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

Why if you hate Nuance so much do you - Stay

Posted: Jul 11, 2013

I just don't get it.

I also don't get a previous post that says Nuance is making them get evicted and be homeless because of low pay. If that's the case why not leave, get another job, why stay at a company that you can't stand and that you are not making the money you need?

May I? Okay, here is the 5-minute waltz. - pithy commenter

[ In Reply To ..]
Back in the Olden Days, the 1980s, 1990s and first half of this 21st century, medical transcription made an a$$-load of money. We worked in hospitals, almost exclusively, then a trickle of outsourcing started and that was still okay because WE MADE MORE MONEY, SO DID THE NTSOs. Everybody made money. But then a curious thing happened. Philips Electric and Dictaphone starting tinkering with voice recognition. Almost at the same time, someone noticed that 1 billion educated and focused people speak English in India and will work for the equivalent of $2.40 an hour. Now we have software-generated reports that are edited by people in India who have engineering degrees and can learn MT without breaking a sweat.

Shorter MT History: OMG, we were so screwed. You have no idea, the bottom fell out. $24 was now $14, which was then $10, which is sitting atop minimum wage for so much MT. From Solid Middle Class to can't-pay-the-rent.

You see, Dear Commenter, there is no company left that pays "the money you need." None anywhere. Our Friend at Nuance has hit the bottom of the spiral. We are all on that spiral. MT is going away by increments. I keep hearing the knowing team leader assure everyone that there will ALWAYS BE A NEED for editing. There will. Except as tech and low wages satisfy that need, we here in the U.S. who used to generate OUR MEDICAL RECORDS, will no longer be the ones doing it.

Don't ask why someone blames the last company to cause their terrible pain. Its obvious.

And I want to add something that should be said - - pithy commenter

[ In Reply To ..]
Our job is such a laser beam into such a very specific thing. If one comes to MT having something else, some other education or work background, they are probably okay. But if someone does not, they must broaden their skills. Anymore, MT won't buy you what you need.

why stay - Freebie

[ In Reply To ..]
Put that all together with the fact that we're aging and for a lot of us this is the only thing we have ever done and we don't know how to do anything else and don't have a clue what we would/could do if we weren't MTs.

and the fact that many of us are older and close to - retirement but not quite there sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and it would likely take at least a year to get a certificate in anything to qualify for a lot of jobs. after that we have age discrimination and competing with younger people who have college degrees compared to our 1-year certificate. add to that the assorted health problems that many of us have that would prohibit us from working many types of jobs.

there are a lot of factors why people stay in a job they hate, it's not always as easy as "go back to school" or "find something else."

I have until next June - me

[ In Reply To ..]
I was terminated due to some very viscious that people made a case against me. I had started a new account, got paid very little because there was never enough work, and had to learn a million things because nuance took over and it was a nightmare. So now I am on unemployment till February and am only getting 168 dollars a week and with the sequester will be 16 percent less. I am desperately looking for a job. I went to the career center to learn how to make a proper resume. I applied for receptionist jobs, secretarial jobs, transcription jobs that I have little or no experience in. I am 61 and have health problems, but I have free health care and I thought the Rheumatology Department was going to help me at least with some steroid shots in my knees. They told me "just take the diclofenic and come back in four months". I can't stand or walk for very long and I can't work at a job where you have to walk around, stand, or stoop. Nobody ever calls me or emails me back for job interviews. So if I don't find anything very soon, I will be thrown out of here or have to get rid of my cable bundle package and will have no phone, cable, or internet because I am locked in a two-year contract. I had to get on food stamps and have to be very careful where I shop. Gas prices are so high, I can't go anywhere far, I don't have money to fix my brakes. Anyway, I am scared I will get thrown out of here soon and I have nowhere to go.

same here - Freebie

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm pretty close to exactly that. My saving grace is my late husband's survivor benefit starts when I'm 60 so at least I won't lose my house because where I live the cheap rent starts at 600 a month with nothing included and my house payment is only 450 a month. I just need to keep it together for 2 years 7 months. I can barely use my hands for anything anymore and my back hurts so bad I want to cry about 80% of the time from working all those 2nd jobs all those years.

Well said, replying posters - As an aside...

