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

Working myself to death for slave wages and about to quit - Lily

Posted: Mar 25, 2011

I need some real input. I did my research on this field and went to one of the best schools. I work hard and do excellent work. I've been doing this for almost a year, and I want to know when I'll reach minimum wage. I get 7.5 to 8 cents a line. I am technically full-time, but they don't always give me enough work.

I worked for one company that couldn't keep me busy enough, switched companies, then decided to work for BOTH. According to the reasearch I did, the middle 50% of MTs supposedly makes $13 to $18 and hour. That's what I got into this business to make!

Some days I work 12 hours. I am sending out applications for office jobs now because I cannot work myself to death for $250 a week.

I'm REALLY curious if anyone every really makes good money at this, and how long does it take to work up to it?

Working yourself to death... - cr

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It seems to me the only fairly good money in transcription is working as an MT in a hospital, where you're paid by the hour and sometimes incentive pay too. Unfortunately, those jobs are quickly becoming a part of the past. If you're young, maybe there's still hope the outsourcing trend will reverse itself and those jobs will open up again.

do not agree, there are TONS of in-house jobs. have reasarched long time - looking for hospital direct remobe. NM

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Opposite experience here. - sm

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I have worked as an IC for the past 4 years, the last 3 on the same account. I make regularly $18-20 an hour. I would really love to have medical/dental insurance though, so I looked into the local hospital when they were hiring recently. They only pay $12/hr here and there is no incentive pay! I couldn't believe how low the pay was. Would rather keep my at-home job where I have a completely flexible schedule and just find my own insurance.

It all depends on the type of accounts you have - and the dictators

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If you have a good account that flows smoothly and good dictators it goes faster. If you have bad ones and a cumbersome system it will slow you down. I have good days and bad days. Sometimes I can be on a roll and doing great and then I'll get a dictator who is hard to understand and it slows me down. I would say $13-18 is an accurate average. I've been an MT for about 14 years and I range in that depending on what docs I get.

Lily, you should not be working for 2 companies. You - Pragmatist

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should be working for one, with 1 main hospital account you work on most of the time and a secondary account for backup; and at most if required maybe one or two others you're assigned to but see very little of. We all make our best speed on dictators we're very familiar with, no matter how long we've been at it, but it's critically important for newbies staring at overdue utility bills.

You do definitely have my sympathy. Only been an oversupply of applicants wanting to work at home has allowed companies to pay trainees on their production, a situation that I hope will right itself eventually as the word goes out about just how difficult and expensive, for many ruinously, entering this field actually is.

In any case, I agree that $13 to 18/hr is very achievable, the lower end a quite appropriate goal for a newcomer. If you had been working one main account all this time, advancing your skills in ways people discuss here, and elsewhere, you would probably be routinely in that range by now on your main hospital, working to bring your speed up further on it and your secondary. I've been earning well above that range for some time now, BTW, but definitely not the first few years.

As for coming in at this point and asking if anyone really makes good money at this--is this your first time here then? Time now to do the research you should have before, starting right here on this board, but focus it on HOW to be good and how to work smart and the money will come after. Do you know, there are still people out there typing out "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" 30 times a day, day after day? There are reasons why many who come here are doing very well and many others are doing very poorly.

And I'll say it again, in case you get lost in all the emotional detritus--do not take advice from people who are failing. Note the experiences reported, consider them, mine them for truth and applications to yourself, but seek out people who are doing well and do as they do.

I second that e-Motion! And add five tips to live by to make decent money - Finally Satisfied

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It took me 9-1/2 years, but 1-1/2 years ago, I finally got my dream job and it is at a local hospital. My niece works there and told me a transcription position had opened up. I looked at the opening posted online and it said nothing about working from home - which was one thing I was adamant about. But I tracked down the team lead and asked her about it, found out they did have to go in-house 1 day a week, but worked from home the rest of the time.
So, TIP #1 - the online posting may not tell the whole story.

The pay and benefits were head and shoulders above anything I could get at the large MTSOs - and I've worked for almost all of them, it seems. Hourly rate in the high teens, bonus of 10 cpl for anything over 5500 per week, (fairly) cheap insurance, (fairly) easy doctors. It helps that my specialty is radiology - thus a limited pool of dictators.

