money-making docs? sm
Posted By: OldBabe on 2006-01-17
In Reply to: Do you think doctors are generally arrogant and make a lot of money and so inconsiderate of us? - md-mt
As a hard worker in this industry to put my son through school to become a medical professional, I can tell you that after all my hard work and broken back, he is still paying student loans, works like an animal, hardly has time for his family, continues his education and is not "rich." He treats his staff like family (constantly haunted by his mother to do this) and barely has time to take a bathroom break. I know there are those with fast cars (always thought they did it to get to the patient faster, but I'm sure that's not the case with some of them) and those who are rude (perhaps not taught right by their moms) but some are just ordinary guys and gals who put their pants on one leg at at time like the rest of us and worry about the next payment like the rest of us. They're not ALL the same. I read another post about docs yawning while dictating. I think in most cases they're exhausted and the paperwork is just another thing to deal with after they put their kids to bed, if they get the chance to do that even. I didn't understand this until I "lived in it". As the babysitter, I can tell you, "it ain't pretty." They suffer just like the rest of us. 
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Make money? I'm not making any money because of my decision. You read my reasoning
You can agree with me or not, but don't make false assumptions please.
The docs might be making a little more because
patients now than they did in the past. Go into any office and you will see they are way overbooked. A rheumatologist I used to see saw 50 patients a day. He said it was to cover Medicare and public aid losses. That doesn't mean they are making money hand over fist, just seeing more patients to cover the hospital losses.
You realize by doing that they're making more money & you're making less? You should reconsid
Making money with VR
Any of you who do this, how in the heck do you make any money? I accepted a job with a company for 4 cpl for VR, but I nearly have to type the entire reports over. I was doing it part time and it takes so much time that I figured out I am only making 5.00 per hour. What's the average rate for this? I gave it up, it's not worth it for the line rate, considering I was editing typed transcription as well that came back from India and it was just as bad and took just as much time.
making money?
I think the only way we newbie MTs can make any money is to make it ourselves, like counterfeiting. 
I consider myself still a newbie at almost 2 years of nearly full-time working at home with IC status. Love my company and enjoy my work; it is mainly VR and 3 cents per line. I am rather slow because I keep double checking everything, but on a good day at 8-10 hours and 800 lines I will make $24. Isn't that encouraging? 
The extra dollars do come in handy and so appreciated for my farmer husband's income, but this could no way support a single income.
Working for $3.00 per hour was great sometime in the past, you know? Like 35 cents per gallon of gasoline in 1969. But it 2009.
I do think if we newbies hang in there long enough and become good at our work then we will move up to better pay. However, we who work for 3 cents or 6 cents per line and are so thankful to be making even that are probably the ones others may blame for the poor pay since transcription companies can hire us so cheaply.
Don't know what the solution is.
No they're not because I'm making more money on it....sm
than before the program was implemented. I also know others who are making more money per hour - and no one argues with more moolah! 
And you still end up making more money paying LD. sm
If you consider an 80-hour pay period (which I don't do), at $27 per hour with the 800-number company, you'd make $2160.
At $33/hour, paying $1.80/hour, you'd make $2640 minus $144 (a deductible expense also), still netting you $2496 -- substantially more than the company giving you the toll free number and less pay.
Makes no difference to me. I personally wish you all would stay away from MDI-MD so I could have more work ... LOL
Making money - just curious
Just curious, but how does anybody here make any money if you are on this board all the time bashing people- that really takes a lot of energy up that could be spent on making money.
It is all about them making more money. If you have seen the News lately
they had a piece on money making is with those of us who own animals. Some will pay any amount to cure their pet, like chemotherapy for their animal, when the most humane thing would be to put them down.
Vet medicine is all about them making money now. Personally, I love my pet, but I will only do the basic healthcare, shots, exam, and that is it. They want blood work, lyme titer, check for diabetes, etc. I tell them NO, Absolutely NOT! She is healthy, 3 years old, and even if she has those conditions, which in most cases, the animals do not, she will not be treated. Who ever heard of a dog having diabetes or thyroid problems. It is an animal and I will not pay healthcare bills for a healthy animal for unnecessary things.
Watch your wallet, love your pet, provide a good home, feed them, bathe them, and give them their yearly checkup with shots and they will be fine.
