line rates charged to clients
Posted By: Les R. on 2008-02-15
In Reply to: Let's talk money. - Alicia
I know that 10 years ago, Medquist charged one of their big hospitals in St. Louis 24 cents per line!!! Yet of course they pay their employees peanuts, since they pay by the WORD. (MQ is more concerned with paying Wall Street.) But there's your upper ceiling of what you might dare think of charging!
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Has anyone kept a list of line rates, report rates, benefits, etc for sm
the different companies out there? I feel lost and confused. It seems like everything is changing daily, and I am not being organized enough to keep up. I am about to actively look for full time employment again but if there was a list, I would be able to sort through a lot more quickly.
Can anyone help? I am going to start keeping a chart myself in case anyone needs this in the future.
Line rates in the Northeast - can anyone advise as to what the going rates are in the NE part of the
country? Specifically Connecticut. I want to make sure I am on target here. Thanks.
I charged per line
I charged per line because then they had no question with regards to hours. It was gross line, top to bottom of page using Microsoft word. Did all the uh's, yea, okay as they wanted it verbatim. For a little over 2 hours dictation made $400 but it was very hard to do and I think that they got a deal. It was a land use county meeting and people would not identify themselves and talk over each other, interrupt, could not tell who was talking, etc. I think I averaged about $25 an hour but kept going over it and over it. Had someone else helping me and we kind of relistened to each other's parts of the tape. But again, they got a deal as between the two of us we put 10 hours typing and 5-6 hours reviewing. But I charged .125 cpl. Then told him that there would be review time and so we just settled on $400 and made sure that he paid me before I returned the tapes. He had to review them to see who was saying what and I did eventually get an apology saying he now could see why I had the trouble that I did. It was 7 men and 1 woman and all the men sounded alike. But good luck. I have done seminars, medical and building a computer chip and those were easier than this. But the only way I would bid on this type of job again is to say I need to listen to part of the tape before I can name my price. Good luck.
I charged by the gross line and made more money that way.
Making 0.12 per line with my own clients. (nm)
x
Line Rates
I have only been working from home for 8 months now and my previous MT work was done while i was office manger and of course i was paid hourly but did more then just MT work.
I was wondering what is the going line rate other companies are offering??
Line Rates
I made much more 10 years ago than I do now. Pretty sad -- we get less and less, but tested more and more -- ever hear of doctors or lawyers getting tested for each new job they apply for?
line rates
Is there anyone out there who pays more than 8 cents these days? The platforms are sluggish and user unfriendly and it's impossible to make any $$. I am getting discouraged.
Line rates for RAD
I have been making 9 cpl on RAD as an IC with 1 year experience. Med-Scribe advertises 10 cpl for 3 years experience. I have at times seen others offer more, and so am currently available & actively looking.
Line rates
A large company with good benefits is offering 8 cents per line to start, with a 1200 line per day minimum requirement for full-time, an eight hour day. After 13,500 lines you get an extra 1/2 cent per line. They pay time and a half for overtime (over 40 hours), and say overtime is usually available. No weekends required. Does this sound good? My friend works for a local hospital and gets 12 cents per line. She says 8 cents is low. If someone is a fast typist, can you make good money at 8 cents a line? Any idea how much money you can make in an eight-hour day?
Line Rates
Forgot to mention that this 8 cents per line is with employee status, health benefits, 401K with a match, etc.
line rates...
I was an hourly employee hired in 1989 at 7.00 an hour, and after 17 years was making 13.00 an hour when I left due to my job being outsourced.
My first IC account paid $1.50 a page, and I got a raise to $2.00 a page (dumped for nonpayment). My 2nd IC account pays 10 cents per gross line including blank lines (Word), and I haven't gotten a raise in 10 years; afraid to ask; I sub that work and make a killing.
My 3rd IC account on my own I charge 12 cpl (65 cpl w/ spaces), and I can get his work done in no time; so I average about 50.00 an hour for that.
My online account I started at 7.5 and now make 8 and do all clinic work and easy, peezy dictators, no set schedule; no line quota; and no they are not hiring.