TIP #2 - It may seem obvious but after looking at these posts, it needs to be said...Become familiar with your dictators. It seems like a cliche, but if you know what they're going to say before they say it, you're ahead of the game.

I rack up 1700-2000 (and sometimes more) lines per day. If you're good at math, you can figure what my bonus is each week:-) The ONLY way I can do this is through an expander program. Actually, I use two - Word (AutoText and macros) and Shorthand 10, and they kind of complement each other. I had read on here a few years ago where someone said they had a goal to abbreviate any word longer than 5 letters - and I now live by that. I'm hoping that someone reading this will benefit in the same way I did. I still add expanders every day - yes, every day - and even occasionally browse through the list to remind myself of ones I may have forgotten.

Which brings me to TIP #3 - If you're typing out "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" 30 times a day like the wise poster above said, you will NOT make a decent living in this profession. Get an expander program, add to it aggressively. If you are lucky enough to type in Word, learn to use macros. I actually came across a lady who said she wasn't interested in expanders. I was flabbergasted but finally had to admit to myself that this person WANTED to earn $6/hour and that was exactly what she was doing.

So TIP #4 is courtesy of that lady and is my favorite saying - If you believe you can or you can't do a thing, you will be correct.

Finally, TIP #5 is kind of a freebie but after reading some posts on this forum, I believe it couldn't hurt as a reminder to all of us - Be nice to your team lead/supervisor/boss, become a valuable member of the team, be there for them, and I guarantee they'll be there for you and can make your life easier. Give and ye shall receive.

What a great post, Finally Satisfied. You make me want - to check locally again. :) Pragmatist NM

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x

MACROS - this has always been over my head (SM) - Yochana

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Is there a book where I could learn to make macros? Fortunately, I am able to type in MS Word. Would appreciate any input.

there are tutorials on the microsoft site... - anon

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go there and look around, do a search on the site. You can learn anything there, any version of MS software. I'm one who needs to "see" how to do things - and it all plays out in quick easy lessions.

Also, a lot of things we call macros are not. Expanders - will record the keystrokes we use

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so we can give them a brief 1 or 2-letter and/or character activation name, and we'll call that a macro even tho it's not. That's where most of mine come from.

SR goofs up a certain header every single time? Turn on "record," do all the keystrokes you use to fix it, including erasing the old one and replacing it with the corrected version, finish by setting the cursor where you want it to be when you're done (out of the header and ready to type), and then name it EOT for "enough of that!" Super easy.

I'm only computer semiliterate at best, so most of my genuine macros are gifts from nice people on this forum and others or copied off the web somewhere, like that site mentioned.

macros - OldHandAtThis

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If you go to Amazon.com you can find very complete manuals for every version of word that will tell you how to do fully utilize word which which include many useful features with fields and styles, etc., in addition to a powerful macro language. These manuals will also include instructions visual basic macros -- how to write as well as record macros.

Here is a simple macro I wrote to add to autocorrect quickly (I have written one that is much more powerful than this, but it is too long to post here) but this will serve as an example of the kind of macro that you can write with word. I thought it might be useful to post it in this thread since there is some discussion about improving productivity with aggressively adding to autocorrect. (You need to paste this into your normal.dot or better yet, to a add-in template, and then assign to a shortcut key. )

Sub SimpleAutoCorrectAdd()
Dim ShortCutString, ExpansionString, Checkstring, Title
Title = "WordExpress Transcriptions AutoCorrect Utility"
ShortCutString = InputBox("Enter shortcut phrase", Title)
ShortCutString = Trim(LCase(ShortCutString))
If ShortCutString = "" Then
End
End If
ExpansionString = InputBox("Enter expansion phrase", Title)
Checkstring = Trim(ExpansionString)
If Checkstring = "" Then
End
End If
On Error Resume Next
AutoCorrect.Entries.Add Name:=ShortCutString, Value:=ExpansionString
End Sub

Here is another example of the kind of macro that you can write once you learn a little about visual basic. This macro simply displays the autocorrect dialog box, so you don't have to use the mouse to open it -- this should also go on a short-cut key.

