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

Any MTSOs that do NOT use QA to - dock your pay?

Posted: Mar 31, 2014

Honestly, I hate change but I am ready to jump.

I don't ask too much, just to know if I get audited by QA the intent is not to take money off me.

From what I can see, both the two big 2 - Nuance and MModal - use QA punitively financially, and while I have no objection to QA, when it is used to pick off MT pay I find that reprehensible and not an incentive to work your heart out, if you get what I mean.

If anyone cares to share their company's policies, especially if they don't use QA in a financially punitive manner, I would like to hear.

Of course if you are being swallowed by one of the big two that is a no go, because whatever you think they will always institute their policies eventually.

Thanks if anyone can enlighten me on any company who does not practice this pay stealing via QA audits, as it is possibly the worst thing nowadays about being an MT IMHO.

I'm standing in line right behind you. - Ready to leave Nuance...

[ In Reply To ..]
If there are greener pastures and companies who appreciate hard-working MTs, I'll be there in a New York minute. I can't take Nuance much longer. These people are evil!

What is Nuance's quality "percent" requirement? - MM now 99.7

[ In Reply To ..]
I normally score 99+, but "not enough" for MM anymore. 2 "punctuation" errors and you fail. You will end up failing too if you type as dictated, but it isn't pretty sentence.

The quality QA bonus for Nuance is - 99.5% I think still

[ In Reply To ..]
I got it once and meh, they took more in taxes than the bonus, so that is not one I really care about.

The 99% production bonus is the one that gets me. Because of the scrutiny of FIESA, this is a disincentive to produce more because it gives them more of a chance to "get" you.

If you then, for 3 months, are not rewarded for producing beyond a certain point because you are being QA-shamed for a few errors, that is in reality counterproductive to Nuance's presumed goals - "Help" "OT needed" etc. go unanswered when you know the more you type you get rewarded not with more money but by more FIESA reviews that put you into a hole you can never get out of.

Why are MTs scratching for minimum wage now when QA and TSM get paid hourly and most better paid than us now? Not sure if TSM is salaried/exempt, and they do do a lot of hours, but at least if they don't make TAT sometimes I do not think they get their pay docked, do they? They pretty much know how much they're making and can predict they can pay their bills. We are the only ones singled out for that 3 month pay docking and it is really a shocker.

We used to be able to achieve financially by typing more, now the aim seems to be to cut the MT's pay and my guess is that we do make less than QA and TSM now, and that is pretty bizarre since we're the ones bringing the money into the company.

Nuance Fiesa - Unhappy

[ In Reply To ..]
I work for Nuance....very disappointed.

I asked my manager why my QC score has not changed on my timesheet for the last several months...she told me that 98.2 was my score for the last quarter of the year and that I need over 99% during a quarter to get the bonus next quarter if I send less than 10% to QA... didn't there used to be a weekly bonus for scoring over 99% the previous week? I used to see that on my timesheet and I would get a weekly bonus...now I never get the bonus. NO incentive and miss a period on a short note and it is less than 99%!

Oh, and flex...work is slow today, but when I asked if I could start 2 hours late to attend a funeral, it was given a hard time...told I had to make it up the same day...and ask off on the weekend? I asked off for 2 and was only allowed 1 and over Labor Day weekend which is the only week I take off, I was told part-timers had to make up their hours. Bunch of crap.

I cannot even get into Fiesa today and I had over 99% for the first quarter of 2014, so I wonder if they are checking and going to make sure I don't get the bonus.

I dont worry about it..I do my best and ignore - Nonchalant is an understatement

[ In Reply To ..]
everything else at Nuance. I think they try and find errors to keep you stressed and feeling like you are lucky to work there (they use psychology). I don't read audits or anything else. I am looking for something else, but in the meantime I work, attend the meetings with my phone on mute, while I am cleaning up and thats about it..They dont even pay minimum wage

Docking pay - MT2

[ In Reply To ..]
Could you imagine how many doctors would be left if THEIR pay was docked for all their mistakes? Gee, wonder why that is not implemented. As for Nuance, I have so many mistakes saved on record that have made on their part, yet.....

Does your question include an MTSO who pays CPL based on tiers? - see message

[ In Reply To ..]
I currently work for Amphion and they have a tier system for CPL that is different for all their software -iChart, Triton, and Escription.

I am paid on one that has 4 tiers. I've always been at tier 4 until this past year when my QA was 0.5% lower and I went down to a tier 3, and then again to a tier 2. So is that way for every MTSO? You don't really get "docked" pay (in their opinion) but just paid based on your QA score and whatever your average QA% tier is in at that time, that's what you get paid.

I don't like that pay system either, that's why I'm looking to get out of MT. So if you're looking for an MTSO that doesn't pay based on QA, stay away from Amphion.

The only way you could avoid that is to be paid hourly, but IDK if any are paying hourly anymore.

Good luck.

I think my prior MTSO that was bought out by - one of the big two did that

[ In Reply To ..]
I never really paid attention, but all I know is that I seemed to be on a high one and I never EVER got docked for a QA mistake. We used to get taken to task if a random audit found an error, and I was made aware of things I was continually doing that were incorrect, but at least it didn't affect my pay.

