IMHO, outsourcing is only one ingredient to this stew. NM

• Could this be the writing on the wall for the US MTs... - SisterMT
  • Writing on the Wall - travelinMT
    • this is from an article (see inside) - SisterMT
  • Offshoring just makes me very angry...sm - curious girl
  • Nope. PS: They need to proof their own blurb. - nm
    • I agree - Alice
      • I kind of thought this fit with all the posts about low work, no work. - SisterMT
        • IMHO outsourcing is only one piece of this pie. (nm) - anon

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QA gets the pits because the good ones aren't hard.  I've never done QA, but I know the reports with blanks I do have are from really awful ESLs or Americans.  I think I'm pretty good with ESLs, but some of it is just flat mush.  And of course there are those folks who don't really care about what they're putting out, figuring QA will cover their butts.  You're going to get the dregs just by nature of your job.

As far as going back to MT, if you love it, do it.  Life is short, why hate your job?  It's a big part of your life.  I work for MQ and I'm doing fine, contrary to all the nay-sayers out there.  I'd say research companies or look locally, because it's not all as bad as you might hear.  I've worked in offices, as an IC, and now as an employee at a national.  Good situations are out there, just do your research, and take all the complaining with a grain of salt.  Complainers are usually the loudest people on the boards, it's human nature.  Email me if you want to chat more.  Best of luck!

Okay, with an hourly rate you can do some figuring.  I believe that, even though one would typically have more experience doing QA, they do not necessarily make more money on a per hour basis because their line per hour rate is much lower than the MT rate to make up for the greater number of lines done when editing.  I think QA is primarily a bonus in that you don't have to do all that physical typing.  I think MT and QA makes about the same amount per hour in general.  Assuming this, then you can figure out where you are pretty much. 

If you type 160 lines per hour at 0.08 cpl, then you are making $12.80 per hour.  I don't know for sure, but that sounds like a pretty average number of lines per hour and line rate for many MTs out there, so what you are making sounds pretty average, IMO. 

If you want to challenge yourself, however, you can do better.  I can do almost 200 lines per hour and make 0.09 cpl, so that's about $18 per hour.  That's as an independent contractor working at home through an MTSO, not an employee, and not as an IC on my own accounts (make much more on those with no MTSO middleman).  Even if you stayed with the 0.08 cpl and upped your lines by 20 an hour to 180, OR if you went to 0.09 cpl and stayed at 160 lines per hour, you get a raise to $14.40 per hour. 

Hope this helps!

I have this to say to that person

1.  Its stealing from your fellow teammates.  You are awarding yourself 4 hours of their shift and their work because you're too lazy or too incompetent to get your speed up.  They have bills to pay just like you do, and are sitting there out of work because YOU stole it.  Especially if THEY are honest and only work approved OT.

2.  Its lying to your employer and yourself as to how efficient you are, when you are falsifying your time card.  It is also putting them in jeopardy with the labor board, should you both get caught.

3.  Its bragging to post this - bragging that you are lazy and incompetent, and like to steal work, so you think you're smart and slick to have found a way around hard work and better skills.  Shame on you!

Thank GOD where I work the ONLY way you can type a job is if you are punched IN to the time clock.  So I know you're not my coworker.  I pity those that are.

MT Word Seeker is definitely better IMHO.  The search results are more to the point, perhaps because it searches 1100 medical / MT websites. 

MS Word's AutoCorrect.  I bought is and asked for help in transfering my AutoCorrect entries to it.  The owner kindly answered she would do it FOR me . . . for an additional fee of $25!!!!  Being as I had just paid $189 for it, I thought that was terrible!  Her instructions for doing the transfer do not work.  I honestly think it is just a ploy to make more money.

I finally did the transfer myself, after numerous tries.  Now I don't even use it.  Since it isn't anything "special," it isn't worth the trouble.  I much prefer IT to SpeedType.  In fact, ANYTHING other than SpeedType is better, in my opinion.

