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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

hourly plus benefits sm

Posted By: skip the middle man on 2006-03-10
In Reply to: How are they paying their in-house transcriptionists? Hourly or by the line? - nm

Not sure what they pay by the hour though.


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Are you hourly? Benefits? Pay? East/West/middle?nm
x
That was with full benefits, which are the same benefits as an in-office employee for the QA staff..
However, I hear that their current QA staff are being asked to reach numbers that are out of sight and goals are basically impossible.
IC positions offer no benefits, employee positions off full benefits, so if you do not need
benefits, then IC would be best.
Thank you. Think-----hourly!!! Do not sm
accept less than an hourly wage and a reasonable one at that.
Hourly plus

A hospital where I worked long ago (in a galaxy not far away) had a hybrid pay system- a basic hourly rate plus incentive bonus for production over a certain amount.  I think this is the fairest way, because sometimes I'm fast and sometimes I'm slow, but I'm always accurate.  My first transcription supervisor back in the dark ages said "No one who reads that report will know or care how many lines you type per hour.  They only know what that report looks like".  I still believe that.


Hourly sm
Though there are a lot of variables you haven't told us, on face value I'd say hourly. I've done both, and hourly has paid better.

With MT you usually can't transcribe hour after hour nonstop (or at least you won't be doing so for many years if that's your pattern). Therefore, when figuring your actual earnings you need to include time you have to rest between transcribing to get your true hourly earnings.

As an MT this scenario is typical at so many companies: Get up early. Check for work. Do what's left. Get 7 great jobs that have you flying along thinking you're going to make a ton today. Suddenly run into Dr. X, ESL from hell, and watch your great production day go to pot. Fight for jobs at end of payperiods. Bounce around on accounts. Cry a lot as you worry about your bills.

With hourly lead position, you've suddenly opened up your possibilities. There will always be work for you. You now have more than just MT on your resume. You can also get up and go to the bathroom during work without worrying that it's cutting into your lines per hour. You may work more than 40 hours a week, but it will be actual work, not sitting there waiting for jobs to trickle in, not resting between transcription periods.

It may be stressful at times, but so is MT when you're worrying about meeting bills and having a consistent paycheck when work volumes fluctuate. It's also an investment in your future. You can possibly grow from there to be supervisor, recruiter, trainer, or use your management skills to GET OUT of this field and get into something else.

I've done both in many different ways, and would recommend the hourly.
HOURLY...
...and with my level of experience, $16.50 or more per hour.
Hourly QA Pay
Just wondering what average hourly QA pay is? I've been QA'ing for 2 years now, but have always been paid by the line and not sure what to quote for hourly. I live on the East coast. Thanks.
yes it's hourly
But no pay when not working.
I went hourly

I went hourly....kinda.  My advantage is that I know what my paycheck will be and I don't have to worry about the difficult dictators that take FOREVER!  I am also paid for tech time and during phone calls and software issues.  On the negative side, production does nothing for me at all.  BUT, then again, what I make is about the same as 220 lines an hour.  I do get raises just like everyone else.  If there was never a chance for a raise, I would not do it.


I also went hourly...
For a bit over $16/hour with yearly raises. I love it! I don't have to worry about my paycheck if I have a bad couple of days, and it's just a much less stressful situation. Of course, in my old production pay job, I had the worst account ever, so I may be biased.
hourly
What have you been getting as an hourly wage?
hourly
Figure out what you make per hour now -- but be sure that you figure in if there is going to be difficulty doing his typing, formatting, background noise, etc.  I would say anywhere from $20 to $25 per hour. 
Hourly
We were all hourly employees at that time. We were so trusting or ??? that we couldn't figure out how she kept getting such good numbers on production sheets. She was always on top. Duh! Of course she was, since she was using us to "create" her success. They (HR) told us that couldn't happen until we showed them how to do it. Accidentally, I found out when a colleague and I "switched" stations so she could try out my new keyboard for a report or two and then we realized we were "on each other's number" so we went in to change them and that is when it came to us that this must be what was going on with her. Sure enough, when we got out the logs (handwritten for our own eyes only log things we just kept for ourselves) there it was, our jobs had magically converted to her jobs! It was sad and backstabbing too!
hourly
Transcription Plus I believe. I am not sure of their web site but I think they pay hourly.
Hourly
$12.70/hour. Is that too low? On a side note, I have a B.S. in Management and have never figured out a way to use it and still work from home. 
hourly pay
Those days are long gone. You might be able to find one if you really scoured the internet and hospitals all over America.

If my memory serves me right, people were more productive on hourly pay with OT thrown when work levels were high. My rationale for saying this is that the work environment was more cooperative than competitive. This led to more job satisfaction and thus more productivity and less down time.
Right Now, we do get benefits
but MQ is trying to change that, of course. They are trying to get our hospital to outsource everything to them, which would then mean i can work for MQ or leave. I hate MQ. I want to see them exposed for what they really are and I want to see everybody that have hurt, be compensated.
You can do that with benefits too, ya know.
:)

As long as you're happy, it pays your bills, and you can make ends meet at tax time, that's all that counts. :)
Is that with or without benefits

Do they have Editor positions as SE?


