It takes a lonnngggg time to get paid.
Posted By: Just Wondering on 2006-01-20
In Reply to: Don't bother with them... - Lori
You get paid for work you did a month ago. Paychecks were short. No answer when questioned about how they arrived at their line counts. Advertise holiday bonus and $1500 bonus for acute care - do not know of anyone who got one. Probably just management cronies. They have great accounts but it is difficult to get lines. All the work is straight type with lots of looking up because they have teaching facility accounts, so it is difficult to set up templates. All the better work I am sure goes to preferred MTs or farmed out elsewhere. The platform is not transcription friendly, lots of looking up and spreadsheets, and they do not pay for headers and footers. They also micro management big time.
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Oh it is a lot of extra typing that takes time which I don't get paid for! nm
nm
So if it takes the client 3 months to pay, you don't get paid? Not cool - I'd
get all your pay first, or at least current up to 2 weeks. Then quit, granted if you don't give 2 weeks notice they will probably hold your "pay". But if pay is to be sent on the 5th, then the 2nd presumably is around the 20th, and after 2 months they are finally sending you a check on the 24th??? As mail to Canada, I would think it would take a day or two longer, but that is it, depends where in the U.S. you are. -Good luck.
Maybe they will. Give it time. It takes time to set up links.
OSI, Precyse, etc tell us more.
It takes time
It probably seems like it is not worth it because you are new. No other account will be easier and probably harder. So you have to stick with it, get a good Expander as since you have the same doctor you should only be actually typing about 2/3 of what he says and probably more like 50%. Use your autocorrect if you don't have an expander. You don't say how long are your lines -- what side margins and what font are you using? I have helped get newbies started and always paid between 7 and 9 depending on how much clean up work I had to do. Again, it will take time and practice. Don't give up. Though 6 cpl is a little low, if it is still 65 character line, in time you should be able to get 200 to 300 lines per hour which is not bad and once you get him down good, ask for a raise. But you have to get your speed up. You have an advantage of having the same doctor and so listen for his common phrases and put them at least into autocorrect so you don't have to retype them. If he doesd any x-rays or procedures, make templates. Anything to save him time. His exams, put into autocorrect, etc. Are you an IC or an employee??? Good luck.
IT TAKES TIME to get a trial going.
Here is a link regarding the lawsuit from FEBRUARY, 2005 for which you will need Acrobat reader.
http://deflaw.com/medquist_add.pdf
Here is MQ e-mail which was followed up by hard copy in US mail regarding MT lawsuit.
July 14, 2005
VIA Electronic and U.S. Mail
Dear Statutory Medical Transcriptionists:
W e would like to thank you for your continued service and support. We know that the key to our success is the people who work so hard for our customers everyday.
At MedQuist, we are determined to become the medical transcription provider of choice for statutory employees. Over the past several months, with your help and input, we have been working on developing a pay plan and comprehensive benefit program that will enable us to set the standard in the industry. We recently announced significant changes to our benefits program for full time employee transcriptionists and within the next few months, MedQuist will be announcing a new pay plan that will address the feedback we received from medical transcriptionists in response to our survey on pay issues.
As you may also know, MedQuist is currently responding to a lawsuit brought by three medical transcriptionists that was filed in response to certain publicity surrounding MedQuist's billing practices involving the AAMT billing unit of measure. MedQuist takes all allegations concerning its pay practices very seriously and will seek to address any concerns raised by the lawsuit. While we believe that the claims raised by the three transcriptionists appear to lack merit, we are diligently working on addressing this matter in order to best serve all of our valued medical transcriptionists.
To enable us to fully and appropriately respond to this, as well as other lawsuits currently pending against the company and governmental investigations, our lawyers from Winston & Strawn are required to collect documents. To ensure that you are completely informed about the materials they are seeking, we have attached a memorandum below regarding MedQuist's document retention and collections policy. Please review this document as soon as possible.
Once again, we would like to express our deep appreciation for your continued patience, cooperation and service to the company.
Very truly yours,
Frank Lavelle
President
Enclosure
The lawsuit is VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WELL and as some of the more sophisticated posters realize, it takes time for DISCOVERY allowing both sides to attack and defend their position. And MQ stock is STILL delisted as not even MQ can figure out cooked books based on illegal billing for which ANOTHER lawsuit is STILL pending against MQ by the clients. And as the MQ stock remains delisted for cooked books and illegal billing the shareholders in MQ stock have YET ANOTHER lawsuit still pending.
