Yes, you can make a profit if you pick up and deliver.
Posted By: It's pretty easy.. sm on 2006-06-07
In Reply to: Patti, I am with you. I have a similar service to yours and the personal contact and client - CTMTSO
You charge them a line rate that includes your cost for doing the tapes, printing, etc. A business person should know how to successfully sit down and figure up their expenses and how to charge a rate that will provide a profit, regardless of how the dictation is supplied. If the client wants delivery, I am glad to do it and charge them a fee for said delivery based on the cost of gas, vehicle maintenance, etc. They either are willing to pay the fee for the delivery or they decide digital doesn't look all that bad after all. Either way, I win. I also do not go to their office every day. I go twice a week and that's fine with them and doesn't bother me since I'm running other errands then anyway.
I would not dump a client that I've had for years simply because they are afraid of technology. I charge them accordingly for tapes because I consider that out of the normal way I do business and make sure I turn a profit, but I certainly wouldn't dump them. In fact, in some ways, their reluctance to move forward with new technology can be viewed as a positive thing because at least I never have to worry about losing them to speech recognition since they won't even pick up a phone to call in dictation. ;)
Yes, I have a call-in system, I have digital handhelds that I supply to clients, and I am well versed in digital dictation. I prefer my clients to use the digital services I offer, absolutely, but I do have some old clients that I've had for years that just don't want to make the switch. Not about to drop a $30K a year client over it, though. I know that eventually, they will come around and try the digital way of life. Until then, I'll gladly collect the delivery fees. :)
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If 13 is the lowest you can go and still make a profit,
Whether someone else can afford to charge 11 cents is not relevant. Don't fixate on thta. You need to calcualate all your expenses (both direct and indirect), add to that a profit you can be happy with, and that's your price plain and simple. If your client accepts it, that's great. If not, it's out of your hands, and you start looking for a new client.
For profit versus not for profit organizations
Does anyone know if there is a difference (in salary or benefits) between being employed by a not-for-profit versus a for-profit hospital or medical center?
Make your life easier, pick which name to go by and have EVERYTHING match. sm
yes, it's a pain to stand in line at the SS office, adn the DMV, and you have to fill out forms, but avoid all confusion which WILL arise in the future with a little effort now.
for every business, it's profit, profit, profit. That's why it's business and not non-for-p
x
let's do it, pick a day, nobody works, pick a busy day
nm
Yes, I deliver
Yes, I actually pick up tapes because they refuse to go digital. I email back the finished chart note and return the tapes when I do the next pick up.
Anyone out there deliver newspapers?
Just wondering if I'm the only crazy fool. My younger son took on a paper route and then lost interest. I helped him with it for a while. My older son used to do the same route and it became available again.
I'd been trying to get motivated to walk in the morning and would always turn the alarm off. When I helped my younger son, I saw him counting his cash and thought "okay, I walk for an hour every morning and make $85.00 or more a week while I'm doing this."
Only drawback is that it is 7 days a week 364 days a year (no paper at Christmas) and you have to be up at 4:30 a.m. When my older son did the route, he would get over $500 in Christmas tips.
Maybe I'm trying to convince myself to keep it up? I do know that I feel great and am in much better shape than I was even a few weeks ago.
All you paper "boys" out there get back to me.
You pickup and deliver?! Oh my!
Well, my clients are from across the nation. I don't do any pickup/delivery.
I have a digital dictation system. I have long distance expenses, accountant and attorney (not monthly but annually), my equipment/software, I provide the software for my contractors, and the list goes on.
I appreciate everyone's input.
I help my husband deliver papers--
He's been doing it for the past 5 years. It's the steadiest income we've ever had and good pay.
It's not your advice, it's the way you deliver it. Very snotty. nm
b
Deliver newspapers. I do. Good $$$, great exercise.
I do approximately one hour each morning (walking). This past week I made $160 tax free for 7 hours of "exercise." :)
My theory is why get up early and walk the dog when you can walk the dog and make money while you're at it.
My sister and her husband did a motor route together and made $500+ a week.
