thank you for your concise and informative answer, NM

• Anyone use the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 - SDGal
  • Been using a Natural for 6 yrs and LOVE it! - nm
  • I have not yet, but just ordered on of those MS - sm - Laura E.
  • Have been using ergonomic keyboards for 10+ years.. sm - zoe
    • Thanks so much! nm - SDGal
  • ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD - Marilyn
    • microsoft 4000 Yes! - Charlene
      • Thank you Charlene...I found one on ebay!!! nm - SDGal
      • question - Romey
        • mouse bridge - Charlene
          • Thanks, Charlene! - anon
          • thank you for your concise and informative answer, NM - Romey

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All you MTs who are wondering why it's so hard to get work and decent pay check out these websites:   Spheris India Pvt Ltd  and Indiadaily.com

Spheris says it doesn't outsource to India but guess where a lot of the old accounts have disappeared to.  When they say there is no work, they mean for USA MTs.

It seems that now getting your own accounts is the only way to go (at least for the time being until the pervasive mood of the industry corrupts even in that area).  My curiosity though lies in how those who are claiming that they work for services are able to do this. 

Also, congratulations to you for your success in getting your own accounts, and thank you for sharing your insight in a manner that doesn't imply that you're trying to belittle those who don't have their own accounts like I've seen others do on this board.

P.S.  On the matter of panhandlers, in the area of the country where I live an investigative reporter did a feature on just this subject a couple of years ago.  Believe it or not, it was estimated that panhandlers in this area average approximately $120K per year.  I tell you, I'm in the wrong profession ...

Here is an important post from 2005.  It is lengthy and I have edited it to make it more concise…

Posted By: n on January 05, 2005 at 21:35:45:

In Reply to: offshore posted by beth on January 05, 2005 at 19:58:08:

Offshore medical transcription is a large enterprise financed with capital. The Soros money is in the Spheris deals. Look for more and more to go overseas.

From GeBBS Health Care Solutions http://www.gebbs.com/pressrelease062004.htm  : In a world of steadily rising medical costs, Nitin Thakor thinks he has a cure. It works like this: A doctor treats a patient and sends the medical record to Thakor's company, GeBBS HealthCare Solutions of Englewood Cliffs. The company ships the records electronically to India, where employees - earning about one-tenth of what they would get in the United States - process a bill for the patient's treatment, create a claim, and send it electronically to the insurance company. The process costs the doctor about half what he would pay in the United States, Thakor says. "It's faster. The quality is better," he says, brimming with confidence. "It makes perfect sense." It's also part of a growing trend in the health-care administration industry: sending work to low-wage countries - mainly India - in the same way that offshore outsourcing has sent U.S.-based IT, call center, and other jobs around the world.

The health-care work ranges from simple tasks - such as transcribing notes dictated by the doctor - to more complex processes, such as assigning a treatment code and filling in forms that doctors submit to insurance companies for reimbursement. In North Jersey, GeBBS, Allserve Systems of New Brunswick, and ClaimPower Inc. of Fair Lawn do work in India. Marlton-based Medquist, one of the largest transcription company's in the United States, also sends work offshore. Other players across the country include Perot Systems Corp. in Texas, HealthScribe Inc. of Virginia, and Alpha Thought of Chicago. "There is not a lot of offshoring yet," said Barbara J. Cobuzzi, president of Cash Flow Solutions Inc. of Brick, which does billing, coding, and collection. "But they [offshore companies] are going after it. ... They are approaching companies like mine and saying, 'Get rid of your staff and use us.

Cobuzzi said she spoke from experience: In October, she terminated a contract with a Florida-based company with offices in Chennai, India, to put patient demographic information into a computer. She said the work contained too many errors. "I'm sure the doctors would rather use someone who is not offshoring," Cobuzzi said. "But the doctors have this huge pressure to get their costs down." So, too, do their contractors, said Marilyn Grebin, president and CEO of Silent Type in Fort Lee, which transcribes doctors' notes. Though offshoring has not yet had a big effect on Silent Type's bottom line, the company has lost work, Grebin said. For instance, last week, she said, she lost a $50,000 contract with the John T. Mather Hospital on Long Island. Grebin said the hospital, which had been her company's client for five years, hired a company that will do the job in India. "I went to the client and said, 'What can I possibly do to help you, she said. "And they said, 'No, you can't possibly charge what we are getting - half the price.

On Long Island, hospital vice-president Kevin Murray said the non-profit community facility moved the work offshore in a pilot program - a small part of the facility's $500,000 annual spending on transcription services - to see what the quality of the work is like. "The hospital lost a significant amount of money last month," said Murray, putting the loss at $1 million and noting that many hospitals in New York face similar budgetary problems. "Every month is a struggle. ... This was one of our cost-saving ideas." Thakor knows the scenario well.  With about 85 employees in the United States, GeBBS provides health-care administration services and also develops software for the same field. The company's two centers in Mumbai, India, employ about 180 people, of whom 100 process health claims. Last year, the company had revenue of $12 million, and it expects to make $16 million this year, Thakor said. He reaps the benefit of Indian workers - all of whom have degrees - who earn about $2,800 to $3,300 a year, compared with the $35,000 to $45,000 that U.S.-based employees would make for the same job, he said. "We're making a 45 to 50 percent gross margin," Thakor said of his own company. "A client is seeing a 45 to 50 percent cut on their cost structure. So we're happy. They're happy."