I agree with you. It takes time to get the
kind of help in there. They have one road open. Everything is flooded. There is no airport to land at. Gas is scarce. 90% of the gas that came from that area is no longer functioning. Cars are being stolen from places just to get out. Thugs are shooting at helicopters trying to evacuate critically ill patients. You've got groups of thugs shooting everything up and steeling anything and everything, but they don't realize mostly everything they take will have to be left behind. Everyone wants help now but it takes time to put together a plan of these proportions. Nobody was prepared for this because they didn't think it would happen. You have people commandering vehicles with guns for their own use that are being brought in to help evacuate. The only boats you see are very small ones because the big ones can't come in and work. The water is not deep enough.
A lot of people stuck there are making the situation worse for everyone else because they are helping to put off rescues that can happen by shooting at vehicles, shooting at police officers, setting intentional fires just to get the police over to the fire so they don't come chase them for looting or terrorizing others. You have idiots walking around with AK-47s down Canal Street.
Shephard Smith described itbest the other day. Made me think too since I live in Fla. The day after a hurricane you hear chain saws going, you have people cleaning up, you get out there and assess the damage. They could not do that because for them in NO it was not over. The floods were getting worse and rising. There were no people assessing damage, no chain saws cutting down trees, no power trucks checking out downed power lines just because they couldn't get into the city. Everything is blocked. The closest city to them that has power is 90 miles away. That means no gas for them. Yes, they're bringing buses and stuff but it's very slow going. Trying to figure out how to do everything and coordinate everything w/o communication to others is very hard.
One of the guys in the news conferences said yesterday that he spent 18 months at ground zero. They are looking at being in NO much longer because that is much more damage than what he saw at ground zero.
I do it the same as you...takes a little bit of time but worth it. nm
t
Honestly, it takes time.
It took me almost 6 months to completely adjust to 3rd shift. I have been on 3rd shift now for 7 years and could not imagine ever working any other shift. Just a few suggestions that took me a bit to figure out. Call your family and friends and tell them not to call you during the daytime. If you have a cell phone, use that as an emergency number for emergencies only, i.e. kids, family, etc. Turn off the ringer on the home phone completely or turn on music and a fan or whatever to drown out the noise. Room darkening blinds will also help filter out the light. Good luck.
because it still takes too much time to train
it may be that they don't see potential in your work, i.e. poor grammar, accounts have too much ESL, etc.
Time it takes to type...
Approximately how long does it take to type, say, 5 minutes of dictation? Or 10, or whatever? Just trying to get a feel for if I'm in the ballpark. Thanks!
You have no idea how much time it takes to run this board! (SM)
Hindsight is always clearer!
You are right - they will get the message sooner or later!
Goldbird
time it takes to hear back
General question for you all. I recently applied with a company that took a month getting me through their hiring process only to be told that one of their accounts dropped them so they could not hire any more MTs. Now I've applied somewhere else and interviewed, a company that sounds like a great company, but it's been about 7 days since the interview and have yet to hear back. I interviewed with them last Wednesday and was told that I would hear back one way or another by the end of last week. I sent a follow up email yesterday and have not heard anything. How long do these companies typically make you wait before hearing something back? How long before I should give up and apply somewhere else? Thanks.
You don't want to record, takes a long time and unless you
are making big $$ you won't make any money. Also, if you forget to rerecord header info you're out of luck.
You can get an adapter from Radio Shack for about $15 and rerecord to a cassette player, in which case you'll need a transcriber, or record to your computer and I'm not sure how that is done.
As I stated last week when you asked this question, you need to look into digital phone service, something like Vonage, or most high-speed internet services also offer it.
You could also buy prepaid phone cards at Sam's Club, where they are fairly cheap, but you're still talking about $100+/mo. My digital phone is $34.95/month and you can keep your landline or switch it to digital, which is what I did.
No, not really. Do you realize how much time feedback takes. nm
x
It takes a long time to become familiar with
all of the surgical instruments and equipment in operative reports. Most of the time if you do operative reports you usually do all specialties, and each specialty has certain equipment that they use. It just takes time to learn.
In the time it takes her to ask you if it's urgent, she could have just answered your question! n
x
Do you ever feel as though this job takes over your life and you have to work all the time in case
 there wont be work and you just keeping working and you cant get away from it and it gets to be no fun anymore. I am having a problem with that. Is it from working at home or just getting obsessed or what. I hate this. I feel like I am losing my life to it.
Tell him you have reviewed the time and expertise it takes to do his work, versus ... - sm
... the amount of revenue his practice generates, and being a prudent businessperson you don't wish to undervalue your services.
And then sometimes they want us to delete unused headers, which takes extra time, which we don't
X
The FUNNY thing is that in the amount of time it takes for them to post a message
x
SO the little one takes up your time yet you have time?