My Salary approximately:
2006 - $27,000.00 a year approx
2008 - $45,000.00 a year approx
I never realized I could double my salary if I worked for myself and worked production instead of hourly. WOW! 
line rates
I started about 15 years ago at an hourly rate, then became 0.08 cpl, but with all kinds of incentives so that sometimes it was maybe 0.095, and benefits. Since then it has become: no benefits; no incentives; then without telling us they changed the DEFINITION OF A LINE!!! How underhanded can anyone be?!?! So the more experience I have, the better I get, the less I make.
Line rates
I'm just curious, is anyone out there charging extra to do ESL dictations or dictations from the really difficult, horrible dictators? I know it is be hard to break these out from other providers of the same group who are of average difficulty but it just seems as though we never have any idea of the quality of the dictations when we agree on a line rate. Then, whammy! You discover the quality is really poor. Sure some may be good those that are bad tend to be really bad. I think we should be able to charge extra for those.
I'm an experiened MT and it never ceases to amaze me how we set a line rate, but then that goes down the tubes when you get providers who dictate in broken English (taking lots more time to re-listen) and/or those that leave huges gaps of blank recording while they look stuff up, answer their cell phones, etc. (I guess this is where charging by the recorded amount of time would help).
Any creative line rates out there to compensate for these, i.e. charging differently for residents, ESL providers, providers who do not know how to use the pause button????
Line Rates
Hi,
Could I get an idea of the "going" line rate for clinic dictation, please.
They tell me I am too expensive and want me to lower my rates......
Thanks, I really appreciate some help.
Line rates
Current company on Mediscript and I get per page rates wanna slave? -- quit griping I have seen SUBSTANTIAL drop in my income from 1991 to the present
Where are these low line rates? sm
I have two jobs, one FT employee, one PT IC. The FT is new and the PT I have had for two years. FT pays me with 9.5 cpl WITH benefits and the IC 10 cpl no benefits.
I had been working for 8.5 cpl with good line incentives and benefits. They went BIG TIME VR and I left.
I have not seen less than 8 cpl in ages and I DO LOOK.
Where are these low line rates? me again.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD I COME HERE AND LIE??? I have no reason to do that.
I have always said that line rates are arbitrary. So much more of what you can make is platform, Expander and you.
I left TT not too long ago. I really wanted out and really wanted another employee situation with benefits. Being very motivated to move on and not being able to afford to wait, I took an IC job for 8 cpl that could go to 9 cpl. The lines were easy to get. 1000 lines took about 4-5 hours for me to get. The platform was better than Extext where it took at least 6 hrs to get to 1000 lines, FOR ME.
While working the IC job, I had the opportunity to test with a national. While I rarely agree to test, I did this time for many reasons, most of which was wanting the job very much. I did well on the test. I was offered 9 cpl, an incentive program and shift differentials for working both weekend days. Because my shifts are split, all over the day and evening, as well as both weekend days, they decided to nix the differentials in favor of another 0.05 cpl to offset my odd hours. It comes out in my favor and I was very happy to get it. The platform is sizzling fast for me and my 1300 lines a day only takes 5 hours or so.
The PT IC job I have at 10 cpl is one I have had for a number of years. The account is one that most MTs will not even attempt. In the last year we have been through about 8 MTs, all of whom tried the account and failed...either because they obviously didn't have the experience they claimed to have, or because they didn't want to do the extremely high number of ESLs. It is paid highly because of the level of difficulty.
While it is not nice of me to say this, it is the truth. This business is getting down to the survival of the fittest, most capable and knowledgeable MTs who get the better money. The rest will have to settle for whatever they can find and whoever will hire them. It is an MTSO's market right now and they will grab the best they can get for the money they can pay. The better they pay, the better MTs they can attract.
There are other expectations that MTSOs have these days, like getting off QA in short order, and making your minimum lines very quickly. Although the longest I have spent on QA in the last five years is only four days, and I have always made the minimum lines from day one, this is a very stressful time for me, and I have proven over and over that I can do it!
