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

MTSO cant do more to wring $ out of dr, so now they are finding - sneaky ways to wring it out of us. nm

Posted: Oct 05, 2010

That is what irks me the most....the sneakiness, the (sm) - Yochana

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lying about how they count lines, etc. I would rather an MTSO be honest and just say, "All I can pay an MT is xx cpl."

I have a novel idea - what if MTSOs quit accepting slave wages from the docs? - Time to bring the work back to America

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If they want to pay those chicken scratch wages, let them get their work done offshore. Americans have got to stop accepting chump change for our work quality.

I have worked extensively with offshore MTs and speech recognition - neither of them holds a candle to the skill set of the average American MT. It is time we take our career back and start DEMANDING better wages. I would really like to see all MTSOs go under - they are the cause of the downgrading of our once great career.

As an MTSO, I would like to see MT's care about their jobs again. - MTSO

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You may all complain about wages and offshore and VR, but we have complaints too. 10 years ago, MT's cared about their job, were reliable and knew that the reports they transcribed directly impacted patient care. Now, for every 10 people I hire, only 1 or 2 are that in that same league and these are experienced MT's.

I pay well, have enough work to keep everyone very busy and do not overhire. I do not send work offshore and do not use VR on any accounts.

You want to see all MTSO's go under? Keep doing what you do and we won't go under, but we will continue to explore other ways to get the work done.

You have it backwards - Susan

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How insensitive. Many of us work for large nationals who do overhire,offshore and use VR. As an MTSO, you are in the minority. When you see this many unhappy people in an industry, you have to look at the MTSO's and not the MT's. Don't blame the MT's for a situation we didn't create.

AMEN!! - MTs DO care. MTSOs care about $$$.

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How does all the talk on this board give you the idea that MTs don't care? We care a lot but are powerless against everyone who is ripping us off - the large MTSOs (Not the small, local MTSOs, but the major giants who DO set the wage scale for all of us).

We do care, but the frustration for us is there is nothing we can do about it...except come here and talk to one another.

If you are an MTSO and you come to this board, you better grow thicker skin and/or do not take comments personally.

You hit the nail on the head so hard I could hear it from here. - Molly Mulligan

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Ten years ago MTs cared about their jobs, were reliable, and knew that the reports they transcribed direclty impacted patient care.

Unfortunately, so much has changed over the past 10 years that it is hard to consider this a profession anymore. Do you think people working at Wal-Mart or McDonalds consider it a profession? It has gotten so bad that with some of these larger companies they want perfection or 12 to 16-hour dedication for wages that equal Wal-Mart and McDonalds. That isn't a profession, that's showing up to do the time and getting the job done in the fastest way possible. QUALITY TAKES TIME.

If you cannot support enough work volume for 500+ MTs, unfortunately you are in the small minority of MTSOs that have enough work to keep the MTs busy on an 8-hour basis and pay well. But, may I ask you a question? Is your idea of paying well the same as the MTs equate their pay to 10 years ago? Do you pay 12 to 14 cpl, the same as a lot of us experienced, professional MTs made 10 years ago?

Maybe instead of blaming the MTs, you should address the larger MTSOs. After all, if you have noticed a change in the last 10 years, it is most probably due to the larger MTSO treatment of the MTs, not the other way around.

Thanks for hammering the nail in completely - Susan

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Molly, you closed my statement perfectly. It amazes me when people pass the blame on the MT's. MT's are a rare breed. We utilize skills that deal with patient's lives, sit and wait and wait for work, accept pay cuts and decrease in benefits and still do our best each and every day for our companies. Not many professions can make this statement. Work like a professional, get paid like a low level worker.

The image of MTs was never what we thought of it. - Molly

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Susan, I can remember 10 years ago when in-house supervisors in MR departments knew we were hardworking, diligent professionals that would often further our knowledge and skills with continued education and research at our own expense and on our own time. Some of the doctors even commented on this. Unfortunately, the higher ups in the hospital administration, which were often run by out-of-touch doctors and businessmen, viewed us as nothing more than typists that seemed to make too much money for the budget. The wives of the doctors in small offices usually felt the same way. They didn't look at us as professionals. We were an expendable nuisance that strained their budgets. Enter the MTSOs.

