Possible pay cuts, my experience so far
Posted By: frustrated MQ MT on 2005-09-06
In Reply to: new pay plan - cowpatty
I have been with MQ since 1998 and have 20 years experience as an MT, editor, and MT instructor. I currently make 10 cents per line and in past yrs have been told I am at the top of various tiers also, so not eligible for raise (for life??) bonuses (some, not all), etc. I too received the letter mentioned above, the one about rewarding "YOU for your skill and performance."
I am still on INET, though attempted without success to move to DQS (only have dial-up available where I live, and the ADT searches and other processes were a nightmare without some sort of high-speed internet). In the process of almost going to DQS, my pay conversion remained the same, 10 cents per line. Though this may sound higher than others are making, I have been making the same thing for 8 years now - but yes, compared to what I see on this board that other MQ-ers are making who have same experience or more, I am grateful and surprised. The company I was with that MQ bought out gave us decent raises, and I had just received one before MQ acquired us, and it carried over, thankfully. Little did I know it would be my last raise for that many years.
Anyway, I eventually will have to go to DQS even on dial-up, pay an arm and a leg for satellite, or quit and go to a new company - all options, woohoo, involve pay cuts. I can't even imagine an additional pay cut for ASR, as this makes no sense to me. ASR is an AID, no different than Expander programs (do we get paid less for other things that make us more productive??!) We should get paid for whatever characters/lines we modify on an ASR report and get paid the same as we would for doing straight MT work. Maybe this has already been said here, sorry if repeat!
So, I am wondering what they will knock my pay down to when I finally get over to DQS and get put on the ASR reports... I'm not sure I will accept this pay cut either.
On another note, I am glad for those of you who are getting paid so well by MQ, have great supervisors, have lots of work, and just love DQS - that is great, it truly is. But, it's simply not that way for a lot of the rest of us. I appreciate being able to speak of my true experience here on this board. So, thanks for listening.
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We got cuts when we went to VR.
nm
And we got cuts when we went on DQS.
 Actually, I guess you can't say they gave us an actual pay cut, HOWEVER, you sure don't make the money you made on the old platform. That also isn't true because you can make the same money - it just takes LOTS longer. In my eyes, that is a pay cut.
MQ pay cuts
I'm rather new to this board, so forgive me if this has already been discussed. I work for MQ as a SE and received the "letter" but I know nothing about pay cuts. Have I missed something?
Yes, they do so many more cuts because...
they have to do them so fast to keep up the quota. I reluctantly took my 2 kids there a couple weeks ago and yet again (it happened a couple years ago too), they could not even trim a child's hair. I actually had to send my daughter back to the chair because there were long pieces of hair hanging down past the level of her hair. My other daughter looked like she went 3 rounds with a weed whacker... I had to pay more money to have it fixed at another place. This was 2 different stylists, more than one event. They are know in the stylist world as "chop shops" I have gone cheap and I have paid more and I can definitely tell the difference.
There need to be cuts
What's wrong with someone receiving medicaid paying a copayment? I hear grumbling over this all the time, but you sure see some of them in the grocery store buying an expensive 24 pack of beer, yet they want to complain over paying a 10.00 copay? Medicaid was designed to be temporary assistance, not a way of life. I have no problem with helping lower income, but not handouts. I have neighbors in their 20s, healthy as horses, who don't even try to work. They have 4 children with them, the husband has 2 by other women, and they collect 700 a month in stamps plus 300 in cash because she claims he doesn't live there. They do NOTHING, nada
As for Medicare, I believe if retirees make over a certain income they should not be eligible at all. I read that even retired movie stars worth millions of dollars get full medicare benefits.
Cuts
I used to work for Kodak and as most everybody knows they went through years of layoffs and always around this time of year. The reasoning for it was that the department heads had to have their budgets in for the following year and so you had to cut everyone before the new year started. It sucks but that is they way corporate America works.
Dee
MQ pay cuts, My Two Cents
When MQ first bought up the smaller co. I was with, all of the accounts were still intact. I was pleased when my office (Baltimore now, but at that time, still in the Herndon area) offered up increased pay differential for an extremely difficult account.. hallelujah, I thought... and thought that all the worries I had about the Big Bad MT Company eating up the small company I was with were maybe unwarranted. I jumped on this opportunity to actually get paid for doing more difficult work - but was told by my supervisor, well, you already make too much money per line (actually, per 1,000 characters at the time). She of course welcomed me to the account at regular pay - I passed!
Add in that I have not had a pay raise since this same time frame (7 years) ... not exactly a direct pay cut, I guess, and add in the seemingly unprovable decreased pay over the last 7 years... well, that's my 2 Cents. None of it makes sense.
