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

Is it because we work at home? - anon

Posted: Feb 28, 2013

The lack of respect for our profession, the plummeting wages, no work. In my opinion, when hospitals/clinics started outsourcing and we all went home to work, that's when things got really bad. What do you think?

no I don't think so - would be the same inhouse

[ In Reply To ..]
it's just a skill that's no longer really needed. The only difference, I think, is if you were in an office and they decided to do away with your job, they might place you in another position.

No. It all comes down to the cheapest contract. - dnr

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At the previous hospital I worked at, they sent 1/2 the MTs to work at home. Nothing changed paywise or respectwise.

Cheap price = lack of respect for workers. If they can get the work done very cheaply, then the workers must be very lowly.

In any profession, do you respect the person capabilities who is earning minimum wage or the one is earning 3x minimum wage more? Who would you guess has the job which requires more knowledge and ability?

Apparently I am beneath hamburger flippers in social status because I must not need to know as much to do my jjob because I earn less. Medical record accuracy has been devalued and apparently they think any monkey can do it, English speaking or not.

This monkey has an appointment today to sign up for vocational school. Found a program which is accelerated so will only take a year rather than 2, and, even at entry wages, I will be earning what I used to earn before our profession was poached by the ILPs.

what program are you taking? SM - anon

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I'm seeing the only way out of this is to go back to school as well. May I ask what program you are taking?

Its because MTSOs took over - greed trumps

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That is my opinion.

Its because hospitals and clinics are trying to save - money and its cheaper for

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them to outsource to MTSOs rather than maintain a transcription department and provide benefits for those MTs.

Then once you get into outsourcing, you run into problems with offshoring because believe it or not, some facilities would rather pay 2 to 3 cpl to have the work done by an MT overseas then to pay 8 to 10 cents per line to have it done here in the US. So even though MTSOs outsource to maintain a decent profit margin, the hospitals are also *choosing* to allow offshore MTs to do the work to save even more money.

And then of course you have technology. This is the year 2013 and things are a lot different than what they were back in the 1980s and 1990s. They have come up with methods for clinical documentation that does not require manual typing like it once did and I just dont see VR going anywhere. I truly believe the days of straight typing are gone. Kind of like the telephone operators and call centers; they have been replaced with automated message systems. Times are changing.

Truer words were never spoken and done so objectively, bravo. NM - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
xx

It is Exactly because we work from home.. - No Collective Bargaining

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The profession by nature grew out of the medical secretary, a job held mostly by females, when line rates were established and incentives officered back in the 90s, the small time transcription companies underestimated how talented and quick transcriptionists could become; ergo earning upwards of $50,000/year in the 90s and glass ceiling was firmly installed. We received NO raises, no cost of living, but we took it becuase the benefits outweighed the chance of financial advancement and at that time we earned as much as RNs, but the tide turned. First the character line was instituted initiating a first cut of about 30% in pay, then headers/footers were not paid and then MTSOs gobbled up the mom and pop transcription companies and found themselves saddled with a group of middle-aged typists they had to deal with because they were not really MTSOs, but in fact software companies trying out roll out VR.

But they were in the best position; by this time most of us worked from home, we were female, and were isolated. We have allowed MTSOs to run roughshod over us for years. AAMT, now ADHI, an association supposedly meant to support MTs in fact is nothing but a trade show for MTSOs and software companies.

There will always be greedy companies, there will always be technology advancement, however, our situation has more to do the very happy nature of profession that is mostly female, mostly at home, mostly middle-aged and never had enough organization or gonads to get together and force collective bargaining.

the same would have happened - if we were inhouse

[ In Reply To ..]
this didn't happen because we work from home, because we are female, or because we are isolated. It happened because we were making too much money. It happened to me when I was inhouse. Somebody suddenly noticed how much money I was making and that was the beginning of the end for me. It can happen to entire departments when someone starts looking for ways to save money. And it is happening now because of changes in technology. Don't blame it on working from home. The skill is needed less and less every day. Banding together won't change that.