 


If you don't need benefits, look into
doing house cleaning for individuals on a weekly basis. Lots of under-the-table money to be made from what I used to see when I worked at a bank (and saw deposits of gals doing housekeeping). Weekly house cleaning is no longer limited to the well off professionals.

I was in QuickLube, or whatever it's called this week, and a 70-something lady was talking about her work as a home aide - light housekeeping and cooking and companionship - no medical stuff. She got her referrals through her church and was charging $10/hour.
Unfortunately, some of us need benefits.

Not even in the salad days did I make anywhere near that.  In fact, most of the services I know don't charge that.


It's all about the benefits
Hospitals don't want to pay the benes. The hospital where I used to work was sold and the new owners threw us all out plus the service we used. My benefits alone costed the hospital roughly $5000 per year x that by 15 transcriptionists. Plus they provided everything for us, equip, desk, computer, etc.

Apparently they contracted a service for X amount of dollars per month/year to do it for them. No messing around with line counts and they always know what it will cost them.
Can you name some benefits for
the American MT to become certified? Please tell me how AAMT has changed the average MT's job security, satisfaction, etc. All I see is that they have given up on us and moved overseas to start programs and gain overseas members.
well, there are some benefits to having your own
was asking you to go away. A blog serves a similar purpose and in fact you may find a wider range of readers, interactions and help than what you may get on this web site. Yes, I have seen others here say they would start their own blog and have seen a couple of them, so it wasn't an only you thing (at least I didn't see it that way).
Benefits can add up to $10,000 though. (nt)

Tax benefits

I guess I just like knowing I own my own business and I made it what it is today. I like getting out and delivering.  Talking to the people in the office making personal contact. Working as much as I want.   I also like the write offs and paying less than $1,000 taxes per year.  To each their own.   To me this is the answer. Most on this board all they do is say that there is no way to make 50K a year and I simply gave an example of how you can do it.  I am not  knocking you, you seem to have done it I just like doing it "my way" as Frank Sinatra would say.   Best of luck to you. 


If you do not need benefits then you would
there is more leg work involved especially when first landing an account.  The other problem is that even when you have a contract with them they can break it any time for someone who charges less.  So you must remain humble with your pricing.  When you have your own accounts, you have cut out the middle man, BUT, you must chase down your money.  In my experience, the Transcriptionist must get paid LAST because most weeks, I have to ask nicely or do without.  Have a safety net, an account to borrow from until you get paid because a lot of the time they pull OOPS, forgot your write your check, or OOPS doc needs to sign it or you just wonder when you'll get it.  Just SOME things to consider, but good luck on whatever you decide. 
IC - No benefits with this doc
I was total IC before. I dropped my other accounts and went the employee route for the bennies and so taxes are taken out. Now I get days and holidays off, too. That's a first. Worked 9 years 7/7, 12-14 hours a day, 3 days off a year for family.

What no one seems to realize that in my area, money is tight and so I can't charge the same as someone in a city or heavily populated area can charge. Jobs just aren't here.
Benefits
They cannot give you benefits if you are an IC. If they did they would have to turn you into employees. This is not just my opinion they are IRS rules.
My pay is okay - just no more benefits

It has become a matter of taking a higher cpl w/o benefits or lower cpl with benefits in this industry...as well as those employers who want (example) 7 years of experience for 5-6 cpl.  Anyone accepting that should be ashamed to call themselves an MT.  I make only slightly less than I did 5 years ago.  Now I make 11 cpl on a 65 line count versus 11-12 cpl on a gross line - the difference though, is that I had paid benefits then which I don't have now.  The other difference is that when I could work in DOS and create all reports into one file to send at the end of the day, I could routinely produced over 350 lph (and never, ever work more than 6 hours a day, 5 days a week!).  Now that I have to work on a platform that requires individual reports being submitted, I've really taken a hit in how many lph I can produce.  I still work less than 40 hr/wk, though.


I truly believe in working smarter than harder.  If a company offers a platform or dictators that prevent me from making a minimum of 200 lph or more, then I don't work for them.  If I can't use my abbreviations that I've built over the past 10 years, then I won't work for that company.  If I can't have benefits paid by the company AND the cpl I want, then yes, I will be an independent contractor and take all the tax benefits I can.  Last year, I only paid $268 in federal taxes for the entire year.


I have to work around my child as well (I am single) and I am fortunate that my training days are well behind me.  I still have a good life and good income, but I am choosy about the company I will work for.  When I am older and things change significantly that I make less than $40k/yr, then I will go back into coding and have a job with good pay and benefits.  I can't see staying in a profession if it doesn't benefit me the way I need it to.