If your jealousy compels you to slam me, so be it. I could not always do what I do now. Instead of slamming people, I chose to ask them how they did it, so I could do it better. I still ask questions of those I respect in this business. Every year there are fewer and fewer MTs I have yet to out do, but that doesn't keep me from trying to do better. It never takes me long to find more work when I want it, and when I need work/money I have been known to take less money knowing that the work is pretty mindless and I can make enough to get through the rough spots.
My name is "Not working quite so hard" because these days I am working four days a week for more money than I made at TT in 5 or 6 days, and with less grief. Then again, I took some undesirable days and an couple of undesirable accounts.
Lowering IC Line Rates
As we all know, line rates for ICs continue to fall due to offshoring and other issues involved. I can no longer quote a decent line rate or I hear the phone slam in my ear.
Therefore, I've decided to do what I have to do to compete and get accounts, which is lower my line rate to 10.5. Naturally, I am not going to give this large cardiology group a 65-character line for that rate.
What do you feel is fair for me and the group line character-wise for 10.5 cents line? I was thinking of a 50-character line. Your opinions, please.
Thank you! 
gross line rates
For my smaller accounts I charge 12 cpl under 4,000 lines per month. For those from 5 to 15,000 lines per month I charge 11.5 and I have one account at 10.5 but that is only because he gives me a week's turn around time. Again, I look more at what I make per hour than what my cpl is and if I make $45 an hour at 11.5 I keep it there. Even with the 10.5 cpl I make close to $50 an hour. But if it is a large account and it goes close to 2K per month, they will freak out. I do give a 1% discount for payment within 3 days of receipt and they all love that and do pay mostly the next day.
Patti
RATES PER GROSS LINE
WHAT IS THE GOING RATE (GROSS LINE) FOR TRANSCRIPTION AT HOME. I AM SETTING UP MY 1ST CLIENT A DOC IN UROLOGY.
MTSOs and line rates
I know there is a similar post further down the board, but I am in a similar situation....how DO you figure out what to charge your client? I think charging what you made as an IC and then adding a few pennies makes sense to me. Do other MTSOs think that is reasonable? If there is no way to know what the previous transcription service charged, do you just ask what the CLIENT thinks is reasonable and go from there?
Also, lets assume that the MTSO (very small, of course) has a remote phone-in system...how can the MTSO figure this into their price? Do you bill them separately for phone charges or just tack it onto the cpl? If so, that makes figuring the cpl even more complicated.
Any wisdom from other MTSOs would be MUCH appreciated!
insane line rates
I got a pay quote yesterday from a company that starts you out at 6/cpl and maxes out at 9/cpl after much time has passed and many hoops have been jumped through.
That's insanity! How are we supposed to feed our kids?
Editing Line Rates
I've looked through several old threads on this board about eScription/EditScript and have seen those who love it and those who don't. I may be moving to an account that utilizes this platform and am trying to see how my earnings might be impacted. I understand there will be a learning curve, but I anticipate getting "up to speed" quickly as I have always been fairly good at learning new technology. What is the average line rate I can expect using EditScript software? I've seen rates quoted from between 3 cpl up to 5 cpl. Is that right? Is anyone making more than 5 cpl editing?
What is the average line count for editing I can expect (hope) to achieve? I've seen some say 300+/- lph and others who can do 600 or more lph. What is the highest sustained lines per hour one can expect when editing, if utilizing all the keyboard shortcuts, etc., available?
Thanks for your input.
The low line rates aren't much better, lots of
q
Line rates by city/state...
can anyone share what going rates are for IC and transcription services in their area?
Line rates vary geographically.
I wouldn't work for less than 0.08/65-character line that included spaces. If you're traveling, printing, etc., charge more. Tax advice should come from professional tax preparers, not this site. Also check IRS website.
Line Rates for Michigan residents
For all of you who live in Michigan what is the line rate you are paid? I want to get an average of the industry here is Michigan.
Line rates are set by company, not state.
x
MI MTs who posted line rates, would you make
x
Line rates can also be regional. Too many variables to
give somebody else hope that they might someday get the same rate. If you don't like the rate an employer offers, don't take it -- that's the only way to make them listen. It's not the baloney you seem to think it is.