MQ pay cuts, more info
I just got a call from Corporate and I asked them specifically if they were going to cut the charges to the client the same amount of the pay cuts to the employees and she said Yes, they are............... I found that interesting  as long as it is indeed true.
She only cuts 3. By hand. That's all.
x
Short cuts
Ctrl U - underline
Ctrl A - blocks all
Ctrl S - saves
Ctrl X - deletes
Ctrl C- copies
Ctrl V - pastes
. . . and my favorite Ctrl Z - brings back something you accidental delete.
I hardly ever use my mouse as it breaks my rhythm and slows me down. If I think of anymore I will send them your way. Did you know that if you hold down your Ctrl key and use the arrows you can move around a document that way?
short-cuts
I've lost my short-cuts...could I have hit a key on my keyboard? Thanks!!
ME versus MT, the pay cuts only apply to
those who do ASR (automated speech recognition), now being referred to by MQ at ME (Medical Editors). If you do not do ASR it would not apply, if you do you should receive a letter stating a 20% pay cut for same, or option to quit doing it at all and just do MT.
Inside gives a summary of cuts about to come
E-mail this page to a friend!
House Passes Budget Bill with Biggest Cuts in Medicaid, Medicare
Cuts $99.3 billion over 10 years - 27% from Medicaid, 23% from Medicare.
Feb. 1, 2006 – It's done. The House has passed and sent to President Bush the budget reconciliation bill that was strongly opposed by most senior citizen advocacy groups and newspaper editorials due to the deep cuts it makes in Medicaid and Medicare. It was a very close vote – 216 to 214. The bill cuts the budget by $38.8 billion over five years – 50 percent of the cuts are in Medicaid and Medicare.
Related Stories
Final House Vote on Budget Bill Could Cut Billions from Senior Programs
Passage expected Wednesday to cut Medicare, Medicaid
Jan. 30, 2006 – The Budget Reconciliation Bill, which many see as making drastic cuts in government programs for senior citizens – Medicaid and Medicare, is expected to hit the House floor on Wednesday for a final vote, the day after the President's State of the Union address. As reported today by the Capitol Hill Watch at KaiserNet.org, the bill will reduce federal spending by $99.3 billion over 10 years, with half of that coming from these senior programs. The Congressional Budget Office analysis says premiums for Medicaid beneficiaries in the bill could cause 110,000 to lose coverage by 2015. Read more...
Senate Budget Chair Calls for More Cuts in Medicare
Republicans to recycle old failed issues in 2006
Jan. 26, 2006 – The Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee is calling for more cuts in health care programs in fiscal 2007, which includes Medicare, according to The Daily Health Policy Report by KaiserNetwork.org, which cites CQ Today. The daily news summary says Republicans will also be targeting health care proposals this year, but most are proposals that have failed in the past. Read more...
• Homecare Industry Rallying Support to Kill Reconciliation Act
• Television Campaign to Stop Health Care Cuts for Seniors Launched by AFSCME
• Vote on Budget Set for Feb. 1; Senior Groups Seek to Sway GOP Moderates
The House first passed the bill on Dec. 19, 2005, by a vote of 212-206. It went to the Senate, where it passed by only one vote – 51-50. Due to procedural changes in the Senate, it had to go back to the House for this final vote. There was intensive lobbying by the senior citizen advocates and others since the Senate vote on Dec. 21, 2005, but they came only four votes closer.
The final vote was mostly along party lines, with Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats in opposition.
AARP CEO, Bill Novelli, quickly issued the following statement:
"Last night, in his State of the Union Address, the President said, "Keeping America competitive requires affordable health care. Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility."
"Today the U.S. House of Representatives has turned a cold shoulder to that responsibility by further limiting eligibility for Medicaid, a program that serves the neediest -- the disabled, children, the poor and the elderly. It also approved a provision in its budget that will deny long-term care coverage to those who give money to charities, churches and family members in need.
"Working with our members, AARP will continue the fight to have this ill-conceived policy reversed."
The bill would save $99.3 billion over 10 years, with half of that coming from Medicaid and Medicare - 27% from Medicaid and 23% from Medicare.
There's also $1 billion in new spending to extend an income subsidy program for dairy farmers and a reprieve for physicians who had faced a 4 percent cut in Medicare fees, according to the Associated Press.
A major boost to opponents was an estimate issued by the Congressional Budget Office estimating that 45,000 Medicaid beneficiaries would lose their coverage in FY 2010 because of higher premiums in the bill. The CBO report also estimated 65,000 beneficiaries would lose coverage in FY 2015.
Children would account for 60% of the Medicaid beneficiaries who would lose coverage, according to the report.
The report also estimates that 13 million Medicaid beneficiaries would have new or higher copayments for services such as physician visits and hospital care. In addition, 13 million Medicaid beneficiaries would pay more for prescription drugs by 2010, and 20 million would pay more by 2015, the report states.