About benefits

After I wrote my last post I was just thinking about the benefits.  I was with Keystrokes for a while and you can be an employee with them and still get the flexibility of 24 hour TAT and therefore you can get the benefits.  So it's not impossible to get benefits and flexibility.  I know the Keystrokes ortho accounts offer 24 hour TAT, not sure if it's all of the ortho accounts, but I know some of them do.  I'm not sure if they have other specialties that have the 24 hour TAT.  Good luck.


Benefits
The only "benefits" an IC gets is being able to make their own schedule.  We do not get any medical, dental, retirement.  We furnish our own equipment, do our own taxes, and do not get paid vacation or holidays. 
benefits?
I know people who would change bedpans, just to get a hospital job because of the great benefits package. No judgement on types of jobs some of us would or wouldn't actually consider doing, but bottom line for some people is a steady paycheck and health insurance.
benefits
They do have good benefits and I did look into the kitchen job a bit more.  I have not called HR yet.  I guess my main point is I am surprised that the HR person did not follow through and let me know there is not an MT job.  She did not indicate that when I met with her.  I am also surprised that the application went to another department but if that is the way it is done, ok, fine.  I do not feel I am a prima dona.  I would have understood them passing the application on to perhaps the business office or something else in the medical record department.  The job asked for an experienced MT so I was just responding to that particular job.
No Benefits

I'm an independent contractor and so I don't receive any benefits.  The reason I stay as an IC is because it allowed me to obtain one degree, and now I'm going back to obtain my nursing degree, and so I like the fact that as an IC, I can set my own hours and that kind of thing...so unfortunately, the penalty for that is not having insurance, paid time off, etc., but I hope it will all be worth it in the end when I'm a nurse!  And, I don't mind answering any questions at all...so feel free to ask.


Have a good day!


CMT benefits
Company I work for pays 1 cent per line more for CMT, also provides gift certificates for several webinars a year so does not cost me much.
Benefits
Just found out benefit premiums are going up over $100 more a month.  I am hardly getting by as is, let alone when benefits go up.  I have to carry the insurance for my entire family (husband is self employed).  If someone works for a company that offers good coverage (deductible $1000 or less and copays $30 or less) and cheap premiums (i.e. less than $500/mo for family coverage), could you please let me know.  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you. 
Benefits (sm)
115V AC
3-prong grounded plugs
dust cover provided
I have benefits.
I am an employee though, so make less per line than an IC, and don't get to choose my schedule. Worth it to get benefits though. You just have to find a company willing to hire you as an employee.
do we get benefits?
What's a benefit????
No more benefits, either
I didn't either think about benefits when I posted.  I got two weeks paid vacation a year plus paid health insurance and matching taxes deducted through paycheck.  Now as an IC, I don't get any of those things.  The one thing I have now that I did not have even in 2002 was cable internet, but didn't really need it as much then.
wow - someone is getting cheated on hourly - sm
Let's face it, a facility will do their darndest to start out an employee at a low rate and then slowly bring them up. But for the Lafayette area, the pay should be (AND IS EXPECTED TO BE) around $12-13/hour.

Opelousas - a while back there was a hospital in that area that had an opening for a transcriptionist.
HOURLY VS LINE

I disagree with the hourly rate.  I like to know that I get paid for the amount that I produce.  It would really be hard to regulate an hourly scale.  If you feel bad now how would you feel knowing that someone is goofing off or typing slower or whatever and getting the same rate of pay that you get?   I have a couple of subs and I know about how long it takes to do one of the psych reports but how could I know what that person is doing.   I really think that the hospitals/accounts would have a problem with this especially with us working at home.    Also how could we clock in and out at an hourly rate.  I am a pretty trusting person and trustworthy but there are times I stop and take a break and go to this board, etc.  That is why they went to the per line charge. 


And yes, I can do 2500 lines per day. For one account last month I had them keep track of the errors that they found and it was 5 out of 10,.973 lines for that month.  So I feel I do a good job but if I were to go to hourly I would lose money as with this account it takes me about 30 to 35 hours a month with delivery, printing, etc. to make $1100  to 1200 a month.   They would not pay me $35 to 40 an hour. 


 


Editor hourly pay??

After years as an MT, I'm thinking of switching to Editing...Can anyone please tell me what is the standard hourly rate to request for an Editor? BTW I live in the Midwest with a fairly low cost of living. Thank you!


That is a low hourly rate. I would look
elsewhere. That is below normal.
We do get hourly wage

during down-time and the only approved down-time is meetings and computer malfunction.  Lack of work was not approved so if there is lots of work available we have no worries, if not then we will be scrounging around for work.  I don't have time for that.


I will have to ask my supe if that is how it is because that is how I understand it.  If so, I maybe putting in my 2 weeks notice.


hourly rate
What is the going HOURLY rate for a MT (independent contractor) that would be competitive. 
Hourly - think about downtime and
if that account moves to VR one day....
hands down..hourly

What companies pay hourly? nm

nm