Sub show_AutoCorrect()
Dialogs(wdDialogToolsAutoCorrect).Show
End Sub

PS: Only paste the code in italics into your normal.dot.

How did you learn to be so smart. I want to be you when I grow up - Thanks For Tips!

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Those are great tips. This is just the kind of message we need more of around here. Thank you so much for posting them! How did you get so smart?!

I'll check with the local hospitals - Lily

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I really do appreciate the positive advice here. I have also been bounced around too many accounts, and that is a huge detriment.

One other thing that bothers me is the amount of time I spend looking up patient names. Is this common? Or, retrieving faxes to get the patient list in the first place.

I have kind of missed what you were trying to say.. - Finally Satisfied

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Yes, yes, and yes. If you are looking up patient names and retrieving faxes to look up names, then yes...it is probably a job you're not going to do well in if you're getting paid by the line. After all, how much money are you earning when you're looking up names? NONE!!! You're doing that work free for the owner who doesn't want to pay you for that time. I hesitate to give anyone advice to move on in this economy, but I would start looking around, never quit until you have begun another job (to make sure you're not jumping from the frying pain into the fire), and know that there are PLENTY of fully automated transcription platforms out there that pull up all the demographics (i.e. patient names and account information) automatically, either synchronized with the voice file or by typing in the job # or medical record #.

And BTW, that's one of the advantages of having a purchased expander program like Shorthand 10 - it goes with you because you own it. Not all companies will let you have access to your Word normal.dot file to copy it onto a flash drive and take it with you when you leave.

Your last paragraph is absolutely brilliant and so true in my own experience! - Bravo!

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I hope you continue to say it again and again. Find people who are doing well. Learn from them. Very smart!

Wages - Thriving MT

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It is possible to make good money at this profession; however, you need to be smart about it. I work for FOUR different companies, none of them requiring a schedule. Because a schedule is not required and the way the work is distributed, I am able to juggle all of them and just in the last two weeks I made $1200, working approximately 30 hours a week or less. I'm averaging no less than $20 an hour. I ALWAYS have work sitting here from at least one of the places and often times I have more than I can handle, but it's well worth it!! I work for small, independently owned companies and actually work for one doctor directly. You just need to apply, apply, apply for the jobs!! I highly recommend not settling for just anything and certainly not the nationals if you want to succeed in this profession.

Not cut out for the job - mt2

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Lily, respectfully, if you are making 8 cpl and cannot make $16+ an hour, then perhaps you should really look for another line of work.

Of course, not having enough work is not within your control, but if you are working for 2 companies, similar rates, you should not have the difficulty making an average wage.

Ridiculous answer! Depending on accts, you can - get 9.5 cpl and not make $16+/hr.

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Does putting people down like that, who have asked a legitimate question about an all-too-common problem, make you somehow feel good about yourself?
Well it shouldn't. That was a pathetic attempt at patting yourself on the back.

Ridiculous? I think not - mt2

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Since I didn't mention myself AT ALL in my response, I don't know where you came up with me patting myself on the back. (Now I will- I make nearly $30/hr.)

And I'm sorry but if you can't type 200 lph then IN MY HUMBLE OPINION (does that clarifier make YOU feel better?) you're in the wrong field. At $8.00/hr which is minimum wage or higher in some states, you'd only have to do 100 lph to make minimum wage. For too long, people have felt speed didn't really count when you do MT, but if you want to make money at it w/o sitting at a PC 12+ hours a day, then you better be able to crank out the lines.

To the OP- Seriously, what is stopping you from reaching an hourly line count that would make you satisfied with your income?

Ridiculous? Yes. - SMUG? You bet.

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MT2 may be a tad harsh because Lily IS in her first - year and entitled to some mistakes, but

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the principal is solid: If you can't type and edit reasonably fast, with use of expander or however, you're in the wrong field. These days probably 80% (?) of the jobs pay based on production, and many of the people holding the other 20%(?) are holding onto them for dear life--which it is for the slow ones. We're all seeing what happens to staff slowbies tossed out into the cold, hard production world.