According to the report, "About 80% of the savings from higher cost-sharing would be due to decreased use of services." The report estimates that 1.3 million Medicaid beneficiaries would have to pay premiums and that 1.6 million would lose benefits, most likely for dental, vision and mental health services.
In addition, the report estimates that 15% of Medicaid long-term care beneficiaries would have their coverage delayed because of additional restrictions on asset transfers.
The asset transfer provisions in the bill would impose punitive new restrictions on the ability of the elderly to transfer assets before qualifying for Medicaid coverage of nursing home care. (Click here to read these provisions.)
That is true of ANY job. Cuts happen everywhere.
Companies do the same thing consumers do: Look for ways to get the most for less. It's actually a rather natural process.
Any job can change in its direction, its stability, etc., as our economic, technologic and global relationship status change constantly.
The only security anyone has is to be prepared with continuing education in more than 1 field, low debt load, high savings -- really living within your means, and keep good insurance.
JMO
We do use dx for diagnosis, and all the short cuts expanders
dd
Radiology MTs - Major cuts in outpatient
imaging by Congress - called the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Signed by Bush in December. Over five years will amount to 20 Billion dollars cut from outpatient imaging payments for Medicare and medicaid patients. This will have a ripple effect. Private insurers soon will follow suit. Posted the DRA but it was removed by Administrator.... This will have a detrimental effect on us all, as cuts will begin occurring in every aspect of radiology.
Here is a comprehensive article. Please do not remove this post for one day, Administrator. This will impact MTs in radiology significantly.
imagingBiz.com - The Information Service of the Imaging Center Institute
This way works, too, but using the ;yo or ;py cuts down on hitting the spacebar
nn
Cuts in medicare and medicaid are about to take place
I have mentioned this but it was always deleted as I think the monitor thought I was talking politics.
There will be a marked decline in coverage for services to medicare and medicaid patients and I believe to offset this, medical facilities are finding ways to cut costs.
The cuts will be significant. You could do a Google search for Deficit Reduction Act. Radiology will be most severely hit, especially stand alone facilities.
DQS short-cuts to Word 2003? HELP!
Does anyone know how to do this. I have been searching and searching for info and cannot find anything. Please help! Thanks. 
Acusis is giving workers 30% pay cuts?
XX
Love the serrated bread knife! Cuts everything!! nm
s
Please back you info up. Pay cuts have not been announced. Have you received a letter? nm.
nm.
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.
Ummm--read her post again, please--it don't say *keyboard* short cuts..it says *word* shortcuts
duh!
Depends on the file format of the Short Cuts file.
ShortHand comes with a utility file that can import various formats. You can get that file with the trial download of SH.
Depends on the file format of the Short Cuts file.
ShortHand comes with a utility file that can import various formats. You can get that file with the trial download of SH.
How is one going to get experience, when no one will hire without experience????
 I constantly see all these job openings asking for experience. How can I get experience, when no one will hire me without experience???
Do you need to have 2 years full time experience or just 2 years' experience? nm
..
10% to 15% MTs are cutting pay cuts or thats how much they are cutting from everyone's pay?
Know any good companys that are hiring? LOL
In my experience,
ratio is about 3 to 4 on a large hospital account doing all specialities and report types. I think it would be closer to 2 or 3 with clinic work.
In my experience, I had to (sm)
allow the company to access my computer by clicking on an icon on my desktop. After they were done, I had to click "out" of the program, thus they cannot access my computer unless I give them my "permission" by accessing the program on my end! Does that make sense?
in my experience, (sm)
work always slows down in the summer, especially after a holiday. Hang in there, it gets better!
I had such an experience
It was years ago but I woke up laying on my stomach with head turned to the side and arm up by my head, couldn't move then saw a transparent arm coming back down into my arm and when it was completely fused with my arm I could suddenly move. It was very weird, scared the crap out of me, but in later years read about what actually happened and like you said, my spirit body wasn't quite back into me yet when I woke up - astral travel, yes. We all do that when we sleep.
My experience...
I personally found many of the Texas hospitals had a lot of ESLs. My two primary accounts were in Missouri and Washington State and there were very few ESLs. The platform I was on was not difficult (TWS I believe it was called).
experience
I had a very hard time trying to understand the guy trying to train me. He would tell me he would call at a certain time and he wouldn't. It would be the next day or 2 hours later than what he said. Told me you have to work until the jobs are cleaned out of system. I don't think so!!!!!
My experience (sm)
The most I have made working for another service was 11 cents per gross line. That was 3 years ago and that company sold, I couldn't work for them anymore anyway.
