What the heck does getting paid by a 55 black character line?? Does this mean without spaces and doe
Posted By: luvmting on 2007-04-01
In Reply to:
You just never know if this is a trick to somehow rip you off of lines. I am just very skeptic of it since I have never heard of anyone using this formula before.
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
Yes if gross line or 65 character line with spaces....Good Deal!!! nm
x
Is 9 cpl, based on a 55 black character line good pay?
I think I explained that okay. Basically, a 55-character line, black, and pay is 9 cpl per line. I was not sure how this compared to 65-character line with spaces at 8 cpl etc. Any help out there?
What is the average line/hour for a 65 character line with spaces? NM
.
65 character line with spaces
TIA
I think it is a 65 character line without spaces but doesnt that mean you have to type a lot more to
get your lines in so you really arent making 9.5 cpl in fact right. I am not sure I understand when you dont get paid for spaces how much you really lose from that. Is it 20% a report or what percentage do you lose. If a report is 100 lines with spaces then what do you really get paid for on those 100 lines without spaces. I think that is what I mean. I am just tring to figure out how much longer you have to work to get your lines in at 1000 lines a day without spaces versus 1000 lines a day with spaces. Seems it would take quite a bit longer.
Do the math. I am figuring on a 65 character line with spaces. SM
Getting credit for headers and footers or not, doesn't make much difference in the math. It's simply not possible. Even if you figure she gets 10 free lines per report for headers and footers, she still would have to type 300 lph for 10 hours a day and her hands would virtually never have to leave the keyboard!
Her pants are on fire!
I was referring to gross 65 character per line with spaces, sm
but again, it was very grueling, but possible. Granted, I had no life besides the keyboard.
Sorry- meant ඉ character line w/spaces!" - NM
.
depends if includes headers, spaces, one or the other, character line, etc.
nm
IC, by line, 68-72 character spaces/line
@
If the file is 10,000 KB and you are being paid by a 65 character line sm
divide 10,000 by 65 for your line count. This has been done for years.
You get paid 7.5 cents per 65 character line
I got this calculation by taking 10,000 for the character count including spaces and divided that by 5 and got 2000 (your word count). Then divided that by 1000 (you said you get paid per 1000 words), and got 2. I took 2 and times it by $5.75 and got $11.50. So for every 10,000 characters with spaces you get paid $11.50. To translate this to a 65 character line, I took 10,000 and divided it by 65, and that rounds to 154, divided by $11.50 and got 7.5 cents. This is decent, but I think you should ask for a raise if you have been with them for five years. Anywhere from 8 cpl to 10 cpl is the norm.
70 character line?? Hope you are paid well.
I get a 52 character line! Yippie.
Quick question! Is 10 cpl with benefits at 74 character line better than 9 cpl at 65 character line?
Thanks
Black character......
means any black mark (typed character) seen on the page. Sneaky way of saying you are not being paid for spaces - which just boggles my mind..........
If you do a search for VBC or visible black character there should be some old threads.
I know that some platforms rolled over to this (without warning in some cases). IMO, if they pay by VBC then the line rate should increase accordingly,or pay should be set based on a lower count character line like the companies that already base pay on a 55-character line.
In some cases MTSOs have changed the billing parameters but not the production/pay parameters.
VBC (visible black character) method of measuring productivity. SM
I just read an article about this in the Advance mag I get biweekly. It seems the MTIA, AHIMA, and the AAMT are endorsing the VBC method of measuring productivity for transcription. Basically, that means they don't want to pay for spaces. So they are finding another way of screwing with our money.
I know there are several services out there that don't pay for spaces now and quite frankly I won't work for a company that doesn't pay for spaces. I'm a firm believer that transcriptionists should get paid for every single keystroke, but that rarely if ever happens. Now with those three major industry organizations endorsing not counting spaces, it may be the case that all services will adopt the VBC method and we are all going to lose.
Oh, the AAMT says that the VBC method will create a "level playing field throughout the industry" and allow for a "great opportunity for the industry to engage in a real discussion about the inherent value of transcribing and how pricing under the new defintion should reflect that value." The AAMT also states that MTSOs should consider an MT's "critical thinking skills and interpretive judgment" when discussing compensation.
Yeah right. Like MTSOs have been considering anything more than the bottom line and pumping up there pocketbooks. To them we are machines. I'm tellin' ya medical transcription is circling the drain.
