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

Well, I got my Mercedes contract... - OTIperson

Posted: Sep 06, 2014

Knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad....and VBC, no headers or footers.

Ugh. I did not receive mine, but no way would I go for that. sm - Unhappy OTIer

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I hope the sisters have something better to offer, or I may just walk away from the whole thing. I have not been impressed with these phone calls, and the more I learn, the less I like. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate the heads up.

Did they lower the pay rate too? Looks like the new COO sm - Has India on her mind

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OTI/Mercedes just threw its MTs under the bus.

Not me - I havent received anything yet

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No contract, no email, no nothing. I wonder why?

Me neither, but 6-1/2 cpl VBC is an awful rate. nm - No thanks

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Totally disgusted at this point.

I did too, and I WILL NOT WORK FOR 0.65 CPL. - They can suck an egg! SM

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I'll completely retire first/

Mercedes Offer - Sharon

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I got my contract offer also for 6.5 cpl with no headers/footers...Totally disgusted - I wrote back and told them that I did not share in their enthusiasm and was not excited but was extremely insulted that they would offer this to me! I have over 40 years experience, am a single mom with a mortgage and a daughter in college with tuition of over 35,000.00 a year.....6.5 cpl??? Are they kidding? Needless to say, I respectively declined their offer.

Update.....The owner of Mercedes reached out to me wanting to speak to me because of my reply as to their contract. Those of us who have been in this line of work "forever" know that it is the hospitals who are to blame here and not entirely the companies or the competition for that matter...The hospitals just don't care who does their transcription as long as they get the lowest rate around....The companies in turn are struggling to keep afloat (not all, but some)and are forced to come in with the lowest bids to the hospitals just to keep the work here and to have a viable business resulting in a low cpl to the transcriptionists. While I completely "get" where he's coming from and respect him for trying to keep the work here in the U.S., I don't envy the decisions he has to make in order to keep his company competitive...and on the same token, he totally "gets" where I'm coming from in that I just cannot accept that low of a cpl and maintain my household, being a single parent. We both came away with lets say, a new-found respect for one another - after all, we're in the same business...just on different ends of the spectrum..and while this cpl is not a good fit for me, I'm sure there will be those of us who will accept this contract and work happily ever after. So perhaps my opening statement was a bit harsh...this is America and I still have the right to "accept or decline"...and in this case, I declined.

I meant I will not work for 0.065 cpl - OP

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d

If that is 6 1/2 cpl for VR that is better than most MTSO - will pay. nm

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zx

That's for straight typing!! - OP

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d

Sounds like they better go to Plan B - with offshoring their work

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How can they expect a U.S. MT to survive, keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, with such low pay? Don't they realize what the cost of living is in the U.S.? I'm not talking about luxuries, I'm talking about just the very basic living expenses. While they go out for nice dinners and drive around in their Mercedes. Yeah, right. At wages like that, I'd be hard pressed just to keep Top Ramen on the table for dinner.

And God only knows what they'll pay for VR! - They are goint to want it free!!

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d

Pretty soon... - Snoopy

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they'll want US to pay THEM for the privilege of working! This is getting so ridiculous.

Yes, I was hoping "Mercedes" was someone's mother's name - Nicole

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rather than life-stye of the rich and famous ""champagne wishes and caviar dreams" as if that's going to impress the healthcare managers looking for cheaper and/or better service.

VBC - buns

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We should conduct our correspondence with them in VBC!

Is there a handy-dandy conversion rate for real characters typed vs. VBC? - anemone

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Several of my Bayscribe accounts have required HTML formating (obviously not VBC).

Curious how much less than 0.065 this VBC line count really adds up to.

I found this article - An OTIer

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http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/ftr_05122008p6.shtml

And let me say that, though I suck at math, I think it's safe to say that, based on this formula, an MT would lose around 1.57 per 100 lines typed when using VBC. Now, if it were a 55-VBC line I THINK (again, I suck at math), it would end up being not much difference.

from your link, by my calculation, it's a 20% paycut - anemone

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"" For example, a 100-line document for which the medical transcriptionist is paid 8 cents per line results in a total price of $8. To make the conversion from a 65-character line (what many services have billed on and paid for) to essentially a 65-character line without spaces, divide the total number of characters in a document with spaces by 65 and multiply by 52.2; the total is the number of black characters. Then divide $8 by the number of characters (80.38) for the per character rate of .099.""

(( I don't understand why they calculate it this way -- above -- or how .099 figures ))

Sample Document
6,500 characters with spaces = 100 lines

100 standard 65-character lines @ 0.065 = $6.50
5,222 VBCs (no spaces) = 80 65-character-VBC lines = $5.20 = which is 20% less

Which just isn't negligible ... I double, triple checked my math ... There may be something I overlooked ...

thanks for the link!!!

.065 - .06 and no spaces

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Saince pays one rate for straight and speech, .06 with no spaces. Lots of shifts with only straight typing, so still getting paid .06, no spaces. When you do get the VR, you wish you hadn't, since it's very bad. So we "teach the speech" and then watch our work disappear and go you know where. Used to always have tons of work, now there is nothing but bottom of the barrel or nothing at all.

I think they're just going through the motions - shadow

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pretty much all stick, no carrot -- as with the conference calls -- not even pretending to be warm or fuzzy or "excited" -- nothing to suggest that anything about working for these people is going include dialogue or negotiation.

A minor detail, but they are staying with Bayscribe.

Consider only as (temporary) stop-gap.

Just wonderful - sm

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I have not received anything as of this moment, thought contracts were supposed to be sent out yesterday after the call. Was there mention of which accounts they were keeping and the platform? Thanks

I wonder what really - sm

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went on behind the scenes in all of this, not that it matters at this point. I am just so sad right now, just puts the icing on the cake of my life this week, but, hey, just business, right? Do they even want people coming over to their company, with the kind of offer that has been stated here, makes me wonder. I think it would not have been unreasonable to allow a little more time for decision making for the MTs whose lives this is greatly impacting. And I don't know why I even think that, having been through many similar situations, ya think I would have wised up by now.

Given the pitiful amount offered, perhaps they realized no time was needed. sm - I would certainly hope all would say no

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I have said it before, but if people continue to accept lower and lower wages, the wages will continue to fall. Scripted phone calls with no interaction allowed and the COO's background with companies that offshore does not bode well. I try not to wish anything bad on anyone, but I cannot honestly say that I wish these Mercedes creatures any luck at all.

I wonder if I did not get a contract because all of my accounts sm - are with the sisters

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I have no idea what will happen, but I have no interest in Mercedes. To offer 6-1/2 for IC work is disgusting, and then not to pay for spaces on top of it shows just how little they value the American MT. They want to offshore, so let them. Their name might be Mercedes, but any MT working for them would be lucky to afford a Yugo.

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