A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
WAGES-other questions - Carlson
Posted: 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 many accounts to you work on?
I would appreciate any feedback, good or bad.. Thanks!
Carlson
mq questions - read on
[ In Reply To ..]read all the posts for mq and see how often they run out of work, and how the pay is decreasing all the time, and the work is being offshored. You will not see the $19 an hour anymore.
Wish you the very best - CyberlandMT
[ In Reply To ..]As for me, I just cried after doing my taxes. A $5000 reduction in pay from last year, and yet working the same amount of hours, plus increased production. It's a crock. Getting ripped off right and left while the corporate pockets are being lined. We (MT/MMEs) are all used as guinea pigs now..all for the advancement of technology. Well, you know what usually happens to lab rats. Sorry for being such a downer. There's just not any money to be made for most in this field anymore. I'm pretty sure you can kiss that $19 an hour goodbye if you plan on working for an MTSO, MQ or otherwise.
Sorry for your loss - Good Luck
[ In Reply To ..]If you work for almost any MTSO, be prepared to make half of your usual income. Most pay 8 cents per line for straight transcription (maybe a couple companies still offer only straight, but they all run out of work consistently) and 4 cents per line for SR Editing (probably 80-90% of work at most MTSOs). Sad part is, most MTSOs do not care if you have 1 year experience or 40 years experience, they pay pretty much the same (maybe if you are really, really lucky, you can get a 1 cent per line bump up).
Assuming you work a full 8 hours per day for those 1700 lines per day.
8 hours x $19 per hour = $152 per day
1700 lines x 4 cents per line = $68 per day
The sad state of at-home Medical Transcription.
Just wanted you to know what to expect if you start looking for at-home work. Most of us are desperate to find in-house work where we can get paid hourly. My condolences. Sorry for your loss.
Reality sucks !!!!
I hate taking a look at the harsh reality of this - EyesWideShut
[ In Reply To ..]Man, I do so much better when I do not pay attention to the reality of our pay. I know I used to make over 40,000 part time and last year, I barely broke 20,000. I know I will be much less this year if we all make it through the year.
Very depressing.
Unfortunately, there are not many in-house - just happened to me.
[ In Reply To ..]positions left. Many are going VR or EHR with templates and "point and click" reports that the physicians do themselves. The ones that don't have that, usually end up outsourcing because the "suits" think it's cheaper. Then, they don't need any or as many MTs and some of them lose their jobs which is what happened to me.
I know MQ runs out of work. I knew that before I ever applied. I read these boards a lot. I was informed. I investigated many companies and have applied to many companies over the years. I've worked at some other MTSOs part-time in addition to the full-time hospital positions over the years and every one of them is now either out of business or purchased by a larger MTSO. Mostly purchased by another MTSO. Some have even been purchased more than once. I knew the situation before I ever applied, but when you are the only breadwinner in a household, you do what you have to do.
Thank you so much for this post. - Me
[ In Reply To ..]This is exactly what I needed to see to realize that I will never make an adequate living at Spheris/MQ with VR work - and I should move on.
I'm new...working 8 hours and not coming close to earning $100. Not acceptable...especially considering the stress involved in doing this job.
Answers to "other questions" - kiki1
[ In Reply To ..]Agree with other posters, this job is NOT what it used to be. But to answer your other questions:
I'm FT, but I think you get PTO for part time at a reduced rate of course.
No weekend incentive. They used to pay one but it was stopped. They also don't pay incentive bonuses anymore.
As for running out of work, it's a crap shoot. Some people run out of work on a DAILY basis, others not as often.
Expect to be expected to work on up to 10 to 12 or more different accounts if your primary is low, which likely will be often. All of these different accounts have different rules. You know that slows you down.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you have to send any more than 5% to QA no matter whose fault it is, your pay is decreased.
I really wish I could say something better, but sadly, I can't. And it's not just MQ unfortunately, or I'd be outta here.
I used to make roughly $20 per hour in-house. - I now make about 11.
[ In Reply To ..]I work harder than I ever dreamed possible and hate my job and am depressed. Sad, but true. You asked.
If you can do 1700 lines per day - In translation
[ In Reply To ..]Your 1700 lines may not translate into 1700 Q lines. Are you straight typing or using voice recognition? There are so many variables between all the transcription programs out there that you'll never know how much you can make with MQ. THEY tell us their fastest MT can produce over 600 lines an hour on ASR. None of us have found that to be true. In fact, the fastest average I've seen is about 250 per hour on ASR. Of course that's with the wind in your sails, not including all the ESLs, some bad voice quality like work being dictated with a loud background environment. I know some will respond to this saying they can do more but keep in mind this is for an 8-hour work day. Who can really keep up top speed over 9 hours, pray tell? Don't forget being paid less for the ASR work. They will hire you at a line, like 8 cents per line, but it really means you'll be getting 60% of that 8 cents for ASR work, which is most of what you will do. You also have to think like your QA person, or else you'll be dinged for every little mistake and categorized as minor or CRITICAL ERROR. The more Critical Errors you get, the greater chance you'll get the boot.
I used to do over 2000 on a good day. Now I - no name
[ In Reply To ..]struggle to get 1200 most days and 90% of that is ASR. Don't forget you don't get paid for carbon copy addresses you enter, all ADT info you enter, etc. Some accounts are very labor-intensive, plus QA is very tough, and I do a quick re-read back over most reports to try and catch ANYTHING I missed. You will even get dinged on an Audit for a comma (I just did).
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