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

cannot make a living as MT anymore - sad, sad, sad

Posted: Mar 09, 2015

So sad what this profession has come to. I am 57 years old, have been MT for 25+ years, always been a high producer with good QA scores. I made a really good living until January 2013 when Nuance acquired company, I chose not to accept their terms of employment. Went to another US based company (?) part time. Just did income tax and was shocked. Needless to say, I will not renew my contract again. It's just not worth the aggravation anymore. The incentive and production bonuses have been done away with. Any reward for MTs who go above and beyond the call of duty has been taken away. Companies wonder why MTs will not rally when the work gets behind... In the olden days good employees were a valued asset. This is just not so anymore. It is sad, sad, sad.

yes same story here, sad. - wise one

[ In Reply To ..]
Your story fits many people.. My employer lost her biz to Nuance also, and I did not want to go that low...I'm selling things now as there is no one to work for, other than peanuts!!

I am in the same boat, but in all honesty.. - suzieQ559

[ In Reply To ..]
we have no one to blame but ourselves. I get it, because we need a job we have accepted bad treatment, low pay, high demands, etc., etc., etc... These MTSOs are making tons of money off our backs and we have accepted it. Nobody can financially afford to stand up to these companies or to strike, so there you go. And, I fear it is going to get worse now with the implementation of obamacare.

write your own contract - mt15

[ In Reply To ..]
If you are an IC, you have the right to write up your own terms. If you contract 40 hours a week, say for instance 7-3 Monday-Friday, and they do not hold up their end of the contract and work isn't available you charge them 10.00 an hour for every hour work is not available, as they are breaking their contract.

Until MTs take a stand, you will be stood on.

I recently got a new job in medical records release of information at a local hospital, because I need a steady check. I couldn't be happier to no longer be an MT. It's a transition after 15 years, but we must STOP working under sweatshop conditions.

Good luck with that... - suzieQ559

[ In Reply To ..]
There is not a MTSO out there that will hire you if you write your own contract.

they will if enough MTs - mt15

[ In Reply To ..]
I no longer work for MT companies because I had enough $200 pay checks and working on call. If enough MTs write their own contracts the companies will have no choice but to manage their workflow and not over hire.

Way longggggg before your president had the healthcare - into place the MT jobs were

[ In Reply To ..]
at rock bottom with people crying literally about no work, lack of good pay, horrible bosses and so on. Why with the Obamacare passing (finally) do you think it would be worse? From what I have read here for years now it is the same ole song and dance, has nothing to do with this president or the one before him.

It has to do with only one thing, really. - G-R-E-E-D. (NM) Feral MT

[ In Reply To ..]

Agree with Greed - Not just MT field

[ In Reply To ..]
If you have never watched it, the documentary Inequality for All is very informative on what is happening in our field as well as many others. I recently watched this documentary after someone on this website mentioned it a couple of times. Definitely worth 1.5 hours of your time and is on Netflix.

I learned a lot from this documentary, but 2 of the biggest things were 1) It is not just the MT field. I have said over to over to many people in casual conversation "I made more 15 years ago." Well, apparently so did many people in many professions. This is the trend of our country right now. The middle class is disappearing. 2) The thing I definitely didn't realize until watching this documentary is that while wages have gone down over the last 15 years for the "average" worker, salaries for CEOs have sky-rocketed. The statistics are alarming.

So, yes ... Greed. It is total greed by the people at the top, and it is killing our economy. The middle class drives the economy. If you take away the middle class, the economy tanks.

Real joke - anonie

[ In Reply To ..]
I just got fired. I wanted to try to negotiate the work I was getting. Well, looks like once they adopted something, too bad if you didn't like the work or it made you work way longer than normal to get just 500 lines a day. ESLs and it clearly states you are not supposed to get them much, just once in a while.

So negotiating for more money is not something I'd say these companies care anything about.

They take your work away from you and you end up having to go with them and then they proceed to just completely take away your money making accounts in favor of individual groups based on orthopedics, etc. Well, I lost all of my good accounts.

Unfortunately for me, my group leader would not try to even help me. So I guess I could not take it any longer and just really let go. I have had so many health issues and then come back to too many changes to my detritment. Now I wait to see if I can get on the other half of what was once a good company.

Oh, well. If not, I end up in really lousy low-income housing somewhere probably I don't want to live or feel safe living.

Hey, but they could care less what they do to our lives or us. Just as long as they get their money.

Are you saying you only got 500 lines per - day, if that is true

[ In Reply To ..]
I can understand why you no longer have a job. Maybe I read your posting wrong.