Plus, line rates vary by company
depending on the account. I told someone how much I made, she got a job with the same company on a different account making less $$.
Plus, line rates vary within the company
depending on the account. I told someone how much I made, she got a job with the same company on a different account making less $$.
OMG--4 cents/line? I've never heard of rates that low (SM)
Please, Gaile, you are worth so much more than that. My first job with MQ in 2001 I earned 7.7 cents per line. Since that at other jobs I have earned 8 cpl, 10 cpl, and now about 9 cpl. Please do not sell yourself short. Two years experience is enough to get much better than that. Good luck to you whatever you decide to do.
Sincerely,
Chickadee
MY GOSH, I am getting ripped off! Those are some excellent line rates...
z
ICs -- what are your rates right now? what are you charging per line, page, minute, etc?
I'm trying to get my own docs and want to set rates that are equivalent to everyone else so as not to undercut and lower our industry standards. But, I can't seem to find out what rates are locally, soooo, as much input as possible would be appreciated. Anyway, I know that local family practices have been quoted by the hour, by the minute, by the line, by the page, and so on.
I don't really want to do by the minute -- it makes them feel like they have to dictate at sonic speed. Some of them balk at by the line because no matter what you tell them, they feel like they are penalized for having nice formats. They balk at by the page because they think you will extend it to 2 pages for more money. Then there are the ones who gripe about hourly rates because they feel like you will type slower to make more money. I actually typed a sample tape for a local practice a year ago and based on my rate the office manager figured it up PER PATIENT and said it was too much!!
I know family practice docs and nurse practitioners don't make that much money but dangit I gotta feed my family too.
So help, please!!!!
Need MT section on this board to post line rates sm
and what company to help turn things around in this industry, meaning, the 4,5,6,7,8 9 etc per line which is grossly under paying if one takes the time to figure, how many lines, how many lines per hour, per minute, per second to make HOW MUCH PER HOUR. This is the key, how much per hour you make.
With a list of where to refer to, it helps curb this slave labor mentality.
THE MTs NEED A SECTION ON THIS BOARD to list going rates so the industry becomes more competitive and not at our expense with all this " supply 3 phones, supply long distance TO THEM. BUY THIS AND PROVIDE THIS TO THEIR COMPANY. Buy this license, this software.
My contribution: As taken from their ads the last month (looking back) at least 10/ln
Future Net Tech - California 9-10
CPR Tech California 10
Digital Records California - California
Phoenix Trans
Keystrokes Ill.
Tidewater Virg.
Trans tech
Ascend 9-11 BVirg.
Paladin
TTS New Hampshire
Softscript - California
MWPS Michigan Rad.
i
CPR - California
Phoenix
nix
Line rates gross versus 65-character
I recently had a call for family practice dictation and I offered 12 cents per line. Have always charged by the gross line and was charging 14 cents, which I thought was too high, so lowered it to 12 cents. However, the more I am reading I see that 65 character seems to be the way everything is getting billed. I also realize at 12 cents per line I lose a lot going to 65 character lines.
I also realize with family practice that they might have a lot of times where there is one or two words on a line and probably wouldn't be too happy about paying for gross lines.
I guess I'm looking for advice on charging. Is charging for gross lines unheard of anymore? I have already quoted the 12 cents, so that will have to be my charge. But as far as gross or 65 character, I haven't been asked that yet but would need to have that absolutely straight with them before starting. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I know I'm a little behind the times and am trying to catch up and stay competitive also.
Thanks!
Cherrypicking didn't make our line rates less -
the lower line rates are what started people c-pickingin the first place, so they could make enough each week to live on. Back when I was paid by the hour (and lots more than I'm getting now per hour, I did whatever came along. But I'm sorry, I'm not gonna GIVE an employer a chunk of my change for the 'privilege' of doing a 40-minute report by a gum-chewing ESL with static on the line, partying nurses, or crying babies in the background, that I just plain can't understand, when I have the option to choose something that is at least transcribe-able.
Just read whole thread. Yes. Working for a service is okay because line rates
actually have gone down. Just make sure they pay for spaces, headers, footers.
