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

Alpha Transcription - possibly working for them - Wondering

Posted: Jun 21, 2012

Have been approached about possibly working for them. I have read in the archives about them being up for sale, MTs leaving, line discrepancies, and them no longer paying for headers, footers, etc. Does anyone have any current information? TIA

Alpha Transcription - liveandlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
Alpha is a VA contractor and are required to classify you as an employee and pay prevailing wage, which is quite generous but they are violating their contracts by paying 1099 wages. Be careful.

is there something in writing to confirm this? - Snow Bunny

[ In Reply To ..]
IF there is, I would like to keep it handy for when they send me another 1099.

Are you happy working for them? I was contacted but remember a lot sm - Curious MT

[ In Reply To ..]
of negative posts. I am only looking for part-time work, but I still would rather not jump onto a sinking ship.

TIA.

Not working there now - Snow Bunny

[ In Reply To ..]
No serious problems when I did, but felt QA had too much OCD. Also worked part time. --- I just didn't know about the employee thing, and if it can be verified then I should not have to pay taxes on my earnings when I file next year.

alpha - liveandlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/sca.htm The VA contracts specifically state no subcontractors too.

You can read through some of the typical contract information here https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d5bb05bd12973a0bbeb95eb4f862194c&tab=core&_cview=1

Alpha - liveandlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
You can file a complaint with the federal department of labor wage and hour division in the state Alpha is located in. Your name will not be released to Alpha and you are owed back wages and they have to pay your taxes.

Recently quit - jmh

[ In Reply To ..]
I recently quit about 1 month ago because 2 of the "supervisors" cherry pick all of the easy MT jobs out of the queue on a cpl rate on top of their normal hourly pay. They leave the crappy jobs for the MT. Also, indeed the company is about to be sold through Krause Acquisitions. The cpl may be higher than normal but they do not pay for spaces, headers, footers, or templates. Most of the reports have a lot of time spent adding pt info, doc info, DOB etc which is considered a header. Other than mentioned above and they are losing accounts left and right, they do pay on time, but their line count and yours will be much different. Even with subtracting all of their "deductions" they send you, it was always less then I expected. HTH.

added to post - jmh

[ In Reply To ..]
I also worked there for 2 years and am very good friends with a QA that has worked there for about 5 years.

Alpha - liveandlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
They owe you prevailing wage and taxes. The VA uses your tax payer dollars to pay Alpha to pay you prevailing wage, 10 holidays, PTO, overtime, etc. prevailing wage and fringe comes to about 18.00 an hour, so if you were making that in much in production they at least owe you for half your payroll taxes.

Alpha - liveandlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
http://www.dol.gov/whd/america2.htm#Minnesota

Alpha line counts - much different

[ In Reply To ..]
"but their line count and yours will be much different. Even with subtracting all of their "deductions" they send you, it was always less then I expected. HTH."

I used to work for them and agree. Something definitely fishy going on, plus MATH is NOT the officer managers forte at all.

Alpha Govt Contract Link - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Transcriptions Inc., DBA Alpha Transcription
6500 City West Parkway, Suite 310, Eden Prairie, MN 55344

https://www.gsaadvantage.gov/ref_text/GS03F0061V/0G8GBD.1V5S7K_GS-03F-0061V_GSA03F0061VSCHEDULE36.PDF

Contract Number:
GS-03F-0061V
Contract period:
March 1, 2009 through February 28, 2014

SIN # Order Number Description QTY. Price
51-504 TS-001-BASE0 Base Transcription Service W/ 24 hr TAT
Based on 65 gross characters per line
and Monthly Volume of up to 200,000
Line. $.1486
Page 6
lines per month (Per Facility)
51-504 TS-002-TAT2 Transcription Service W/ 2 hr. TAT,
Based on 65 gross characters per line
and Monthly Volume of up to 200,000
lines per month (Per Facility)
Line $.1611
51-504 TS-003-TAT12 Transcription Service W/ 12 hr. TAT,
Based on 65 gross characters per line
and Monthly Volume of up to 200,000
lines per month (Per Facility)
Line $.1536
Turn Around Time (TAT)

VBC Line - Dept of VA - anon

[ In Reply To ..]

http://www.va.gov/vhapublications/viewpublication.asp?pub_id=1731

VHA Directive 2008-042 - August 7, 2008.

THIS VHA DIRECTIVE EXPIRES ON AUGUST 31, 2013

PROVISIONS REQUIRED IN ALL MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION CONTRACTS

All transcription and verification must be performed in the United States of America. There are no Exceptions.

(1)

Visible Black Character. A Visible Black Character is defined strike-able and visible characters and includes any printed letter, number, symbol, and/or punctuation mark excluding any or all formatting (e.g., bold, underline, italics, table structure, formatting codes). All visible black characters can be seen with the naked eye as a mark, regardless of whether viewed electronically or on a printed page.

(2)

Visual Black Character (VBC) Line or ASCII no Spaces Line. A VBC Line is defined as the total number of characters you can see with the naked eye, divided by 65. It includes any character contained within a header or footer. Spaces, carriage returns, and hidden format instructions, such as bold, underline, text boxes, printer configurations, spell check, etc., which are not counted in the total character count. A VBC Line is calculated by counting all visual characters and simply dividing the total number of characters by 65 to arrive at the number of defined lines.