I make 9 w/o spaces but I get every character - sm
on the page, regardless if I typed it or not, plus a cover page that is macro'd. However w/o the spaces I'd say I am out an average of $200 a month. Since you will not get headers/footers, it will probably be a little more. I try to template up as much as I can but only a handful of docs actually say the same thing every time. I figured it out once and I think the 9 w/o spaces equaled 7.75 with spaces. I get fairly regular raises though and with any luck get bumped up to .10 in the Spring (at least I am going to ask for it). You don't say how much experience you have, but if you do not have much I would go for it. I have been looking on an off for a while for a new job but am very limited as I have dialup (no DSL here, and most companies don't want satellite), so I am between a rock and a hard place. Any jobs I do find with dialup offer .07 cpl, unless it is real easy work I don't want to go that low. Make a list of pros and cons and go from there.
Why would a company pay by character when they also pay for spaces?
nm
My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
Visible black characters without spaces being included. nm
s
They used to not pay for spaces, but a poster here said they are getting spaces paid. Are there 2
s
In Word, take the character count (with spaces) divided by 65... SM
that will give you an accurate line count, but you'll have to write the character count down for each and every report before you finish and send the report. I put a button on my tool bar that I just clicked to bring up the document counts and then I just kept a log that wrote down job number and character count for each report. Then at the end of the day just add up the characters divide by 65 and you've got your line count for the day. Kind of a hassle, but worth it in the long run.
I would move on. I think it is so unfair not to be paid for spaces! I think we should get paid
per keystroke, but that'll never happen. I just think that these national companies are going to keep finding ways to cheat us. I found a job working for a hospital as an employee, paid hourly plus incentive, and they let us expand everything! Somebody's gonna have to kill me to make me give up this job. I will never go back to the national's again.
I feel for you though. I know that for us MTs those good jobs are few and far between and some have little choice but to work for the nationals. I just happened to luck into the job I have now. I just applied at the right time.
Good luck to you whatever you decide.
0.12/cpl, macros count as 2 characters, backspacing is given to us as 1 character. No spaces. Aut
dd
No, it is 65 character lines including spaces. The only canned text is my own.
I get mostly the same dictators on the same account every day. I do have carpal tunnel starting, so, gotta get it while I can.
$.06 gross line / .70 = approximately $.0857 cents per 65 character line.
A gross line is anything on a line versus 65 gross characters per net line the other way. You make more money working for the gross line than for the 65 gross character line, as long as the line rate's OK.
Not if you are paid by every 65 character
and that is what the poster said: If you are on a line count that just takes characters and divided by 65, then font doesn't matter.
Curious, do most IC's usually charge by the gross line or 65 character line?
Thank you~
It means you get paid for every character
you type, including spaces.
Example - The cat in the hat.
All letters and spaces in the sentence (including the 2 spaces after the period).
Blank lines are not counted as you did not type on them.
Many MTSO have a 65-character line count, so therefore for every 65 characters you type, you get paid for 1 line, whether it takes 1 line or 10 lines, it is the charcters that are counted, not the actual line of typing.
Gross line versus character line....Sm please
I am thinking of taking a job that pays by the gross line and not a 65-character line. I have never worked this way. Does this literally mean if there is one little word on a line you get paid for it? I have not pinned her down on a line rate but I am just thinking I am going to be comparing apples to oranges and am wondering how to accomplish that.
Thanks for any help!
Paid for spaces
Was told years ago that the account I was on did not pay for spaces even though the contract I signed as SE said I would be. Was told that we were compensated by being given the headers and footers in our line count (yeah, right). Was then told they didn't want to lose me so if I was totally unhappy to ask my manager for another account which did pay for spaces. I, of course, was told there was no other account available at that time. On some unscientific studying and counting, figured out was losing 13% to 17% of my counts by not getting spaces. This is one of the reasons MQ is being sued by the employees in the lawsuit. Don't believe anything management tells you. Just count them for yourself.
At 9.5 cpl what are you really getting paid without spaces.
:
Why spaces are not paid for... sm
I once worked with a Transcriptionist who would pad his reports with huge lines and lines of spaces that would go undetected. He (yes he) would be paid for these elaborate line counts (we had an incentive program). If you adjust the pay rate for characters only with no spaces according to an appropriate line rate, you are assuring yourself of not being cheated by some MT who thinks they can get away with padding spaces into their documents. True story.. now lets see the end of this endless discussion.
