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

Transcend/MDI - Has this happened to anyone else? - TypaDee

Posted: Feb 03, 2010

I was an "MDIer" for the past year and 2 days ago we became Transcend. Even though I was considered part-time with MDI, I was really FT because of the hours/reports I typed (radiology). Since MDI didn't offer benefits, I was excited to be given the chance for FT benefits with Transcend. The hype from the higher-ups in e-mails made me very hopeful for the merge. I filled out all the paperwork for benefits, received my dental and vision cards and yesterday the bombshell hit. I was told 20 hours a week were being taken from me because there wasn't enough work, and the people with more seniority who were "FT" prior to the merge with MDI were given first preference. My TL said "I have been instructed to cut back anyone that was not FT, across the board".

It was like taking a bullet. I have never had any negative feedback on my work, in fact, I have been highly praised for my work. I have been begging for a secondary account since I was hired in the event work was slow on the primary account. Yesterday I was told there are no secondary accounts available. This has me so nauseated.

Anyone else get this news since the merge happened?

Bombshell - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I am not part of the MDI merge, but was part of a merge last year - I was FT. At this point I am not even getting more than 8 hours a week. As far as primaries, oh well, I was the sole MT for my primary and now it has been put into a general pool, and I have been told first come first served. I had my secondary taken away from me months ago along with my tertiary and my primary account moved to a different region along with me. I guess they do not give any consideration to how hard you work or want to work - I honestly believe they give the work to the original Transcend employees that do not come through a merge. I am in the same boat, but for some unknown reason stll considered FT, which I ought to be grateful for, but what little money I do make is just paying for what I am responsible for paying to maintain my insurance. Welcome to Transcend - as I said in prior posts once you merge with Transcend it does not take even a week to notice a BIG change contrary to what they made you believe leading up to the merge and as far as work load - it does not matter if you are FT or PT, the only difference is qualification for insurance. I do really feel sorry for those experiencing this situation, as I have lived it and still living the nightmare.

I can guarantee they do not give the work to - not through a merger employee

[ In Reply To ..]
original Transcend employees that do not come through on a merge. They treat us all bad and we are all scraping for lines.

Contact the employee advocate? This is awful, I'm so sorry this happened. - Just a thought. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
no message

The employee advocate is worthless. She is just another - No way

[ In Reply To ..]
rah rah transcend wannabe who goes along with whatever management wants and tries to convince you the problem is just you, transcend is perfect. She is very good and very convincing in her discussions, but she is definitely anything but an employee advocate. Stay away and do not trust her.

Wow - what an EVIL company. (nm) - SanFrannie

[ In Reply To ..]

Just what I thought, worthless - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
Below this post is a post with a thread that petains to employee advocate. "If she hasn't contacted you yet, let me know via e-mail - and I will put you in touch with her." Read it - yeah - as if I am going to give out my email address. The way I look at it if she reads this board as frequently as the thread states apparently we all would not be having the difficulties we are encountering on a daily and ongoing basis. I still would like to KNOW who the emmployee advocate is!!!! I have never seen anything on the MLS web site.

I'm a different poster, but I know the employee advocate's name. - She was one of several who did TimeSaver training.

[ In Reply To ..]
I would be glad to give you her name but we are not supposed to use names here.
An idea might be to either email me or the other poster who offered, but create an email account and make sure that there is no identifying information (be sure that the user name is the same as the email, don't enter your name there) and use that to maintain your privacy. Anyway, that's my thought.
I've had no experience with her but I have heard positive things, whereas another poster here said it was not positive.

We have an employee advocate???- - longtimemt

[ In Reply To ..]
Who is she? Is this just for the merger? I've been here 6 years and have never heard of such a person.

Advocate - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I now the name of the person who trained me - I recognize her name as a QA person. But, I never knew she was an employee advocate !!! I have never heard before any such thing. Maybe she got a new title to go along with her QA and got a BONUS.

The employee advocate is not in QA. -- nm - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Trainer/advocate - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I was just respondnig to this thread and soneone had stated their trainer was the employee advocate. My emails pertaining to training were from a person in QA. I did not realize there were several trainers - oops.

Agree with below poster. The advocate is NOT in QA. - Title is Employee Advocate on her emails. There w

[ In Reply To ..]
No message.

Sorry, post cut off. - See inside

[ In Reply To ..]
Sorry about that. What I typed was that there were several trainers, not just one. The one I had was the employee advocate and it is on every one of her emails.