Now, though, they (the MTSOs) seem to recognize that they had professionalism all along until they crossed the line. They want it back, but they want it at data entry clerk prices combined with administrative assistant and secretary responsibilities. How many MTSOs out there expect us to do added responsibilities that aren't included in production?

The last MTSO I worked for expected us to create a spreadsheet for every miscoded report to include the date of the report, the full name of the doctor, what worktype it was miscoded as, what it should have been, th worktype number it should have been coded, the worktype number it was coded, the account name and number, and the job number. At the end of the week, there was an average of 25 to 30 entries in that spreadsheet that had to be submitted each and every week. There was another MTSO I worked for that expected us to send emails with physician names, addresses, and phone numbers for all doctors that dictators wanted copies to that weren't in the database. Another one wanted emails for each doctor that didn't dictate the dates on reports or names of residents that didn't dictate staff physicians so she could submit it to the hospital. All of this was done on OUR time...and the kicker was that when it came to counting actual work hours, according to them, these extras didn't count. So not only were we not paid for all these extras, they didn't even include it on work time to be counted in our time sheet.

I guess all I have to say to the MTSO that posted is that I'm more than willing to be the professional you're looking for, if you're willing to pay for professionalism. Heck, I WANT to be the professional from 10 years ago more than anything in the world. But I don't give away my professionalism for 8 or 9 cpl as an IC.

One thing, though, for some of us, our work is ALWAYS - Fellow Traveller

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professional. We don't lower our standards or fail in our responsibility to the patients just to spite our employers.

Always work to our best - Susan

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Molly, you are so correct. Despite everything, all my fellow MT's take their work very seriously. The bottom line is it's about the patient. How unfortunate the MTSO's can't see how dedicated most of us are. As for doctor's wives, I couldn't agree more LOL. Many years ago when I had a conflict about pay structure with a physician's wife, I told her to do the report. She called me four hours later and was still on the first paragraph LOL! We know it's not as easy as many make it seem. Another major sticking point are the quality of many of those who dictate. How frustrating and inconsiderate to make us spend hours some days trying to figure out what they are saying. I have one who dictates driving with his roof down and all you hear is swishhhhh.

That's not what I meant. sm - Molly

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By professionalism I mean career-minded as in joining AHDI and attending seminars for continued education. I also mean all the little extras the MTSOs seem to want too. It got to the point with the one MTSO that wanted all the emails that I just included what she wanted in the QA notes instead of having to open up a new email and all the effort that went with typing and sending several emails a day. She wasn't happy with this...she wanted emails directly to her. My reply was, "Well, then pay me for it or at least let me include it as work time on my time sheet. Needless to say, I wasn't there long.

But I do accept all the responsiblity to the patients that goes with our job and I wouldn't lower my standards or skill set to spite my MTSO either. I am very fortunate to work for a wonderful woman who pays me well, and I'm still in the 2-digit cpl rate.

My rant was addressed to all those MTSOs that want the highly experienced, cream of the crop MTs, but only want to pay 7 or 8 cpl (employees). Or the ones that want to pay 8 cpl for IC and give a strict schedule to work. Or the ones that expect you to sit at your computer from 8 am until 9 pm just to make your quota for the day, if it's even possible at all. There are a ton of them out there and most of us already know who they are. That's why I took offense at the MTSO saying she wanted what she had 10 years ago. Hmmmpff. So do I! lol

If I made what I used to make, I would care like I used to care. - nm

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nm

BINGO! - I could not have said it better myself! nm.

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I am an experienced MT (20+) and I still care, can I have a job ? - NM

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x

one with respect, stability, security, and a little left over for food. - yepper

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I cared, but it wasn't good enough. Quality versus quanity - was my middle name

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It mattered to me if I had to leave blanks and if it meant doing some research, I did it. I didn't send a lot to QA but I was pressured to get my production up. It didn't matter to my company that I would be compromising on the quality.

What the heck do you MTSO's want out of us? Quality or quantity? We bend over backwards for you and you reward us with slave wages. Not to mention all the NJA and then the great push to stay in TAT.

You can't have both quantity or quality and expect MTs to be happy with low wages, NJA, at the same time.

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