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

AAMT/AHDI - Disgruntled

Posted: Mar 19, 2014

What is even the PURPOSE of the AAMT/AHDI or whatever they call themselves now? They are in no way representative of me or any other MT that I know and in fact have been a key factor in the demise of medical transcription in my opinion. A bunch of no life having harridans trying and unfortunately succeeding in making themselves relevant. In other news, several fellow MTs have written to their state reps regarding offshoring and were told that inquiries into the matter revealed alternate results of either complete denials of offshoring OR admitting to the offshoring but said it was NECESSARY because of the dirth of qualified US MTs. I am old, but I think I am going to have to go back to school. This type of treatment and overall deceit is untenable.

Former AAMT member (sm) - Rose

[ In Reply To ..]
In my opinion AAMT did nothing for the American MTs, only reduced their salaries. Their purpose was to receive incomes as AAMT administrators.

The first reduction in salary came by AAMT making the character line count standard over the gross line count (anything on a line) which compensated for the work we did off keyboard which we now have to do for free. The reduction in salary was about 30% This was around the same time expansion software came out so we were able to compensate for some of that loss by increasing production.

They they sent people to India to train them in MT, despite objections from the MTs in this country who had supported them with membership fees.

In the 80's and 90's they made it nearly impossible for ICs to become certified. Their rules were that you had to go to a location where most would have to close their businesses down for a couple of days or train a replacement so they could take 2 days off to travel and test. Next they made it possible to test in your location, but created ridiculous rules in that you had to go some business in your town and ask to use their desk and computer equipment to take the test, have this business sign forms to prove you used their equipment, etc. It was thoroughly ridiculous. So many of us who could not just take off for two days to travel, letting our client transcription go out of TAT, never became certified when AAMT could have simply made testing available via Internet.

Then they created the Book of Style which we had to pay about $80. for. They refused to put it on CD, which would have made it much easier to locate what we need to find, due to fears it would be illegally transferred. A CD would not bring in as much money as their putting out new volumes whenever they changed their minds about hyphenation or some other grammar standard. This way they could charge us another $80 for volume II, etc.

The magazine they put out quarterly was okay, but certainly not worth the annual membership fees.

AHDI should have been investigated and - shut down ages ago. I guess -

[ In Reply To ..]
it's too late now, because I think MT is beyond saving any longer.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to AHDI once medical transcription is gone completely. When that happens, eventually whatever schools are still offering MT as a course are going to have to cut them, and there will be no more starry-eyed new MTs to feed AHDI's wallets. So I wonder if they'll just fade away into oblivion (and hopefully financial ruin), or if they will somehow get their long sharp claws into some other unsuspecting field.

Just one more reason to get as far away from health care as is humanly possible.

Disgruntled - I am old, too

[ In Reply To ..]
Their purpose is (and always has been) to enrich themselves. They do not give a big rat's whisker about the MT, other than how much $$$$ they can squeeze out of her/him. Even before offshoring, they were more about being a sorority than a true professional organization. I know from personal experience. Your phrase "overall deceit" is aptly phrased and says it all. Good luck to you.

Guess what they're calling us now! - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
From MT to MLS and now...HDS

http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/0314p6.shtml

a bunch of bureaucratic nasties who do nothing but count their money and make up acronyms all day long

harridan is such a great word

I wonder if that's what coders are going to be called - now - HDS? I dont like it. - S_M

[ In Reply To ..]
"HDS" sounds too much like some kind of an STD....

""HDS" sounds too much like some kind of an STD.... " - Rose

[ In Reply To ..]
Hard to know which is worse and HDS or an STD.

And another word I would call them is - Nick

[ In Reply To ..]
narcissistic. There are a few other words I would call them as well, but this is a family-oriented board and I can't say them here without getting my mouth washed out with soap.

I am very interested in the part of your post - dealing with offshoring

[ In Reply To ..]
You posted, "In other news..." Did you read somewhere about some MTs writing to their state reps about the offshoring and the ensuing responses? I have done that myself. In my case, offshoring services performed for state government contracts is illegal in my state, so I'm not willing to let this go. I would be very interested in talking to other MTs about their experiences in this regard. Do you know how I can contact any of them? Or where I can read about what they did, whom they contacted, etc?

Offshoring - Disgruntled

[ In Reply To ..]
One of the MTs who wrote was talking about it on this site, but I can't find the post. Another is an MT I used to worked with who has subsequently moved out of state and I haven't been able to get in touch yet. I was even wondering, though, if we should try CHANGE.ORG in reference to patient information being sent overseas. Lies are being told, I am sure. I just read on the internet how India is NOT taking American jobs. I guess not...America is GIVING the jobs to them. Whoever thought it would come to this? And it's just a matter of time before they do the same thing to coding.

I tried to change AAMT - Jose

[ In Reply To ..]
Years ago I argued with soon-to-be president of AAMT, not to change the name. I really did not care what name they used, but changing the name signaled to me more of a lobbying group (read: Administrative/Yackers/Building own professional resume). I argued that students and new MTs should be given free access to ALL symposiums, state, and national blabs. There are good people at AHDI, but it really is to build up your business resume now. I contributed quite a bit as I was new and went to all meetings locally. I thought spending money on a big splash campaign direct to all doctors in the United States about how much they cared about perfect transcription (Read: by mouth, p.o., q. qday, every other day, etc etc etc). I was always in favor of seeing what the docs really cared about instead of a transcription company picking apart the most incredibly insignificant punctuations, etc. All this is too bad, but I was proactive. I have enjoyed my time, but it too is coming to an end I am sure, very shortly. The main thing is, how long are individuals going to keep coming to the MT Stars website and seeing what I've seen for over 10 years, a bunch, for the most part, of complainers and many preaching to the choir. We work production folks, why are you camping out on MT Stars?????

In answer to your question... - Rose

[ In Reply To ..]
"We work production folks, why are you camping out on MT Stars??????"

If you work production what are YOU doing here???

When there is lack of work, we have time to come here and compare notes, look for jobs and compare information. If you consider it all whining, again, why do you read the posts?

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