LOL
Agree! I hate Daylight Savings Time. It takes me a good two weeks
to get myself and everybody in the household adjusted to the time change every six months. If the farmers need to get up earlier, let 'em! That doesn't mean I should have to, also! DST has definitely outlived its usefulness. I stay up later and get up earlier in the summer, but go to bed earlier and sleep later in the winter. It's like my mind and body are tied to the sun, not the clock. I never got an extra hour of sleep last night anyways because the neighbor's stupid dog barked from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
If you like to get paid on time, don't go there.
.
not being paid on time
I absolutely agree with you. My particular work is being done through the mail from the doctor's notes. I have not sent them anything else since this happened and I told them that and they said that is fine. Hopefully this afternoon this other person may come in. My husband told me hang in, it will all work out. They always pay, so I will keep praying like I said, prayer does work.
not being paid on time
The office manager is on her honeymoon until the 20th and the doctor cannot handle anything about the money. It is a very large account, he says there is plenty of money, no problem. I just keep praying about and asking for God's help. The doctor's wife is the one filling in and writing checks and coming in with no set hours.
Not getting paid on time
I have been having a huge problem and wanted some input from others who have gone through this. I have been typing for this company who shall remain namless for the time being for over 6 months now and I actually really like it. I like the people, I like typing almost all of the doctors, which I think is rare. However, my main problem is with getting paid. I am supposed to get paid weekly, but I have gone weeks, literally weeks (3 or more) without getting paid and it is really starting to interfere with my ability to pay my bills on time. I am not working to make a little extra cash, I actually have to pay bills and buy groceries and I find it extremely frustrating that companies feel it is okay to do business this way. I am expected to work and cover my shift an should I not expect the same in return for getting paid on time? I am so angry about this and do not want to have to look for yet another position, but this is getting to be ridiculous. I would be extremely interested to hear if others have gone through this and what you did about it. I am almost getting reluctant to do any more work for fear that I will never see this money. Any advice would be appreciated!!!!!
not being paid on time
It hasn't been that long, thank God, about 2 weeks. Then they get it straight and then again they are late. The person who is responable just got married, she will be back on the 20th. The other person who writes the checks is not that reliable.
not being paid on time
What would you do if you had a private account and payment is sporadic?
I am paid by time
one minute of dictation = 10.5 lines is how we figure it. It usually works out even. Sometimes they dictate fast and you get in a few more lines then you should and sometimes they talk slow and you get more lines. It works out well.
Paid by time?
The first thing that came into my head was "DON'T DO IT!" The doctor is trying to lower the amount of money he would be paying you. Think about this... he dictates an entire 2-page operative note in 1 minute and 20 seconds.. don't say this can't be done. I transcribe these types of reports all the time. Even though I get paid per line and for a service, the docs talk as fast and furious as they can. The doctors and hospitals are always finding ways to pay their transcriptionsts less. Also, seeing that you have never raised your rates, he remembers this and is always thinking.. don't kid yourself. I've been there and done that for 25 years. Put out that fire now ! 
getting paid on time???
I have recently gotten my first contract with a local physician's office. I received my first payment on time!! Since then I have not gotten a single check. I have talked to the office manager several times. They currently owe for three billing statements. Any suggestions on what to do until I get payment or how to get them to speed up the payment process? Thanks!
Paid on time
I have been in this same position twice and let me tell you, run for the hills. I will never be put into this situation ever again. I gave them chance after chance because the work was easy and the doc was easy to understand, but after being late on several of my own bills because I was not getting paid on time, I just stopped typing for them. I told them that I could no longer afford to work for them because of non-payment. It is ridiculous for anyone to be treated this way.....We are not allowed to be late with our bills or we are charged a fee. Maybe consider charging them a late fee! LOL
AS THEY GET PAID ON TIME AND IT IS CORRECT
while we sit her typing for you fools and YOU RIP US OFF. GONE, OUTTA HERE.
TO GET PAID ON TIME FOR A CHANGE.
SS strikes again. I AM OUT of this place.
Always paid my taxes and on time so never
had to worry about this, but I would be leary of any company wanting $$ for services. I'd just call the IRS and tell them the situation and see what they say. Of course, this late in the tax season getting through may be an impossible task. If you have a local IRS office it might be better to go talk to them in person.