There are days I would be thrilled with 500... - suzieQ559

[ In Reply To ..]
KS is ALWAYS running out of work...there are days I am lucky to get 100 lines. This is so ridiculous...

Keystrokes, I don't know why I didn't listen - to previous posts here, sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and I really don't know why they have so many ads out for this position and that position, this time and that time. Heck, hire yourself some good reliable people already who enjoy making money and love doing their job. So glad I'm not waiting on a weekend wasting my day to do next to nothing. Best advice about this company, read this board. I don't know if the people who actually come here and praise Keystrokes are real people or not, but I sure would love having their jobs.

The ones praising the place are pets - Sad but true

[ In Reply To ..]
KS used to be a great company to work for until around 2011.

Well, I thought Keystrokes was a good company other than - the fact, sm

[ In Reply To ..]
that they have no work. I loved, loved, loved their platform. Unfortunately, they did not seem too concerned about the fact that during my 8 hour shift, there were days I barely worked 1 or 2 hours due to lack of work. It really sucked logging in to find there was nothing to type. Other than that, I thought the place was great. I think they would have a lot of devoted employees if they would just stop over-hiring for their accounts.

If they were not - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
concered about their MTs not having enough work is enough for me to get a bad impression about the place.

You misunderstood me - anonie

[ In Reply To ..]
No I only wanted 500 lines a day. I am only working to supplement SS and my tiny pension.

It took me so long to just get 500 lines and then the rate per line was horrible. They changed all of our accounts and put us into category groups that probably most of us would rather not have been in and could do better in another category, but the person was not willing to work with me to do such. So, they don't really care about anything but the stupid company. I mean I worked for the company when it was all together for 14 years. Never had much trouble except occasionally running out of work. The company that I was fired from knew what they were doing. They took the best work and consequently they had all but one of my accounts. Now I get hardly anything at all per day and I cannot live on that.

Command Health - Grandy

[ In Reply To ..]
All of these companies are the same. See my post above for Command Health. These companies are all dirty. They make empty promises then set about screwing people over. They even manipulate income, and force some employees to do all of the more difficult reports, so that others can make more money.

Agreed. - Sad but true

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, and even if incentive is offered, it's not worth the aggravation of putting in extra lines. A big firm (which has an India branch of course) acquired my company awhile back, and we've had one rule after another put on us ever since. Incentive bonus pay has been reduced. I'm in the process of leaving a once-great company for an IC job for a smaller firm. So far, so good. Thankfully I'm pushing 38 with a 4-1/2-year-old, young enough to find another career. I'm considering the local community college when she's finally in pre-k this August to become an RN or something else in healthcare. It is sad, I agree 100%.

You know what's even sadder? All of these medical transcription schools trying to entice students into paying big bucks, claiming how much money they will make when they get out. I remember hearing one school claiming one could make $30k/year starting out. The most I ever made was $27k, working 12-hour days with 5 years of experience. Thieves.

Command Health - Grandy

[ In Reply To ..]
So true. A friend of mine started working at Command Health. They gave her pages of documents hailing their bonuses, fairness, etc. When she reported cherry picking a few weeks ago, she was told she was to keep her mouth shut or lose her job. She is expected to do the crappiest work, while other (she suspects managers) are picking the easier reports, easier dictators, etc. Command made their company sound like the answer to transcription to the point I was ready to jump, but it didn't take long for the truth to come out. Crappy as my job can be, I have never been told that I have to work harder on the worst work so that others can have higher paychecks. Additionally, she was told that her QA usage was too high, but that is because she is expected to do the worst dictators.

Similar Messages:

Nov 14, 2012

I quit my in-house MT job, a job that I had held for almost 20 years, a little over a year ago because of a new boss who drove me and about 10 other people to quit because she was so hard to work for. I thought long and hard about it before I quit, but could not see myself putting up with her for the next 10-15 years until I could retire. She was making some of us physically ill because of stress. I believe we may have been "creatively downsized". Since I q ...

Jul 25, 2014

After 15 years I decided to hang it up and gave up MT work when VR pay was so low and the jobs were few and far between. My yearly income was cut more than half. I've often wondered if anyone is still able to make a living doing MT work. I don't miss it at all, just wondering. ...

Feb 22, 2010

I have worked as a radiology transcriptionist for over ten years . My pay has been cut in half and jobs are hard to find. I take tests and no one calls back. I usually only have their email anyway. I am now learning acute care because it seems for last few years it has been the only game in town. However, I cannot believe how hard it is and I am getting paid the same as radiology. It's becoming impossible to afford to live on this income, but I ...

