lines because I never had the same dictator more than once or use an expander. However, I switched to a smaller company that's been great so far. I actually did 200 lines per hour yesterday. I'm going to push myself to see if I can break 250 lph or more. Remember, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.
30+ years, and similar experience to yours. (sm)
I just quit a clinic I'd been at for over 25 years. Was treated like dirt, and when other employees got a COL raise and I did not, I was told I had "worked there too long." Nice, huh?
I've had similar experience
Yes, I think I do know what you mean. Especially since I am familiar with the account, I know what the format is and where the same ASR mistakes are made and go through and fix them while playing the audio. It's like I can read, listen, look ahead and fix all at the same time.
It is faster than typing in general; however, to keep my hourly rate up I really have to stay at it and get in the "zone," without getting up much. After a while I feel kind of stressed out. I think I have traded one kind of tired for another.
We had similar at our hospital but there were 2800 employees SM
so they did drawings. The party was given for us by the doctors, and paid for out of their pockets.
Great food, a lot of fun.
But the best was our department Christmas party - pot luck, Director playing Santa and we drew names. Some of my fondest memories.
Hi! Went through a similar thing at a smaller community hospital....sm
in the state...all the same set-up as you stated, but the coders, who shared our office, were also the darlings of the hospital and were treated differently. When pressed for an answer, the head of HIM said that between us, the coders were seen differently because they were responsible for bringing lots and lots of money into the hospital, their coding "properly" translated in to billing, which translated into $$$ for the hospital...all the while, the coders, in part, depended on back-up from our department when trying to decide which code was most appropriate. Since your working conditions would be changing if you are sent home, I think it is entirely reasonable and very intelligent to ask them for a new job description, I always love to have things in writing for future reference. You sound like a very productive MT, so don't worry...I didn't have to worry about speech recognition at this hospital cutting down on pay, but is there an HIM head whom you could all have a small meeting with to clarify these questions? It would be nice to put your mind at ease. Hope it all works out and you have the best of BOTH worlds, Granny!
Did you start with hospital experience?
instead of investing in equipment, or start with a small system or a used system if you want your own call in equipment. Bytescribe seems to have the best deals on dictation call-in systems. But if you are just starting out, you may decide to go with a TASP instead so that you don't have to invest in equipment.
The hospital experience is crucial. That way you have a sound base. You have the knowledge and the experience. And you have contacts and references from a hospital, which is going to get your foot in the door. That's why I say that is my #1 recommendation. Start with getting experience working IN a hospital and be the best MT they have. Work hard and prove yourself to them. Go the extra mile and impress them. Don't be a whiner. That's the best advice I can give you. When you send out flyers and you can give local hospital MT supervisors/HIM managers as references, it opens doors for you.
Absolutely, hospital experience...
I think it must be rare to be able to take advantage of these days. I would not trade those years for anything.
The best place to get experience is in a hospital. I think it is near impossible
to work from home without the valuable experience of working onsite with others around to listen and train.
The schools all hype everyone up on working at home, but it is not that easy!
in-house hospital is the best learning experience. sm
and is accepted with anyone. at least a year or more. there nothing like having someone right there at hand first time out.
good luck, you'll do fine.
I think it's unprofessional not to pay..I simply state, if you don't bill, I bill directly...
This has only happened once, and I had my check cut same day. This is business and I will not beg someone to give me my money. I simply stated it as a fact.
The easy answer is to go to a local hospital and get experience.
The other answer is to ask anyone and everyone out there to give you a test, prove yourself, put your best foot forward.
Be very careful tough, because in your post you even used a wrong word "there" for "their" and I just wanted to bring this to your attention not to give you a kick but to caution you that you really need to "know your stuff" to get into this business. What you put out there tells about you, so make sure it's your best.
I have 13 years experience and just started a hospital job working from home making $16 an hour
and with a really good incentive plan. I live in the Kansas City area. $10 seems like a low starting point even with only two years experience which is the usual benchmark for hospital MT jobs.
It's been my experience that the low end of the pay scale for hospital employed MTs was around $12 an hour. Also, it's been my experience that the pay offered is usually based on years of experience and how well you perform on the transcription test.
I would say if their pay is that low, they should at least be making it up with incentive and it doesn't sound like they are.
JMO
I'll trade you your $88 bill for my $350 bill.
I would love to have such a small bill like that.
Depends on what kind of hospital? Large urban hospital or small community hospital? SM
Also, is it a large teaching hospital? If so you have to consider there will be A LOT of different residents dictating, usually a lot of ESLs at teaching hospitals, and the residents rotate out and new ones rotate in every summer. So you can't expect to get the same dictators and build up your macros because the dictators change all the time.
I would say 9 cpl would be a pretty good offer for a small to medium community hospital where you will be doing the same dictators on a daily basis. But for bigger, urban or teaching hospitals I would want at least 12 to 15 cpl.
Experience on top, current experience first. Education second. Leave out ALL fluff.
Recruiters don't need your life story. They need to know if you can do the job. If you want, put your current employer, then state "I have 20 years in the profession doing....." Keep it simple; keep it clean. If you want to go into more detail, do it during the interview. A HUGE red flag is to see that you've worked for 10 different companies, for months at a time. I know that someone who has worked for the same company for 2 years or more is going to have some degree of loyalty and will work through issues rather than cut and run.
Ole Bill for me too...
Believe it or not, my bill was $35.
But then my apartment complex pays for AC and heat - yea!
