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Regarding AAMT, is it wise to join? Opinions please...

Posted By: Carly d on 2006-04-24
In Reply to:

have been an MT for almost four years but have not joined as of yet.  Would like to hear pros and cons.  TIA.




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recommend the newbie MT join AAMT online chapter and suck the SM
dickens out of their "We Ment Well" (play on We Mentor Well) forum, to which non-newbies are excluded, and for which there is a plethora of talented folks of all types of persuasions more than willing to help.
This is a wise, wise woman! nm
From a thankful gay guy who needed a word of encouragement tonight. God bless!
I'd join it!
.
I will so join you on that!

If you'll also add a branch for cell-phone drivers ... SHHH*T (...In Traffic). 



Why thank you ER MT, and sure you can join
me anytime you'd like.  It is very cold here in the state of Delaware, too, and I think the snow is coming!  I love the snow when it first falls because it is so pretty.  We like to go to Rehoboth, which is a little over an hour south of us, so that's where I drift when it is cold and stressful.  Thanks for you help by the way with the avatar, I greatly appreciate it. 
join me???
Me and a few other transcriptionists are going to do hand-written letters to The White House about how outsourcing is affecting hospital employees, transcription in particular.  I am having them to mail me their letters, and I am going to put them all into a big envelope together and mail them to The White House.  If you would like to join us in this, please email me and I will give you my address so that your letter can be in there as well.  We are trying to get our voices heard and save our careers, so please join us.
You are wise do be so thorough in your
research before committing time and money to training. By the way, you've made a very good choice for your education. Andrews is the gold standard for MT education. For a different perspective on life on the job as an MT, visit www.mtchat.com, click on the "message center" tab, and start reading. Read all the sticky topics (especially at the top of the New MTs section), read the archives, read the Andrews forum on that site, read the messages posted on the MT Business board; in short, read everything. I think you will get a different perspective on the profession from the very professional and articulate folks who frequent that site. Good luck with your training and in your career.
Very wise, but even better. sm

Lovely elderly couple came into my old office.  Married for 68 years. Holding hands to boot.  I asked them what made their marriage work so long.  The elderly gentleman winked at me and said, "Well, it's simple.  I always get the last words . . . .'yes dear.' " 


 


Wise MT
I will certainly be praying for you.  I will pray that you can hang in there!  It has to be so hard. 
SE and IC mostly same tax-wise except...sm
As an IC, you must pay the self-employment tax, which is your FICA, but you get to deduct half of it. Schedule C stays the same. I've been both IC and SE before. DISCLAIMER: I am not a CPA or tax professional. For qualified tax advise, please contact a tax professional.
Another group to join...sm
DeadBeatHunters@yahoo.com - you can learn from other posters. Be careful about the accuracy of their advice, though. The monitor told me that you can get retroactive to your application with CSE, but the CSE attorney said they do not do that. Since it took 2 years to locate my husband' Ex, that could have been alot of money!

http://www.deltabravo.net/custdy/ - you can go here because one of the forums is called Child Support. They even have a page there where you can learn things that are specific for your state. I think that's where you can read about child support laws in your state.

What's your case about? Do you have an CS order signed by a judge? Can the deadbeat be located? Is he interstate (it's a felony to leave the state if you are in arrears for child support).

Just don't give up! Good Luck!
Join Curves or a gym...really

I have found that if I get up in the morning and go to Curves on a regular basis after I send my kids off to school, I have the chance to interact with people, get some exercise, and even make some good girlfriends because you are all there at the same time every day or every other day.  You feel good by the time you get home, take a shower and sit down to work.  I've also found church to be a huge outlet as well as getting involved with community events (i.e. volunteering) to be very rewarding.  You have to make your life, it does not come to you.  Hang in there, this is a great job to have, don't give it up for that reason, you can really make the isolation a non-issue.  Best Wishes


don't join in the conversation if you sm
don't want to but don't censor others from doing so!
join the club
Age/arthritis? - see a doctor. Out of shape? - exercise. Here are some PT back exercises: http://www.nismat.org/orthocor/programs/lowback.html

Feel better!
joint/join
Ummmm - that was join, not joint.
If You Can't Beat Them Join Them

There's an old saying which says "If You Can't Beat Them Join Them"  I dunn think any of us can stop outsourcing and I dunnt feel there is any point crying over loss of income. So I have followed this ("If You Can't Beat Them Join Them") and I did't lose a dime as the companies outsourced big time. I have myself started taking 100% more work than before and am outsourcing them to individuals in India (the quality generally is good) who does the transcribing (obviously I get the work done at a much lower rate than what I myself get paid). By doing so my hourly rate works out even higher than anno's


VLM -Tried in the 60's to get transcriptionists to join a
union to no avail. Nurses at that time also were non-union - they decided to unionize as their pay and benefits were also abysmal at that point in time. Compare that to their income & benefits now compared to ours. The reply I received for not joining a union then was that the transcriptionists did not want to jeopordize patient care in case of a strike. Well,I agreed we played an integral part in patient care, albeit felt it was secondary compared to the role of nurses regarding patient care - who decided to risk going on strike and made the choice to unionize!!