If you are already making that kind of money
and working less hours then I don't know why you would want to change to an unknown. BTW, would you care to share who you are working for now making over 50K and 6 hours a day? Pls e-mail me privately if you like. I won't post it, I promise!
The up side to not making enough money is
that pretty soon the fridge will be so empty it will be significantly easier to clean. And I do mean soon.
and that folks was where our "mom and pop" biz that we were making the money on...have gone!!
The biggies saw the opportunity to make the money that we were...and decided we made too much, so that is the story...long and short!! The future does not look good for us, only them and the india counterparts.
The money making part is true,
the Congress Center in Atlanta sold out for Sylvia's show and standing room only and I am sure her return show will be the same. It is like wrestling to some, not me, but entertainment and should not be sought out by people who are in the situation such as the missing kid's family. As long as psychics are out there, people will seek them out plus other off the wall treatments for different maladies. It is human nature but I would not want to be the one giving the advice.
You punch a level so you know you are making money?
I would never set something up like this to make myself go faster. I know if I don’t type the amount of lines I want per day, so simple I don’t have a decent check. Don’t need a stop watch, counter, etc. My motivation is bringing home the amount of money I want every 2 weeks. My way is really simple, just fast fingers concentrating on the end result.
I am making tons of money doing tapes.
Just like tapes get misplaced so does digital dictation. Also, have you ever timed how long it takes to download and upload files? I think it runs about the same. I am assuming this is clinic work. So, if you don't go the office, then you'll need patient lists faxed or e-mailed, what have you. It also costs money to have a secure FTP site for transfer. So, no matter how you look at it, there is that time taken for the administrative end of transcription so to speak.
To the OP: I would ask if the problem really is the delivery if you could cut back to two days a week and given them the option of typing STAT reports to be faxed to them OR you could ask if they'd go halfers on a courier service. But, I think the problem is the cutting of the paper, so you may just want to mention that you'll need to attach a fee.
I had to attach a FAX fee to an office that was constantly calling and requiring me to search for letters that they apparently hadn't filed yet, so I started charging them for that service. Guess what? They don't call as much. Just a thought.
Regarding making money, I forgot to mention...SM
The standard for "average" typing speed is no longer the unassisted "The fox jumped over" standard as measured on a typewriter. You know, back when 75 was considered decent.
I don't actually know the new standard for a competent typist, but it's set by those who have trained themselves to use word Expanders extensively and is at very minimum double that on unfamiliar text. On familiar text with many phrases in storage, much higher.
Current pay rates are adjusting to the new reality that a worker is able to produce considerably more with today's technology than before. Those who aren't using it, and using it extensively, are finding their incomes dropping drastically. Best wishes.
Sorry you are so disgruntled but many of us, myself included, are still making money...
there have been changes but I am still making great money so I have no complaints...good luck to you though
All those folks care about is making MONEY.
-
nice to hear that I'm not the only MT making such little money at this
And I've been doing it for a decade now and it keeps going down every year.
I've finally decided to take some classes in another line of work so I can get out of MTing but still work at home.
How long will it take to start making money as an MT?
I'm new to this career. Have only been working for 6 months or so. Does anyone have any advice for a newbie? How do you make a decent living on 6 cpl? Any advice for increasing speed? Thanks.
MB
I would be 43 and have no life at this time and wish I was making decent money, but not ;0( ...NM
NM
1200 lines should be a given. You could be making superb money!
x
Agree completely.....money making scheme....
xx
No. I'm making excellent money doing this (IC). I have no desire to leave this profession.
I have been around awhile, and will last making good money as long as this field does.
x
There are too many MTSO that whine about making not enough money to pay you a livable wage.
I applaud you for being truthful and NOT GREEDY..
Have done both, and still prefer at home, making more money and setting my own hours. (sm)
In-house your required to meet a productivity of nothing less here on the east coast of 135 to 155 lines per hour, not to mention the QA's done weekly!! Yes, weekly, random 10 reports per MT!! I never had a problem with the QA's always between 99.6% and 99.8%. But, you work straight, no talking, in your little box (I call it). Yes, the benefits are a perk, but not that much and I worked 2nd shift always, so it was 18% of my base wage. I am still making more at home productivity wise and take a break when I want to. But, like you said circumstances change. Good luck!!
Two jobs don't equal one when it comes to making money and not wasting time. sm
Recommend looking for one good job.