I think it will get to the point where everybody will outsource at least some of the work.  With all these companies begging for employees it doesn't seem like there's enough of us.  The employer I just left was a private owned company and one of the biggest accounts decided to outsource. Don't know who they chose to do this for them, they didn't say, but my income was cut from 4500. a month to 1300. a month.  Right now just desperate for a good job.

I agree with the posters. Check your medical reports, some of them contain serious errors, I was misdiagnosed in an op report as having a serious condition I was determined "not" to have.

I also was treated like a common criminal by a foreign country because I bought a laptop from someone who lost their job in 9/11. I paid a little more than I should have because I felt sorry for him and unless I pretended to be "him" they would not help me. I finally after two months got the right part from an American company and my laptop worked just fine after two shipments of the wrong part and a whole lot of aggravation and misinformation.

They are a third world country and we will take their place soon if we don't watch out. They'll be taking over more than our jobs. It's very dangerous. It is life-threatening as far as information goes. Some will be saving money but losing lives.  

In response to: People say outsourcing will happen.....It is happening!! There are a few National companies (which will go unnamed, but you know who they are) who have contracts with facilities who know the work is being outsourced and they want it because it cut their line rates significantly. This is our biggest competition right now. Overseas, the piddly line rates of 6 cents/line is a lot of money to those people. They are getting better and better at it (the offshore countries), and in time, they will be so good that there will be little editing needed. It is just like newbies here in the US, it just takes time for them to improve and learn...and before you know it, we'll wake up one day and poof...very little if any work in US, all overseas! It is a global economy and what we think is peanuts, they think is a fortune! I am currently retraining in another profession (nutrition) because I have been watching this evolution for the past 7-10 years. I managed a company back in 1997 that first sent transcription overseas and I had to proof and edit that crap! I think in 9 years, they are probably getting better at it and with time, they will improve even more. Don't be so sure that outsourcing will not continue to be a current event! IMHO.

I originally posted this on the "Company Board," but one kind soul there suggested I repost it on the Main Board, so here it goes:

I'll tell you my personal take on this.  I'm a very small MTSO and am fighting like heck to keep my jobs in the good old USA - hiring only Americans, etc.

We face stiff competition from companies who offshore, use EMR, etc.  I charge my clients what the market will bear.  I've already had to lower my rates to 2 of my largest clients because even at the lower cpl rates I was charging them at the time, they were ready to walk to India, and in fact were testing out some Indian MT companies - this after I had, in fact, already lost 2 other doctors' offices to offshore Indian companies.  I feel I am fair and pay my IC transcriptionists 2/3 of whatever I make from my clients.  But whenever I advertise for experienced transcription help, I am pretty much told to go jump in the lake with the rates that I'm able to afford to pay, even though it's good, steady work.  So the bottom line is that I really find it difficult to get any competent help from American MTs. Not that there aren't many around, just that I and many like me can't afford them.  Not blaming the MTs (American OR Indian) for wanting to make a living either, I'm just saying this to demonstrate the dilemma I find myself in. I suspect it's the same for other small MTSOs.  Can't really raise my rates, because from prior experience, many doctors offices have no scruples about sending work offshore.  I've never resorted to offshoring anything, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted.

Not singing the blues, just telling the facts.  Personally, I'd rather be selling hotdogs on the beach.

I am the only Transcriptionist in a doctor's office.  We started sending some work to a transcription company in November and later found out they were outsourcing to India.  I thought my doctors would be upset, but guess what??? NO!!!  It has been the biggest "mess" for me to correct.  It has been far more trouble for me than if I just typed everything.  I started leaving all the blanks, etc. and let the doctors start dealing with this and as of 6/15/07 we are no longer using that transcription company.  We found someone locally (IC) who is typing our work for the same amount per line.  YEAH!!!!! 

All our hospitals/facilities Outsource - to us.- so unless we all want to loose our jobs, we need to be careful what we complain about.  It's Offshoring that we're protesting.