I totally dropped out of transcription for 10 yrs, only to return and find that AAMT was the answer to our problems. Need I say more ?

As far as the scenario of striking in this day and age with no income, I imagine if I'd add up all the slow days, days without work, holiday periods without work, I could also survive a strike. Only difference being knowing I'd return to work with better benefits including help with health care coverage and increased pay, rather than decreased pay. Shoot - maybe even being recognized as a "Profession" instead of a typist - cognizant of our intelligence & knowledge!!

I don't know to this day if unionizing would have helped us back in the years when it was feasible, but still feel we couldn't have been any worse off than where we are today!

Trying to organize a union now I'll leave in the hands of my internet savvy young ones. How this could be accomplished in this day and age is now beyond my level of expertise!




A WORD FROM THE WISE!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR POSTING. SOMETIMES IT IS NICE TO KNOW YOUR NOT ALONE! I THINK I PROBABLY WILL HAVE HAVE TO FILE FOR DISABILTY BUT IT JUST KILLS ME, NOT TO FEEL LIKE A FUNCTIONAL MEMBER OF SOCIETY, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?  I STILL HOPE DEEP DOWN TO FIND THE RIGHT ONE TO GIVE ME A CHANCE IN A NEW CAREER. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING.


ANGELA LEE


Actually the "three wise men"
that's how they knew to look for the star of Bethlehem and recognized the amazing event foretold by the stars.
Grow up? How about you wise up?
So, you mean to tell me that having 1 or 2 glasses of wine or beers is enough to call someone drunk? Come on and WISE UP!

Again, I didn't ask WHO GETS DRUNK AND TRANSCRIBES, I asked who has a few drinks while transcribing.

Being in the vicinity of MY OWN HOME having a drink or TWO and transcribing is no big deal to me. Some of you people are SO UPTIGHT and I think NEED TO DRINK!

HICCUP, pardon me!
Yes, that is a wise decision. (nm)
dd
Wise move.
I've been an IC with many companies and an employee with a few others. I've found that many if not most of the supervisors and managers at these places are dead weight authoritarians who get high and justify their existence by puking on people who work for a living. I left at least one place precisely because they tried to hold me responsible for mistakes made by the dictator. Happens all the time.

I wouldn't wish a future in MT on anyone.
My Mom, who was a very wise woman, would tell you...
to love her anyway just the way she is and realize that "everyone is doing the best they can with what they have to work with."  Plus, life's 2 short and life is fragile.
You 2 should find each other and do lunch sometime! I'm too far away to join ya...nm
s
Not sure on this but I think you pay to be listed with the BBB - (join a member) so many probably j
the money to do so. Search the archives or Google them. Otherwise unless they are offering some outragous pay over such as over .12 cpl, then I would not worry about it and go for it.
RadGuy, come join my family,

I'm sorry if I'm laughing about your relative but with 3 different religions in 2 sisters and my mom, I totally understand. 


The last time my BIL came to a family get together (he is a quasi-minister), he was talking about how we were all going to hell because we have never spoken in tongues.  My mom couldn't help it and a big gawk came out of her mouth.  All eyes were on her as she is not known to hold her tongue.  She looked him straight in the eye and said, "well, you know, what if you're wrong and I when I die I get to heaven and I'm having a good time, then you die and go to heaven....will you be just as excited on that day to see me as you are today?  I bet you'll be wishing you had gone to hell instead at the thought of spending eternity with ME!"


Food and beverages spewed over the entire table.


Each of my sister's sons  told me I was going to hell because #1 I wore shorts, #2 I cut my hair and #3 I wore makeup.  I sweetly told each of them I'd be the hottest looking chick in hell if that were the case   Now, I'm the "cool" aunt they all love to come to visit.  Lighten up and enjoy a little bit of witty banter!