Are you sure she gets paid for spaces?
So it would not equal to 7.5 cpl.
paid for spaces
I do get paid for spaces. We take the character count INCLUDING spaces and divide by 5 to get our word count.
I think spaces are paid for. However, there
may only be 1 space in between sentences, which is set in Word. From what I have read, the eScription platform does not pay for selection of demographics, headers, or footers. Many commands are not allowed, such as specific symbols, bold, underline, tabs, and indents, to name a few.
This is how eScription is saving hospitals millions of dollars. Yes, VR is very profitable for hospitals. Of course, that would need to compare the savings to their operating costs. However, They only seem interested in saving TRANSCRIPTION costs! So, the bottom line is, MTs are working harder and harder each year to make a decent wage, while management is working harder each year to trim our lines. This is not the MTSO but the hospital administrators.
I had a physician recently tell me, "Transcription has sunk to the lowest of the lows." I told him, "You only get what you pay for." Pay nothing, get not much in return!
Curious..MQ and spaces...paid or not?
I have read many post from fellow MQers. Some say they get paid for spaces. Some swear they do not. I know I get paid for spaces and have been with them since January, Denver office. For those of you who say they do not get paid for spaces, is this a new phenomenon? What office do you work out of and for how long? Have you copied reports in Word and counted characters and spaces? (I only have 'Works', which only counts characters, but have manually counted spaces and added that to the total characters and have come up with the same count as MQ is paying me. Now, all I have to do is take my character count and add about 22%, which is the percentage of characters that I have found out are spaces. MQ's count is always right on. So, just curious if some are not getting paid for spaces and if they know that FOR SURE! Not getting paid for spaces makes a 22% pay cut! That is a LOT! Now, I am not looking into starting any kind of battle here. But just really am curious if this is the 'wave' of the future with MQ, just certain offices, new hires, or what. Thanks! 
Need feedback on getting paid for spaces vs not....
have an offer from AccuScribe in South Carolina, 9 cpl, but no spaces. Would like to hear opinions please, whether good or bad! TIA!
Working for 9 cpl, not paid for spaces
Does anybody else think this is not good? Working same account I used to do paid for spaces and working harder for same pay. Thinking of moving on.
But that's a GROSS line, not a 65 character line.
So a newbie would have no problem at all hitting 150 lines per hour. A gross line is any line with a printed character on it.
Which is better? Gross line or 65 character line? It's
nm
gross line and character line
I am an IC currently doing one doctor who pays me by the hour but I will be starting another doctor soon and he will be dictating differently so I was going to charge him per line. What is the difference of charging gross lines or per 65 character line?
Want to get paid for headers, footers and spaces?
Just in a silly mood.... 
To the "not paid for spaces" question
Why is not being paid for spaces the norm? Don't you have to tap the space bar just as you have to tap a letter key? I don't get this. This is just another way to reduce our income. DON'T ALLOW IT!
65-character line
Some of you have asked about what her lines consist of. Her lines are the same as mine--65-character line including spaces. I know she has some templates, but I just really think that she's exaggerating somewhat. Maybe she can hit 500-600, but I just don't see how anything higher than that is possible.
I do like a good challenge, though, so I'm going to get started with my Instant Text and see where my counts are a month or so from now.
Thanks for all of your replies!!
Is this a 65-character line?
Are you getting paid extra for bold, underlying, etc? Don't see how they figure 6 cpl with spaces equals 9 cpl unless they use a different character count for their lines.
I don't think so. If it's a 65 character line, they probably
But regardless of how they do it, 9 cpl to the client has just GOT to equal poorly-transcribed, offshored medical records. I sure hope my record isn't one of them.
I don't think so. If it's a 65 character line, they probably
But regardless of how they do it, 9 cpl to the client has just GOT to equal poorly-transcribed, offshored medical records. I sure hope my record isn't one of them.
70 character line
Is there anybody out there in the entire universe who uses a 70-character line? I work at a hospital and we have to type 1100 lines a day on a 70-character line. Just curious.
i do NOT get paid for spaces, my best friend does.. both out of the same office -- go figure
x
|