If her MTSO actually paid her on time...sm
She might have had a bit more of a substantial cushion if she was paid on time. But this is not possible if she is always being paid considerably late whether it be by weeks or a month. If this happens to her often this "cusion" will be depleted quickly. You cant save something if you dont have it. By the time she does get paid she probably has late fees for bills, taking care of her sick child etc. Have some compassion. Whether she has any type of "cushion" makes no difference. The point is if she was paid on time she would not have the added stress and probelms from the lack of recieving a pay check on time. I am sure her work is on time, why not her paycheck.
If you're not paid for your time
you shouldn't account for your time. It's none of their business if you have to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water or even load the washer or pet the cat. They just want control which they don't want to pay for.l
Down time should be paid, period.
Not our fault we show up for work and there isn't any. And I don't want to sit all day and night at my desk waiting for work to dribble in, either. If it isn't there during my scheduled shift, then DOWN TIME. We have families to take care of and be with. 
I make $2-3/hr (we are ICs paid for talk time only)
We are ranked. If you aren't in the top ran you do not get as many calls.
I wrote out a longer message but for some reason it didn't post.
paid for "wait time", too cool!
Gosh, I might be doing okay if I was being paid for "wait time", as it seems like that is all I have been doing lately. This two week pay period is nearly up and so far I have only typed 3000 lines, mostly because there is not enough work during my shift. I just don't know what to do.
anyone paid by the amount of time dictated?
I am being paid by the line right now, but my office is switching to a completely new system that counting lines would be a nightmare.
The doc has suggested maybe paying me by the amount of time dictated.
Has anyone done this before, and if so what are the pros and cons, and what is a reasonable rate??? I have NO idea!
Thanks so much for any info.
I have been with them for seven years this September and never raised my rates, which I brought up to him while speaking about the new system saying I would hope whatever we decide is more than I make now!
Last time I was paid this little was during the Reagan administration.
Sigh.
It is time to seek you own accounts to be paid what you are worth! nm
x
Paid downtime vs unpaid slow time - sm
Do MTSOs, nationals, usually pay for downtime for employees? If so, what has been your experience - ever received downtime? your company's policy, i.e., pay for two days downtime?
Also, as an employee for a nat'l, if you have a set schedule, what do you do when very little work comes in, for example one dictation/hour? At what point do you cut out? I'm new to working for a national and this has happened a lot lately - I know, the holidays. If there is little work, I usually only stay connected for two hours, let me sup. know, and call it a day.
I swear, sometimes I hate this industry!!  Any other company, at least in my state, if there is no work, as an employee, you still get paid or after a certain period, you get unemployment...something!
Your insurance benefits will be effective through the period of time you have paid them which...sm
could be the end of the week or the end of the month or the day that the company calls the insurance company to cancel them. You cannot depend on thinking if you quit in the middle of the month you will be covered through the end of the month. You have to find out exactly from your company. Also for COBRA benefits you are eligible for up to 18 months or perhaps longer in special circumstances but yes you have to pay the premium all by yourself, the company doesn't chip in at all. The plus side is you are still in a group plan. You cannot get individual insurance unless you have NOTHING at all wrong with you, no high blood pressure, no depression, nothing. It is very important to not have a lapse in coverage greater than 60 days. If you do, you will lose coverage for any preexisting conditions when you go to your next GROUP insurance (this is the other part of HIPAA - portability). If for example you are covered for high blood pressure and you don't choose COBRA and your insurance lapses for more than 60 days, when you get on the next group plan, they will not cover your high blood pressure M.D. visits or medications for up to 1 year.
You can get relatively cheep individual coverage if you choose a high deductible, to carry you through. That is, if you can get it. Good luck.
For QA consulting I'm paid per hour; QA instructing (college) paid salary, QA editing paid per li
I am an IC and work for two different MTSOs as well as instruct at a business college.
LOVE teaching hospitals and long-winded reports. Less ADT time which I'm not paid for.
Hate filling in ADT screens w/ searches just to do a one minute report.
Charge what the credit card companies charge when they don't get paid on time!!!!
If you submit your reports on time and correctly, you get paid correctly. Pay has been on sm
time for 2 years now. 1st and 15th for employees, 2nd and 16th for ICs. If it falls on a weekend or holiday, it posts the next business day.
By the way, there is no Sophie on radiology at Keystrokes. Must be a troll.
if mt paid 9, editor paid 4 or 5...how can company charge 14 and make it..sm
I know the going rate in our area is 14 cents per line. As MTs most companies here pay us 8 or 9 cents a line. Now add in the Editor rate at 4 or 5 per line..you are paying OUT more than you can charge a line. How would companies stay in biz?
Unless all work is sent by the company overseas at pennies per line, this would not pay for a company.
just curious how this works out
But how much are the US EDs gonna be paid? Typically this work is paid at 2-3 cpl. nm
:+
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