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

SenTel - horrible pay - Unreal

Posted: May 24, 2013

Starting rates range from 5- 5.5 cpl for transcription and 2–2.5 cpl for VR editing.

This has become unreal.

pay - no $

[ In Reply To ..]
Not looking forward to the others following suit for the sake of be "competitive". Hold on to your hats and get ready for yet another decrease in pay.

would that be Sten-Tel by any chance? - this has been their rate

[ In Reply To ..]
for many years now. Nothing new.

Yes, Sten-Tel, sorry. - Unreal

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I glanced at the name, saw the pay rate and after laughing for an hour, I posted it and got the name wrong. Sorry.

Sten-Tel has been paying these rates for at least the past 7 years. - Nothing new. nm

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nm

MTs should focus more on HOURLY pay than cpl - Me

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I work for a company that people bashed on here for the low pay, but because of how incredibly elementary the work is and the ease of platform, I make $20 per hour with them. I have a second job that is also one of the lower paying ones and the difficulty is higher, so I make less, BUT I never, ever, ever run out of work, EVER, and we are welcome to work overtime if we would like.

So, for me personally, I would rather focus on what I can make per hour or what I can make per paycheck than to get caught up in the specifics of the cpl.

I don't know about Sten-Tel, but with some of the companies, just give it a shot and you may be surprised at what you find.

everybody is going to start asking you - where it is that you work now. nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

at 2 cpl one had best hope there is A TON of canned text that you are paid for. sm - not believing it

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There is NO WAY that anybody is going to make that kind of money even with the most perfect VR where you do nothing but turn up the speed and read along. Do the math . . . if one can edit 800 lines per hour (and we all know how many of us can do that - yeah, right!) and the VR is absolutely perfect, that only comes out to $16.00 an hour. I seriously hope NOBODY is applying for that job at 2 cpl.

Nope. Worked with Sten-Tel in Past - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I worked with Sten-Tel as a new grad. I was glad to have the job, but quickly realized that you can't make money at those rates. On the account I was on, there was no straight transcription, so all VR at 2.5 cpl. Everything had to be changed. It couldn't even get the headings formatted correctly. Seriously would have been faster to transcribe it myself. Even with the best of accounts, I don't think it is possible to make a living on 2.5 cpl. I stayed and got 6 months' experience making only about $4/hour and then moved on to a better company where I was able to make a very nice wage. I don't know how they keep MTs working for them when they pay so little.

And I told you before in another thread - cpl DOES matter - - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
No matter how much $$$ you can make from canned text, easy dictators, short cuts, etc. You still don't get it! It drives the ENTIRE FIELD WAGES down when people like you preach to accept these wages, touting "oh, I can make $20 an hour..." Wouldn't you rather make to $30 $35 an hour? It's not all about YOU, as I said before.

uh - huh

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nag...nag...nag!! And what exactly has the ENTIRE FIELD done for her to make her care about it. Didn't she say she was a new graduate?

but it doesn't matter always... - MT

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There are so many variables that go into this transcription business that it really isn't all about cpl. There are so many factors to take into consideration. Not all specialties should be paid the same because some are more difficult and some are easier. SOME of the companies offering 5 cpl offer such a little amount because the work is super easy, doesn't take a lot of time to do the work, etc. Also, not all transcription companies work on a platform and not all companies pay on a 65 character line. Not all companies have specs that you have to learn either nor do some have a gazillion pooled accounts. Some companies have a handful of doctors that you do over and over and type right into word. Some of those same companies pay by the gross line. Pay should be based on and accepted on the level of difficulty it takes to complete the job. Sure, it would be great to make $35 an hour, but realistically, with speech recognition and programs like Epic, if doctors know that their dictation is so easy a machine could understand them, why would they pay out "$35 per hour" when they could purchase the program and be done with it. Some doctors do appreciate the MT enough to keep them, but also have to keep their bottom line in check. I have gotten paid anywhere between 5 cpl and 12 cpl and from one job to the next they are all different. Sometimes I made more on my 5 cpl job than I did on the 12 cpl job because of the level of ease of the doctor dictating with no platform and no specs. This is why some of us are still making a ton of money and those of you who are so rigid and won't accept anything less than the standard because you somehow think that cpl equates to your value as an MT. It just isn't. You should feel valued based on what you can make per hour. Some of you are getting paid 10 cpl and only making minimum wage so how does that make you feel "valued" because you are getting more than the standard, yet only making minimum wage per hour. Quit judging and telling people not to accept 5 cpl when many people who are making 5 cpl blow your paychecks out of the water. I know I'm one of them and have been for a long time.

But you don't make 5 cpl at Sten-Tel. - Work is VR at 2.5 cpl.

[ In Reply To ..]
I have worked for Sten-Tel. The work is all VR at 2.5 cpl. I very rarely got a straight transcription job. Even with everything aligning perfectly, there is no way to make a living at 2.5 or 2 cpl with editing. You can only make the dictation go so fast and you still have to take the time to double-check patient demographics and actually proof the report. Even going as fast as the audio would allow (which would take a very skilled editor, most new MTs can't do this), I don't see how anyone can survive on 2.5 cpl.

I don't agree with you. - Another MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I would love to make $35 per hour, but that wage isn't consistent this day and time. With the way things are, I would much more prefer to make $15 per hour for an 80-hour pay period than $35 per hour for a few jobs here and there and then sitting with NJA. If a person made $35 per hour for their entire 2-week pay period, we are talking A $2800 paycheck every 2 weeks!!! Does ANYONE make that kind of money? So, you suggest that I decline the money that I currently make, which enables me to pay my bills, in order to wait for this "gold mine" that is never going to happen? That is ridiculous!

It is DEFINITELY more about what HOURLY wage you can accept and how many HOURS you can have enough work to produce these days. It is common sense that if you take a job making less cpl and it is incredibly difficult and you are making minimum wage, then QUIT.

Driving down the wages is someone who is willing to work for minimum wage, but an MT who can just use what she has and still make a decent living, regardless of the actual cpl is just a person making a living.

I believe you are able to make what you are making; however, I think sm - not believing 2 cpl is liveable

[ In Reply To ..]
the discussion is mainly about this 2 cpl rate for VR that is being advertised. Yes, one CAN make big bucks at 5 cpl IF there is a lot of canned text, IF you are typing in Word and not on a platform, IF the headers/footers/templates are paid for, IF you aren't bouncing from account to account on every job, and IF that account is being paid on a gross line. I KNOW this can be done because I did it (years ago, but I did it). I have NOT been able to do that since all the changes in transcription and the way we are paid and WHAT WE ARE/ARE NOT PAID FOR. My argument (and I believe the argument of many others) is that there is NO WAY one can make a liveable wage at 2 cpl for VR. You can only speed up the dictation so far until it becomes unintelligible. An MT who already types almost as fast as that doctor speaks is NOT going to be able to double his/her speed in order to double his/her line count and edit 800 lph.

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