Now I am ALWAYS offered 8 cents per line when looking for part-time. I think this is low, considering they charge 14 or so and want to see perfect documents and never proofread. Truly, I think that is a total ripoff. No benefits either.
Never in my experience. - nm
xx
My experience with IT
I found it to be a difficult program to use unless you have a lot of time to spend reading and playing with it first. I used it for 7 months but would not recommend it. I do not know about MT schools although in my 12 years of transcribing, I have yet to work where they go into much detail about these programs. Good Luck!
My experience as QA
I've found that when I'm dealing with someone new to the company, I find myself more picky as far as punctuation, etc. Trying to show them the correct way or the preferred way at first. Show them a few times but don't hound them on the little things that won't matter in the long run. I always try to teach the preferred way in the beginning but eventually you focus completely on demographics and terminology.
Our experience...
My husband had a small lump about the size of a pea not in his cheek, but on the inside of his lip near the gum. We went to ENT and it was just a plugged duct. They lanced it, and it was fine. He developed another one a couple of years later that just eventually went away on its on. Prayers are with you!!
From my experience
They do not ask you. They recommend certain MTs.
You DO want to do ASR because if you don't, you will be left with what's left. Nuff said
Same experience with the big "S"
It did not get any better. I left after numerous account changes, disorganization, etc. Some thought it was their way to save money. It really put the brakes on. As far as learning new accounts every couple of weeks, it requires taking a LOT of your own time to do it. I have a family and a life after work.
my experience....
When my 12-year old son went from absolutely loving to play soccer (having played from age 4 up) to being in tears when I dropped him off at practices, I began to wonder what was going on. He was on a traveling select soccer team. The coach was a screamer and I thought maybe it was just that my son did not respond to that kind of coaching. He had been playing on this team for 2 years and the coach put a LOT of pressure on the kids. However, I felt thinking it was too much, but others would tell me how it would teach him discipline, etc. I knew in my heart that something was wrong if he was so adamant and upset about me dropping him off at practice. Finally after a lot of talking and trying to come to the bottom of why he absolutely hated to be on that team, I let him quit. Never another word was said about playing soccer again. Come to find out 3-4 years later, the coach was gay. My son would never tell me that he tried anything with him, but I learned later that he had with other players, so I've always wondered. Sometimes there is more there than meets the eye when a players decides to quit. I wished I had first listened to my son.
my experience
Well, a prominent man in our town (bigwig at newspaper) took him in and let him stay in his spare room while he worked here in town and coached our kids. Like I said, my son finally quit the team and it was several years later before it came out that he was gay. He had gone on to coach our local high school soccer team and it came out at that point. I guess older guys are not nearly as likely to keep this a secret as the younger guys. And to be honest, I'm not sure what all happened with the high school, but there was some trouble. He left town and I'm not sure what happened from that point. I was just glad that I had let my son quit after all. To this day, though, my son will clam up when I ask him about it. He has said he never tried anything with him, but I'm still not sure.
What experience do you have? nm
:
experience
I have three years psych transcription experience in/outpt and disability, etc. notes. Do you know of anything?
Different experience
Maybe I have been lucky but I have worked on three different accounts for them and there has always seemed to be plenty of work. Rarely have I run into NJA, except for a few times there were system problems and then, of course, on Mondays (if you work clinic accounts) you may have to wait until the docs start working before the dictation is available obviously.
Personally, I don't feel I have been misled in any way. I try to meet my minimum line requirements and keep my quality up and I have had no problems. I don't get moved from account to account and when I have asked to try a different account they have tried to accommodate me if at all possible.
There always seems to be someone available to answer questions with normally fast responses and you get several updates a day on what the job stats are.
I have worked for them for close to a year and pay has always been on time and accurate.
I feel they are a very organized company unlike some others I have had brief encounters with (brief due to that very reason - so unorganized) and any contacts I have had with supervision, account liaisons, etc., has been very positive.
That's been my experience a lot lately.
I'm tired of it. I took on my third IC job last week until I can find a company that I can make half decent money with.
No Experience
Alll the jobs state they need expereince. How do you get hired with no experience. Very frustrated. Appreciate any help. Want to do transcription from home. What is the best way to get started. 
If you don't have that much experience SM
and you get hired by a company, they expect you to do your part by researching and looking up words and spelling them correctly as well as other aspects of the reports such as grammar and punctuation.
Companies do not have the time or resources to teach people what they are supposed to know. That's what schools get paid for.
Considering the fact that you had less than two years' experience, you were lucky they hired you in the first place.
Instead of being angry, try to make yourself a better MT and go to the table with a little more to offer. It worked for me.
And just how much experience do you have?
There are $.09 and $.10 jobs out there with decent bosses, on time pay, and easy work that isn't all ESL.
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