[ In Reply To ..]
My teenaged daughter was getting a physical the other day and the doctor asked me what I do for a living. I told her and her eyes got wide and she said, "Oh, I thought that was all done electronically now!" No WONDER us MTs feel devalued! As if the reports can just be funneled into a dictation system and generate themselves via computer! It was all I could do not to go into a rant about what the reports would look like if they weren't edited, cleaned up, revamped, corrected, and turned into a presentable document by us--HUMANS who have a skill that most people I talk to marvel at when I explain to them in detail what an MT does. I, too, made a great deal more money in the 80s and 90s; now I feel like I could earn more working at MacDonalds! The only thing that keeps me going financially is my crafting income on the side...thank goodness I'm creative in my (almost) old age. With 1 kid in college and another soon to be, I don't have the option of starting over...it isn't always that easy. It reminds me of the people who say, "If he was abusive, why didn't she leave him?" Life isn't always so cut and dried. So hold your heads up high and hang in there, all my near-retirement peers. I think you guys are FAAABulous and even if the higher-ups, suits,and clueless people in general don't know that (even a person in the medical profession like that doc!)--WE know how skilled and special we are!!! If only all that self-respect could generate more income somehow...SIGH.

wait 'til the docs are patients - and their OWN - kg

[ In Reply To ..]
medical charts are all done by doctors - watch out! when you have doctors saying "he admitted he uses it as a crutch" and voice rec typing "he admitted he uses it as a CROTCH", another doc using epididymal ... FOR A WOMAN! - another saying metatarsal tarsal tarsal 3 times in 1 report ... FOR A BROKEN WRIST! - another saying "scrotal" but voice rec types "squirrel hill" (and don't we all have these ridiculous examples!) - what a MESS we will have!

I agree wholeheartedly. - another longtime MT

[ In Reply To ..]
"Woe is me. I hate my company..." ad nauseum.

As technology advances, jobs change. We are not the first to face this, especially in today's world. Case in point, see the link below.

I have many things in my life that are not perfect. I either make peace with my circumstances and garner as much knowledge as possible to help me deal with things, or work to change them.

Bully for you longtime MT - StopIT

[ In Reply To ..]
Why don't you go back to your supervisory position and quit taunting people here trying to get something started. The problem these MTs are facing is real, and they come here to find an answer that might work not to be put down or told how absolutely fabulous you are.

She is - a flamer

[ In Reply To ..]
You see how the OP right at the top started this just to flame?

I say to that flamer poster mind your own damned business!

It is not just Nuance, it is all MT jobs - that do not pay enough

[ In Reply To ..]
Having said that, nothing else does as well. If you listen to many of our business behemoths nowadays, they think there should be no minimum wage, that we are "lucky" if we are making $34,000, heck, it puts us in the 1% - of the world, that is. I think they will be happy when they can either import workers to pay $1 an hour or pay us that, and they really do not seem to care about the consequences. As far as the MT profession goes, I have tried coding, it was not a good fit for me. I love the fluidity and the fine motor skills associated with transcribing, as well as the stimulation of using my brain. Retrain, yes, I could. But who wil pay my bills in the meantime? I even tried changing jobs to a reputable company that has no shareholders, is a dedicated transcription company, but found ironically that I did not like typing boring clinic letters and being in one or two doctors' brains the entire day, and especially preferred ISR to straight typing! I know, sacrilege. I confess that, although fast, I am somewhat of a bumble fingers and find that editing is a better fit for me than straight transcription. Even though I was working for a better company, I was not making the same as Nuance and no bonuses were offered. As low as Nuance pays, even without the bonus I was making more money per hour (I worked 2 jobs for awhile, Nuance part time). So be very careful before you decide to make a huge change, I still have to pay off my brand new computer and software I bought for that job which barely paid over minimum wage! Live and learn. As for my situation, I know I have to have ISR and perhaps a big enough company for good software and guaranteed shifts (I know that seems a stretch too, but with 2 jobs if you have a lack of work on one you usually can make up for it on the other). I am even considering taking another second job, this time for MModal, that other evil entity, simply because it fits my personal profile of skills and need the money in case I lose my bonus at Nuance. Hey, I really don't want to shop at Walmart either considering the fact they pay their workers so crappy we subsidize their food stamps and Medicaid, but sometimes principles are sacrificed because $ has to drive your choices.