What is a fast typing rate? - Lily

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I recently was tested at a career center, and I was typing 74 wpm.

I agree with mt2. Many struggling MTs are just not - cut out for it but cannot accept that.

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nm

Well... - Lily

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I believe what is stopping me is having to stop and look up patient names, retrieving faxes for patient lists, being bounced around accounts, short reports, etc. I thought after a year I would be making decent money. I still struggle to make minimum wage.

It's not a matter of skill. I am constantly adding to my shorts, and I was recently taken off QA on a new account the same day I started it. So I just keep working harder, and I try to put in insane hours to continually get myself up to speed on new doctors. I'm not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Not the OP but I think a realistic answer is, not everyone should be doing this kind of work - Realistically Speaking

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If you have tried and cannot make a decent amount of money because you are unable to produce an appropriate amount of work, that's a good clue that this may not be working for you. That's reality. It isn't an insult, because most people should not do this kind of work. It isn't for everyone. In fact, it isn't even for everyone who "thinks" it is.

...is Applebee's hiring ? lol - Wolfee

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Lily,

Apologies for my longwindedness.... your post really struck a cord with me. I figure I can be optimistic or be honest in regards to your plight. I'm going for honesty.

If you were my daughter, I would tell you to run like the wind, find a dependable career with a company that gives a rats-ass about your financial and spiritual well-being. In fact, I about fell off my chair when my 14-year-old even hinted at the suggestion that she might like to do what I do when she grows up. I took up this career for one reason only... I was suddenly a single mom with 3 young children, and to that end, it has served its purpose well.

When I started out as an MT 20 years ago, after many months of going to school and training with a professional, I was being paid by the line exactly what you are being paid now. That right there should tell you a lot. I now type 150+ wpm and can edit 300 lph, consistently and accurately making 99% to 100% on all of my audits - and yet, I can't make a living at this job anymore. I used to be paid $18/hour as an MT - not by the line but by the hour. It was at that company that I moved into editing and training, and I was paid $24/hour for that position for several years, had all the wonderful benefits one would expect working at an on-site job, etc. Sadly, the company folded when the owners became ill and we all lost our jobs, and it's never been the same since.

Here's what happened to the transcription business... there was one ass who lied about their hours worked, one ass who lied about their line counts, essentially stealing from the companies I've worked for.... one freaking bad apple spoiled the beauty of this business for all of us who were honest and diligent and conscientious about our jobs. Not to mention the greedy online companies that are in this business now for the almighty buck and not for the welfare of the patient - and by that, I'm referring to the several companies with whom I have been gainfully employed over the years, only to be outsourced to the very people I had unknowingly trained as my replacements.

I'm not trying to force any bitterness on you, please don't get the wrong impression -- I would continue working at home as an editor until the day I died, if only I could make a living at it anymore.

If you are determined to stay in this business, my piece of advice echos that of another post - find a job in a hospital or clinic setting. There, you will be paid a dependable income, probably by the hour even, and you will be offered the benefits of paid holidays, vacation, sick pay, 401K, etc. You might even be able to work a deal after a while of employement with them to work some days at home. Yes, there are jobs online that advertise those things, but every one of them that I personally have worked for requires unrealistic goals in order to qualify for the benefits. And they know it's unrealistic - that's why they do it... so they don't have to fork out the benefits.

Best wishes to you with whatever you decide. I've sacrificed having little to no social contacts with the outside world for 20 years aside from whatever sports or school activities my kids were/are still involved in. It's a sacrifice I was willing to make in order to be available for my children when they were much younger. I truly have enjoyed more than half of that time spent in this business, but it's a different world now and I am looking for a new path. I'm thinking a waitress at Applebee's probably pays more and is less physically and mentally exhausting than being in the MT/editing business nowadays.

Go, Wolfee! Now, there - With constructive thoughts

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are some usefully honest comments. Thanks!

Thanks for the Input - Lily

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I appreciate the feedback. I really have to think about this. I have had some regular doctors, and I work for small companies who mostly deal with clinics. I use shortcuts as much as possible to increase production. I have experienced the companies I work for losing accounts, and I have had to learn a lot of new doctors in the process. One business requires me to do a lot of formatting and other things that I do not get paid for, but that has been minimized recently. I'm extremely diligent and smart, so I do not think it is my ability. I suppose the economy has taken away the luxury of time I have to wait to keep increasing that line count. I may look into hospitals.

