Nationals charge 20+ cpl to fund R&D in programs that will eliminate MTs.
Posted By: MTs are at the bottom of the food chain. on 2005-07-18
In Reply to: Hey! For all you who blame MQ for lowering the bar in the industry, driving the cpl rate SOOOOOO low - MT$$
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Not the OP, but it's what the nationals are willing to pay, not what they charge. Most of us out
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I charge 1 cent less than some nationals...nm
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fund for peidmont maybe
As you were not even the original poster- you sure are hot to get that fund started. My prayers are with her - we have all been in places of our life where we did not think we would make it - the prayers of our family and friends and support of our community helped.
This fund your want to build up - have you contacted them for information, name, address, bank number, account number, bank phone number - or is it possible you already know these things.
PS - of course if you want to set up a fund for me I would love it.
nm
Addendum: As well as your fund of medical terminology knowledge.
All of which are being done to eliminate
our being paid for those clarifying keystrokes, which are now felt to be unnecessary. If I am not mistaken, I read somewhere a while back that "they" (AAMT/AHDI) are in favor of enforcing a standardized VBC system. I see the elimination of those characters as a step in that direction.
I do not follow BOS 3rd and I will not purchase it.
BOS 2nd is the reference the facilities I work on abide by. Until my facilities or MTSO advise me of updated preferences, BOS 2nd is just fine for me.
When time permits, I always work extra so I have a little slush fund - sm
That way when the slow weeks come around (which they always do in this business), I can actually enjoy it instead of fretting about the money I'm losing. For the last nine months I've been doing a little weekend account (maybe 120 minutes of dictation for a whole weekend) and stashing the money away and in October I'm treating my family to a week in Disneyworld. You gotta have some kind of reward to work for - otherwise you get discouraged and unmotivated. But don't try making up the difference in one week, look longer term.
It doesn't eliminate the need for us. (sm)
I work on a couple of accounts using EMR. Work is as heavy as ever.
EMR can eliminate dictation :(
My entire department was laid off after the hospital/clinic got EMR. However, if those fighting against EMR can show how much of a waste of time and $$$ it is for the doctors to enter all their own information, they might figure out a way to make it work for doctors to dictate.
The place I worked at used to have doctors seeing patients ever 15 min (often double booking every patient) to seeing patients every 20-30 minutes once they implimented EMR. That means at least 1 less patient per hour. Calculate that out, and they are down almost $4000 in revenue in a week (1 pt/hr/8hrday/5dayweek/$100 office visit) per doctor. If a practice has 50 doctors, then they are down almost $200,000 of revenue a week. I can't see them paying much more than $1000 per week for transcription, so how would implementing an EMR system where doctors have to enter everything in themselves save them money?
There is a patch to help eliminate those problems you
are experiencing with IE7.0. Do you want a link to it? Solved my IE7 problem, but then again, I rarely uses IE, but a different tabbed browser.
I have the feeling they may eliminate SE because they are starting this new plan in January. Quite
frankly, I am surprised you do okay with Amherst. I sit looking at a no work sign many days and it gets a little tiresome. I have already been looking at other companies because I have felt for a long time with the lawsuits and millions going out MQ is not the place to be anymore. Too much baggage and may Spheris is in the picture especially if they drop SE I think that may well be true.
Charge what the credit card companies charge when they don't get paid on time!!!!
Audio hour charge - what is fair rate to charge company?
Doubt you can charge 15 cpl for VR work to the docs - you can't even charge them 12 for straight
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Proof positive that an hourly rate would eliminate those types of situations.
Lost account of 28 years to Dictaphone because hospital believes it will eliminate all transcription
Curious if any of you are working for Dictaphone or Infomatics and doing an account out of Miami with mainly ESL dictators? I was convinced I would not lose the account after a few days with VR. However Dictaphone is not using VR right away and will transcribe reports the regular way until they have a database. I am certain this hospital will never be done by VR. I posted a job on here about a year ago offering 18 cents per line to help with this account and not one person accepted after hearing the ESL doctors we have. They are that bad. Anyone else have this happen to them? Losing to Dictaphone And we have had to do most of the work for over a month since they supposedly took over because their system is not working.