Feb 2012 - screwed, blued, and tattooed

[ In Reply To ..]
Upon review of the platforms we use it has become apparent that corrections are needed, including although not exclusive, within the Nuance platform regarding calculating templates, headers, and footers. It is Alpha's intent to be fair in calculating line counts, and to make sure to pay for what is typed, even at times crediting for some lines that are included in automated text such as headers, footers, and templates.

In an effort to correctly compensate for what is typed, we are working closely with our platform providers to define typed-text from automated-text, and correctly account for automated text in the header and footer. In all previous document count definitions, which generated line counts, there were no cases of under-counting for transcriptionist line counts. In most cases the counts were over-counted and paid as such.

Alpha contract - liveanlearn

[ In Reply To ..]
d. Department of Labor Wage Determination numbers 2005-2424, Rev 8 (Chillicothe, OH); 2005-2413, Rev 6 (Cincinnati, OH); 2005-2415, Rev 5 (Cleveland, OH); 2005-2417, Rev 7 (Columbus, OH); and 2005-2419, Rev 6 (Dayton, OH) will apply to any resulting contract.

[Contracting Officer check as appropriate.]
_X_ (1) 52.222-41, Service Contract Act of 1965 (Nov 2007) (41 U.S.C. 351, et seq.).

Employee Class Monetary Wage-Fringe Benefits

12195 - Medical Transcriptionist $15.40 + $3.35 = $18.75
(Indiana Counties of: Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen, Pike, Washington)

Employee/IC - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Does Alpha have employees and ICs working for them?

All IC according to their sales pitch - StarvingMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Consistently Growing Medical Transcription Company
This profitable growing medical transcription company is a nationwide leader in providing clinical documentation services to Government accounts. Greater margins may be achieved if the acquiring company intends to migrate the current clients to its own proprietary platform. Currently the platform is leased and uses speech recognition. Business for sale because one owner is retiring and exiting the workforce. The other owner and current CEO, who brings significant expertise in navigating government contracts, may be retained. The MT base is virtual work of independent contractors.

Alpha Transcription Company - happy fingers

[ In Reply To ..]
Hey - I have heard about this company but I didn't hear anything about them being sold. I'm new here so I probably am just uninformed. StarvingMT where did you find all this out? I was going to work for them, but if they are being sold maybe I will have to think about it. Yikes!

Kruse Acquisitions - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
http://www.kruseacquisitions.com/Sell-Side_Engagements.html

Consistently Growing Medical Transcription Company
This profitable growing medical transcription company is a nationwide leader in providing clinical documentation services to Government accounts. Greater margins may be achieved if the acquiring company intends to migrate the current clients to its own proprietary platform. Currently the platform is leased and uses speech recognition. Business for sale because one owner is retiring and exiting the workforce. The other owner and current CEO, who brings significant expertise in navigating government contracts, may be retained. The MT base is virtual work of independent contractors, which has been audited and approved by the IRS.

Alpha Transcription Company - happy fingers

[ In Reply To ..]
OK, but it doesn't give the name of the company they are talking about, so how do we know it is Alpha they are talking about?

Because the acquisition firm was contacted - and confirmed it.

[ In Reply To ..]
A recent former MT of Alpha responded to the acquisition firm's ad as a prospective buyer and confirmed that it is.

Alpha Transcription Company - happy fingers

[ In Reply To ..]
Gosh I find that really hard to believe. Any company that deals with buying and selling business is going to want to know they are talking to someone with real interest and ability to make the purchase, not just a looky-lou. I also wonder why someone that worked for the company would do that...maybe I'm naive. When I leave a company for something I think is better I don't really give the old company a second thought. Sounds like someone has an ax to grind. Also makes me wonder how much of what people post here is true or just gossip....

Okay. I guess you have your own answer. - Go for it and give them a try. Good luck. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Alpha Sale Confirmed - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Ask the owner or HR. If they deny it let me know and I can forward you the 80 pages of documentation that was sent to me. You have to have serious interest to get the info, which I did before I saw the falling numbers of profit they were making. I worked there for a few years and have had conversations with management about my concerns, which is why I quit, plus the supervisors are terrible to work with. The office staff and HR is great though :)

Alpha for sale - starvingMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I heard about alpha being for sale and followed the information to Krause.

alpha response - houndlady

[ In Reply To ..]
did take a pay cut with no headers/footers, personally want to be an IC, so don't care about getting employee benefits. Mostly work load is steady, normal holiday and summer slow down, also mostly VR on my accounts, which are numerous.

H/F cut - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
They stopped paying MTs for the headers/footers but read the post above yours and you will see who still gets paid for headers/footers...

Pay cut = MTs
More profit = Alpha

What a racket! Great investigating! - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I would be sending this to the top of the food chain at Alpha and contacting an attorney.

Thanks so much for all the information! - Wondering

[ In Reply To ..]
Wow! I am glad I posted! I think I will be looking elsewhere. This is what is great about this board. I try to do my own reasearch about companies, but would not have known where to find some of the information you all found. I thank you all again, you really helped! :)

;) - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
:) Anytime! Good friends are those who stick together.

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