We paid hourly with incentive for high production. So she's making money when she's just
sitting there. I don't know if it is a habit or not because this is the first time I've really had to work with her for any length of time. I usually only work a couple of hours a day with her when our shifts overlap. I think I'm definitely going to ask the girl I'm filling in for what she thinks about her.
Haven't heard in years. Supposedly making it harder to get money
xx
Curosity- I am curious if I am making the normal amount of money weekly for MT. Would anyone care
to share their weekly amount of pay?
You live in a dream world if you think that MTSOs are making money hand over fist. Overhead? Add i
Banks charge about $200 a month for a business account plus .10 for every check deposited and written.
Ten people in an office? At $30k a year, that's $300,000 per year IF you can get them to work for only $30k. Add in 2 editors, an IS consultant, an accountant, a lawyer, rent on office space, checks, stamps for checks, software upgrades, phone lines, equipment for MTs, equipment for office staff, lightbulbs, toilet paper, a copier, a printer, paper, ink, pens, pencils, long distance charges to call MTs and customers, recruiting ad costs, taxes, benefits because most MTs are employees now because the IRS says most should be classified that way, high-speed internet, internet service provider because hotmail and yahoo are free but not professional, email encryption, fax machine, fax phone line, staplers, staples, paper clips, file folders, file cabinets, etc etc etc.
I am not whining. I am just stating facts. Add that to the headache of juggling schedules based on unpredictable workload due to unpredictable amount of people needing medical attention, the headache of billing clients who pay when they want regardless of what your terms are, covering for people who get sick or need time off, and it is not an easy thing to do. I am lucky that I am a workaholic and love what I do. Am I rich? No. Will being an MTSO make me rich? Probably not. Do I make more than I did as an MT? Yes, but at a higher price.
Don't judge until you walk in someone's shoes. I bought a new vehicle this year, a 2005 Ford Taurus, trading in my 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee and actually had comments made about how it must be nice to be able to buy a new car.
Money, money, money, mmonnneyyy. Singing the Apprentice song.
:+
sure i was. i'm making fun of the people who are making a case for background checks, etc
to do medical transcription at home as if they may do something AWFUL with the info they receive. So if you want an invasion of privacy let's REALLY invade it and make sure fat chicks don't transcribe because they are so busy eating they can't get the work done, they mess up the keyboard with food and if they are provided health insurance they will raise the rates for the company sky high because their health risks are higher than others. Then there are the psychological issues overweight people bring to the table. After we eliminate fat people, we can go on to eliminate diabetic people who may have low blood sugar while typing and go into a spell and type the wrong thing. I could go on and on through the process of elimination. How about prescribed medications that may cloud your thinking? So you take Ambien to sleep but you have an Ambien groggy hangover when you are transcribing? Should they transcribe. How about your teens are on your last nerves and you take a Xanax? Should you be allowed to transcribe?
You're working to make money, not to spend money.
These people should be ashamed of themselves taking advantage of people this way!
I also blew some money signing up with Quixtar... The only way to make any money is to bug everyone
you know into signing up. I felt like a snake oil huckster. I hated it. I was flushing money down the toilet from the moment I handed over my money.
RUN, do not walk away! I do an entirely different side business now that I really love (in addition to my MTing, which I also love!) Find something you're good at and that you truly love doing. Then make a business out of it. That's the best way to have a side business. Selling discount toilet paper through Amway/Quixtar? Not so much.
The CMT exam is overrated. Don't waste your time & money. Use that money on
paid anymore just because you have it. There are a few CMT cheerleaders that post to people like you but they are pretty well sucked up into that association.
Yeah, money, that's it. I paid $20.00 for my dog. Money is NOT THE ISSUE
walk him daily, play ball daily, he sleeps in my office daily while I work. Yeah, I got a lot of money, NOT HARDLY. And, my dog is HORRIBLY HORRIBLY ABUSED because he wears a collar around his neck. It's people like you that make me sick. I am done defending my use of the shock collar. I am going to continue with it and my dog will continue to be pampered , educated, fed, kept warm, and love me for everything that I do for him even when I remind him that his barking needs to stop. So, with that said, I will not respond to any more of your CRAP in reference to the shock collar.
