Why do you accept low pay for newbies?
Posted By: mtstudent on 2007-06-12
In Reply to: Great message!! This philosophy & plan... - SM
I said it below but trascribing is a higher skill than alphabetizing.
The low pay for new MTs is unacceptable. Even after the huge discussion I do not understand the idea that putting in your time = working for low wages. I don't expect a new MT to make as much as an experienced one but they still should earn more than a file clerk or housekeeper.
Hospitals pay for *months* of training when a floor nurse goes to the OR. The floor nurse requires one on one training in the OR. They also pay for months of training for OR/"scrub" and anesthesia techs before they are considered productive. I don't understand why a new MT should work for $9/hour when a file clerk earns more than that. I understand the file clerk is productive after a few hours but the hosptial pays training time for other positions.
I am honestly asking this. I do not want a MT strike, MTs to type their initials on screwed up reports or a MT sit in at the medical director's office. Why is it accepted in the transcription community for a new MT to earn less than anyone else in the doctor's office?
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Please accept a ((((BIG HUG)))) (sm)
And keep on praying...you know in your heart God will hear you :) Life can be incredibly overwhelming sometimes, but He will carry you over the bumps in the road. Here's the link to a website I've been going to for a long time...it really helps...
www.greatday.com
Hang in there 
Why did you accept the IOU?
??????????? Still shifty if ya' ask me. I can't believe a lawyer wouldn't take it if you had no scars or anything to prove you had the surgery as dicated. I'm sure you were an inpatient. They couldn't get a hold of those progress notes? He never came and saw you in the hospital? Just did the other two surgeries and sent ya' home that day? Why would you want to work for a hospital that has these habits? I wouldn't even want to be associated with that hospital. Good luck to you. You are obviously emotionally scarred. Better luck next time.
They do it because we accept it.
I'm not transcribing for 5 cents per line. I can sweat shop telemarket at home for better pay.
Productivity pay does not even factor in things we do for work like computer repair, cleaning our work area, quick rest breaks and errands. We have to supply our office space and furniture.
The companies get away with this because most MTs are women. Men would never never never never accept it. They would say no and the companies would raise the pay or go out of business. The fact that we love MT'ing should not cloud our judgement to transcribe for sweat shop wages.
I can walk in Dr. x's office and make $8-$10 copying records or putting charts on the shelf. The skill of MT is much higher than alphabetizing or matching the ROI request with the patient's name!
BTW, I'm not *above* honest work. This isn't about refusal to work an unskilled low paying job. Companies are not even paying MTs 50% of the gross line rate and that is unacceptable.
Just accept it.......
I agree! Change is difficult to say the least. I remember my mom and grandma having to make lifestyle changes, but for some reason they modeled it for me with grace and dignity. I guess I didn't inherit that trait because what's happened in the transcription arena bothers me a great deal.
If you want to remain in a viable field, however, might I suggest a law firm (medical malpractice, auto insurance defense, etc.) where medico-legal reports are done? I took a breather from transcription in the mid-1980s and worked for an insurance defense firm where I reviewed medical records. Now, if you want to debate anything at all, you should have seen the downright awful medical records I saw. It was then that I truly understood the impact the medical record has in a court of law. It was also at that time that the subject of MTs being named in a lawsuit if there were errors in medical dictation was brought up, and any damages awarded would be assessed under the MT's homeowner's policy. I've never heard anything more about that since and hope it never resurfaces! 
I would definitely accept
the part-time position. From that you could end up with exactly what you're in need of.
I'd take it.
Only if you accept it.
I do not and will not make less than the greeter at Wal-Mart. I just won't do VR, as it doesn't pay enough. As long as people continue to accept these ridiculous wages, they will continue to pay them. I personally won't do it, as I believe I'm worth much more than that.
Thanks..unfortunately it won't accept password :(NM
d
I'm w/you on this one! It's crazy to accept LESS THAN 10 YRS AGO. And that is just what MT com
benefits and put them in their pockets and called them PROFIT.
They put us at home and said that was an excuse to LOWER THE BASE RATE OF PAY.
I tell you what, 4 years ago I was making $42,000 a year working for a hospital.
I had benefits along with that $42,000
I WORKED AT HOME IN MY JAMMIES.
I HAD FLEXABILITY OF TAKING OFF just like I always had in life.
Do you want to know what I made last year doing the same amount of work??
I made $14,000 and NO BENEFITS.
The company I have worked for (which shall remain nameless but we all know who it is) has managed to take away BONUS LINES, ENOUGH WORK, and NEVER GIVE ME A RAISE IN 6 YEARS.