The advocate is a joke - Granny

[ In Reply To ..]
This is a joke. If they really cared there would be a place we could go to voice our concerns that it wouldn't go right back to our supervisors and then while they say they are not punishing us for voicing our concerns they are! This is a horrible company to work for!!

Transcend - Grandy

[ In Reply To ..]
I quit Transcend due to the perpetual lack of work as well as the fact that TLs were taking all of the easiest work off of my account and sending it overseas. TLs would then tell me that I should be honored that they trusted me with the more difficult work. This has happened to dozens of people. The client (my account) wanted American transcriptionists, but Transcend was telling them that there were no American transcriptionists to work on their account. Transcend (in my opinion) is just plain dirty. That was when I quit. I feel no obligation to provide the most productive work to foreign freaks, which is what Transcend requires. That might actually be what happened to your account too.

You verified my suspicions - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
The first week after my merge last year I noticed one particular dictator was not available to me. My primary account was an MTs DREAM with the exception of 2 dictators, but 2 out of 7 was acceptable. Then I noticed slowly the other ones disappearing and I was left with the ones no one else wanted. When I inquired about this the TL told me that maybe they were using another company or were on vacation - she just hedged and gave me no answers that satisfied me. I had the suspicion the TL was taking all the gravy, as they also have to meet a daily quota. Then at one point my primary disappeared altogether and when I inquired about it they said it had been moved to a different typing platform. I then let them know that I was trained on that platform, as it was the same platform of my secondary. She then put me back on it, but some days there is no work at all available to me. Then I was put on an account and speciality in which I had no experience in whatsoever. What a bunch of CRAP. This is so DISGUSTING as I sit here with no jobs !!!!! This has been going on for a year now. Wny not send the CRAP overseas and let us USA MTs make a living, but no - as far as I am concerned these companies are just as bad as the big banks giving out bonuses and squeezing out the little people. No wonder our economy is in such a downfall. Now I will be wound up for the rest of the week as I sit with nothing to do and wonder how I am going to make ends meet and not end up in the poor house.

RLee- Just a honest question for you - Curious

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been reading a lot of your posts and you obviously are very unhappy working there, and if the situation is what your saying with low/no work, dishonesty etc, then I would not blame you. I just wonder if this has been going on for so long, why are you still there? I know the job market is awful right now but it doesn't sound like your making enough working there anyway, so why not move on. This is a honest question and I'm not trying to be sarcastic or any of that. I also do not work for Transcend. I did for three years until over a year and had to quit due to my mother being ill. I honestly loved my job there but they would not hire me back, which is fine. It sounds like things have changed in the past year.

To curious - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I have only been with Transcend a year, not by choice, by a merge. I seemed to think the first 5 months things would get better, that it was not just me, but found out different as the months went by. I complained to TLs and they would say it was just a slump and work would pick up. So that takes care of the first half of the year. I really hate to divulge too much info because I do not want to give my identity away - but this past summer I had personal problems to deal with and was dealing with those and could not divert all my energy to what was going on at Transcend, as I had family matters to tend to. After those resolved this fall, the situation just continued to go downhill and kept getting worse. My TL told me things would pick up the beginning of the year, which they have not. I am always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but am finding out that is not always a good decision. I am at the end of my rope and have been testing for other companies and looking for work elsewhere, but nothing has happened yet. So that is the story in a nutshell. As you stated, you do not work for Transcend, so you have not had to personally listen to all the different excuses they have handed out to me in the last year. Count your blessings that you had a good experience there, but I cannot say the same. I honestly would have liked my experience there if they would have left my pooling alone. Yes, things have not only changed in the past year, but they change from day to day. So when something comes my way, I will move on -- but until then I will collect my partial unemployment, as if I quit - we both know that I would not be eligible for even that, and at this point anything to help contribute to the family household is a blessing. Obviously you have been reading the posts, and I am not the only unhappy employee at Transcend. :)

Thanks RLee - Curious

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for your honesty and I do feel for your situation. Believe it or not, I was part of a MDI-FL (different company than yours)and Transcend merge after I had worked for MDI-FL for quite a while. A lot of people were not happy with the merge and left but I liked the people I worked with so I stayed and gave it a shot. Maybe they have just gotten so big. I believe if I was still part of MDI-FL I would have been able to come back but I had tried once after my mom got sick but she ended up back in the hospital and I couldn't start as planned and they would not even give me another chance. I still have good memories of some of the TLs but it's just a shame it has all changed. Best wishes to you. I hope you find something.

