Try the National Association for the Self-Employed. SM

• health insurance - ginny
  • Try the National Association for the Self-Employed. SM - MT
    • Thanks a lot! - ginny
  • This has been posted many times. You can get your - me
  • insurance - some help?

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but not sure how expensive it is or how much it costs to join NASE.  Their website is www.nase.org.

Good luck!

They will accept a broader sector healthcare professionals involved in healthcare documentation.

Hmmmm.

and calling it AMTS: AMERICAN Medical Transcription Society and leave the AAMT or whatever their new name is, to the transcription WORLD.

My "society" would be kind of like them but the only difference is that absolutely NO oversea members would be allowed; only those American MTs working in other countries who could prove to the society or association that they are, in fact, American Born and Bred.

What do you say? I would charge a minimal amount per year and begin local chapters.....by contacting local colleges and tech schools and employers telling them about our local networking, American, society or association.

I would periodically work with large MT companies and large hospitals telling them of our highly skilled MTs and DEMANDING that pay be increased and showing them why American MTs are the way to go......Doesn't that sound like fun?  It wouldn't be anything like a union, as I don't believe in unions, but a UNION of MTs around this great country I call MY AMERICA!

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS YOU!!!!! Allah and Buddha could bless the AAMT all they want, but I just don't think they will do that.

There are variables.  Is the person working 10-12 hours days and pretending they are working 8?  I know many who are.  If so, income should be considerably higher.  People with their own accounts can usually make 50-60K or more. 

For a 6-8 hour days, 5-day weeks, as an employee with experience, I don't think this job should ever pay less than $30,000.  It takes too much concentration, medical knowledge and complete isolation to pay any less.  Hospitals pay at least that and you are expected to take breaks, lunch, talk with other staff and physicians, get sick sometimes, have bad days and get bad authors sometimes, take vacations and generally be a human being.  Working from home, most of us hunker down and feel guilty if we have anything else we need to do, then making it up at all hours of the night or our supposed days off.   

Obviously, you work as an employee.  Sure hope you got a raise to change from what you were hired at.  Again, not all of us can be that flexible to just change.  We do have a life.  Furthermore, anyone can dial in and listen to a dictation on the weekend if they need it that bad.  Just call the floor get the identifying numbers, call the number, plug in the identifying patient info and badda bing, you've got the dictation.  It used to happen all of the time at the hospital I worked at because they didn't want to wait on the outside MTSO that was soooooooooooo slow.  TAT was never met or hardly ever.

you set your own line rate.  However, we all know that NONE of the MTSOs hiring IC MTs allow us to set our own rate.  They "offer" a rate, and we accept if it's OK.

I worked for a real cheapo doctor when I first started out.  He paid hourly and kept riding my backside to type faster because he only wanted to pay for the actual time dictated instead of the time it took to transcribe.  More than once I told him that it takes an average of 3:1 typing to talking ratio to get it done.  It worked out to be $.03 per line.  I dropped him like a bad habit.  He bounced through a few other transcriptionists who all quit on him before he wound up having to pay to outsource to a service.

There is a new type of retirement fund for self employed business people where you can put money in as both an employee ($15,000) and as a percentage of your profits as the business owner.  It is called an Ind 401K.  Here is a link...

http://www.troweprice.com/common/index3/0,3011,lnp%253D10264%2526cg%253D960%2526pgid%253D10057,00.html?scn=Low-cost_plans_with_&rfpgid=7622

I wanted to go with T. Rowe Price but they do not allow loans, so i decided to go with Oppenheimer.

I am a self-employed MT, trained by the office I have been contracted with for 9 yrs.  When I started, it was myself and an in-house Transcriptionist working for 4 physicians.  I gave a 24 hr TAT.  I had one 18-month-old child when I started, and was able to work around 6 hours a day.  I drove about 40 min to work and back, picked up tapes, working sometimes 6-7 days/week.  Since then, they have hired 2 more drs. and 3 NP's.  The in-house MT retired, but they did hire another MT who works at home.  I had another daughter, and a set of twins in those 9 yrs.  They have always known I try to work around my children's schedules.  As I am sure many of you do, I was getting up in the middle of the night working, working on and off throughout the day and at night.  The new MT and I are backed up now and we can't possibly get it all done.  It is more like 48-72 hr TAT.  They call all through the day asking me to stop what I am doing right then and search the tape, type the note and fax it ASAP.  I picked this profession to work around my children's schedules, not have to push them aside at every moment to cater to the office.  I do not have a certificate in MT, was just trained by this office.  I checked in to other places, but the pay is much less as I get paid 65 char/line including spaces at $.125/line.  The reason they pay so well is because they know I probably can't get on somewhere else with no certificate and no experience in any other field.  They want to make sure I stay there.  Also, the driving is ridiculous.  They refuse to get technology for telecommuting.  They refuse to hire someone else.  On top of that, I was just diagnosed with IST, and am on Toprol and not capable of working the hours I once did.  Is there anyone else out there who understands or has any advice?

Hi all. I am new to this board. I have a home based secretarial service and do both medical and legal. I have never worked for a big company, just attorneys and docs as well as sales profesionals with no secretary. I have always charged by the page, but I have a possible new client that wants me to bill her by the line. Is .12 per line reasonable or too little for medical? Are there any other home based self employed individuals who can offer advice on per line charges?

Thanks!

I posted this question over on the company board as there was some talk abou the AAMT changing its name and how they dropped "American" from their name because they basically have opened up memberships to the whole world and then something was said about American MTs needing an organization that represented us.

So my questions would be what kind of benefits or services do you expect from an MT organization or association?  Would change any of the BOS rules or would you want a new style guide to be created?  Would you want the association to function as a union, insuring job security and fair pay?  Would you be willing to pay union dues or membership fee and if so what do you think is a reasonable fee?  What about certification - should it be offered or is it unecessary?

I've felt for some time that we (MTs) weren't adequately represented by the AAMT and there was a need for an organization that could effectively stabilize the MT industry especially in recent years with outsourcing work overseas and taking jobs away from American MTs.

I am copying this from the MQ board and feel it is so important that it belongs here!  We may have some new muscle here.  At least there is hope....

"I found out about this by reading an MT blog written by Jay Vance, CMT. This newly formed organization is addressing off-shoring of transcription work. Membership dues for the first 500 members is free. American Transcription Association. Check it out here:

http://www.ataus.org/