If they think they have created a better medical record system they have lost their everlovin minds. Reports are less accurate now than they ever were. The hospital may have a PIECE OF PAPER back in their hands quickly, but it isn't worth a tinkersdam.
So if you new MTs and even the older ones who now are on supplemental income or have a husband to back them up, us MTs who need to make a living to support our children - think again if you believe what we have been WORKED DOWN TO is a good deal. 
MTs at home have taken on the RISKS of transcription. It is our personal time that goes unpaid while the company RISKS NOTHING. We are the ones sitting around setting up computers, eating down-time, trying to learn new programs on our own dime.
THINK ABOUT IT
Why would you even accept that rate?
x
I wouldn't accept it unless
At least 50% of the reports are templates ... import document and fill in the demographics. You can make $50 to $60 an hour with those. Otherwise, I wouldn't accept it ... and I've got almost 30 years in this business.
Yes, if WE DO NOT accept VR jobs that pay next to nothing,
it eventually will have an impact and VR will either pay better or disappear altogether.
The problem is there are too many who will accept it.
So what happens to those of us who value our skills and won't work for low wages? We will soon be out of work as I don't see wages increasing any time soon. So it will come down to work for low wages or be out of a job. I have already started planning for my next career.
What do you do when you accept a job or give someone your word,
and then your circumstances change overnight? I don't want to bail on anyone, but I don't feel any loyalty at all to people who haven't been completely honest with me. I need to take care of myself and my kids, especially with the cost of everything skyrocketing. I feel so used and taken advantage of. Everyone says not to burn bridges, though. I just can't do it any more. I need some "give" here instead of "take, take, take". An opportunity has come up that I would be stupid to turn down, but I feel guilty dumping people who "need" me.
Most pediatricians accept kids until they are 21. sm
Internal Medicine will accept teens at the age of 13.
It depends on what you're willing to accept.
I don't have as much experience as you (only 5 years), and I was just raised to 14 cents per gross line from 12 cents. I would think someone with your skills and experience should be able to command a better line rate than 8 cents. Good luck to you. Even with my relatively low experience, I wouldn't get out of bed for 8 cents a line.
Look ...accept the fact that you are not in any other MT/mom household!
You can argue the "not 100%" junk all day long, but are you at home with any MT/mom all day? Not with me! So, you have no idea what goes on in my house. You can have your opinion, but you are not in our homes. In my house, I happen to do it all. I don't hear my kids, my husband or my MTSO complaining - only you -and you don't count!!
I actually DID accept a 6 cents per line
job. It's not much but I can do the work in my sleep (and probably have on a couple of occasions). But, you're right. I'm not going to accept 6, 7, or 8 cents a line for the "large teaching hospital" accounts with 95% ESL physicians, hundreds of dictators including residents so you never get the same dictator twice, graveyard shift, weekends, and holidays, with someone watching over your shoulder 24/7 to make sure you are working. No thanks. I'd make more money working at McDonald's. Employers think that, because you have experience, you should be able to do the work that no one else wants to do. Gee thanks. Great to see we are being rewarded for our years of experience. Give me the mindless stuff that I can do in my sleep. I don't want a "challenge" anymore. My marriage is challenging enough! :) My job is for paying the bills.
Isn't there Okay or Accept, etc. at the top on the right at the Ctrl/J window? Need to do that af
d
If you accept that, you ARE putting yourself *on sale*. (nm)
/
Just accept it. Apathy is the answer? I don't think so. SM
I don't want to accept the demise of my career. I don't want to move on to something else. I may be studying for another career field in my spare time, but that doesn't mean I WANT a new career. I love medical transcription. I've always loved it. We used to be respected, paid what we were worth. Now, globalization of the work force threatens to end everything I worked hard to achieve and I'm supposed to just accept it?
I only accept digital files.
I don't have time to courier tapes. I use Express Scribe to play back files. Doc upload to a commercial, secure website. Completed documents are uploaded to the same website to be downloaded by the docs. (I pay $30/month for this.) No software/licenses for the docs to buy but they do provide their own digital recorders, which I have found to work best since they take better care of things they have to pay for.
There are several websites available that offer FTP stores space (some FTP knowledge is required by the office staff) as well as other sites that allow for "drop and drag" upload/downloads. Some bill a flat fee per month, some bill according to the bandwidth used.
Medication can help you get past the things you can't accept
in this life. You need to seek help.
People have to let go of what bothers them at some point. Carrying around that baggage with you isn't healthy for you.
I didn't bring up anything about my future -- someone else always does because they are so fixated and obsessed. Now that's the biggest funny of all. HAHAHA
Interesting and typical. Accept responsibility for nothing
He's a loser
(((RadGuy))) Death is never easy to accept........