Transcend - Grandy - Fatcat

[ In Reply To ..]
Grandy, too bad you didn't tell them to "honor" you with a little something extra in your paycheck since you were doing the hardest work. It is a shame that MDI got into the business bed with folks who offshore.

TypaDee - Fatcat

[ In Reply To ..]
TypaDee, I was a long-time MDIer who somehow just knew something like this was bound to happen, so I refused to go when they merged. I wish I had something to say to really help you; sadly, I do not. I do want you to know that my heart goes out to you. I think that this just shows where ethics and humanity have gone in our profession. Again, I am so sorry and hope you can find something better soon.

That stinks - rmt

[ In Reply To ..]
Well I am also an MDI/Transcend radiology employee but I was full time before and still am. I am struggling to get enough work so I guess I see why they did what they did but I still sympathize with you. I do not know what account you are on but radiology is unusually slow lately on my account. I have also been told time and again there are no secondary accounts. I hope things get better!

To that stinks - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I was told last year when they removed me from my tertiary that they wanted everyone to have only 2 accounts. Then the TL on my secondary months after that removed me from my secondary becasue I was taking work away from the primaries on that account. I had typed my secondary account for over 3 years and it was the account I was hired for before the merge and at one time it was my primary. After I was removed from that account my TL told me to get a hold of the TL where my primary was so I would not run out of work. Said things were slow all around. So now i am stuck with only a primary with no work in it.

Typadee.... - please see message

[ In Reply To ..]
File a claim with unemployment. You are entitled to do this if your job cannot provide full-time work.

Next, document your experience with a letter to the depts of labor in your state as well as state in which Transcend is incorporated. Copy that letter to the insurance commissioners, senators, and representatives of both states. Copy Transcend, too.

Make sure to explain that this cut in hours came shortly after you received your insurance cards. Send photocopies of the cards.

Good luck to you. This company sounds so underhanded as to be virtually illegal.

To Typadee - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I am not part of the MDT merge, but obviously am in the same boat with limited work made available to me. I filed for unemployment in my state and am receiving it. What you make a week for Transcend they deduct from your unemployment check and plus you get a $25 stimulus check per week thanks to Obama. I am eligible for almost $400 per week with unemployment and you can get I do not regret it. It is actually more than I have been making in months with Transcend - so be it.

But at MDI we were ICs and didn't pay state unemployment taxes. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
X

We were not ICs! - Jason

[ In Reply To ..]
My tax lawyer says that we were NOT true ICs but rather SEs, statutory employees.

Agree with Jason. Everyone at MDI was an SE. - MDI never called us IC no msg

[ In Reply To ..]
no message

The label IC or SE has nothing to do with the fact - that we did not pay unemployment insurance.

[ In Reply To ..]
My post was about the fact that someone transitioning to Transcend and not getting any work may have a hard time trying to claim any unemployment at this point because we did not pay unemployment insurance for the past 6 months. It doesn't matter if we were ICs, SEs, or polka-dotted tooth fairies. It's going to be hard collecting from a program we didn't pay into.

From what I understand - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I know ICs cannot collect unemployment. If you were considered an employee prior to your transition to Transcend you are probably entitled to unemployment if your prior company paid into the program. The company pays into the program not the emmployees. At least in my state, unemployment goes back to what I made for the year 2009 and the 6 months prior. Excluding ICs I would inquire to your local unemployment office via the internet, as in my case it was easier to file online than to get an actual human on the phone. On their website many of your questions can probably be answered. If in doubt - still file online or talk to someone - it may be worth it - the worst case scenario is you would be denied.

I agree, but to my knowledge MDI only paid 7.5% of the SE tax, - and did not pay unemployment insurance.

[ In Reply To ..]
I could be wrong and MDI may pay it for some according to different state laws, but when I first interviewed with MDI I was told by C. that the only thing paid by MDI was half the SE tax. In my state, it is mandatory to pay in to state disability insurance, and this was taken out of my check, but there was never any deduction for unemployment as an SE.

ICs - MDI/trans MT

[ In Reply To ..]
If we were not ICs, then why is it at a training session today for our time cards a manager called some of ICs?

ICs - mdmtmom

[ In Reply To ..]
MDI only had SE status; however, we had an option of becoming full-time, part-time or IC for Transcend. To become an IC for Transcend, you had to obtain a Tax ID number from the IRS. There were instructions sent out about this. But, again, MDI only had statutory employee status. Transcend also had ICs prior to the MDI merger. These are the people being referred to when ICs are referenced.

