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

Life after transcription? - tiredmt

Posted: Feb 18, 2015

What or where would you turn for employment if you are finally at the end of your rope with transcription? I swear I do not have it in me to keep starting over when these positions of ours/mine, work hard, only for the accounts to be ripped out from under.. leaving you fighting for lines or looking elsewhere and having to start over!! I have been doing this for so long that I feel sick and anxious, unsure where to even look for a job "outside"..... there, I said it.... OUT..SIDE... o_O As someone else put it on here... slave labor. I am DONE.

Life after transcription - Me too

[ In Reply To ..]
I am still an MT, but I swear this will be my last MT job. I agree with you; just can't take it, besides I think I have worked for almost everyone at one time or another and if I thought it was bad then, it is worse now. I check a lot of job sites and I guess when the time comes, I will have to just give different things a try and see what pops up, if anything. Sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith and go for it, but it is hard, especially if you are older. Yes they do discriminate, despite what they say. I think if I wanted full time work I would have more luck, but I only want part time, so again, when the bottom falls out with this company, job market, here I come and in the meantime, I keep checking. I am so tired of the feeding frenzy when the work is low and the company you work for could care less!

Agree - tiredmt

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Thanks for the reply. It's nice to have someone in the same field that understands. Hopefully we will all find a happy medium and steady employment! Not much else you can do, but try! Best of luck!

After transcription - ari

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I have been gone from M*Modal since August 2013, when they supposedly let all the part timers go. I do miss having something to do during the day (I am disabled and did this from home only 15 hours a week). I do miss the extra money, as it was what I spent on fun things. I didn't make much. I got offered a job the other day and had to think long and hard. I decided against it. I have gotten accustomed to my new income level. I can take better care of myself. My stress level is so much better than when I sat here waiting for work to come in, or if I do get work - waiting for the quality control joke of an e-mail. Its hard to think that at 56 I will not be doing anything - I have worked since age 15. I miss working but not the aggravation.

Where to turn after - ElkoMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I have switched to working as a scribe in an emergency room. I have benefits, get paid by the hour and get the luxury of seeing all of those things I have transcribed for so many years,

what is the pay range for a scribe? - no name

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Scribes only get $8-$10/hr around Ft. Worth. nm - DisillusionedMT

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xx

Medical scribes - Dotts

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$8.35 an hour in Illinois for a medical scribe.

Why so low - scribe pay

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Not much more than bagging groceries. A scribe requires medical knowledge. I just don't get it.

Forget medical scribe jobs - Dotts

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Just another way for taking advantage of the female work force in non-medical healthcare jobs. I checked into it and when they told me how involved the job was, I told them the pay was not worth the effort. They came back saying "we furnish the uniform" and I said "big deal!" They also insist you SIGN A TWO-YEAR CONTRACT when you take the job? So, is this "legal slavery?"

Scribes - Interesting

[ In Reply To ..]
I am not sue how many scribe jobs are out there, I guess it would depend on the area where a person lives. I have limited knowledge of this but in my town the docs usually bring their hand held devices with them for the office visit and act as their own scribe. Other than that, the MAs do it, checking the patient in, doing the vital signs, etc. which makes sense as I wouldn't think they would want a bunch of people in and out of the exam room. Our hospital used scribes for a while, but they wers residentcs and medical students who made rounds with the physician. I would think in some states scribes might need a license in order to be present during a physical exam. Your comment about the uniforms makes me wonder if this is some kind of temp service as most medical facilities have dress codes for uniforms and offer employees an allowance.

I have worked where uniforms were provided. - Not unusual.

[ In Reply To ..]
Sometimes facilities will provide uniforms. Two of the clinics I worked at provided scrubs as they had their logo and our names embroidered on them. Since the scrubs were something we could not just go out and buy ourselves or use later for another job, they provided them for us.

Medical residents and students do not work as scribes. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Medical students are working in educational capacities. They have ALWAYS examined patients, reviewed labs and findings, and documented in the medical record. That is part of their education. What they document can be used by the attending under some circumstances. CMS allows that documentation, for instance, if a statement is included that they are scribing for the attending. However, that does not mean they are EMPLOYED as "scribes." They do not serve the same function as a person paid to be a scribe. They are not paid at all. THEY pay tuition because the hospital rotations are part of their classes. Medical students do not hold jobs because they have no time for it. Medical school is full time plus hours of study outside that.

Residents are physician's who see and treat patients in a learning capacity. They are supervised by attending. The fact that you see them documenting does not mean they are scribing. They are documenting for themselves. Their job is to provide medical care and they are paid to do it.

No one is concerned about people being in examining rooms except some MTs. There have always been people in examining rooms.

States do not require licenses to be present at physical exams and I cannot imagine why you think they would. Who would do this licensing? The vice squad?

Licenses are to protect the public from medical harm, not from being viewed in a paper gown or being heard speaking. You have been hearing their confidential information for years, yet you don't think you need a license.

Scribes are often contracted to the facility. They are employed by the scribe company, which offers the uniforms.

