I had a dream... - FTRMT

What happened to our profession?  I thought we were "Medical Language Specialists"?  We should be compensated for our expertise and knowledge.  I have a solution to our latest, serious, escalating problems with this "armed robbery in plain sight" of our well-earned, inadequate pay...in order to be a medical language specialist who listens to unintelligible doctors with foreign accents; doctors dictating 5 words in 1 word; background noises of nurses, etc. in background singing, yelling, laughing; show-off, smart alicky dictators who really don't care but are the first to point out errors in their, uh....dictation; doctors who came to this country but really can't, like in a previous forum, "order a Big Mac" let alone dictate clear and concise English; doctors who JUST DON'T CARE BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE THIS PART OF THE THEIR JOBS BUT HERE IS THE REQUIRED DICTATION..."This is a hssssstfsl on Dnlrzmtnn."  Do I need to say more???  The doctors get paid ridiculous $$ for their inadequate dictation skills, etc.!!  Now, I need to be fair here and say that not ALL doctors give us "crappy" dictation.   I think we should go to HIPPA and the Joint Commission and the Association for Medical Transcriptionists and Higher Education and turn this profession around....it will require a 4-year college degree!  Yes, we then can be paid for what we are worth!  And, once (if) that requirement becomes official, we would expect MQ to pay for our on-line education (after all, it's a requirement, if approved, and definitely required for the "First Time Right" documents), and then "make them pay" even more for now we have the diplomas to demand the pay for what we are worth!  The powers-that-be would, in our new and improved and RESPECTED profession, would make this a requirement or impose penalties ($$ to go for our further education) for the MTs who work overseas for American outsourcing companies and THAT would most likely result in closings of these medical transcription companies that conduct their businesses overseas because they were hiring "cheap" labor of "medical transcriptionists" due to greed but now are losing profits rapidly (plus, no First Time Right) documents being produced there!  Those here who now have the degrees and who transcribe for America's hospitals, medical groups, etc. will, ultimately, get RESPECT, demand higher pay, finally have a profession that isn't looked upon as "oh, you're a typist," and more medical transcription/editing jobs will be to our avail here in the USA!!!  Then, if we have any more pay "docked" from us from the greedy CEOs because they decided we don't need any assistance with our work and they hired more lawyers to find legal ways to "screw" with us,  we can at least survive in this profession and we can afford it, depending on if it's legal to cut our pay the way they are doing it!!!!  I'm tired of "paying" for doctors' shortcomings and MTSOs and doctors and everybody else not RESPECTING US!  You cannot leave a "fly-by-night" MT school and think you're going to have a First Time Right document, so good luck and God bless!  It takes a special group of professionals with knowledge and experience and intestinal fortitude to do what we do!!!!!  What say you?