Thanks for verifying that! - MDI/MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I appreciate your response, clears up a lot for me.

Wow - TiredMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I definitely feel your pain. My status was changed from FT to PT, effectively immediately because I wasn't producing enough...kind of hard to do when I would sit here days on end with nothing to type on either account. I work another job so I couldn't sit in front of my pc 13-14 hours daily, hoping for work.

To MDI/Transcend MT's - Been there

[ In Reply To ..]
Every time I see someone going through a bad time during one of these mergers/buyouts, having gone through this myself, I totally emphathize. Every time I see someone post "Hope it gets better" I feel ill. It's NOT going to get better. It's most likely going to get worse.

The more I think about it... - class action

[ In Reply To ..]
I wonder if you guys at Trascend can organize into a group, get a free consult with a labor lawyer, and file a class action suit.

It sounds like the company has an effective strategy of avoid offering benefits/pulling benefits by continuing to limit the amount of work available.

I would really look into the legality of this, and flatten them if you can. This is positively galling! They should be ashamed of themselves.

As long as we are talking legal action - Jason

[ In Reply To ..]
I hope that the former MDIers who left will also consider a class action for all of the many hours we sat in front of the computers waiting for work. This went on for months. I know a couple of people who nearly lost their homes and/or were forced into bankruptcy. My legal sources tell me that we need to be paid for all of that time we just sat, as we were SEs, NOT ICs.

No one owes anyone work or a job! Are you serious? - Just have to get past this.

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Are you?? - class action

[ In Reply To ..]
Of course no one owes anyone a job!

However, employers have to act lawfully. If an employer stipulates a production minimum required for benefits, offers you employment that satisfies that minimum, then CUTS the workload in order to disqualify you from benefits, that's a BIG problem.

It's one thing if they advise you that your work is not up to their standard. It's quite another when you have insurance cards in hand, and then your benefits are removed.

Sorry, but MTSOs - like all employers - need to be accountable for their business models and operating schemes.

BTW, I don't work for an MTSO, so I have no personal stake in this issue at all. I am just astonished that these companies are so under the radar that they can get away with this nonsense.

Similar Messages:

Dec 21, 2009

I just wondered...has anyone ever made a mistake on a report (which was your fault and you readily admit you screwed up) and get an email stating: please explain why you made that mistake because the client is waiting for an explanation??!!! WTH? Yes, I purposely made that error because I wanted too? I enjoy making critical errors? My error was most likely a keystroke error that I failed to catch..I admit it. I try to be as careful as possible but I am human. ...

Apr 21, 2010

I started my bartending class yesterday.. first time I have done anything outside the house in 7 years. I was terrified. I don't think I really realized how isolating and stressful working for the Q at home really was. I had almost forgotten what it was like to interact with real people, doing something that was real and down to earth. But I had a wonderful time, terrified though I was. I still feel like I've been totally reborn, and I am so relieved to be out of th ...

May 06, 2010

I just to recently switched to a whole new region, supervisor and QA supervisor with 3 days notice because of ONE particular account I transcribe on. I had been typing the previous accounts for over 5 years. Since the switch two weeks ago, I have now TEN new accounts that I type for with all new CP's, set-ups and dictators; however, I have noted AT ALL the account for which I had previously typed which was the reason I was transferred in the first place!! Furthermore, there& ...

Jun 21, 2010

DocQScribe froze trying to download next report. Tried to check Q E-mail while I was waiting and it is "not available." Am I the last to know something? ...

Oct 11, 2010

Occasionally when I'm doing an ASR report and insert a QA marker the yellow cursor marker will go away and the cursor goes to the end of the report. Then I have to scroll back through the report to find my place and if I lift my foot off the foot pedal it happens again. Does anyone know how to fix this? It's irritating on a really long report. TIA. ...

Jun 14, 2011

(I am not a "suit." :-) ) I would like to know from some of you what is the going rate now (really) for lines per hour or hourly pay and if there are even steady hours anymore. I just can't believe that this "profession" has gone downhill so much and downhill so quickly in even the last 5 years. I wonder what the next 5 years will look like or if there will even be MTs? If anyone has left the "profession" because they just can't make a living doing this anymore, what are you doing n ...

Jul 03, 2012

that was just on there earlier and now it's gone? I was going to send an email, came back to get the address and the posting is gone. Must have hired someone already? ...