But it does sound like he enjoyed a very full life and that is some consolation, I hope.
RIP, teach.
I'd be honest and wouldn't say less than you are willing to accept. It is a waste of your tim
x
I think part of the reason many people accept -
such low rates *to start* is that they don't realize that very likely, other than maybe gaining a little speed once they're familiar with the software & their accounts, that is all they're going to get. Merit or cost-of-living raises? Nuh-uh.
The few places that accept satellite are inside. May
MQ, Opti-Script, Precyse, Probity, Transform in Wyoming, TRS, and WebMedX....nm
Thank you. As long as we accept payment like that, they will continue to do it.
If we do not accept jobs that pay without spaces, then they will realize that we are not going to continue to do something for nothing. How many of you do several things throughout the day at no charge? Now this...
Depends on the definition you choose to accept
It can be "the particular occupation for which you are trained" or simply "a person's job or profession." I choose to think of mine as a career, also. I have not failed to increase my income each year, albeit by a relatively small amount, each year for the last seven. I think maybe the main difference between categorizing MT as a "career" or a "job" is one's contentment with where they are and what they are doing.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=define%3A+career
Just didn't want to have to spend money to accept a job.
I was offered the perfect job (for me), but I just realized that gearplayer is required to do the files. I'm broke as it is........didn't want to spend money I didn't have to just to "work"........sucks, because now I have to turn the job down and I really needed it.
And you're willing to just accept that? Ever had your identity stolen? I have. It's no treat.
the police have made a report but whoopee, that's not getting my credit back on track. Talk about stress and grief. No one ever cares until it happens to them. What a shame.
Am I willing to accept the US government outsources my tax return? Are you nutz?
What the bleep do you expect US citizens to do? Overthrow the government? It's the friggin LAW the politicians made.
Regarding identity theft - ANYBODY can steal your identity. It doesn't have to be someone overseas. Welcome to the real world.
Sorry about that. It doesn't really matter what the "R" stands for. Please accept my apolog
being catty. Hope you have a good evening.
You can accept checks or money orders, but it's more convenient
to use PayPal, BidPay, or some of the other services. You don't have to sign up for the premiere or business account on Paypal that takes fees out. In fact, I use Paypal for bank fund only transactions and don't accept credit card payments.
It's pretty easy to sell. I find that I have better luck by including a digital picture, starting the auction low, and being completely accurate in the description. I used my scanner to do pictures for a while before I bought my first cheap digital camera off of ebay. ebay has tutorials on their site so you can read up on how to do it.
I'm in Joyce's boat - what companies accept satellite, plz?
I've been waiting for DSL for years now -- it was supposed to be available locally in September, .... then "end of November" ... now, not returning e-mail (will phone next week) ... but I'm not hopeful anymore
actually in my area, satellite costs "only" $400 for set up and $60 a month ....
only advice for joyce is check out what company is servicing your sherriff/post office/library/schools .... bigger can be best and most likely to be expanding their service area ... good luck.
But can't a company say I need these jobs by X time? And then the IC can accept or decline?
:+
You can accept the changes or you can shape the changes. THOSE are the choices. Reactive versus Pr
I choose to be proactive. Apparently, the consensus here is to lie down like a dog and just let it happen.
Just accept that it is you opinon and let it rest. We all read all of the posts, yours included sm
and all taken into account.
newbies
I applaud your attitude towards mentoring (especially since I'm a student and crave that!). To hold employees that are worth having the employer would only benefit by training the way he/she wants the employee to work.
As a baby boomer, I think the majority of us will work well past the retirement age set forth by the powers that be. I don't see that my retirement funds will pay for me to live another third of my life unemployed. Not to mention, the need to feel productive that many of us have. MT is the answer, allowing many to work at home (or in our RV's - not that I'll get one, not my thing).
As far as education goes, some schools are most likely sub-par, in it for the money only. Some are developing, some are downright outstanding. However, even a student attending one of the 'lesser' schools might be worth mentoring. Perhaps they attend that school because of fund shortages (I know that's why I am), that does not mean the student is sub-par. Yes, I agree some are looking for an easy buck, but some are looking for a CAREER, not a dollar. I know that's my goal.
ok - I'm getting off my soapbox, and hoping someone someday will give me the chance to work and help others too, when I get enough experience!
Newbies
Good luck in a field where our pay goes down each year, and our business costs soar. I received an e-mail that offered to transcribe my overflow for 3 cents a line. How can we compete with that? It seems the doctors just care about cheap labor instead of quality work....