Increasing Lines - Lily

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I guess I'm frustrated because I have always wanted to surpass 3000-4000 lines a week. I would like to do 8000 lines a week. Maybe I have too many accounts with short reports. Those of you who are making $13 to $18 and hour, are your reports long and very wordy? Or do you just mass produce the short ones?

Lily, you do sound thoughtful enough to succeed. :) - Pragmatist

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As for increasing lines, what works for me:

1. Expander--put everything in, not just long words. Such as "a-l-l-space-t-h-e-space-w-a-y-space-u-p-space-t-o-space-t-h-e" can be "atwutt." All those strings of little words you type all the time. "return to the clinic in" becomes "rttci," etc. ANY phrase that shows up in report after report. If your expander doesn't auto-build your dictionaries (mine doesn't), do a search for a program that'll do that for it. Make macros to turn all your common corrections into a couple of keystrokes each.

2. Again, familiarity, familiarity, more familiarity. It puts wings on your mental feet and your fingers. Muscle memory is powerful; my typing speed on the usual MT stuff is much faster than on unfamiliar nonmedical text. Familiarity will allow you to crank up the dictation speed as fast as you can correct and even--if it works for you--to "multitask" in a report, eyes scanning ahead for mistakes even as you keep track of the dictation, fingers busy auto-fixing mistakes around the report, ears on the dictation for variations from usual. I tend to do a lot of that because I'm too slow to do a lot of correcting with the dictation cranked up real fast (something that some people get very good at), but it's only possible when I'm so familiar with a dictator that changes from the usual jump out.

3. With familiarity, you get to create lots of templates and canned text that can be just dropped in.

4. Pay close attention and organize the work so you never go backward, never do anything twice when once would have done. Start by checking demographics carefully once, do copies when names are first available, then edit top to bottom once, jump once to each point to be relistened to and filled in, then send. Since editing is proofreading, when you're in the groove there shouldn't be any need to go back and proofread your proofreading. That's the goal, anyway. Top to bottom, send.

5. You have to be assigned work that allows you to be fast: This is a hard job market, but if you find you're assigned too many slow reports and your employer won't assign you better, you HAVE to find another job. Production pay won't allow success any other way. Same for too much down time. (I regret the necessity, but these days I would only give notice after I accepted another job, and maybe even tried it out--a survival issue when an unfortunate happening, especially for newbies, could mean weeks or months before finding a decent job.)

6. Incentive pay. You're slow now, but you won't always be. If not offered a seductively high rate in the first place, a good incentive pay plan will allow you to earn a high rate anyway. Ours has 5 tiers, I think, so after a while learning their main accounts people here can give themselves a raise, then another and another, etc.

ITKMT reminded me of a point worth underlining twice. - Pragmatist

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People learning the job on production pay can't afford to flutz around about it, the way was normal in the past. These days we have to learn fast because it's on our dime (tens of thousands of dollars, actually). In the past a lot of people took, say, 4 years to become what they considered good, when the same progress could have been made in 2 or less, because their workplace allowed it, even considered that they were doing fine at that speed.

Also, plan to broaden your range of specialties as soon as possible, even though it will of course slow down your earnings. A whole lot of people with 20 years' experience really have something more like 5 years' experience repeated from then on--or in some cases 1 year 20 times, which is one of the reasons they're now having trouble getting a new job. An MTSO that does mostly acute care and some clinic would provide opportunity for branching out of clinic.

I'm afraid that's about as good as it's gonna get. - MT Wordz

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)(

That's as good as it's going to get---for some MTs while others are able to do much better - Lots of variables including skills

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We're all so different. It isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of work that we do.