Yep, that woudl be the reason for the lower line rates these days! Boy, you figured that all out...
However, you fail to see that if the company itself was honest about the company, its structure, the software, and the accounts, few MTs would leave so quickly. It's the old saying of what came first, the chicken or the egg?
To the original poster, if you feel uncomfortable with a company or an account, by all means go with yorur gut feeling. If you feel somehow responsible for accepting the job without researching it first and want to keep your side of the street clean, you can always resign and offer to return the equipment at your expense. As always, make sure you get a return receipt, but this might make the ending to this chapter of your life more comfortable for you.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do!!!
$14.97 is what I was charged
They did not have these on the shelf (I wonder why). I had to ask for the model number. See my post above and they had to go get them in the back. You could call your local Radio Shack (what I did). They looked in the computer and saw them in inventory (they had only 3). I would ask them to pull a pair for you and hold them at the front register with your name on them until you can get there. Hope this helps. Happy holidays.
I think you should have charged them
the first time. Tell them if you have to spend time to listen, then that's at a rate of $20.00 an hour in addition to the transcribed lines minus the reports they think are already transcribed. This way, you are paid to listen.
How much more of this are you going to take Lisa? My dear, you are letting them walk on you.
Are you being paid for the "meeting" in the morning?
I can thank C-Bay for losing my job, too.
Look, you are going to need to draft a contract to bring along in the morning. Otherwise, you will be working for free, and this practice will drive you insane.
You need to figure out what works best for you and set the ground rules. You simply explain to the office manager that this is how you will be doing the work and what you will charge, etc.
At some point, you will have to hold this office accountable for the work they give you and stop working for free.
If you are picking up flash drives, then they should not expect you to report back on patients, etc., which is time consuming unless they would agree to a flat hourly rate for listening and sorting out dictations and then a lower line rate.
I know, I have a big mouth, but please, don't let them take advantage of you. As I said in your last posting, they will continue to abuse you if you allow it.
There are plenty of companies online hiring right now. www.mtjobs.com - have you checked there?
AND CHARGED ME AND KEPT MY MONEY
when I asked for return. Thanks you for the post above. I think the people on here are mostly English speaking, are they not? Maybe some speaking broken-English. They are not seeming to understand. I do not think most would like to be stolen from. I would put this in several languages as I am thinking the posts coming in are maybe not comprehending what we are saying but I only speak English.
I used to do that and charged by the page. nm
x
They charged me almost $400 last year.
It goes up every year. I overhold on all my employee jobs so I'm not worried about that. I just can't stand paying someone that much for something I can do myself.
Forgot to say, doctor charged $79
for DH to come in and find out the results of the MRI, doctor never touched him. It could be worse, we could have not had insurance at all. DH and I weren't exactly thrilled with the doctor anyway (can you imagine an MT going to support their spouse and not being allowed to ask questions until the doctor gives you permission - LOL).
The doc charged $500 I don't see that as a rip off - the hospital bill though - sm
for $5K is a bit outragous and has nothing to do with the doctor actually. I hope she has insurance.
I got charged $75 for a copy of my old MRs, even though I transcribed it!!! n/m
:p
Cigna may be charged with manslaughter in
x
Guilty as charged! It is very difficult.
My biggest and best suggestions are to type a specialty that interests you and try to keep up with the report. In other words make it a challenge to diagnose and treat the patient before you're through with the report. I use an online timer set for 45 minutes. I'm not allowed to do anything but type during those 45 minutes. If I'm feeling a compulsion to research something that I found while checking on a word, I write it down and give myself 5-10 minutes between 45 minute sessions to do exactly that. I also take medication (adderall) without it I would be completely lost. I also have to make myself use the interest as little as possible.....too many shiny things to take my attention away. The good thing is that usually ADD people are exceptionally bright and innovative, so I can accurately produce in 4 distracted hours what most can produce in 6-8 diligently working. However, can you imagine what your line count would be like if you stuck to it the whole time??
So, to summarize:
1. Try to find an MT job that interests you.
2. Use a timer to limit your distractions.
3. Take medication.
4. Avoid the internet for reseach if at all possible.
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