It isn't that most of us have anything against newbies. sm
Just as in any field, when people have trained and worked hard to get where they are, they expect to be rewarded. Forlorn hope. As newer people come in, they are eager to learn, willing to take less money while they train. That means those of us that have been at it so long (18 years here) have to sometimes cut our prices to compete for the jobs. I won't even mention the off-shoring. Eighteen years experience means little to a company that only asks for two years. We do get bitter, not necessarily at the new people, but at the situation we're in.
People in all professions find this. New people come into teaching making as much as people that have been there 15 years. In other professions, a long-timer is replaced by someone new who works for much less. Do you think there isn't bitterness over this? The list goes on.
We all feel cheated, even those of us making a decent living, like me. Yes, I can make $16 an hour, but have to buy my own equipment, software, insurance, pay employment taxes, income taxes, Medicare tax, internet, long distance, etc. I'm lucky if I really make $8 an hour. Not much above working at WalMart, when you look at it like that.
Don't take it personally, most of us understand being new. But the money was easier to make then, and the competition wasn't so stiff. We're sympathetic with you, but we're also worried about our families. Ten years from now, when you're fighting to make what you make today, and utilities have tripled in that time, maybe you'll understand better. Good luck.
newbies
It's because so many newbies want to work M-F, at their own chosen hours and want to make $50K a year to begin with. They think because they took a course, they know everything and have nothing to learn. They resent established MTs who learned on the job.
I'm from the days when MTs were hired because of their good spelling and typing skills. They trained us on the job. We had very few resources, about 5 good reference books to use, but we were able to get feedback from the doctors, who actually respected us and what we did for them.
Now, too many newbies think that an online course or a couple semesters at the local community college put them on the same level as an MT with 10+ years of experience. Not true. There is no substitute for experience.
To the newbies who think they are too good to work holidays and weekends, I just say, why on earth did you take a job in healthcare, which is 24/7 365 days a year, if you want a 9-5, M-F job? Go to work for an insurance company or an accounting firm.
If you can't raise your family and hold down a job at the same time, then quit and let someone else have the opportunity.
There are so many newbies who cannot get a job and would
probably take that and not think twice. Twenty years ago I was making 6 cpl/gross line.
The newbies always do.....
d
Newbies.......
I have been in this field for 17 years and on 'another board' I was ridiculed beyond reason for posting a problem I had with a vendor who advertised on that site. Little did I know I was a site where there were cliques present, you know like high school. HEY we were all new at one time or another and how do you lean if you don't ask questions? Compassion, patience and understanding goes a long way.
we were all newbies once...
so what's with the vets vs. newbies attitude that has taken over this thread?
Sheesh people - it doesn't matter how many years we've been doing this - we're all in the same boat here. Just because some of us have more experience than others, that doesn't mean we're any better or that our opinions are more important.
I have to take back what I said earlier about having not seen any nastiness here because now I have - and it's right here in this thread.
Newbies
Like you, I had a mentor in a former R.N. who started a small transcription company. I knew some medical terms but not much. I did have the advantage, however, of being a very fast typist at that point. But I had never worked with any type of dictation equipment. I started when I was 26 and more or less retired at the age of 67. To say that this profession is on life support is probably the most accurate and honest statement I've heard in a long time. I was able to work at home with young children and it was a God-send at that time. For years I worked full-time for a large group as a salaried employee plus worked several nights a week at a local hospital because they had new computerized equipment and I wanted to learn that. I still love the medical profession and all that it entails and am truly sorry that now all the bits and pieces stored in my brain won't be used any longer for transcription. I still try to read about medicine and get on this site frequently just to "keep up" but, again, the profession as we oldies knew it is dead in the water. My own family physician has already switched to EMR. In fact, he types his own notes as he sees the patient. He said the group could not afford to hire a transcriptionist. To put it mildly, transcription "ain't" what it used to be, that's for sure. So sad, really.
Newbies
Hi! Where does a newbie get started? I am working at a large local hospital in the Transcription Dept. and have been here a year. I transcribe 2 days and I do tech work. I just finished my internship and I have my MT certificate. :) I do not know where to start to find MT work as a newbie. Anyone have any advice? I am able to get 2 days transcribing at my current job but I want a second job transcribing. Any adivce is greatly appreciated! :)
I think 100 may be a lot for brand new newbies. nm
nm
Message for newbies
Please go to www.careerbuilder.com. On the left hand side, enter into 'keyword' box, 'transcription work from home'. Do not enter a city or state or category. Now click on 'search'. There are several jobs her for transcriptionists with little experience. Some of them require that you live in a certain area. Many of them do not. When you call to inquire about these positions, make sure that it's not some sort of school thing that requires you to pay a fee. I hope this is helpful.
I think the newbies who are just getting into the business sm
need to hear the truth about this organization before they get taken in by them.
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