Jan 07, 2013

When I signed on this morning, I pulled down 3 reports. I did the first one and went back to find just one left. What happened to the other report? Please let me know if you know. Thanks ...

Jan 24, 2013

I am curious to know if you got any responses to your emails. ...

Jan 28, 2013

to DF with MDI? Is she still there somewhere on board with Nuance. Wonder what she thinks about all of this, not that it really matters at this point, just curious... ...

Mar 01, 2013

Transcend law suit? I haven't seen it mentioned recently and wondered if it was still going on or settled. Anyone know? ...

May 18, 2013

You are made part time because you can't make full time line counts due to low work volumes, then when you go part time, you are given more accounts? ...

Jul 22, 2013

Used to work there but have been gone awhile and have been gone from these boards just as long. Did they finally shut down?? My second question .. is there ANYONE out there still hiring radiology transcriptionists or has every radiology job out there been sold out to PowerScribe? ...

Aug 14, 2013

That is when I got a new CSM and they said they were "restructuring" and some CSMs were going to deal only with MTs and some only with customers. My new CSM said her old MTs were always running out of work because THEY said the average MT could do "x amount" of dictation and most of hers could do twice that, and so when she got the "new-to-her" MTs and accounts, then we all started running out of work. ...

Mar 13, 2014

Hi all. Is SGS still an MT company? Did it get sold? Did it change to coding only? Does anyone know? Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me. B ...

Jul 19, 2014

Having been at this job for only five months, I've noticed certain new behaviors in myself that can only be attributed to the stressors of this job: Insomnia Stress eating Stress drinking Stress shopping I know have to eliminate some of the above behaviors in order to attain a state of well-being. I have to thank god that I inherited my mom's pension after she passed away, because if it weren't for her pension supplementing my income, I would have told MModal to � ...

Mar 09, 2015

for failing Jan and Feb audits? Curious how it went. ...

Oct 19, 2009

I had a post about how much to ask for my Stedman's books & Infinity USB foot pedal, and now it is gone. It has not been moved anywhere. Where is it? ...

Nov 18, 2009

Does anyone know what became of CyMed? I worked for them about 3 years ago and have been away from transcription. I left on good terms and thought about reapplying but they seem to have vanished? What happened? ...

Jan 07, 2010

I was bored and reading posts today when I realized that the poster known as "Pug Mom" seems to have disappeared into thin air. I don't know when she disappeared because today is the first day I noticed it, but she seemed to have quite a few issues going on and I was wondering if anyone knew what happened to her. Anyway, no biggie, just noticed the absence of a fellow poster and thought I'd see if anyone here knew her and if she was okay. ...

Feb 11, 2010

It probably has been discussed already, but I haven't been here in a while. But, what happened with them? Why did they go bankrupt? ...

Apr 26, 2010

// ...

May 06, 2010

As stated in my previous post, I have been typing all new accounts for the last 2 weeks with no training whatsoever. I got a "critical error" report back because of the number of blanks I had put into the report and sent directly to the client. When reviewing the report, I noticed that some of the blanks were not caused by me at all, but by the QA person rewording the dictation to his/her liking. Furthermore, this QA person had re-added in prohibited abbreviations where I had taken them out (add ...

Jun 04, 2010

I am reading on this board and seeing that people from Medquist are being let go, places are being bought out, hospitals are selling in-house to the outside services now. The services charge a decent amount of money to these hospitals, but we see pennies of it. What is sad is that what we do is very important, yet we are treated like all we do is type words (and anyone who has done ESL docs know it isn't just words - it's format, it's incorrect pronunciation, inco ...

Jun 07, 2010

There were several replies to it also. ...

Sep 27, 2010

Maybe if they wait long enough, nobody will remember, right? ...

Oct 15, 2010

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the quotes and wildcard search don't seem to be working with Google anymore, or at least not as well as it used to before? Anyone else noticed this? Also, what's with the new layout? Anyone miss the old Google? ...

Oct 27, 2010

Remember the contest they were running when we downloaded 6.1? The one with the flat screen TVs? I might have missed something, but did anybody win? ...

Nov 18, 2010

Once I am in schedulesource, I am stuck in it. There is no end key, log out key, NOTHING! It seems different to me too! Now I have to completely close it while I am in it to get out of it! Anyone else with this problem? ...

Jan 16, 2011

SR sucks. This is not why I became an MT, to listen and correct. I wanted to type, but rarely get the opportunity outside of making corrections. ...