And the Christmas tips? CHA CHING!!! I made almost $600 last year with 65 customers. My sister and her husband made close to $2000.00.
Isn't that called profit
They charge the hospital more than they pay us.... yes.....don't understand what is supposed to be bad about that. It's called profit. As far as calculating the lines differently for the MT versus how they count them for the hospital for billing, there is nothing illegal about that and there is nothing that says they have to calculate the lines the same way.
MTSO's profit
Do you know how hard it is to land an account that will pay you 14 to 16 cpl so that you can pay an MT 10 to 12 cpl. It is very hard, if you think it is so easy then I suggest you try to get your own accounts and deal with all the headaches. Keeping only 3 to 4 cpl per line to run the business, deal with all that stress, overhead, etc. is barely worth it to me. Even with the larger companies, by the time that they pay the MT, the QA, the overhead, the benefits, I know you think all the MTSO's get rich but the medium to smaller MTSO's have a small profit margin. Again, I suggest that you try to land your own accounts if you are so unhappy with the pay. Also if you can do 200 to 300 lines per hour, $14 to $24 an hour isn't really that bad of pay to be able to work at home. Yea I know years ago we got paid more but then years ago we actually TYPED more as we did not have the expanders, the computers, templates, etc. Anyway, I do agree that 7 cpl is a little low for very experienced MT's but for some of those that I have had apply, it is too much. Anway, flame me all you want, I don't know what the answer is as but maybe if enough MT's were to get their own accounts and take them away from the larger companies, they could make more, charge a little less than the larger companies. Hey also what happened to that gal that was on line that was going to have the backer to start her own company and asked for all the input and was going to pay the great wages and benefits, have the perfect schedule for the MT's, etc. Did she find out that it was not as easy as she thought? I would like an update from her if possible.
Patti
No, profit is they charge the company say 15 cpl and pay
transcriptionists 8 cpl.... the difference is PROFIT... If they pay a Transcriptionist for 75 amount of lines and charge the company for 100, that is STEALING
My husband also has profit sharing
In his case, he has the potential to receive a monthly bonus, which is based on how well this office does sales-wise according to what was projected. This bonus is issued through the regular payroll and is unrelated to the profit sharing, which is a part of the retirement plan (though separate from 401K) and is like a yearly bonus, I think perhaps based on company profitability for the prior fiscal year, so receives it in July, but we are not issued a check for this "bonus" and it is added into the 401K account. When we receive statements, there is a total amount that includes both the 401K and the profit sharing, but it is also broken down as to how much is in each account. I believe he had to work for the company for five years to be 100% vested and I do not think that he was vested at all prior to the five-year anniversary date, though I have worked for a company previously where an employee was gradually vested in increments annually (20% each year or something like that), where if you left the company after, say, three years you would be 60% vested and entitled to 60% of the funds in your profit sharing account, but any time after five years of employment would be 100% vested and, thus, entitled to 100% of the funds allocated to profit sharing.
estimate on company's profit
The company owner (who got the contracts for us, and we subcontracted from her), charged 2 cents more per line. In other words, if the transcription company paid the MT 9 cents per line for transcribing an account, the transcription company would charge the doctor 11 cents per line. That was in the year 2006 BEFORE we went digital, when we used the minitapes. I don't know whether digital requires more or less overhead.
I am a midwife and i was attempting to deliver a baby, face presentation, and transferred to hopsita
was working with doc to try to reposition the baby without the face but wasn't successful and ended up with c-section. happy b-day to her!!!
No, it is only income if you are a reseller and are making a profit.
I had a long discussion with the IRS on this topic because I sold everything that wasn't nailed down in our house. If I had paid taxes on that money, it would have been double taxation because I paid taxes when I first earned the money that bought the item to begin with. I bought the items, used them for a while, then sold the items as if it was a "yard sale". I did not make a profit. I merely resold used items that belonged to me. I had receipts on most of it to prove that I didn't sell for more than what I paid.
It is different if you're selling on ebay as a business, in which case you would have to do a cost of goods sold, inventory, profit/loss, schedule C, and all those other fun things.
Their claim to be 'not-for-profit' cracks me up.