Scribe is a minimum wage job where I live. - MTMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I have heard some people say they make $12-15 an hour as a scribe, but I have never seen any jobs posted that pay more than minimum wage.

Nonprofit. I got a job as program asst - Carol

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for a mentoring program after my MTSO lost my main account and had nothing steady to offer. The NPO's computer systems were outdated (just like the hospital's!) but everything I needed to work with was set up, such as Excel pages, form letters with text boxes. I helped with event planning and execution, preparing training materials of volunteer mentors, sent reports to DYFS, and typical administrative assistant tasks. $20/hr but only 25 hrs/wk.

My life after transcription...sm - Old Woman

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I had worked as an MT for right at 25 years and found myself hating my job and fretting over the pennies I was making. I was in danger of losing my home, I could not afford to own a car, and I still had a teenage son at home. A friend of mine knew of my dire straits and told me of a job as a title clerk/AP clerk at an auto dealership where she worked as the office manager. After a couple of weeks of getting used to actually putting on makeup and clothes and leaving my home to work and training in my new position, I absolutely LOVE it. My stress level has dropped to near nothing and I am making almost twice what I was making as an MT. My work duties offer diversity and I get to actually interact with other humans! I cannot believe the difference.

In all honesty, with the "affordable" healthcare system that has been instituted, I don't think I would try to translate my skills into another area of healthcare. I have a friend who was an administrative RN at a large hospital, and his position was eliminated. He was offered a floor RN position but instead chose to go into the restaurant business.

I'm 55 years old, so am close in age to you. Don't let your age stand in your way. Start looking on sites like www.indeed.com and enter your city or area in the search box. I wish you the very best!

Done with transcription - Dotts

[ In Reply To ..]
The MT business is "dead in the water" as I see it. Yes, it is like slave labor. You literally "kill yourself" working for thankless and useless companies and get nothing in return; same pay as 25 years ago. Plus now, these so-called companies are aiming only at ICs who have to provide their own equipment and system programs. One cannot support themselves in such an environment. Are we suckers or what? There should be a "national transcription strike day" that all transcriptionists refuse to work. I recently retired from a hospital here in Illinois and after 7 years, left with $20,000 in benefit retirement pay; not only that, when I left I was making almost $20 an hour, NOT by the line, period, working from home. They then brought in a new Director of HIMS who decided not to hire any more hospital transcriptionists and go with a national transcription company (poor suckers). If you are young enough, I advise getting a nursing degree; even an LPN degree to start. I don't know if you can "get your foot in the door" at any hospital in your area as maybe a Med/Surg unit secretary or even as a clerk, that may be the way to go in the short term if you like healthcare. I contacted the Labor Dept. about the pay for transcriptionists and they could care less. I am now thinking of contacting my Congresswoman and get her read on all of this; if anything can be done legally in our favor. Thank God, I am more or less at the end of my work life and am fed up but feel empathy for younger transcriptionists who still have 20, 30 or more years to go working.

Done with transcription - metoo

[ In Reply To ..]
I 100% agree with contacting your representatives in Congress-many are physicians. Burns my butt to no end that we do the exact same work we did as hospital employees and yet these MTSOs get away with labeling us successfully as "piece meal" workers, which, to me, is just a fancy name for slave labor. It is absolutely criminal the way this profession has gone. The last year I actually worked in a hospital, with bonus and production, benefits, I made $50,000!! That was in 1996.

I also am trying to get out - memls

[ In Reply To ..]
After getting screwed by the big N at the end of December I took a job with SS and I am just as miserable as I was! Seventeen years in this business and I am done. I have an interview with a telecommunication company tomorrow morning and I am so hoping I get it! At the rate MT pay is going down McDonald's workers are going to make more than us! :(

My 15 y/o niece is making $15 an hour at McDonalds. - nm

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/

Then go work at McDonalds - Anonymous

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And stop whining

General or corporate transcription - anotherMT

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In my repeated job hunts in the last 6 months I've come across a number of ads on Craigslist for general transcription, and in fact just picked up an account with an insurance company typing interviews. I was also contacted by a company looking for transcriptionists for government accounts with Social Security and the Dept of Justice.

If you're a speedy transcriptionist this can pay close to the "average" for medical right now...I'm making almost exactly the same hourly rate right now as I am on an ortho account.

I'm sure some companies pay more or less and some work is more challenging, etc. But if a person wants to stay at home and not have to pick up much new training this is a viable option, to my mind. It's not going away, as more and more corporations and even the government are contracting out work such as this.

Just my recent experience that I thought might be helpful to someone. Good luck.

Coding, then RHIA - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I got a job as a clerk-secretary at a large hospital, learned to code, moved into a coding job that paid well, and then went on to the RHIA, which the hospital paid for. I work in auditing and compliance now. I love my work and could work from home, but don't want to.

It was a lot of work, but was worth it to me.

I do not recommend this for everyone. It is a possible option, though.

Please don't answer this post with negativity. If you have nothing positive to say, just keep it to yourself.

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