May 21, 2011

I just accepted a job at AllType and the majority of my account is VC. I have not dropped my other position I had as IC and no VC. I am wondering, as this is my first time ever doing VC, can you really make a living at this? I know I will NEVER make a fortune at this job but an 800+ paycheck every 2 weeks would sure be desirable. Thanks. ...

Oct 16, 2011

I am thinking about going to The Andrews School to become an MT. I have taken the pre enrollment exam and they said i passed with a score of 84%, which i think is pretty good for not knowing what im doing. But, today i was surfing the web and seen a post from someone that was ranting about how the school is a scam and after they completed the course they got a job where they had to work 60-70 hours per week and only get paid 3 cents per line. So, i was wanting to know if there is any Andre ...

Oct 20, 2011

Experienced MTs please tell me, can a person actually make a living at this. I am a newbie, working from home for the last 4 months. I am feeling very discouraged by my paychecks. I am just barely making minimum wage after working a full time schedule. I like the work, but if I can't support myself doing this what is the point? I would love to hear from those of you who have been doing this long term. Thanks. ...

Jun 13, 2014

I understood the problem with this MTSO over the winter with the horrible weather, but now? I can hardly keep up with my bills as is. ...

Nov 19, 2012

I have known this for all the years that I have been in this business, but unfortunately I came face to face, so to speak, with this problem again recently. I stated a point to my supervisor by e-mail, and very nicely, about some technical difficulties I was having, and no matter how I would explain it, she did not understand what I said. Even the tech told her that it was not due to my computer, but the connection I had. She said she would call me, and I said I would look ...

May 21, 2014

Over the past few months, the account that I am on has gone from being at least half straight typing to almost all VR, with only a very small handful of dictators that are still on straight transcription. I am having a really hard time making a living since this has happened and my paychecks keep getting smaller and smaller. I am wondering if anyone else is in the same situation, or if it's just me. My account is a pretty busy one, but most of these VR reports are a comple ...

Dec 24, 2014

Can you make a living working for IMEDX. They said they pay 4 cpl for editing and 8 cpl for straight typing with an 80% editing and 20% straight typing account. That does not seem like you could make a living. Just wondering. ...

Oct 23, 2013

Is anyone able to make a living on the Futurenet MModal platform? My pay has decreased by 3/4s. ...

Aug 11, 2014

This is beyond insane. Why hire all these new people and pay for training and benefits only to have EVERYONE run out of work? It makes no business sense whatsoever. The person making these decisions must have received their MBA from a Cracker Jack's box. It's bad enough that we're being paid peanuts (pun intended), but to run out of work, too? Come on, people. Develop some sense and sensitivity. Thank you. ...

Mar 27, 2010

I have had it..The past 2 paychecks I made approximately $200.00 less..constantly getting work I have never done before from hospitals I have never done because there is no work in my hospitals, constantly having to run searches in DoQManage for reports because I have never done those hospitals before..then we are told there is a certain amount of lines/hour we have to do..there is NOT enough time in an hour to do all this plus transcribe. MQ..JUST LEAVE US ALONE AND LET US TRANSCRIBE..Let ...

Nov 20, 2012

x ...

Apr 09, 2014

I just can't make myself want to do this job anymore. Every dictator annoys me so badly. I can never make my daily line count because I simply can't stand to listen to these people anymore. The burping and slurping and coughing and sneezing and sniffling and chewing and laughing and mumbling and yelling.... I just can't stand it anymore! I've tried to motivate myself to just do the work, get the lines, and log off, but I find that I more often than not purp ...

Dec 04, 2013

Just got e-mail stating I did NOT pass my audit. i got 99.4%. i have been with this company for over 15 years. Lately, I stress out every day over this job. I am sitting here waiting for a phone call from my TSM to discuss this. I am quite worried. Living paycheck to paycheck now. Cannot afford to take another pay cut or lose my job. If they do put you on 100% do you ever get taken off? I have slowed down and really tried to be more careful/cautio ...

Mar 13, 2014

How does it happen that office personnel get in-house raises and are making far more than any of us when it is the transcriptionists who bring in the actual money? We are solely responsible for the lavish lifestyles of CEOs and the salaries of management while we ourselves make next to nothing. I remember years ago the office personnel making little wisecracks at how much we made while some of them with "degrees" did not make nearly as much. Well, I guess that has been fixed no ...