Word Expander Programs - Are there any expander programs that are easy to use and learn
that are similar to the MS Word expander? I prefer something very simple. I like MS Word expander; however I have gone over my limits and cannot add any more shortcuts so I need a program that will hold a larger amount of shortcuts. Many thanks.
you don't have to charge $60/HR - all you have to do is charge a good rate and then..
work smart, not hard. If you have a great dictator, charge him 14 cpl on a 65 char gross line, then set up your templates and word expanders, you can make $80/hr. But you need all three to work together, otherwise you might only be making $60/hr. Some people are just really good at what they do - shouldn't they make more if they are more productive?
I'd still charge by line, just charge a lower
rate, like maybe 8 cpl. Do you have to pickup and deliver work? You could also setup a one-month contract until you see how it goes and then you can figure out the best way to charge and go from there. You could also charge a flat rate per page and keep it fairly low.
One office I charge .12, another I charge $2.25 page--nm
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What nationals?
What nationals or hospitals have this policy of showing doctors how to dictate better? I have worked at 11 hospitals, clinics and trans services in my career, managed a few, was lead transcriptionist at a few hospitals, supervisor at another and also just an MT at times. Never have I ever heard of a policy like this.
There were no nationals
Nobody had ever HEARD of outsourcing. We were all in-house, regular employees, got a REAL SALARY with benefits including LOTS of PTO time, etc. We were treated with respect and appreciated for our hard work and MT was an actual profession to be proud of. Then after computers came along and the "want it on the chart 5 minutes before the doctor dictates it" mentality, somebody got the brainstorm that they could make tons of money off of us by getting rid of the in-house departments, "allowing" us to work at home, and only paying us peanuts on a "production only" basis. The bottom line of "the cheaper the better" took hold, the nationals took over, started outsourcing overseas, and you have the mess we have today. I guess that about covers it----
Do any other nationals have 10,000 MTs?
Maybe that's why it is talked about so much. There are 10,000 MTs affected by what they do.
Nationals are no better
Disagree, no matter whether you are an I/C with own accounts or with a national or even small MTSO, we are all at the beck of the doctors. If they are off or do not dictate, there is no work. I do not think that the majority of you realize how hard is to balance out having enough staff to do the work to keep the accounts and also keep them busy when the work does not come in, especially when the help does not think twice about someone in the family being acutely ill when they are not, taking off for children field trips on a whim, children being sick or whatever the excuse is not to work. It takes quite a juggline act to accommodate both employees and acounts themselves. That said -- flame me as I have already been burnt many times by people who do not have a work ethic or want to work when they want to and not when the work is available.
Nationals are no better....sm
Every group has people who don't come through when they should, doesn't matter what job, etc. but most of us are professional enough that we don't leave our employers in the lurch, certainly not nearly as often as most of them do us, no work, computer down, etc., etc. but, if someone refers to me as "the help" I wouldn't feel too kindly toward them. I would do the job, but don't ask "the help" for any favors.
Sorry...that's a sore spot. Makes me feel like we should be kept in a corner somewhere until we are needed to "help"
If that happens, no more nationals for me!
nm
Big nationals and MTs
I have been in this business over 20 years. I started when we used IBM Selectrics and tapes. I have seen this business changing over the years, some good, some bad. One thing in particular is the very large national companies getting more and more of a monopoly in the transcription business. This has had an impact on the MT. I am making less per line than 15 to 20 years ago, and I seen that is widespread in this industry. I see it is getting more and more impersonal.
20 years ago many MTs were getting 7 to 7.5 CPL. I see that still happening. Adjust that for cost of living increases and inflation, and I feel wages have gone down.
Now we must compete with overseas work and if an MT wants to do VR, they must take a pay cut, at some companies of up to 50% of your line rate. I remember many years ago when they were talking about implementing VR, we were told we would not have pay cuts, just be able to type more. I knew then that they were lying, of course they would cut our wages. They will squeeze and squeeze to get the most money for themselves. Many of these CEOs make millions, but what about all the unethical business practices. Remember Enron.