Concerns about patient confidentiality in the offshoring era were heightened last October when a woman in Karachi, Pakistan, threatened to post patient medical records from a San Francisco hospital on the Internet unless she was paid the money owed her for transcribing notes dictated by doctors.

The woman dropped the threat after she was paid. But the incident helped bring the issue to the attention of lawmakers.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., have introduced bills that would require companies to notify customers before they send confidential information overseas, giving the customer the right to refuse. Still, industry insiders are concerned. Cobuzzi and others said the main problem is that anyone who violates U.S. patient confidentiality laws abroad would be beyond the reach of U.S. prosecutors. But offshore companies say there is no danger of leaks. Thakor said GeBBS' facilities in India have guards and an electronic security system, along with a full-time privacy officer to ensure the company complies with U.S. confidentiality laws. In addition, the computer system that health-care administration employees work on is sealed, he said: The terminals have no hard drive and no connections to the Internet, floppy disk, or CD writers, or even a printer. They can only open files on the server, change the contents, and close them, he said. "So there is no way - unless you can memorize all the information - that you can take it with you," he said.  

Yes, of course I'm half afraid if I leave him I won't find someone else and half afraid that I will!!  I'm old enough and had enough good and bad times with men that I really don't think it would be the end of the world if I lived the rest of my life alone.  It's maybe what I would not choose but it might have some positives in the long run.  At least that's what I tell myself when I'm feeling good, during the middle of the night is another story....

Break-ups are tough.  How do you stay on course.  You get lonely, you miss him, you doubt your judgment, you want to try again, you tell yourself maybe you were too hard on him......

I think I should go to a counselor, it's just that it's quite expensive and as I said, I'll be paying for it out of pocket.  I think they will tell me pretty much what you have.

It sounds like things have worked out for you.  I thank you for your insight and help.

but again, you should go for it.  You might love the challenge and have a really great team that will help you not have to roast over the flames.  Its always possible! 

Godspeed my friend, do it if you want to.  It really might be the best thing you ever did!  Or not, but either way, you will know for sure! 

leaving off the "jerk" comment, and recommend that people contact the MQ office they are affiliated with to see what that particular office wants them to do.

When I need to enter a NEW HEADING, I type it in, then it brings up a new box that says "type in new heading"...I finish typing it, hit OK or whatever, and it puts the new heading in my report.

BUT...it doesn't KEEP The new heading!  ARG!  It stays on the drop down list of headings for THAT REPORT ONLY but then when I do a new report, the new heading never shows up.

What am I doing wrong?  Help!! 

Does your mortgage company - the telephone company - the phone company - the cable company, etc. discount your bill if you pay on time or do they add a late fee if they don't receive your payment on time?

I don't agree you should reward a company to do something they should normally do - something that's considered a basic in good business - paying on time.  

I am currently researching keyboards, too.  I got an Ergo Flex something.  It was three separate units mounted on a metal base.  I THOUGHT I would be able to take units off base and put back on if I wanted but once those things are off, they are off for good.  It didn't matter though. I had my brother rig up a dowel for each arm chair and then fix the keyboard pieces onto those dowels.  Then I ace wrapped dowels to arms ( and that was much steadier than I expected) and off I went.  The problem was the units were fixed on the end of the dowels and they need to be on a swivel of some sort to allow for fine tuning the positioning.  Also, the units are a faily smallish keyboard, smaller than what I am using and that was an issue.  I also found that kicked back in the chair and comfy, I was almost too comfy. It seemed to slow me down. True, all of these things alone wiill slow you down, but I think even with practice, I wouldn't be as fast. I finally put them away as it was taking up alot of time and line count.

Now for the second issue.  As far as keyboards that separate completely or are connected at the top.  If you have a bit of a protruberant belly (as my doctor so gently puts it, lol) as I do, the kind that separate completely would be better.  Also, I think being able to have the units at shoulder width would be better.  I am currently using a Gold Touch which I love because it does separate an okay amount for me and like that it tents up, keeping my hands in a more neutral, hand-shake position.  I think a big comfort issue is having your hands in a hand-shake position as opposed to having to turn them flat down as for a flat keyboard. 

If transcription is sent to the Phillippines (and yes it goes there too) at 6 cents/line (which is what I was quoted to have them do my work - though I won't send it to them - I was just curious about what they charge), and they have 3-tiers of editing; as an MTSO I get 12 cents/line, I would stand to profit 6 cents/line. Compare that rate to the rate MTs expect to get of 10-11 cents/line, and there is your answer. No matter who does the work (US versus offshore) MTSOs still need to have editing, right? So why not pay for the line rate as cheap as you can since the work has to be edited whether US or offshore MTs transcribe it? As a small MTSO, all the editing is done by me as nothing gets to my client without going through me first, so there would be my profit. I think these companies also truly believe that eventually India and Philippines will get MT down...makes you wonder, huh? Large Nationals are probably only having to pay 3-4 cents/line for offshore work, and they pay editors 3-4 cents/line, and suppose they are making at least 12 cents/line on their accounts (I expect they get more than that though), there is still a profit for them of 4-6 cents/line. It is a heck of a lot cheaper for them to outsource offshore than to pay US MTs 9-10-11 cents/line which is what we are worth, right?

Dear Unhappy Camper,

If you will email me at my email address, dove003@comcast.net, I would like to tell you the solution to your problem. 

First, please, can you tell me what part of the USA you live in? 

Linda ');>