So true. I worked in-house too. - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
End of year the docs sat down and said "why are we spending so much on transcription." Two months later 3 of us were flat out fired and EMR was on the horizon.

It's a business and they have discovered we are expendable.

We are not expendable... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
My doctor here in town has been forced to use Epic for her dictations for the past few years now and HATES it. She tells me she misses having transcriptionists do her dictations, saying she spends more time with Epic than she ever did dictating. Just one MD's opinion, but I'm sure there are many who feel the same way or we would be extinct by now.

but you see, we ARE expendable - because

[ In Reply To ..]
even though your doctor hates Epic, she was forced to use it. So was mine. The MTs who did her dictation (independent contractors) had to look elsewhere for work. The service we provide is no longer valuable and hardly relevant. If we all went on strike today, yes, they'd have a problem for a little while. But not for long.

The dislikes on posts that state only facts boggles the mind - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
It is a fact that we are losing our jobs, is it not?

It is a fact that the goal is to either use technology or offshore employees, is it not?

Thus wouldn't one reach the logical conclusion that we are indeed thought to be expendable?

Disliking facts does not change the reality.

thank you - nm

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nm

I respect your opinion, but you clearly do not understand - collective bargaining.

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If you reasoning were true then RNs would not be raking in thei 60 to 80 a year. They are backed by their union and it helps. Is it a panacea of security, no. But make no mistake, if had unionized and forced MTSOs to deal with an entity as opposed to isolated females, we would not be experiencing such an abrupt change in pay AND working conditions.

maybe you're right - but we are not RNs

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I long ago gave up the idea that I was performing any noble service to patients.

and that sentiment is exactly why we are not taken seriously - I was not comparing our duties to RN

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but the fact you feel what do is not a "noble service" tells you feel we deserve this. I for one do not. Could I work a 12 hour shift on the floor? No.. But then an RN could not listen to the myriad of complex medical reports I do and be able to transcribe and edit them correctly either.

I recently had an interview for onsite MT and I was surprised - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
This was for a hospital which was rehiring for someone who left (retired). The manager was giving me a history of how they went through VR then EMR and how departments of this hospital "chain" were being brought together and laying off people.
What surprised me was the language the lady used in the interview describing the process. She said that they had to "get rid of" people as they absorbed other departments and the vr and then EMR caused them to have less work and or people got through the work more quickly.
She said they were looking now because they just absorbed another one of the chain in the department and needed someone to pick up the slack because that whole department had been gotten rid of.
I felt very bad having worked for MM and N and treated poorly for the last several years. I thought now the lady who wants to hire me talks of other employees as "things" that needed to be "gotten rid of."
I tried to make clear to her that we whether on site, at the hospital, or working for a service are people with families and have feelings. I was nice in saying this, and I did not say it in conjunction with the "gotten rid of" statements. I just was trying to explain the world we are in with this business and that we all have to stick together.
I decided to stay where I am rather than work at a place where I perhaps would be "gotten rid of."
Didn't matter, I did not get the job anyway.
So, I got the drift that somehow we are all considered things, or a problem, when we are not needed. Sounds a lot different than about 15 years ago when we were "worth our weight in gold" because of our knowledge and hard working manner. Now we are things to be gotten rid of when they don't need us.
Sad.

Expendable due to advancement in Technology is inevitable - I am speaking to the transition

[ In Reply To ..]
period where MTs are still needed. And while MTs are still needed they should be paid a wage that is commissurate with years of training. THAT is not being done and the reason is because we are not one entity. And guess what..if were backed by a union with OUR interests, we'd have more say in quality standards, PTO and yes even how quickly technology can outsource us. NO we cannot stop technology, but until it completely overtakes MTs, we should be paid accordingly.

at home versus in office - minka

[ In Reply To ..]
Definitely working at home gets no respect. Can't find in-house work in this profession. Any in-house MTs out there care to comment? Applied for ih-house but didn't get it - one opening and someone else got it.

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