I feel most of these changes are because of the a few very large nationals changing the nature of the business. Of course, they want to make as much money as possible. Everybody does, I cetainly do. But it seems to me they are doing it at the expense of the individual MT.
Did you know many transcription companies actually train the MTs in India and then give them a job. If you are in the good old USA, you pay for your own schooling and are lucky to get your foot in the door because of no experiernce.
I think if there were fewer nationals and more smaller companies, maybe the MT would benefit.
Nationals can pay much better
than hospital jobs. If you are capable of 1500 lines in a hospital setting, you can easily do the same at home. With experienc (which you seem to have) you can make at least .95 or .10 per line. Most hospital MTs do not make $150.00 a day. If you want benefits, there are some good national companies with good benefits.
You just need to decide how much your in house job means to you versus staying at home. I work in a hospital during the day and at home in the evening. I make more money at home but I need to see other people so I love going to the hospital 6 hours a day.
No, they don't. Maybe Spheris or the big nationals
that actually send you equipment and take the time to train you, but the little MTSOs don't do anything except set up your user ID and password to get into their system and fax you their contract. Ooh, 15 minutes out of their lives are gone. Dreadful. They expect you to have your own equipment, be proficient with the computer and software, and know how to transcribe medical reports. Reasonable enough, but it does NOT cost them anywhere near the figures you quoted.
$18.5K two smaller nationals. nm
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nationals vs working for yourself
Regarding the post below about how to avg 1600-2000 lines per day, someone posted they make about 12 cpl and about 3500 lines per day. I'm assuming this person works for themselves. To all of you wonderful ladies who are so lucky to do this, where the heck do you get started??? I'm soooo jealous, thats a dream living right there. Seriously, where to look, how to get started, what equipment. Any pointers from you gals? I work no less than an 8 to 9 hour shift to scrape in my 1300-1400 lines, work until my fingers get stiff....!!!!
Probably why the larger Nationals have their own
qq
OH! One of the nationals I worked for did that.
Of course, the supervisors had been on the accounts before getting promoted, so they had tons of macros and expansions already. However, they'd work a few hours and get these astronomical line counts while I had all the leftover garbage dictators. Between that and the frequent shortage of connections available, I quit. The supervisor not only got her supervisory wages, but she also cranked out about 2,000 lines a day in less than four hours by taking work away from the MTs. Why did they hire me and the other MTs if she was just going to hog the good lines and the C-phone connection?
YES! nationals have turned
wife's kind of job......need a second income to live.
It is no longer a career
It is no longer a respectable job.
They have lowered it to _drop in_ make a few bucks_go to bed
But don't expect or receive RESPECT, A LIVING, OR ANYTHING ELSE
from a transcription company. They are there to make the profit
OFF OF YOU.
Bows sounds real darn good - when do we start - I'll make the
wagon to sell them from - I'm pretty handy with power tools now since
my husband left because I had to type 26 hours a day! Stupidly he thought
we should have a life.
I won't work for nationals. Been there, did that.
I got hired on part time at the local hospital, then gained one account on my own. I continue to work for the hospital PT, and now have five accounts and two subs who work for me.
what about nationals where you use THEIR expander....
never thought of that...couldn't they just glean your normals from the Expander without even telling you? I am going into it right now and change the NAMES that I associated with those normals I slaved for free to create!!! (doctor names) Thanks for the tip.
I agree about big nationals
Ridiculous. They pressure you, but leave you high and dry with low work available and expect you to work. Thank goodness for the smaller companies. They are getting the cream of the crop of good MTs!! I switched from a big national to smaller company too!!
Smaller nationals are way to go...
It seems you get treated like dirt by the large nationals, i.e., Medquist, Spheris, no communication, etc. Many experienced MTs have gone the way of smaller national companies simply because of the better communication among employer and employee, more warmth among the company, etc. Spheris tries to give off this impression they are a warm company much thanks to the CEO, but the organization itself is not a good employer to work for.