They're making $$ hand over fist at those seminars. Love the photo of the race horses at the top. Bet more than a few of them own some. Oh - and most companies with an LLC behind them are in other countries. Like India and China, to name a couple.
Of course it's a business! Anything that's run for the purpose of earning a profit is a busine
 What galaxy are you on?
isn't it the posting by the visitors here that determine the web site's profit?
just a curious question.
My Pick
Sade's "By Your Side".
Its a very unique sounding and lovely song. 
Pick up
LOL! Good for you!
Thank you so much! I will pick up one of these. nm
.
Which would you pick?
Forty-five minutes was or were spent with the patient.
The patient is a 46-year-old patient of Dr. Smith or Smith's with stage IV breast carcinoma
Unless you have a job where you can pick
and choose, I would never presume to ask to be off an account or a particular doctor because I can't understand him. I personally have a doctor that when I see his name I cringe, because I absolutely have a horrific time with. He is just one of the hundreds of doctors at this facility though. I just do the best I can and the more I have him, the easier (although slow) he is getting. That is all part of the job in my opinion, you take the good with the bad.
How can you cherry pick on MQ DQS?
How do you get info on whether hospital complains or not about cherry picking? How do you figure an office is closed because of cherry picking. My office is far away from where I live. My managers are just names. I don't know them. They live in other parts of the country also, far away from the home office. I know nothing about who is doing what nor correspondence from the hospital to the manager or why MQ closes offices (I was told this is an economical measure since most managers are working out of their homes as well.) How do you come across all of your information regarding the inner workings of MQ and who is cherry picking and how?
you can't cherry pick....
Well you see, you stated right in your post that you can't possibly cherry pick...so what do you know about what is going on with the rest of us out here who DO have to deal with cherry pickers.
Don't know what you make per line but getting about 666 lines per hour is quite astounding. I'm sure you must be quite happy where you are and with no cherry pickers! Good for you. I've been an acute care MT for over 30 years and am rated as one of the best as far as QA and quantity and have NEVER, EVER in my life been able to come close to your line count. Maybe you are from another planet and have powers beyond us or maybe you have some special secret you could share. Or maybe, we should just ignore your statement of getting that kind of line count, especially when you are not dealing with cherry pickers. 
Pick Transcend
You'll like it. Great company. Great platform designed for us specifically. Pay is good, always on time. No problems. I love it!
Yes, I do cherry pick...
but very infrequently and only if I think somebody else would do a better job of transcribing a particular dictator - all of us on my account do it to a minimal extent and no one is bothered by it - sometimes U feel like a nut, sometimes U don't...
dropping everything you pick up...
and my favorite, the old juggling act: and now folks for my next trick, I will type for 15 minutes, answer the phone, fold a load of laundry, run to the bathroom, do up a coupla dishes on the way back, sit back down to type another 15 minutes, only to be interrupted as you just get going again...
gotta love it!
Oh, no way, after this I'm done for this year. It's a lot to go and pick and buy for
Christmas Angels, pack and ship, shooey, I'm POOPED!
Sometimes I wish I could cherry pick
I work with a program that will not allow you to cherry pick. If you try to dump the job, it comes right back to you.
It's a good thing though. I have learned a lot of foreign accents and have put up with mumblers, pausers, stutterers and horrid background noises, but I can do it all.
When the companies the cherry pickers work for downsize or go to VR (voice recognition) the good MTs will be working and the cherry pickers will be saying, "Do you want fries with that? 
me too.. nit pick it so that it is hiliarious
Seems its a no-win situation with my QA...and I think they know I have 30+ yrs experience, so they are out to prove "something or anything" on my reports. It's absolutely ridiculous. And you call them on it, then you get "the account wants it that way"... oh boy!
It's my birthday, DH says I get to pick where I want to eat.
Ohhhh, the possibilities!!!
Hands down, if I had to pick one, my best
resource for medical terms is The Surgical Word Book. Boy that book is awesome. For meds, Quick Look Drug Book is The One! Online, the only site I really frequent is Dr. 411. Now, most of my coworkers are going to know who I am, as I am always singing the praises of these!! Oh well. It won't be any surprise to them how miserable I am at work - we all are. 