Join a church? Seriously. I have a mom's group through the sm
church where we get together for lunch once a week amongst many other activities within our church. Fairly large church. Couldn't survive without it.
Did you see where they were asked to join churches?
How can they ignore a question like that? "Would you like to join our church?" Suppose they could just say no, which seems a little rude as to why not exactly. I can see her dilemma.
Have a friend who wants to join our group but
I forgot exactly what I did to get to chat in the first place. Can someone walk me through it so I can let them know? Thanks!
You could join a study group through sm
AHDI, but there is no radiology-specific CMT credential.  In fact, I took the test within the past year and there are hardly any rad-specific questions on it.
I don't think that optometrically wise buying off the
c
well darn. I thought I was being wise
in getting rid of credit cards - just down to 1 bank card and 1 store card that I only use when having a sale and we need new clothes and that I have 90 days to pay off without interest. 
It's wise to dedicate one pc solely
for work purposes, in addition to having a back-up pc available.  If you do not have a medica/pharma spellchecker download on your pc, it's a good idea to purchase it.  Depending on who you will be transcribing for you may need an unlimited long distance calling plan if you do not have it already.  A high speed connection is recommended and necessary by most companies.  Up-dated virus protection is a must. A printer may be required.  You are a step ahead of the game by already having purchased a desk and a comfortable chair, which are a must.  If you need to purchase a foot pedal, I would recommend buying a new one.  So, depending on what you already have, start-up costs can run anywhere from $100.00 to approximately 1,000.00, and while it may seem like a huge expense, you should recoup these expenses within 3 months of working.  Good luck to you and enjoy!
I don't think it would be wise to quit over half a mil
that's not gonna last you a lifetime! I think you should be reasonable. What about health insurance? Are you married? Do you have a lot of debt? There are a lot of factors inolved.
Oops..why not wise.. long day. NM

Very wise post. Didnt look at it this way before.
x
I do much better $ wise with clinic notes
I have local office accounts and also work part-time for a national. The repetitive nature of doing the same dictator day in and day out increases my production at least 30-50%; more expanders, more normals, familiar terminology, etc.

Right now I am averaging $25.00+ an hour on my local notes, and less than $12.00 with my national acute care. I do have more taxes and such with my locals as it is 1099 income but I still come out much better on clinic notes.

good luck!
Already did. They are outrageous cost-wise

I have to pay $60 a month for LOCAL service only.They don't have DSL where I live. They keep saying they are going to get it here, but it's been 4 years since that statement was made..


Thanks for the suggestion, though. It seems that these companies think everybody lives in a progressive area and make a lot of money. I live in a rural area and the phone company has no interest in being #1 where I live. I have a choice of Comcast or Direct TV and that's it.


Hope California would join the two states
doing the protest soon!!!
Join the club on being confused. With turning us

things are charged, billed, or anything any more.


It just seems like they wanted me to work for nothing to clean up ASR reports.  It was pitiful what they wanted, considering what they needed me to clean up.  I could have typed it faster and better using my word expanders.


Maybe she should join Tatum O. on Dancing With the Stars. (sm)

The Desperate Housewives are always great, they get my vote.


i agree... Maybe I will join MENSA, just for the companionship
no shame in having a good IQ, when all the dust settles. Go for it MT!
Funny... can I join the Bon Voyage party with a few of my own? Seriously though
it's so very hard to just leave a blank, we are so so so anal retentive in this profession, so beat down most of the time, because everyone wants perfection all the time (impossible) we have to lighten up on ourselves, take a deep breathe and realize that sometimes a "blank" is the best you can do.
Another wise woman with good taste! SM
I think BBT is the bee's knees. You have very good taste.
BTW, what R some good companies 4 radiology pay-wise? nm

you're welcome. You made a wise choice--sm
but also realize that our words are not just for us, they are for everyone reading this, who may be in the same situation and who do not have the courage to make a change in their lives. What we say to each other may just give someone else the courage to live a good decent life, without the need for drugs or alcohol, or someone in our lives who uses them. I am happy for you. I am happy for me. We are free. Good luck to you.
Word to the wise.....never send any money until ...
you are absolutely positive the school is reputable. I had a friend who lost $350.
P.S. - I'm alot stronger cardio-wise also
NM
You are wise to hold off on a major purchase until sm
you see how the system is going to pay. Eight years ago our hospital outsourced their department and I went with the account to a large national. I went from making $24-26 an hour to making $8-10 an hour. It has taken me 8 years to get back up to $16-18 an hour. One of the girls that I worked with had just built a new house. I'm not positive, but I believe she lost it.

This change may not affect you much, so I wouldn't worry about it. Just wait until you see how it turns out. It may not make much difference at all to your salary. But you can always look for a house when you're sure of your financial situation. Good luck.
Penny wise and pound foolish
Cheap ones don't save in voice files. They're hard to use so most likely your doc will not bother to pause or rewind for dictation. You may save some money now but you will end up wasting more time to decipher the recording. The best one is Olympus DS5000... every word can be heard clearly with that.
You're in the minority pay-wise, but hey, as long
as you're making your money, screw everyone else.