No they're not because I'm making more money on it....sm

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    • No they're not because I'm making more money on it....sm - Happy camper
      • With the lower pay per line, I'd have to be able to - Oh really

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Any of you who do this, how in the heck do you make any money? I accepted a job with a company for 4 cpl for VR, but I nearly have to type the entire reports over.  I was doing it part time and it takes so much time that I figured out I am only making 5.00 per hour.  What's the average rate for this?  I  gave it up, it's not worth it for the line rate, considering I was editing typed transcription as well that came back from India and it was just as bad and took just as much time.

I think the only way we newbie MTs can make any money is to make it ourselves, like counterfeiting. 

I consider myself still a newbie at almost 2 years of nearly full-time working at home with IC status.  Love my company and enjoy my work; it is mainly VR and 3 cents per line.  I am rather slow because I keep double checking everything, but on a good day at 8-10 hours and 800 lines I will make $24.  Isn't that encouraging?  

The extra dollars do come in handy and so appreciated for my farmer husband's income, but this could no way support a single income. 

Working for $3.00 per hour was great sometime in the past, you know?  Like 35 cents per gallon of gasoline in 1969. But it 2009.

I do think if we newbies hang in there long enough and become good at our work then we will move up to better pay.  However, we who work for 3 cents or 6 cents per line and are so thankful to be making even that are probably the ones others may blame for the poor pay since transcription companies can hire us so cheaply.

Don't know what the solution is.   

You stated in your original post that you don't want to work weekends or odd shifts. What is your definition of an odd shift?  Second shift?  Third shift?  Sounds like you want to work M-F on days.  Sounds kind of rigid to me. 

Personally I like second shift, so everyone working days means more work for me! 

If you consider an 80-hour pay period (which I don't do), at $27 per hour with the 800-number company, you'd make $2160.

At $33/hour, paying $1.80/hour, you'd make $2640 minus $144 (a deductible expense also), still netting you $2496 -- substantially more than the company giving you the toll free number and less pay.

Makes no difference to me.  I personally wish you all would stay away from MDI-MD so I could have more work ... LOL

As a hard worker in this industry to put my son through school to become a medical professional, I can tell you that after all my hard work and broken back, he is still paying student loans, works like an animal, hardly has time for his family, continues his education and is not "rich." He treats his staff like family (constantly haunted by his mother to do this) and barely has time to take a bathroom break. I know there are those with fast cars (always thought they did it to get to the patient faster, but I'm sure that's not the case with some of them) and those who are rude (perhaps not taught right by their moms) but some are just ordinary guys and gals who put their pants on one leg at at time like the rest of us and worry about the next payment like the rest of us. They're not ALL the same. I read another post about docs yawning while dictating. I think in most cases they're exhausted and the paperwork is just another thing to deal with after they put their kids to bed, if they get the chance to do that even. I didn't understand this until I "lived in it". As the babysitter, I can tell you, "it ain't pretty." They suffer just like the rest of us.

Just like tapes get misplaced so does digital dictation.  Also, have you ever timed how long it takes to download and upload files?  I think it runs about the same.  I am assuming this is clinic work.  So, if you don't go the office, then you'll need patient lists faxed or e-mailed, what have you.  It also costs money to have a secure FTP site for transfer.  So, no matter how you look at it, there is that time taken for the administrative end of transcription so to speak. 

To the OP:  I would ask if the problem really is the delivery if you could cut back to two days a week and given them the option of typing STAT reports to be faxed to them OR you could ask if they'd go halfers on a courier service.  But, I think the problem is the cutting of the paper, so you may just want to mention that you'll need to attach a fee. 

I had to attach a FAX fee to an office that was constantly calling and requiring me to search for letters that they apparently hadn't filed yet, so I started charging them for that service.  Guess what?  They don't call as much.  Just a thought.