Poll: If you could only pick one.....
If you could only pick one each of a medical book and an online reference, which would you choose? Mine would be Stedman's Medical Dictionary for the book and onelook.com for my online reference.
I get one check DD. The other I have to pick up. sm
If that's not bad enough (even though the office is only 1 mile away), I have to drive another mile to my bank and they don't even have a drive thru teller. They're located on the main street in town so I have to find a parking place. Then I have to get out of the car. Then I have to walk to the bank. Then I have to walk inside and stand in line.
With my other employer I get up in the morning on pay day, log on to my online banking and there it is!
BUT. . . .there is nobody there to say hello and call me by my fist name and ask me how the kids are doing and whether or not I was having a good week, etc., which is nice even though I do have to change out of my jammies on pay day.
I was on my way to pick up tapes. nm
nm
ppl but in it more for money. Pick one or the other.
s
Huh? I don't pick and choose and I certainly...
am not putting myself up on a pedestal. I don't think a little pride in one's work is too much to ask.
And yes, right now I do have job security, but these horrible American MTs keep giving MTSOs directly and hospitals/physicians indirectly an excuse for offshoring because they can simply use the argument that it doesn't make much difference regarding quality. So how much job security can I have and for how much longer?
I need to pick brains
from anyone who uses Express Scribe. I am trying to find ways to maneuver around in Express Scribe more efficiently, such as learning where how to set the back up for one or two words, etc. TIA
yes, you're right, many do pick
but just keep in the back of your head this little nugget: 5 years in acute care is worth its weight in gold. Someone else on this board said that, so I can't lay claim to it, but he/she is definitely right! A lot of the companies nowadays want you to have anywhere from 3-5 years acute care experience, so those biddies who won't do acute care will have a hard time finding a new job if they ever lose the one they have now.
Good luck, and I didn't mean to infer that you were cherry picking, just that no one has the luxury to choose whether or not to do crappy dictators no matter how long you've been at it.
In my book, if you can't pick up SM
the format and the software fast enough to get off the initial QA period in 3 or possibly 4 days, you need to re-evalute your skills and possibly work for a company like Spheris-they have a mentoring program.
The work you show a company in the first 3 days pretty much says whether you can handle what they have to offer or not. I see people come through my company who claim to have never typed an ESL in their lives, are still using abbreviations like q.d. and h.s., expanding everything else like it's 20 years ago and more. It's appalling.
pick your tool
I am a slow-medium typer, and I do quite well straight typing, using a word Expander program and LOTS of expansions. With VR I found less opportunity to take advantage of expansions. Expander programs and VR are both tools we can use to increase our productivity. Because the VR pay is so low, I choose to straight type and use the expander tool.
Have any of you used the free disk that you can pick up at
Just wondering how you liked the service. It is $9.94 month. TIA
Looking to pick up some prn work, about 10 hours per
week. I have Word 2000 and Transnet or can use FTP. Acute care or clinic. Email me for details if interested.
If neighbors have DSL, can pick up signal with that same
zz
Dont believe her, she has a bone to pick and ....
does the same cut and paste over and over again, it gets rather boring.
As soon as I pick my head up off the floor,
I will tell you that I agree about momentary help, but not lifelong help due to dumb choices. Maybe you could sign up for a free govt anger management class. As for the money spent in "stupid Iraq", just wait till you see what this country is like after Islamofascists turn it into another middle eastern country, complete with daily suicide bombers and a dictator rule. You may not live along enough to see it, but that's their goal. Count on it. Being nice won't make those nuts go away. It didn't work with Hitler and it won't work with these sickos either.
I hear ya! Beyond age 35 or so there's nothing left to pick from but
1. Cheap mommy's boy losers who still live at home and let their mothers run their lives.
2. Someone else's sloppy seconds who were thrown out for a good reason, so why would anyone else want them?
No thanks. If no one good came along when they were supposed to, I'm not lowering my standards now. I prefer my pets too. They appreciate kindness and don't screw you over.
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