Money is money and most people will do whatever it takes when in need. sm
if you do bring it to the attn of the office manager, why not offer her a raise to compensate. it is obvious she just needs or wants more money than your office is paying her. I agree, it is a free country and although it seems odd, unless you had it outlined in contract, she can work for whomever or whereever she pleases on the side. at least she is typing and not at a strip joint, lol. I see no conflict of interest, she has experience obviously in whichever field you are in and what is wrong with doing extra in that field. i agree with MYOB "nicely" and concentrate on your reports than looking at older reports and seeing who they are typed by.
No need to wonder..It always means less money for the MT and more money for MQ.
z
Money, honey, money!!!!!!.
nm
One year and you make decent money? What is decent money to you?
k
ESL Docs
That is SO true!!!! There is definitely a problem with dictating the appropriate gender when it comes to ESL docs. They tend to go back and forth umpteen times during one dictation, so you really have to pay attention.  Verb tense can also get very confusing.
I agree that sometimes slowing down and concentrating can actually increase productivity. Even though I feel like I'm transcribing like a tortoise, I'm really getting more done than I think when I slow down and allow myself to think. 
Just hang in there with QA. They are just doing their job and you need to take a good look at what they are telling you and concentrate on that issue. It's really hard not to take it personally, that's for sure, but it's gonna make you a better Transcriptionist in the long run. On the other hand, if you feel they are truly wrong about an important issue, then challenge them!! But you'd better have major references to back up your challenge. 
Ellen S.
ESL docs
are you on VR yet? you can choose to have a 20% cut on your baseline rate and get the "better" dictators ?? or you can choose to keep your MT 100% baseline rate and probably get all of the ESL docs -- what a choice - not fair, huh??
This is almost as bad as the docs
I got three of them yesterday...three different docs. I think this is soooo rude! I'm almost to the point where I'm going to refuse to attempt to do them. Surprisingly, it's always a female doc who is dictating either a GYN or breast cancer related report.
I can picture a couple of these ladies hopping on a Harley Davidson riding home from work.
I think they should ask all ER docs
if they even know the English language to begin with, 'cause if they do, they don't practice it.
I know everyone knows that a lot of docs don't
read the reports after we have transcribed them, but I just had a doc on my account dictate that he wanted the line "Dictated but not read" added to ALL of his reports from now on. He was mad because he said he requested this to be done a few weeks ago and has been "keeping track" and it hasn't been getting done.
Amazing.
All of my PAs were better than the docs before
I switched companies and along with my new account came all new PAs (and might I add, quite a few of them) who all make me miserable. They botch the dictations beyond belief and I am left to fix the sentences which look like riddles and are actually confusing after they get done with it.
Change thoughts in the middle of a sentence...start talking and forget where they left off so I am sitting there for another 2 minutes waiting through the ummms and ahhhs and the start of sentences "the patient umm.... ahhh" and I'm waiting for them to say something and they just hang up.
Mine are good for this too... they will dictate an incomplete report and then a few dictations after they will start finishing incomplete dictations, adding in something they forgot to say, or they will say CC a copy to: Dr. ____ on a 4 second report and not say whose report it goes on. This would be easy to figure out if they didnt have 40 dictations and at least 5 hang-ups with about 8 of those 40 dictations being something they want added on to some nameless patient's report.
Had I not switched jobs, I would have had a hard time believing any PA was hard to transcribe...just because I had a good bit of them on my other account and they were all PERFECT speakers.
Now when I see that I have to transcribe a PA-- 
ESL docs
Hey there,
Hang with it a little while longer. You'll probably find that it gets easier. Those ESL doctors do say the same thing over and over again and it takes practice to get it. Try listening a few seconds longer than the phrase you aren't getting because sometimes that helps. I agree that samples help an awful lot so be sure to request as many as you can. Good luck! You can do it!
I would always rather have my ESL docs over the sm
English as first language docs, who speed talk, slur words, and don't seem to care about the patients. I am usually very impressed with the patient care given, and the understanding of the human issues, by the ESL docs. I think the problem with the original poster is she needs to learn to transcribe these docs, with all the suggestions, especially getting samples, mentioned above. She doesn't really seem that concerned with patient care, but her inability to transcribe difficult dictators. It is, quite simply, the nature of the business. The easy docs go on voice recognition, and the transcriptionists transcribe the difficult dictators.
I tell ALL my docs that I'm an MT...
...and I transcribe and read my own reports (I work for a large healthcare co). Hubby signed a HIPAA form for me to transcribe and read his reports, too. Now the docs are more careful 
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