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

Why I Plan To Drop My AHDI Membership - Long-Time Member

Posted: Aug 15, 2012

This week has been the turning point for me. As I was thinking about all of the presenters and debaters at ACE this year, they had one thing in common. They were all selling or promoting something. Then there were the MTSOs, who are the problem rather than the solution, but put in the position of lecturing to us.

I can delete the e-mail promotions, but when you pay to go to a conference, you don't expect it to be full of sales promotions.

Each presenter had an agenda, but it wasn't my agenda.

It seems that our leadership has sold out. They also talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. How many working MTs were there as presenters? Not MTSOs, not promoters of products, webinars, seminars, and ideas, but actual medical transcription work. Do any of them actually work for a living the way the rest of us do? I think that may be the problem. Our leaders talk at us, not from where we are, but where they are, as salesmen and saleswomen promoting their own agendas, and we're paying for it. Not me. Not anymore.

I'm glad you can see that evil organization in its - true light. Kudos for dropping them! nm

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I'm hoping someone will come in with a rebuttal - nm

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nm

A rebuttal? - Rita J.

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I don't think so. There is no rebuttal or justification for greed and exploitation. I am glad this organization is being outed for who and what they really are.

I would listen if they had facts to dispute anything that has been said - sm

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I would listen if someone wanted to speak to some of these complaints. Even if it were just some happy members and not official leaders, I would listen to what they have to say. The silence is deafening though.

Most of the leaders do love to hear themselves talk and talk - and talk

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All I've heard is talk, most of it baloney! They all go off on a tangent and then later they all leave that one and go off on another one.

While we're on the subject, it isn't just AHDI and MT. The newest trend is to turn everyone into an expert on infomatics or make false promises, like guaranteeing you a job if you take a course. These things are unrealistic. Nobody can guarantee anyone a job. There aren't enough HIT jobs for everyone who is being promised one. There are enough snake-oil salesmen, as someone put it earlier, to make all of us wary of believing anything we're told is a sure thing. Last year some program was pouring money into one area, feeding people with false hopes and promises. It turns out that there are very few jobs in those areas and the training they were getting wasn't relevant to the jobs that were there. I have learned to stop listening if anyone offers me anything for a discount, leading or guiding me as a fake mentor, or pressures me in any way. That's how many people make their money.

So true! ("Pay no attention to that man - behind the curtain!") LOL!

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nm

Not possible, without lying about it. AHDI is a - greedy, job-sucking black hole.

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Their upper eschelon belongs in jail.

Trying to give the other side here - sm

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The "upper echelon" constantly changes. Those who stabbed us in the back by making contacts, probably at conventions, to go overseas and teach people to replace us, are no longer officers and/or directors. There are some new people who weren't involved in all of that disgusting behavior. They can't be blamed for it. I agree that I wouldn't give a penny to those who did harm to us, but not all of the current leaders are guilty of that.

Sorry, but AHDI has had so much financial success - from screwing MTs, there is - sm

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no way they're going to change their modus operandi now, or ever. The new leaders are gonna want their slice of the MT Slavery pie, just like all the others did. Yes, they CAN be blamed for it. They didn't get there by accident, and if the New Ones had any plans for turning AHDI into an honest and reputable organization that SUPPORTS MTs, instead of EXPLOITING them, then they never would have been accepted into the positions they hold now.

Don't believe that shell game of "We have new people! Things are going to change!" They won't.

I have listed all the positives I can think of. - Thought for hours

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I opened this message, open-minded, ready to listen to a serious reply - Disappointed

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I was hoping to see a serious reply with some positives. I know there are some.

I'll try. There are some good people in the organization. I wouldn't give you two cents to spend time with any that have gone overseas to help them take our jobs away from us. That said, there are people who didn't do that. I know some very kind, helpful, hardworking people who are members and lower-level leaders. They are always willing to help an MT in any way they can. Belonging to AAMT/AHDI has meant to me that I got to meet those people, who are genuine friends of mine.

I also got to meet some of the ones that I don't respect. They live off the rest of us.

Years ago the journal was good. It deteriorated over the years. Years ago we weren't force-fed webinars every month. The journal provided some real educational benefit. Then it became obvious that the writers of the articles know little or nothing. They were there to sell something else. It became a waste of time to read it.

In my opinion, the organization now is just a way to make money to keep the organization afloat. The reason a number of people want to keep it alive is because they make money selling webinars and Benchmark and promoting the MTSO who donates the most money.

I'm supposed to be giving the positives, and that's very hard to do. It has become a place where people stay up at night thinking of ways to get money from us selling us webinars we don't need and a conference full of presentations from people who also want to sell us something.

I have a very strong belief that most of the people who are at the top levels of leadership could not spend a full day working as a medical transcriptionist. They couldn't keep a job as an MT. The only role they are equipped to fulfill is selling things to us.