Nationals: Sometimes the hospitals have their own MTs sm
and pull the MTSO off the account when work is low to keep the hospital employees busy. This probably happens more often than one might think these days. IMHO
I want to look into Smaller Nationals.
I am hoping to get some names of some good Small National companys to work for.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Small Nationals.
I guess just not the huge places like Medquist. I would like a little bit smaller. I am even interested in any companies that are great to work for and pay okay. I am not having that great of luck working for MTSO and getting paid good.
Thanks!!
Did you ever work for nationals? nm
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obviously then you don't work for nationals..nm
HATE Nationals
It is terrible what these large nationals are doing to our industry. I have worked for several and they all start out saying, "We really care about our MTs" Bull feathers!! What they care about is making money off our backs and not paying us a decent wage. And sending our work over to India, Pakistan, or whoever is the lowest bidder. I hope hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices here in the US quit using them so they just go away. I will take a small MTSO any day of the week over these megamonster money machines!
Any other MTs for large nationals getting the
Exactly! What are the big nationals providing?
except a tasp and a salesman to land the account?
If IC, use which ever you prefer; most of the Nationals
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I salute those that work for Nationals
After reading these boards and I really have to hand it to you guys that work for the Nationals. I mean it as I thank the Lord everyday for my three small accounts and business because you guys really have to put up with the garbage and I don't think I could do it. As mentioned below, I am one of those that do clinic notes, consults, minor surgery reports, and have good line counts but I do get lazy and my docs don't care if we are compliant with certain abbreviations, or how some medical organization has said how something should be typed, if it is gramatically correct, spelled correct then it is fine. It is like driving a car for many years if we all had to take the driving test most of us would not pass because we have picked up some bad habits along the way. I recognize that I have and sometimes capitalize generic drugs or something is not typed as the AAMT says how it should be typed or that book that begins with "B". How you guys can keep up on all the changes is beyond me and why they make them is beyond me also. But again, my hat is off to all of you and I think you all deserve a pat on the back and I wish I could put some money in your pockets because I think you all deserve it. If there are errors in here, give me some slack as my day started at 5 this morning as Tuesday is one of my busiest days and am covering for a friend who is on vacation. So am hitting over 3200 lines today and am tiredddddddddddddd.
Patti
The nationals were the undoing of transcription. nm
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Nationals versus locals
I'm not sure if you mentioned how long you worked for MQ, but working for a national is not the same as working for a local company.
Your MQ supervisor might not have even remembered that you had a health problem... maybe she did, I don't know, but when working for a national, you cannot expect that one-on-one treatment. It's just not going to happen. I never elaborate on personal circumstances about why I have to take off. I just send an email saying I can't work for X amount of days because of an unexpected crisis or circumstance and if they need to know more, they can contact me.
The same goes with being routed work types with at which you excell. When you work for a national, 95% of the time you are expected to be able to do all work types. I wonder how many MTs like the same work types as you. Not only that, it would be quite time-consuming to document hundreds of MTs areas of expertise and then assign them only those work types.
I'm just crossing my fingers that MTs who are "friends" with supervisors aren't routed work types I prefer to do as well.
I hope I'm not being harsh, but the reality is that when you work for a national, you can't expect to be treated like an "individual."
I'm not saying that this is always the way it is, but to expect anything else is just unrealistic. As posters said below, your real family and friends are the ones you need to rely on for support and compassion.
theory on why nationals are so awful
If you think about how much money they spend on computers and equipment, shipment, they need to make sure they are not just hiring any joe who does not know what they are doing and can walk away with a free computer. That explains the testing that goes on to get hired on with these companies.
Not only that, being so remote, having so many MTs, they have no time to check references, or to know whether or not you are seasoned or how much experience you might have. You could lie your way all the way into becoming an MT, they lose clients because of the lousy work from inexperienced MTs, lose money because of the thieves who just want a free pc.
We seasoned MTs get lost in the blizzard of this. They are just looking out for themselves, for good reason if you look at it from their perspective.
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