A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
Is there an option to slave wages? - Anony
Posted: Sep 10, 2012
Can we pinpoint the reasons we are working for slave wages and unfair treatment? I'm hearing EMR and TAT, but don't we have the ability to provide the same service directly to physicians with software we can download for free? Didn't most of us provide 24-hour turnaround? Has EMG made it to technical to keep up with? Why would a physician choose to pay an MTSO more than they were paying us as ICs when their primary concerns seems to be saving money? Has anyone surveyed what medical facilities are paying MTSOs these days? What was that movie with the famous line everyone was yelling out their windows: "I've had all I can stand, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
Personally, I dont want to deal with irate office managers, dr. that - think they are god, stat reports needed SM
[ In Reply To ..]yesterday and all else that comes with being the boss. I am a good worker bee. I dont want to be the queen bee, she doesnt get paid enough. Btw, 24 hour TAT is getting pretty rare these days. Longest is usually 12 hours, many are 4 hours.
We get irate management anyway, even at MTSOs. - Only difference is theyre even more clueless! nm
[ In Reply To ..]XX
Drs pay the MTSO cause they dont want to deal with diva MTs. But Dr really have - nothing to do with it. Most drs work for
[ In Reply To ..]big corporations that only hear save money. They have never done MT, have never given us a thought and have no idea what we need to do our job effectively, as well as cost effectively. I kinda think, though, we are reaching the stage where it is becomeing more and more obvious that what the software salesmen say, is not the reality. Kinda interested to see what the next phase will be.
That movie was Network - 1976
[ In Reply To ..]Vintage Faye Dunaway at her most gorgeous. Still relevant and hilarious today, well worth checking out!
Having your own clients is nothing like working for MTSO. You cant - just log onto a platform, do your shift and SM
[ In Reply To ..]then you are done. YOU have to deal with system dysfunctions, you have to deal with software problems, you have to stop everything to do that stat job, you have to send the bills and make sure you recieve payment, you have to deal with the insurance company that employer MTSO deals with, you have to deal with office staff, often an unhappy doctor wife, you have to justify your rates and explain why you cannot go down any more on what you are charging. This is just a short list. Oh yeah, you have to deal with it when the office calls you and says we dont need you anymore, we are going to EMR.
Could not have said it better....but adding - anon
[ In Reply To ..]You have to hire/train/edit behind the MT you will no doubt need for any overflow so you do not miss TAT. Not to mention, you have to have at least 2 of everything in case something goes down, as the clients do not want to hear you are having technical difficulties or miss deadlines. You also have to pay for the dictation system, multiple phone lines, etc., and more taxes and be on call when a client calls.
That's why I never wanted my own clients. Too much - behind-the-scenes work U arent paid for! nm
[ In Reply To ..]
Option to slave wages - Vintagefine
[ In Reply To ..]One option would require 100% participation among MTs; and that's an all-out "strike" or boycott. If all of a sudden every MT in this country just stopped transcribing/editing altogether, that house of cards would collapse. They would get so far behind, they would need us AGAIN and they'd have to pay us what we demand. (That's my fantasy anyway) Oh and another fantasy is that some calamity will cause all their VR equipment to malfunction and they would hunt us down to put us back to work and pay us what we deserve. Oh, oh and another is that they all get hit with huge law suits because their machines made major mistakes that no one in India noticed, costing them millions in law suits; then they would realize they didn't save much money in the long run. I could go on and on with my fantasies. They get me through my long days without work. LOL
It's not just a fantasy. India may be able to transcribe, - (sorta), ut we editors hold all the cards!
[ In Reply To ..]And you're right about the MTSOs' house of cards. Even when the work goes offshore, they still depend on (and royally EXPLOIT) the American MTs who can edit and make some sense of the garbled mess their bargain-basement transcription alternatives produce. If we didn't edit it, they would have NOWHERE to turn.
I don't think it would take 100% MT participation, either. Judging by how freaked-out my CCM gets when more than 1 person is off work, I'd be willing to bet that even with as low as 50% MT participation in an EDITING STRIKE, we could collapse that house of cards. With 75%+ participation, we could set it on fire.
because we're desperate - anon
[ In Reply To ..]Wages have gone down. Work flow has slowed to the point we are grateful for any work that is available as it trickles in.