Not just Nuance, but Nuance is THE WORST - Despicable Them

[ In Reply To ..]
. . .I'm just sayin'.

Agreed - My take

[ In Reply To ..]
Nuance/Transcend is the worst! This will all come out in the lawsuit hopefully too.

It's the only option they have - Figure It Out

[ In Reply To ..]
. . .

Are you the people in HR? - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
After speaking with them, you sound just like a certain person...
PS: Buck up, you will be getting my notice extremely soon... Thanks for the good advice suit!

The Are you the people in HR meant for original poster not others - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
This was addressing the original post, not the answers after...

Why? - Youre a classic internet flamer!

[ In Reply To ..]
WHY ARE YOU EVEN STARTING SOMETHING?????

Something - To Think About

[ In Reply To ..]
I think if this is actually an HR person IMO they are treading on very thin water.

Simplistic answer - Jeez Louise

[ In Reply To ..]
Can you please tell us where we can find the Magic Wand so we can wave it and automatically have a great new job at the end of our 2 weeks' notice?

I've been paycheck-to-paycheck short quite a few times despite being frugal and budgeting and I, too, was close to being unable to pay for food and shelter save for my supportive family and friends. Not all of us have a partner with a second income to fall back on so that evicted/homeless post is a very valid one.
P.S. Do you need a stool to get down from that high horse? Try a little empathy instead of the unsympathetic stance, i.e., build up instead of put down. But now I'm sounding like a real judgmental B-word myself so I'll shut up.

NOBODY owes you a - Living

[ In Reply To ..]
And nobody is forcing you to work at Nuance. You either applied to work here or your company was bought out by Nuance and you choose to stay.

I am not living with anyone, I just have income from Nuance, and I'm doing very well. When I was working elsewhere and needed more money I took a part time job as way to make ends meet.

that is where you are wrong. When you are - hired at a certain rate

[ In Reply To ..]
and you agree to work at that rate, it is then that they owe you. They have entered into contract with you and as long as you are performing your job they OWE you that pay.

Bully for you - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
WHY DON'T YOU QUIT FLAMING. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE MAJORITY OPINION HERE!

All you old timers that are living in the - Past

[ In Reply To ..]
And going on and on how good the money was back in he day....this is true for just about EVERY profession.

then why do all my non MT friends - scoff when they hear how much I earn?

[ In Reply To ..]
they can't believe it. What? no annual reviews, no raises? They thought everyone got those.

I don't usually reply, so feel fortunate - VentingMomma

[ In Reply To ..]
That is a very good question you asked. I'm sure, like a lot of MTs, I am a single mom. I have been doing medical transcription for quite a number of years. I have been through 2 buyouts and each time my income has dropped. This has got to be the only professions I know where our income consistently goes down while the prices for everything else goes up.

Being a single mom I can't just leave a job, even if I am getting paid $600 less each. Yes, that's right, last year at this time I was making $600 more each month. For the last 3 months, I have been job hunting, but I cannot feed my children and pay my rent working at McDonald's or Taco Bell, and I will not work 3td shift and leave my children here alone. This is the main reason I work at home...to be available for my children. Being a single parent is hard, but I never imagined that the job I have loved for so many years is now the one thing in my life that is making me so miserable.

I really think you need to realize what we all go through on a daily basis. I don't know how many resignation letters I have written in my head while working, but I know one thing....One day I will get to send one of those lovely letters to Nuance and I will once again be happy and not worry about how we are going to survive. Okay, my rant is over.

I have to say Nuance is horrid - Aessedai

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been through two buyouts and now I have Nuance. My CPL went down, but to add insult to injury now I cannot schedule off like I used to and have to adhere to a schedule, which I never had to before. Used to I could just finish my line count in a 24-hour period. Scheduling time off was a breeze and they didn't give you an error for a blank you couldn't understand. Nuance sucks big time and I look forward to the day that I can write them a flaming resignation letter. I have loved this account for the last 13 years, but soon I will have to say good-bye. I wish all MTs would quit at the same time.

Similar Messages:

Nov 09, 2012

x ...