Mar 23, 2012

Either I am being targeted or I will agree I am on an account that perhaps requires regular audits, but I just cannot take it anymore. The last two audits I barely failed and I now I am assuming I will be terminated. We are encouraged to speed up editing and in the process we are most assuredly missing incorrect ASR dictation, etc. I mean no offense to any MTs who work for this company, but I daresay across the board this company does not produce MTs who continuously maintain ...

Jul 06, 2012

THIS IS NOT A MEAN OR DEGRADING MESSAGE. I am genuinely curious as I have been with them for almost 9 years and have never had a problem netting (after taxes) anywhere from 13-17$/hour. I only work 50-60 hours every 2 weeks and I am bringing home 550--800$. I don't see how some people are working 80 hours every 2 weeks and aren't bringing home at least 1000$. ...

Jan 24, 2010

I've got this terror of critical errors. I shudder every time I check my feedback, if I've left a marker (sometimes I've noticed they'll check the entire report, not just the marker. Guess it depends on the MME). What happens if you get a critical error? Are you back on QA for awhile? Do you get nasty e-mails? Do you get canned? 40 lashes? ...

Jun 09, 2011

I am looking into to taking a second job to make extra money. My main job pays by the hour as I work directly for a hospital and it is a combination of speech and straight transcription work. Consequently, I'm thinking maybe taking a strictly speech job would be easier on my neck, shoulders, arms, and hands, but I don't want to be wasting my time. If I'm not going to make any money doing it, why bother? So I would like to know if there are any MTs out there who ...

Mar 18, 2013

I can't say I wasn't warned about SS, not only in the archives but by an acquaintance who'd worked there for 2 years, leaving a year ago. I took a shot, hoping they had, or were in the process of turning over a new leaf. It turned out to be the worst employment experience in my 20 years 'on the force.' I have never posted here before, often wondering if the gripes here might be limited to a handful of disgruntled employees; they're not & I'm living proof. I ...

Nov 19, 2014

I live in a very rural community, 1-1/2 hours from any larger city. When I moved here, I thought I could work from anywhere. I have been looking for a job for 2 years, but there has been no need for someone with my MT experience, and age discrimination is definitely alive and well. I have an interview set up for tomorrow at a local assisted living facility/nursing home for full-time MT. I certainly have no problem demonstrating my expertise and ability to perform thi ...

May 08, 2010

x ...

Jul 31, 2010

I just don't get it. Tony James led Spheris right into bankruptcy, and he is rewarded with the position of co-COO of MedQuist with a salary of 270k plus a 50% bonus if he meets his goals for the year? Are they kidding? We constantly take pay cuts so these people can live in their ivory towers...and our backs are their steps to get up there. When greed meets karma, it ain't gonna be pretty. It is just sad to know that people are barely getting by out here in the ...

Aug 20, 2010

I would like to know if anyone makes a decent living using this platform. Any comments appreciated, i.e., average lines per day, hour, anything to give me better understanding. Thanks. ...

Feb 20, 2015

There are all kinds of articles out there as of this morning in relation to Walmart's announcement that they are increasing their employees' wages. Wake up, Nuance, and stop being so greedy! Do you really think you can take it with you? ...

Jan 18, 2010

I have had 6 (SIX!) reports come through, all having the same mush-mouthed, fast talking, whispering, ESL doctor. Oh, and the sing-song thing is really about to make me blow my stack. I swear, he is so bad that I can't even understand the patient's name!!!! I am going to pull my hair out. Yep, I feel it coming. It takes me forever just to get through ONE of his reports. He gets so many blanks that I honestly feel sorry for the QA person that end ...

Apr 25, 2011

Working at .075 cpl for ScribeRight I made a whopping 12K in 2009. Wow - let's all run out and take MT classes to jump on that bandwagon. Anyway, I quit my MTSO pimp and went to work for a well-known Italian restaurant chain in 2010. I work in the kitchen 6 hours a day for 5 days a week (Mon-Fri lunch shift with no nighttime or weekend shifts) and make about 15% more than I did as an MT. I am not an IC anymore but rather an employee, so I saved a bunch on my social ...

Feb 27, 2012

My bubble has been burst. I was with eTransPlus when the Q swallowed them up and then I left. Now, I'm with another MTSO and it's awful. I've only been MTing for 5 years. I was an office nurse (LPN) for 13 years before that and I wanted a change. My first job was with a great company and then the huge acct I was on was bought out by an MTSO, so I had the choice of being laid off or going to IC status. I chose to be laid off thinking I could draw ...