The prevailing management thought also seems to be geared towards spreading the accounts thin - making us type more accounts so we always have work, but it's hard to get to know an account back to front like we used to.

This again, with the emphasis on QA "getting" us is good for them, bad for us. We all know the better you know an account the better for us MTs, so making you type more and more accounts seems like just another way to undermine our income.

Similar Messages:

Aug 31, 2011

Just a few years ago I was making 50K plus doing the same exact thing I am now getting paid 10-12 dollars an hour for. Does anybody know the real reason for this dramatic change? the details? ...

Dec 20, 2011

When will you MTSOs wise up and realize that pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of account specs for nitpicky docs SLOW DOWN YOUR MTs? If you had any sense, you would use standardized headings in all reports and then turn that into a positive by telling prospective clients that it expedites turnaround of their reports. That is *exactly* what I did back when I owned my company, and it worked!&n ...

May 25, 2012

If you want experienced qualified MTs who have been doing this for years and years & can do any WT, any accent, any specialty, adapt to any software quickly.... quit requiring them to include a weekend day. Save those for part-timers or newbies. The experienced "oldies" have done their graveyard and weekend time. There are actually some companies who "get" that. If you're wondering why you can't find good experienced MTs, maybe that's why... ...

May 26, 2013

Hello! I'm a small MTSO who had lost some clients due to EMR. I'm not yet ready to give up as of yet because I love this profession very much being in the MT business for the past 11 years. I have heard stories about more and more doctors getting frustrated with EMR and would still want to dictate parts of the medical reports but somehow needed the transcribed dictation interfaced with their own EMR system. I'm very interested to learn how this is done so I can o ...

Sep 05, 2014

on an employee status? Would love to get out of the big N, but I don't want to be an IC at my age. ...

Feb 09, 2015

That would make things much easier for us to plan ahead the rest of our shift; whether to sit there and wait for work, or if we only will be working part of a shift and the work runs out, or if we can sign out and do other things in our personal life that need to be done. I can't see that it's that big a problem or inconvenience for you to simply send an email to all on the account, or instant message, or whatever. You do it when you're begging for he ...

Oct 20, 2009

I could be wrong, but it appears to me that the VR came about as an answer to the problem of offshoring. I am sure many clients prefer to keep their dictation/transcription right here in the USA and request that from the companies they use. Maybe we should not be so adverse to it, as it could be the only means of keeping the work here affordably. ...

Nov 12, 2009

How do you handle using subcontractors (IC's) and still be HIPAA and HITECH compliant? I guess what I'm getting at is after I did some reading on IRS rules for employee versus IC, it sounds almost impossible to have IC and be HIPAA/HITECH compliant. One says I have to provide training/education on HIPAA, yet the other ones says I can't provide training/education otherwise they are an "employee." One says I can't dictate how the work station is set up, etc., but t ...

Dec 17, 2009

Is this just a scam so that employers don't have to pay benefits and employer taxes? I bet if there was an audit, most ICs and MTSOs would be in trouble for using that classification improperly, especially for the full-time positions. I even applied for a full-time secretarial job in a small law office recently, and was told I would be hired as a contractor with no benefits. I was stunned and declined. I need to check with the labor department to see if some of my concern ...

Mar 09, 2010

I have finally been offered 2 jobs after working for a company that required experienced MTs but only pays 24,000 a year - that's right, I am eligible for poverty-level discounts on my utilities while working fulltime as a seasoned MT, making the highest line count on my account. So, I wonder how I can ask: How much money can I expect to make? I want to make 40 grand a year at least. ...

Apr 14, 2010

Let me introduce myself. I am a full time MT with 25 years experience in this business, averaging typing 2000 lines per day, audit scores 98% and above, who willingly works OT when requested, and I have never taken a sick day. I consider my job a serious employment commitment. I am the bread-winner in my family. I don't say this to indicate I make the most money. This means I PAY THE BILLS. You know, mortgage, car payments, insurance, light bill, food on the ta ...

May 06, 2010

I am just curious at what point you stop looking at resumes that have been emailed to you after posting a job. Is it 50? 100? More or less? If I have been away from the board for a bit and come back to find a job that has been posted that I am interested in, if there are more than 200 views to it I generally move on and do not bother with applying. I figured that with that many viewing probably half or more have applied and sending my resume at that point would be ...

Jun 15, 2010

I'm not an MTSO, never was, and never would be if I could help it. In one of the threads below someone mentioned that some larger MTSOs hold it against someone if they post something on a forum like this. I put myself in the position of the MTSO for a moment. What would I do if someone contacted me and told me that one of the MTs that was working for me was trashing me on a public forum. I would go look at it. If I knew who they were, I wouldn't send them any additional work. It wouldn ...

Jul 27, 2010

Let's get to the point here on why most MTSOs are greedy. It is not because the MT makes mistakes or should make mistakes. That is not the issue. The real issue is that MTSOs don't pay what a quality MT is worth! That's where the "greedy" comes in. It also shows that the MTSO obviously doesn't really care about the transcriptionist at all. If an MTSO pays really low, this says to me they are treating the MTs as robot "worker bees" work ...