May 14, 2014

Really need to know something positive about this particular company. I feel very dysloyal and would like to see them fail. I need something to change my mind. EDIT: Disloyal. Thanks posters. I was seeing RED this morning after getting some news that will affect my line count/income from Nuance. They are RUTHLESS and care nothing about American MTs. As a matter of fact, they are trying to force us out of the company so more work can be done cheaper in India ...

Oct 16, 2013

I truly just hate ever day that I have to work for them. The days are sooooo long and seem never-ending. Fifteen years of 99%+ accuracy and now I need a mentor? Really? WTH? Switch me to a new, more difficult account and after 1 week tell me I suck so bad I have to be mentored? Provide me with no list of physician names or local cities or names of local hospitals and expect my LPH to be up and running at full speed when I spend all my time Googling for info on an ar ...

Apr 15, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/14/gravity-payments-raise_n_7061676.html The CEO of the company Gravity, doubled all his lowest paid employees salaries to 70k per year AS WELL AS lowered HIS OWN from ONE million to 70k per year. The company's minimum wage is 70k per year. That guy is my HERO. Can you even imagine? ...

Jul 09, 2011

I HATE that I am tied to my office just waiting for work to come in on two different companies. I HATE that I just quit a third company because of LACK OF COMMUNICATION (gave my notice to Keystrokes, no response from ANYONE). What is wrong with these people? They demand certain things of us but we have no rights? I HATE HATE HATE it and as soon as I possibly can find another job, I will LEAVE MT WORLD FOREVER. I HATE THAT I HAVE NO LIFE WITH THIS PROFESSION. H ...

Feb 18, 2014

of the medical field in general. What happened to all the American doctors? Has it become so blasted easy for foreigners to come over and get a job as a doctor or are Americans so damn-ass lazy that they don't want to get the education? Or is to so blasted expensive that no one can afford to become a doctor unless you are a foreign student? So freaking sick and tired of all these foreign dictators who speak so fast and sloppy. What the heck is going to become of our health care when we can& ...

Mar 04, 2010

I sure would hate to be a CTL right now and be trying to sell this bag of doody. They must absolutely need a job worse than ME! ...

Jul 02, 2010

MY VENT TODAY: I hate QA, I hate my job. My pay is HALF of what it was 15 years ago and I get picked and PICKED AND HOUNDED to death on meaningless garbage in a report. Take away my benefits, make me a literal slave to a keyboard, pay me utter crap, treat me like less than a human, and DEMAND PERFECTION. What a stupid field I am in. PS - If I wasn't too old, if the economy wasnt tanked, and if if if I would be out of this so-called profession. i would have left a ...

Mar 29, 2010

I type a lot of crap, but just had the worst doc I think I ever had. Had 11 QA markers so I sent it to QA thinking they might actually LIKE getting some work since they are about to be history. Anyways, this bi*ch marked 2 CRITICAL ERRORS and did an audit on it (which was still 96.5% in spite of everything I am glad to say). QA you wonder why we have such a bad attitude? That was totally unnecessary. ...

Jun 24, 2010

http://www.nuance.com/news/pressreleases/2010/20100622_mDollarAward.asp ...

Jul 15, 2010

I spend a lot of time typing for a huge university hospital clinic with no ADT. Have to type in all patient information. Almost every report is a LETTER. Referring physician has to be typed into the ADT. Then the letter recipient information has to be typed in and lo and behold have to re-type it into the cc list for the doc to get a copy of the letter. I wonder why I can't run a decent line count? I spend 50% of my time typing in information that I am no ...

Nov 14, 2011

x ...

Dec 23, 2011

No Jobs Available what is the process? (This is quicker than wading through the MQ Central site). I don't usually have NJA (sorry) --- before you flame me I do type really yucky stuff mostly :) Thanks. I know to clock in for the 15 minutes, but last time I got reamed by CCM for not having some sort of "ticket number?" Is it through the MQ Central site? ...

Feb 23, 2012

I mean really, I have been doing this for like 15 long ass years.. And NEVER have I felt so stupid in my life..I used to make almost 36 K a year, depending on how hard I wanted to work..I work my ass of for this company and, welll, I have yet to check my W2s cause it will make me sick..Im so SORRY your all in the same boat, but at least I am not as dumb as I was beginning to think.. ...