I'm new to this career. Have only been working for 6 months or so. Does anyone have any advice for a newbie? How do you make a decent living on 6 cpl? Any advice for increasing speed? Thanks.

MB

I applaud you for being truthful and NOT GREEDY..

I worked for yeeears for a company where I was the primary MT on the account.  I produced what they considered to full-time MTs (no bennies except taxes being cut and matched).  I earned $4000/month.  I later went to work in the office and happened to see an invoice to the client.  I did the math and I realized they were clearing an additional $4000/month just based on my production.  So they were making twice again as much as what they paid me.Was I immature enough to think I DESERVED MORE?  No!

I had a good gig and I knew it.  I knew how valuable I was to both the client and the MTSO.  I knew how long I had worked this account, how certain doctors would only accept my work, how many of those doctors seeing my work at the hospital went back to their practices and signed on with that MTSO because of the quality of my work increasing the MTSO's business in the process.  I was loyal to them  and they were loyal to me.  On the 3 occasions I ran out of work, they paid me 2 weeks pay just so I wouldn't take a job somewhere else.

But let's analyze this since you seem you jumped on my wardrobe size.

First you need to understand this is a country where capitalism is own of its primary foundation.  Next you need to understand that out of that profit, the owner had to pay herself (how many times did she call me for help at 11:00 on a Saturday or Sunday because people bailed on her and she had alread worked 20 hours that day and just needed someone who would help her out?).  In addition to having to do MT work, she had a business to run.  That means maintaining good will.  You know, visiting your clients, checking in to see how things are, what can we do for you...in other words, being the marketing person also.  And god forbid she have a private life.!  She had to pay an office manager to manage all the qurky personalities of the at-home MTs, the daily vascillating work flow, putting out fires and preventing them, etc.  Next she had to pay her bookkeeper because god forbid anyone's paycheck was late or incorrect.  Then she had to pay a computer tech to help set up the new MTs, manage computer issues, make sure all the clients got their work, set up new clients, maintained the ASP, etc.  She also had to pay the in-house MTs.  She had to pay her accountant to make sure the books were in proper order and do yearly taxes, keep up with adding new state taxes to the computer when she hired an MT from another state.

She had to pay rent, electricity, phones, toll free lines for all her long-distance MTs, liability insurance, provide computers sometimes with no notice because someone's computer died overnight and she couldn't afford down time for that MT or the client, provide computer equipment for the client's, provide C-phones and Lanier stations, pay someone to clean the office twice a week...

Is the big picture a little more clear?  Where does this new-age feeling of entitlement come from?  Geesh, am I the only one on this site who can remember trying to pick 100 lbs of cotton in a day and feeling satisfied if I got near that figure?  And I'm in my 40s! 

The world doesn't owe you anything.  It was here first.

jerks about collecting on it, such as taxes or medical bills.  However, when the shoe's on the other foot, do you think they pay up in a timely manner?  We're owed tax money from 2002 that we're still waiting for.  There was some kind of mixup with the IRS, so we had to pay the taxes or they threatened us with collection.  I had to file an amended return to get our money back from their mistake.  The amended return was received over six months ago.

The medical company owes me a refund from a year ago because they forced me to make payments and threatened me with collection on my account.  They are the ones that didn't provide documentation or follow up with the insurance company.  I had to do it for them!  I should be happy that I'm even getting my own money back, but I need it today.  Even the bank messed up on me last night.  We made a car payment by check that got taken out through ACH electronic check processing and they deposited the check, too.  They got a double car payment from us because of their mistake.  It's going to take the bank two days to research it and process the credit on my account.  I don't think so!  These people need to cough up MY money NOW!

Am I supposed to be happy when a company only gives me 200 or 300 lines a day when they promise you a certain amount (that is higher than that)? How would the company employees (not us lowly transcriptionists) feel if the company told them that they were only getting paid 100 dollars this pay period, that there wasn't enough work. Not enough to pay bills and keep food on the table, just pin money.

Sheesh.