Jul 29, 2010

Man...sometimes I'm sorry I upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit last October. It is not compatible with many MTSOs' tech, so I can't apply. ...

Jun 23, 2011

I have worked for a company for almost two years now (MT for 11 years) and am wondering why, all of the sudden, for about a week now I have been getting nothing but dictators that I am not familiar with. They are part of my pool and I have had dictations from them in the past, but never exclusively. I have only gotten two dictations in this time period from the dictators for whom I normally transcribe. I understand wanting everyone on the team to be familiar with all ...

Feb 03, 2012

ICs beware. If your MTSO is found to be noncompliant by the IRS, you will be next in their crosshairs. http://erginc.com/pdfs/independent_contractors_20_questions.pdf ...

Feb 18, 2012

for all MTs it has forced into poverty or joblessness because of offshoring, VR, and crummy wages to be able to return to school or job retraining FREE OF CHARGE, so we can remain gainfully employed. Most of us who've been in this biz for longer than 4 or 5 years have no hope of being able to afford to go to school. And those of us who've been MTs longer than 20 years need help and advocacy when it comes to job placement, because currently I seriously doubt many companies would h ...

Apr 23, 2012

Don't let the threats by MTSOs scare you. It is true that in most state employment is "at will" but if they fire people for calling in sick, equipment problems, ill child, power failure, etc. they WILL be paying unemployment for all those people which will be a big financial hit. They are the ones that are scared. Why do you think there are so many "suit" posts on this board trying to discourage this organized demonstration? As far as MTSOs and ICs go, ICs are on the ...

Jun 13, 2012

on a part-time basis? I like where I work, but sometimes run out of work for a couple hours and it would be nice to be able to have a backup MTSO where I could work p.r.n. I have thought about a part-time gig, but when my account gets real busy then I wouldn't be able to handle the part-time job. Any suggestions? ...

Jul 23, 2012

I've been applying and applying for every in house MT job that comes along in my area. I have the skills, I have the experience, and all that. Even for jobs where I would have been a perfect fit, I'm always passed over. Although I'm applying for in house, I realize that many of them also have outside vendors for overflow, or did in the past, and are transitioning back to in house. For quite some time, I've had a suspicion that one bad-apple ...

Aug 27, 2012

Yep MTSOs are on board and reading.. Since we are at it, how about a decent wage? Other than 7 cpl? Of course, if you pass IMPOSSIBLE QA and keep yoiur mouth shut "like a good ittle girl" then we might pay 7.5" I have stooped to these MTSOs and their DEMANDS - the "book" is just that. We have MTSO's who are subcontractors -- several other services on board. I have been in this business for 30+ years. When I started from home, it was on c ...

Oct 05, 2012

Which MTSOs use infraware? ...

Oct 16, 2012

From what I am hearing about the financial difficulties and downsizing of many MTSOs, I suspect that their SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) are going to bankrupt them. Will we go back to ICs working directly for the doctors/facility? Isn't it a matter of downloading a free platform or utilizing a server for MTs that encrypts? Here is where the MTSO are losing money: Clients not informed of horrid sound quality, taking the MTs a lot of extra time to decipher. Doctors are not trai ...

Apr 16, 2013

Wondering what you small MTSO companies have lined up for the future? We have discussed what MTs are possibly switching to in the near future and now I wonder if all of these small MTSO companies that might be making a good living now have a backup plan for when it all dries up? ...

May 17, 2013

I'm looking for things I can take to a pawn shop to hock today in an effort to pay my electric bill before shut off so I can keep working. I'm forced into bankruptcy and ask risk of losing my home due to the miniscule illegal wages we are paid for editing. The MTSO has not even responded to my last questions about account preferences, and notification of a technical error in the software, yet has the nerve to send me a snarky email bitching about my 100% accurate report for a mistake ...

Jun 30, 2013

"complete power corrupts completely" these companies have complete power over us and we [as a whole] have given it to them. there are lessons to be learned to all in healthcare from what happened to MT. ...

Aug 08, 2013

After more than 25 years in this business, I am getting the heck out! I don't mind working hard. I do very well on audits. I am reliable. I have made more than $40,000 a year until now, and did not even have to work 8 hours to do it. I have worked over-time when needed. I have loved doing this - until now. What this profession has turned into is a crying shame, competitiveness, greed, and pettiness. Are MT schools actually still taking p ...

Jul 23, 2014

Okay, so are there ANY companies that are actually owned by Americans who live in America? Everyone says they are only hiring from within the U.S., but that doesn't mean the owners are American. Someone here said one company (Diskriter?) was purchased by "an Indian couple." Why wasn't it purchased by an American couple? Why aren't Americans buying MTSOs? What's up with that? ...

Oct 24, 2014

Dictation time: 15 minutes @ $1.50/min 24-hour turnaround: Add $1.50/min Total cost for a 15 minute dictation: $45.00 I ask you this, how much do you make transcribing a 15 minute dictation? Totally blows, huh? ...