A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

IC for 7 cents a line for straight transcription....sm - oldMT

Posted: Aug 23, 2011

and 3 cents for VR? Unbelievable! That equates to about 5 cents and 2 cents per line respectively after taxes, and they require a second or third shift schedule. Are they serious? I guess some MTs are content to work for little more than minimum wage. Too bad!

Sad. (nm) - Zville MT

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*

Well - Just me

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I don't necessarily think it is that we are content to work for these wages per se.... I know for me personally while the wages are low, bottom line I make more doing MT/editing that I can make at a job outside of the home and get to be there to see my girls off to school and to welcome them home, and then get to be there for them during the "critical" time between 3 and 5 p.m. when lots of kids get into trouble. I also don't have to dress up, and I get to clean a bit when I take my 15 minute breaks.... all in all I could not make what I make, be here for my kids, and get to keep up on housework, and not have to worry about dress codes or office politics. I certainly do understand the frustration though:)

Awful wages for an IC... I hope nobody accepts this - lka

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Please people do NOT accept this. I was an IC working for 9.5 cpl 2 years ago and at least I made a living... no VR, just straight typing. That is simply highway robbery and people need to "call them on it."

I have to agree ... with Just Me - Snow Bunny

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It's an issue of choosing what is most important to you. Sure, I'd love to make what I did back in the early 1990s (7 to 8 cpl for gross lines), I feel that the #1 issue for me is having total control of my schedule. I've got insomnia and also spinal arthritis, and I will never again be able to work a full 8-hour shift, even with two 15-minute breaks and an hour for lunch, like "in the old days." After that, I think of the money I save on clothing and transportation. Sure, the extra tax load is no fun, but the other issues are important to me. That, plus working on accounts where most of the doctor actually speak English. There's a few ESLs, but nothing that I get into a twist over.

Unfortunately, someone will. nm - sad face

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nn

sad wages - anon

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Approximately a year ago I was making 8.5 cents/50 character line, great docs. The only thing was the owner NEVER paid on time, at times I waited 2 months. Only reason I stayed was because the pay and the doctors. Then she cut the pay to 8 cpl, sighting companies going overseas(no idea why that would affect what she already had), oh and the economy. Second pay cut to 7.5 cpl, sighting the economy, oh and she was starting a HUGE campaign ad, which I asked her about on the phone one time and she forgot she was having one. Third pay cut came, now 7 cpl and went to a 65 character line, sighting this time that all other companies paid this amount so wanted to line up more with them. What a bunch of you know what.

Not necessarily - CB

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While I don't agree with that ridiculous pay the OP was quoting, I know my boss (small MTSO in business for 30 years that ended up closing) had a difficult time trying to keep us at our pay scale because she was competing with MTSOs that were continuously under-bidding us. Yes, while doctors want us, administrators just deal with saving money so every year we had to deal with the whole bidding situation. I know now, for example,paying us shift and weekend differential, she was actually losing money. Your owner citing pay cuts because of those companies outsourcing could be valid.

understand - anon

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I can understand what you are saying, but she could have given us plausible reasons like you have mentioned rather that this muck she was trying to come up with.

I wouldn't work for 7cpl/3cpl even if it were a fully - benifitted employee position. But IC? Sheesh!

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But, I guess there's a sucker born every minute. And that's what these greedy companies are banking on.

7 cents per line - tired MT

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Please don't accept these positions regardless whether employee or IC. They are lying to us and as long as we accept these positions the pay is going to continue to go down to where we are working for next to nothing, (which we already do even at 8 cents per line). We are cutting our own throats here and I for one refuse to work my butt off for this pay and have to stand in the food stamp line. Lets not mention health insurance which most all of us can't afford now.

7 cpl - anniep

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so what do you think is a respectible cpl wage? I don't really have a lot to compare it to. I have 7.5 and i'm good with it. of course i would love more, but i like staying home, and totally depends on how focused i am. Is there a difference between companies on how character lines are determined? Coz I know I'm earning the 7.5 cpl on more than 65 characters per line.

7 CPL - tired MT

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Okay, 7 cpl, now figure how much work you do for free, demographics, cc copies, finding doctors, what about when the doctor changes his mind and wants a whole line or paragraph deleted, research we do not get paid for. So then what cpl are you actually working for when you take all of that into consideration. What other line of work requires you to do any or part of your job for free? We have allowed the MTSO to low ball us and we accept it, and so have I, but this is where I will take my stand. I will get a job at Walmart before selling my knowledge for less than its worth. For me enough is enough. They are welcome to send my job to India or wherever cause I won't do it for any less than what I am making now (9.25 cpl).

I am just hoping that one day we will see - MY2c

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this whole line count thing collapse and hospitals and services will have to start paying a decent hourly wage to everyone with good skills, maybe with some sort of incentive. I know there will be some who come on here and go on and on about how they make 30 and 40 an hour doing this, but most of us are not so fortunate. And I doubt even those folks are making that every hour of every day they work, because there are too many variables now. I think the 18 to 20 dollar range would be a good place to start per hour, but I am probably just dreaming. Otherwise I don't see anyone doing this job anymore even for stay-at-home pin money because it takes too much education and training.

per line - anon

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Unfortunately, there are people like me, desparate, needing a job, applied to over 1,000 companies in the last 3 years and have no job that will take the 7 cpl. When you are desparate, man, you will do it.

It's desperate not desparate - go for it anon!

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Wake up MTSOs!!

I agree - with you sm

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You can bet they're not charging less. Unfortunately, there will always be someone who will work for peanuts. Wait until it goes to 6 cpl and it will sooner than later. I agree with the other poster, I'll work at Walmart before I work for 7 cpl. And to the MTSOs, I've seen the work put out by transcriptionists with little experience. You get what you pay for. **Not to say that ALL transcriptionists with little experience are bad (I was a newbie once too). I have 19 years experience and I won't work for 7 cpl.

The reality is that if you are making 5 cents a line....sm - VTMT

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after taxes you could make $15 an hour if you consistently transcribed 300 lines per hour, $10 an hour for 200 LPH, about half of what I make as an employee with benefits. Very sad. Where is the benefit of being an IC if you are required to work a schedule, especially second or third shifts? I hope the IRS comes down on all of these MTSOs.

Oh, I do too, VTMT! - IRS NEEDS to get involved...

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For an experienced MT doing straight transcription, 9 cpl was average for employee status in the early 90s and just look how much has been taken away since then. What is particularly infuriating is to hear corrupt politicians and greedy heads of corporations referring to India as our ''global partners'' and blaming the victim, the American MT, pontificating about the need to retrain and change with the times. Nothing but BS--Our jobs have NOT been phased out or made obsolete. It is NOT akin to when the automobile phased out the horse-and-buggy. VR, generally speaking, does a miserable job and can NOT replace an MT (except maybe with the most basic radiology work). MT's are very much needed. MTs DID retrain to VR, and in return for our efforts, we were kicked in the throat with increasingly insulting line rates and more and more work sent to India by corrupt corporations. It's a corrupt game of dirty pool that, unless there is some government intervention, the American MT has no chance of surviving---unless as the other poster said she is just working for ''pin money''. Do these greedy politicians pontificate and condescend also to the people who have been given our jobs and who can, unlike the American MT, AFFORD to work for peanuts?

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