It depends on your foundation skills like WPM, spelling, grammar, - see message for more

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You have to be able to type fairly fast, 60 wpm is about the minimum if you are going to make any money. You have to have good spelling skills, and SpellCheck doesn't count. Your grammar has to be good and you have to know that grammar is spelled with an 'ar' and not an 'er'. Spelling skills are critical. If you have those skills and you are highly motivated, you'll get faster over time. If you don't have those skills and are unable to get them, your best bet is to find another kind of job. There are way too many MTs who don't have good skills and you will be competing not only with them, but with those who have excellent skills.

It takes a long time to make any money - sm - ITKMT

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It took me quite a while to build up my checks (talking 8+ years), though I started off part-time, and then worked 3 jobs. Nothing wrong with working more than one job, it gives you valuable experience especially if they are different specialties. I average $100 a day now, lately more like $120 but it varies, sometimes quite high ($180 one day but worked my butt off, was worthless the next day) --- You probably won't be doing $12+ an hour consistently for several years. So much depends on the accounts you are on (ease or difficulty), how much you have to stop to look things up, your wage, etc. If you do pool work it will take longer. It is key to find a MT job w/o tons of ESL (they do exist) and get assigned several doctors and just do them day in and day out, only way to go in my book. I bounced around different IC jobs for a while, giving each a chance for a year or more before moving on to hopefully greener pastures. I am where I want to stay now, though I work long hours, and work from about 8am to 1 am, not solid but probably put in 12 hours a day, so hourly rate wise I make about $10 to $12 an hour depending on how many hours I work. I am looking for a PT job outside the home so I can back off on my MT work and reclaim my life, it has the tendency of dissappearing when you are a MT. I only make about $22K a year so not rolling in the money but it suits my needs.

Slave wages - Anonymous

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Slaves don't get paid. I'm at the top of the pay range you quote but I've been an MT for 35 years. I started very low in my first job and worked my way up the ladder. Hang in there if it is what you want, but it won't happen overnight. I work in an office and get paid by the hour, you would probably do better if you could find something like that. Good luck.

wages - anon

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I started this 20 years ago, wanted to have more flexibility and be able to stay home with the kids. I was RN before. How I regret losing my skills and now being unable to return to RN. Basically when I started 20 years ago, my pay was about the same, and in some cases MORE per line, than now.

Having said that, with time and experience you can earn more, I am averaging about $18-20/hour now, but that is with 20 years experience plus extensive medical knowledge and anatomy knowledge, extensive use of Instant Text, making normals for some of the dictators. I work full time for a company that most of the time does have plenty of work, and sometimes I pull in OT. They also have very good bonus pay if you reach a certain # of lines per pay period. What holds my pay down is that I have 6 accounts so often need to check account specifics. There are people with my company making in the mid 20s per hour. But, it is a long slow haul to get there.

Realistically, with the out of control healthcare costs, government control, and the ability to send this work to India, I do not see any raises or security long term for this profession.

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Oct 03, 2010

But do they really think throwing us on multiple accounts constantly is going to help quality? What IS their motivation for this? It's just stupid. I would be more than happy to learn, say, THREE, accounts like the back of my hand, but it is impossible to really keep 12 accounts straight, even if you make notes for yourself, refer to them, you are GOING to NOT get it right, not without accepting 3 bux an hour anyway. It would just be SMARTER to figure out how ...

Jul 12, 2012

? ...

Aug 03, 2013

are MTs from India doing well? I was born and raised in the U.S., I was an English/writing major, and I'm QCd into the ground, which makes me wonder - how the heck are people from India and other countries doing as MTs? Can they REALLY do better than those of us who grew up speaking the language, have spent years doing MT, especially since some of us are English experts (and probably ALL of us are English experts compared to those in India)?! What is going on here, seriously? ...

Sep 21, 2013

What do you all think about e-mail from TSM regarding death of one of our co-workers? Said family only wake but that she wanted nothing more. Sounds to me like she was depressed and committed suicide, probably over the stress that Nuance has been causing in her life. That's just what I got out of the e-mail. I know sometimes there are circumstances where one feels they're stuck with their current situation, and there is no other way out. Maybe that's what happened. I know I'v ...

Apr 22, 2014

Dictated: "RHC was at 1230 hours and the coroner will be notified." What does RHC stand for? Thank you! ...