Bill in NY
The rates in NY have gone up too, but we just paid $175 so I feel very lucky after reading some of the amounts.
$440 last bill
I bill
once a month and pay my MT's once a month. Payable upon receipt. I've only had a few times where the check didn't come but that was a small account at the hospital and the bill was going to the wrong department, etc. As a business owner you should be prepared to have SOME cash flow, just for occurrences such as these. I have had accounts miss a payment but when I send the next month's bill, they paid right away. Then again, there were some months when I forgot to send THEIR bill, so fair enough. I have never really been stiffed.
p.s. a contract is only as good as the two people signing it...
Yep, except the game with Bill
was minus the odor and the little white crabs marching around the stogie.
Mine went from $19 to $138 from one bill to the next.
We expect it to go even higher despite using wood heat in the shop now.
Heating bill
I just got socked with an over $500 bill for a fill of propane
That is what I am doing now---I bill at .10 a line BUT -sm
it is a 50 character line. I have no idea if the docs know it or now though as I took it over from another MT. So I do my billing with the just the line counts showing, no character totals, and take it from there, comes out to about a .13 line if by 65 characters. I plan on doing the same when soliciting new accounts as no one wants to go over .10 around here. Yes the line blurs a little here but you gotta do what you gotta do--- if the docs weren't such cheapskates maybe the line would not have to be tweaked or crossed.
You know, it may be because of Bill Cosby!
Doesn't that take you back?
bill clinton nm
x
electric bill
Yes, our electric bills have been outrageous. Last month was $199.00, and my new bill came in and is $256.00 also! I too live in California, and we get shafted with the utilities in this state. During winter months my gas bill was as high as $175.00 which is almost five times what it used to be 7 years ago, and my paychecks keep going down in the transcription field!.
how can you *bill for your time* when all that --sm
the MTSO sees is your line count? am I missing something here??? Please explain. thanks
Pt should worry more about the bill
Yuk.
If there is one bill you NEVER ignore
mortgage. Always, always keep in touch with them even if you don't have the payment. Your not alone in your dilemma. The mortage companies have been very flexible and willing to work with payment issues in the past year. Not sure if the options are still available since they've started foreclosure proceedings, but there are payment plans and now the popular "modification" loans. Pick up the phone and call them - do it ASAP. Explain your situation, decreased income, ARM adjustment and see if there is an option to keep you in the home at a payment that is comfortable. I know many of the lenders are waiting for the exact guidelines on March 4th under the new stimulus plan to come out. Hopefully this will be the saving grace some are hoping for.
I wish you luck though, I know you're in a touch situation. I was there too so can truly sympathize. My loan is currently pending modification, but I first started with a payment plan. My fingers and toes are crossed.
it fits the bill for me! i'm frugal too :)
x
FOX NEWS??? BILL O'REILLY???
Great source of "unbiased" news there...lol.
Would rather have Bill and his sexual escapades...
than W with his useless and tragic war anytime...
Does anyone know when the Safe ID bill comes up for vote?
(regarding our medical records being sent out of the country). I have already emailed my senators and am encouraging everyone to do the same.
Mine was a bill collector
You just get yelled at all day and threatened. What a miserable job, listening to people cry about their problems, etc. I felt bad for them.
I worked beside a bill collector once (sm)
and she was NOT very nice. I really think she enjoyed badgering people on the phone. People cussed her, hung up on her. I used to work insurance billing in the same office and once in a while had to call patient's concerning their accounts. I worked with them on payment arrangements, I mean something is better than nothing. I brought in more than she did.
Anyone getting socked by heating bill yet?
My latest was $88 - hmm...I've almost never had my heat going since I use space heaters. Hmm...odd.
Seriously, I think it's Bill Cosby playing...
mind games with us because I do the same thing with Jello! I never make it, but I can say I have at least 3 or more boxes of the pudding and the Jello at all times. My children often see it and beg me to make it. What's the deal? Really, I think it's a leftover 'Bill Cosby' thing for me. I don't know what makes me buy it, I don't even like it. It's an illness. I'm sure of it.
Bet Hillary's is higher than Bill's!?!?!?!
!
a little factual HX on Bill and Hill...sm
when in Arkansas, Bill was governor earning $32,000 yearly
when in Arkansas, Hill was an attorney earning $267,000 yearly.
So calling her DUMB only makes you look MORE DUMB.
Check your Verizon bill... sm
When I first signed up for DSL, they added all kinds of charges and extras - one was for a backup dial-up account in case DSL went down for some reason!! Yeah right! I was able to get at least that one removed, if not more, and now my monthly fee is around $35 or so.
We live in a rural area and waited forever for DSL, but I know my mom is also very happy with her cable, which, as someone else mentioned, might be a good option. I know it's really fast.
I believe the total bill was close to $400.00 sm
but keep in mind that this was about 8 years ago. Also, your pooch may have needed much more care than mine did--and also it could be more depending on what area of the country you are as well. I'm in a small rural community with only 3-4 vets in the area.
Not laughing at your bill.. that bites..but
in California gas & electric has sucked big time for decades! I average around $2000 a year...throw in some rolling blackouts too.
Not OP, but Bill Clinton is STILL sexy,
and unlike Bush, very intelligent!!
A $300+ bill is typical for us in Arizona. sm
We use the payment plan so our bill is the same every month. They average all 12 months and come up with a month payment. Our winter bills usually would be as low as $70 if we weren't on the payment plan.
Can't live here without AC - no way, no how.
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