Jun 18, 2012

Just love applying for jobs and having to take their stupid test just to get a reply of the position has been filled as of Friday and we will keep your resume and test on file. Yeah right. I never hear anything back from those Co. I tested for. Does anyone? What a waste of my time. Wish they would just say up front we have 2 positions available and 500 people testing, so I would know up front that it is just a waste of my f****** time. Starting ...

Aug 19, 2012

I sure wish Dr "UM," would go away arleady. Geez, this one starts every sentence with, "Next, um . . . . (long pause) blah, blah um blah, um . . . . This job is 24 minutes long packed with about 9,500 instances of using "um" no less than 4 times in every sentence. I have a hard time um you know, um believing um this is a doctor um. What is that a neurological disorder or language tic of some kind that she has to do that repeatedly? Gads, um . . . I wish she would ju ...

Aug 22, 2012

My line count is in the toilet, it has slowed my computer down. The spell check is missing things like doubled words. The headers are ridiculous. AND I use the mouse a lot more because half the time the arrow keys don't seem to work. This SUCKS ...

Oct 05, 2012

Don't you just hate it when you've got a dictation that is so fraught with static, and it sounds like the dictator is 100 miles away from the phone, but you actually can make out the words, just barely, and you'd love to leave all blanks because it's such a chore to hear any of it, but you can't, of course, because you can make it out? Several of these in a row is enough to make me want to punch my computer! (or eat lots of chocolate!) ...

Jan 29, 2013

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY and they meet at the bar." -George Carlin ...

Jan 30, 2013

x ...

Apr 21, 2013

I have been at Nuance 4 months and don't know how I am going to go through another week there. I do not know if it is just the account I am on or what but I keep getting assigned horrible ESL dictators. There r good dictators on this account also, but I cannot seem to get those very often. I am just about to throw in the towel... I just can't quit but I am actually afraid I am going to get fired because I cannot meet this stupid line count with these type of dictators and secondly I ...

Oct 17, 2013

I am to the point of "Ugh do I really have to work tonight". They fail you on audits for the stupist of things, nothing below 97 for me, but there are so many CPs with different rules. You are on one for 2-3 reports then all of a sudden a different one, they someone reserves some to you that you have never heard of, not even in our region, and you have to stop, read the CP and lose lines because you have to make sure once it is done, it is correct. Then this sorry ASR mes ...

Oct 08, 2014

Don't you just hate it when you're typing along fluently, not missing a thing, feeling so very competent, then you start to think about what you're doing, and suddenly your fingers don't want to do anything you say? Kind of the centipede who has no trouble walking until someone asks him how he does it - haha! ...

Nov 05, 2014

I used to enjoy being in transcription. It was a way I could not only support my family but also be at home for my children when I was needed. Now, it has become nothing more than a humiliating and degrading situation, where I sit and wonder WHY am I still doing this. I used to believe I was good at my job, and I was proud of my quality and my speed. Lately, however, both have been questioned by Nuance to the point where I believe I am not nearly as fast nor as good as I ...

Dec 06, 2014

I've been an MT since 2000. Each year I see my pay go down. I've been with 2 big MT companies now and it seems like they are very similar in regard to the fact that they like to screw over their MTs. This company does not care about its employees. This career is becoming obsolete. The computers they have in the exam rooms are pretty much doing our jobs and what is still transcribed is being mostly sent to India. It is a shame really. This is pr ...

Dec 23, 2014

Lowest. Paycheck. Ever. ...

Nov 10, 2009

I'll leave out specifics - just that patient had fetal intrauaterine demise and she had to delivery the baby vaginally. I went thru 14 years of infertility without any results and I'd rather go thru that again than what this lady just went thru. I feel so awful for her. ...

Nov 19, 2009

No message ...

Dec 22, 2009

according to the client profile. When I go through the documents in QA feedback, I always tell myself I'm not going to look unless it was a document I sent blanks in, but I just can't help myself, and then I get frustrated. At least it wasn't me not following the client profile. ...

Feb 24, 2010

She had moderate malnutrition, which was treated with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeds. However, the patient had a very large tracheostomy stoma and had s/l aerobhagy resulting in severe abdominal distention. The "aerobhagy" is what she spells. Any clue what she might be talking about? ...