We don't want to spend time with the people who stabbed us in the back - while smiling at us

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Maybe that's the reason the organization is no longer relevant. Most of us don't want to spend time with the people who were dishonest/unethical and/or stabbed us in the back. If you think about it, it's the most gregarious, slap-you-on-the-back, take-you-out-to-dinner, people who were the ones who turned on us. Sure, there are lots of ethical people who just quietly paid attention to business. You could meet those people at meetings too, but they usually weren't the ones who chose the speakers or did the speaking. It's the leadership that went bad on us. It started back on Claudia's watch and just got worse on Peter's. Directors were taking "opportunities" to go overseas to India, the Philippines, Barbados, and who knows where else, through contacts they made through the organization. That's just not right. It finally caught up with the organization. Members just decided that we don't want to spend time with the people who thought so little of us, even though they are great at chatting us up at meetings. They can have a big smile and be stabbing us in the back at the same time. That was educational for me. I look back at some of the people who looked and acted like professionals, but were selling us out in the back rooms in private conversations with the big guys.

Not evil, just infested with some predatory "partners" - In my opinion

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I think they were just overrun with people who saw it as a way to make money for themselves. It's a lot easier than getting a job and working.

Long-Time Member - Old Pro

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Congratulations! Welcome to the Rationalists' Club (and I do not mean rationalist in the religious sense, but the common, garden-variety one). I remember once in the late 80s, I went to an AHDI (then the sorority sisters were still calling themselves the AAMT)at Berkeley. Another friend (also an MT) and I went, at no little cost to ourselves since we did not live in Berkeley or anywhere close. Anyway, we paid all it took to get there only to find that the meeting consisted of (1) the Queen Bee sweeping into the room and shaking the hands of the adoring (?) MTs as though she were Queen Elizabeth and (2) some plastic surgeon who gave a thinly-disgused infomercial for the great deal on a boob job he could give to us. And THIS is supposed to be professional education? The AAMT has always been about the sorority sisters and their progeny getting what THEY wanted at the expense of MTs. Thanks, but no.

I'd love to take a fly-swatter to that Queen Bee. - Or a little spritz of Raid.

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Me too. - sm

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I was thinking a quick kick to the behind, but a fly-swatter works too.

Or a broom to knock down the whole stinking nest. - ;) Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

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Goodbye, Queen Bee - Lila

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Well, since the Queen Bee is no longer with them, that should tell us something.

That was back when Claudia was CEO or Director, right? - sm

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I remember those days. I was never part of the in-crowd, so I didn't get a chance to kiss her ring.

Yep, but she's gooooone! Thanks be to heaven! - No fan of hers

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She is gone, but not forgotten. As to her ring, it probably came out of a Crackerjack box!

What I'd like to see is a post about - sm

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I would like to see a post about something good that happened at ACE this year. Did anyone learn anything that will benefit them in the future? It's only fair that we hear the good side. Was there anything, other than when someone was promoting or selling something, that was worth the time and money spent.

What did you gain from it?
How will it improve your bottom line?

Nothing. - nm

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nm

Read this and laugh (or weep) - moki

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After Googling "AHDI - off-shoring", came up with some enlightening information.

This is a direct quote from Susan Lucci, RHIT, CMT, AHDI-F. "Making the decision to have some or all of the work performed offshore is an option that some hospitals are choosing based predominately on price, but another factor that weighs heavily in favor of off-shoring is turnaround time. Some countries most readily associated with offshoring are India and the Philippines. We must remember that one factor that may play into an offshore decision is the time difference - they are working while we are sleeping. With the
pressing demands to get more closely aligned with real-time documentation, unless we are suddenly willing to have a significantly larger domestic workforce working 3rd shift, the offshore option presents a great complement for those MTSOs who utilize both domestic and offshore solutions.

How about this? From networkworld.com/IDG News Service comes an article portraying U.S. President Barrack Obama as less protectionist than some of his earlier remarks seemed to indicate. According to the article, the president told business executives in Mumbai, India that the perception that Indian call centers and back office operations cost U.S. jobs is an old stereotype that ignores today's reality that two-way trade between the U.S. and India is helping create jobs and raise the standard of living in both countries.

So my suggestions are that everyone apply and/or ask for a tranfer to 3rd shift, that no one vote for Obama, and that we all tell AHDI to go away and to stop making ridiculous new rules so that they can publish a new book every few years and that we stop buying new editions. Do your own research, the information is all there.

I'll pass - anon

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To blame it all on Obama is absolutely RIDICULOUS. This offshore stuff was happening a LONG LONG time before he became president, so perhaps turning this into an anti-Obama post is a poor choice.

I am not thrilled with his embracing and pushing of the whole EMR thing but that is another story and Romney will be no better. In fact, none of them will be any better, they simpy DO NOT CARE.

In addition, just because you request a 3rd shift does not mean you will get it. In fact, many places no longer even have a 3rd shift option as they do the whole "follow the sun" thing.

Long story short, I know far too late, nothing can be done. The horse has left the barn.

Best advice is not telling people who to vote for but rather to move on and figure out another way to make a living or sit around here and whine all day.

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