Just a few words of advice - longtimemt

This is going to be long and I apologize in advance, not wanting to cause a long discussion, just giving some facts. I was one who was included last week in the RIF letter from Webmedx. I have applied to about 25 different companies, most of which were advertising on one board or another, major job search sites, etc. I have found that most of them will not even acknowledge receipt of a resume. I have spent 6-8 hours on the computer every day, just searching every web site imaginable. I have received information from 2 companies and one of them was only for 3.5 for VR, the other was 4. I truly made that amount of money when I started my career years ago. I have over 20 years experience and have not done a lot of job hopping. I had heard for years that VR was coming and I really never thought it would get here before I could retire, which is a long time yet since I am only in my 40s. The truth, as I am finding it, is that the jobs are going to get more scarce, as the companies seem to think that VR is doing its job, when in reality we know it is not. Another thing I have discovered is that there are a lot of positions in house out there, just not in my area, I would estimate from the jobs I have searched at least 50% of them were in house so they are there if one wants to search for them. This makes me wonder if more hospitals are not pulling the work back in house due to the enormous costs of having a transcription service. I have seen this business go from typewriters to computers, and now to VR and there is no where for the MT to go from here. With companies now training doctors to edit their own reports, what do you think our role will be in another 3-5 years? My guess would be that MTs will be nonexistent. The owners and management all say it is a secure field, but I lost my faith in that last week. I am writing this to encourage anyone who thinks they cannot survive on 4-5 cpl for VR to get an education, get something to fall back on and be prepared. I was not prepared and now am going to have a disaster. I will collect unemployment once it is approved but the maximum in my state is only about 200 a week, so I am going to spiral down fast if I do not get another job. I was a one income family and Webmedx stripped that away, it really would have been nice to have some notice, but it was a business decision on their part and I cannot dwell on that or try to guess why me. My unemployment will pay my rent, at least my car is paid for but everything else will be minimally paid unless I find work soon. I have 2 little girls to take care and I am sure I will be visiting a food pantry soon. I have applied for food stamps and Medicaid but I really am embarrassed because I never thought it could happen to me. I am still searching, trying to hold out for someone who does only transcription that will last about 3-6 months so I can get back on my feet and make some changes in my lifestyle, my expectations, etc. I am willing to do any shift, any days, just let me go back to work. Unfortunately there are so many MTs right now that are jumping around, trying to get out of VR for a little bit of time before everything is VR and the competition is extremely tough. I am checking into some kind of back up career but it is hard to change after doing this so long. I am absolutely shocked that these schools are still telling students they can make 30,000-40,000 a year, I think we can pretty much face the fact that the VR presence is going to be domineering within the next year and at 10 to 12 dollars an hour for some reason I do not see anyone making a decent living anymore. At 12 an hour that is about 23,040 a year, a long ways from 30-40,000. I guess in the back of my mind I always hoped VR would fail and secure our jobs but that is not the case. My experience on it, which was with M-Modal, I could have transcribed it faster than editing it and the managers/owners evidently do not understand this. I would be surprised if they were actually paid less from the hospitals for VR, my guess is their contract stays the same, our line rates go down, therefore, more profit for them. Well enough said, I probably am posting this on the wrong board and this is by no means another effort to bash WM, they received enough of that, they made a business decision, just one many of us did not agree with. My main purpose is to do 2 things, to vent my opinion, and to ask other MTs to protect themselves, always have a back up and unfortunately never believe your job is secure. As an afterthought, I do feel sorry for the MTs I see post on here who do not have work and have to spend 10-12 hours trying to get in 8 hours work, at least I don't have to sit here anymore and have a minimal income. I will move on, I will be okay, it will just take time but I can only pray it happens to no one else and if so, you are more prepared than I was.