Most of us have spent many years as MTs, honing our craft. Probably for most of us, it is all we know how to do, and I believe companies know that.
We work under these conditions because we have to, we're desperate to hold on to our jobs because with the economy, there are not many job positions an MT can easily transition into outside of this profession. It's surprising what one will put up with when there aren't other options.
Also, the big companies have begun to take on the mentality that we as MTs should be grateful they are letting us work for them. I dream of the day I can have a job where I am valued and work for someone who values my skills enough that they feel lucky I am working for them.
Slave wages - SassyMT
[ In Reply To ..]I do it because Atlanta traffic sucks LOL and sometimes so does the weather. From my research, most of the facilities here use services and the ones that don't, rarely have any openings. At the last medical facility I worked for, I believe they were paying the MTSO 18 cpl but the MTs were getting 7 cpl or less from the service. The 18 cpl was more than what most of the MTs were making but when you add in all of the extras the facility had to pay for, 18 cpl made better financial sense for the facility, so they sent all of the work to the MTSO and let all 30+ MTs go. I doubt that many labs will ever use MTSOs so pathology transcription is a possibility and an option I may look at again the near future.
Option to slave wages and own accounts - anon
[ In Reply To ..]I do not work for MTSOs and have my own accounts, but you have to pay for dictation systems and phone lines, which are not free, as well as other software, etc. Please see my other post. Then, you have to have at least 2 of everything, as the client does not want to hear you will be missing TAT due to technical issues. You are responsible for all equipment/software costs, health insurance premiums through your company (you need 2 people to qualify as a group), business license costs, tax consultant, advertising, website costs with company email, cell and landlines, billing/invoicing to clients and tax forms (you and any MT you hire) , account/template setups, and hiring/training/QA of MT(s) for any overflow you have, so you do not miss TAT. BTY, you usually have to pay them more than the client pays you or the same, and then edit behind them, so this is a definite write off. The dictation systems are about $5,000 to $10,000, which have to be replaced every 2 years. Also, count in the unpaid time you put in and expenses of finding and landing that client.
With all of the above, most MTs make more in the end working for a large service than those who have their own accounts. We just have more expenses-- a lot more. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, although a lot more rewarding.
Physicians pay us independent contractors/smaller operators a lot less than the large nationals, as they are taking a risk with us, etc.
I've wondered myself why hospitals didn't just - send existing MTs home, thus - sm
[ In Reply To ..]maintaining their quality and institutional memory of workers already familiar with their facility and the MDs, rather than opt to send it to some shady MTSO, where the price may be rock-bottom cheap, but so is the level of work produced by offshore MTs and VR.
Hmmm. Maybe if we refused to edit that garbage for a week or two, the resulting mess would have clients re-thinking their profit-driven decision to eliminate having their own MTs.
All it would've taken is a slight upgrade or change of servers on their part, and maybe not even that. Like the above poster said, transcription software can be downloaded for free.
It's no wonder they keep wanting to pay less and less for transcription - look at how quality keeps falling, between MTSO's saying "Work faster!", "Edit less!", and the resultant dumbing down the entire process, so as to make the Indians look like they can actually cut it.
Hospitals dont want to have to manage at home MTs, only care about - lowest cost way to get work done. nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
Week long strike not likely an option for that single mother of - 3, trying to house, clothe and feed the kids. nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
Women have done it before, why not now? You need to - look further forward, at the big picture.
[ In Reply To ..]After all, how is that crummy pay working out for you right now? Now, think a couple years ahead, when that amount is cut in half once AGAIN. And the price of a gallon of gas has jumped to 5.75/gal, and a box of Cheerios is 7.50.
You are obviously not that single mom. And luckily neither am I. - Difference between us, I have compassion. nm
[ In Reply To ..]s
She's just painting herself into a corner. That - compromises the kids futures.
[ In Reply To ..]You have to think more than just one move ahead. You have to consider the results of 3, 4, 5 moves after that first one, in order to make decisions that will get your children ahead in the future.
So does not being able to feed them or keep a roof over their - heads. (Do you have kids? Think not.) nm
[ In Reply To ..]s
But that's exactly my point. How is she going to - continue to keep that roof over - sm
[ In Reply To ..]their heads when her pay as an MT continues to go downward? There is no second set of prices on rent, food, school supplies, or anything else, that says: "If you're an MT, you get 75% off."
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