Dec 09, 2009

I am beginning to think that everything I know is absolutely wrong! I failed my audit, which is only the 2nd time in my 12 years here that I actually had an audit. I am being marked wrong for things like eponyms, which in BOS 2 is acceptable to use, but preferred to drop the 's, but is still acceptable. Also, for not numbering the diagnosis section even thought it was dictated in paragraph form. Is everyone being marked for stuff like this? I have a second job where I g ...

Jul 10, 2010

My aunt is 63, still working, uncle 66, still working PT but receiving full SS benefits. He has recently been diagnosed with cancer. If he dies, and my aunt keeps working (she is working for the medical insurance), will she receive his death benefit, and will it be the same amout. She is worried about this, well in advance (we hope) and I just wanted to ease her mind a little. Thank you. ...

Mar 01, 2011

Just had a death in the family and cannot find the berevement policy. Can someone tell me what it is? In my state of mind can't find it. THanx ...

Dec 23, 2012

Why can't we do the test once (they seem to all be about the same) and have it posted somewhere centrally for these potential employers? If you can't get footpedal to work with the transcription section it is a real time consumer and PITA. ...

Dec 25, 2012

Transcription error costs Thomas hospital $140 million dollars and woman loses her life. Thomas Hospital has been hit with a $140 verdict in a civil case involving allegations that outsourcing contributed to errors that resulted in a Daphne woman dying in 2008 from a medicine overdose. (Press-Register file photo) BAY MINETTE, Alabama – The family of a Daphne woman who received a lethal dose of medicine due to an error made by workers in India hired to save money on the prepar ...

Jan 23, 2014

see link ...

Jul 21, 2010

Isn't it amazing how the cpl never seems to rise for transcriptionists? Have these companies ever heard of cost of living? This is pretty pathetic. It has been 7 to 8 cpl of twenty years! ...

Dec 07, 2012

I want to congratulate everyone who posts on this site telling it like it is about the way these MT companies are destroying what once was a profession where you could make a decent living and actually enjoyed your job. I've been doing this for 30 years and I am still hanging on because I do not know what else to do at my age. I can barely pay my bills with what they are paying me and I am working full time. I am 68 years old and I really am not too excited about going back to school or sta ...

Oct 31, 2013

I've taken the tests and have been offered a job with Nuance but want to know if the wage offered was the standard wage for Nuance. I was offered 8 cpl for straight trasncription and 4 cpl for editing. This would be for clinics only. I've heard acute care paid more, but I've only ever had clinic experience. Do they ever offer raises? They mentioned a bonus program, and I've seen notes on here about people saying they have had problems getting th ...

Jun 04, 2015

How many are aware of the wage disparity between different accounts (they don't find it necessary to tell us such a silly detail as the hourly wage, you have to look it up online). With the new accounts, some pay quite low (as low as MB that no one wants to work on) and it may be a shock for those working on those accounts when they get their paychecks! Is it right of them to ask/require us to help out? My feeling is it is costing me to work on those accounts, as it lowers ...

Aug 27, 2010

From an article written 2 days ago regarding MQ's settlement of a lawsuit filed by Kaiser against Medquist (which MQ settled for 2 million, by the way): The company reported net revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2010 as increasing $20.1 million or 25.9 percent to $97.5 million compared to $77.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2009. ...

Feb 18, 2011

I think a fair wage should be in relation to the economy, that which allows you to meet your baseline financial needs without having to work a second job or long hours. I worked for a service back in the early 80s for 6.5 cents per line. Today, nearly 30 years later, they're offering 7.5 cents per line, yet costs are sky-high. It's pathetic. It's sweatshop third world. It's true, we're stuck with the way things are, but ...

Feb 27, 2011

I have been an MT for over 10 years for a hosital. I am considering working for Medquist. I currently make 19 per hour but my job is going away. I know I can produce about 1700 lines per day mostly ISR work. Questions: How much does MQ pay per line for ISR (voice recognition) reports. Also what is the minimum work they require (lines per day). Do they pay PTO for part time? Do you get any incentives for weekend work? How often do you run out of work? How m ...

May 10, 2011

Is anyone else fed up with the fact that the wages for MTs never go up? It has been the same low rate for years! ...