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

Bad, Bad situation - Sinking Ship

Posted: Dec 23, 2012

I expect to get flamed or slammed here, but I have a question. Is there anyone else on this board that works for the measily 7 cpl for straight typing and if so, how in heck do you survive? I am a pretty fast typist and I use a word expander, but I find it almost impossible to make any kind of a living from this now. The last MTSO I worked for the hospital decided to go with the Q and I did find another MTSO to work for, but for 30% less than what I was making before. I have been an MT for 10 years and I never worked for 7 cpl. Even as a newbie, I got 8.5 cpl and then after I had to change companies, I got 9.5 cpl. I am really struggling. Is there a way to increase your speed doing this kind of work? I don't want to hear, "Well, you can go back to school and get a 'real' job," or have anyone ask me, "Well, why did you accept this job?" (Like I have a choice when everyone else out there is paying the same thing). I have a disability that prevents me from taking an outside job, although I would be good at it. I have a master's degree in business, but I cannot work as an employee because of that disability. I am not reliable as an employee. As a contractor, I can work around those times that I am sick, not as an employee. I am 62 years old and I have no husband, family, or significant other. My mother who is 84 years old who was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer last year is living with me. She is, by the way, cancer free after radiation therapy. I have my daughter, her significant other and two of my grandchildren living with us. I am dying over here. My daughter does not work and even if she did, she refuses to help out with bills. It's a long story and not a good one. But are there any tips or tricks that some of you utilize to increase your production so you can keep up with these lousy rates? That's really the bottom line of what I need to know. The rest is just a rant.

Bad Situation - Getting worse!

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I work for 7 cpl for a company on a very limited part time basis and my other account pays 8 cpl and that is about the best I can do. You cannot expect to make much more and even if you do, the dictation can be so bad, it takes forever to transcribe a report. I know there are MTs who "claim" to make very good money, but IF they do, they are the exception or they are fabricating, can't tell which. If you cannot live on $10-$12 an our and in some cases like M-Modal they are making minimum wage, I would look for another type of employement. Transcription isn't what it used to be and if you think 7 cpl is bad, try 5! Yep, I did that and lasted about a week. Talk about no money and I am a fast typist with expanders out the whazoo as well.

In my case, using shortcuts - does not increase my productivity at all......

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.....because a lot of the time there's no work to produce! I'm always running out of work. :-(

Maximize - me

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that expander to the best of your ability. Use blocks of text, not just single words or phrases. If you are on a dedicated account, put things like the doc's PE and ROS in your expander. Put dates in your expander. if you have a doc who consistently uses a patient's name, put in your expander using a simple tag (I use XX and am currently working with Instant Text, which will put that most recent entry on top of the access list). if you're using Word-based software, make sure that your default for spellcheck doesn't automatically add words to your list and check the dictionary in your Word to make sure you don't have errors. Don't do anything more than what you're supposed to do. You're not being paid to do research, so if the name isn't on your easily accessible database, flag it for review. Don't look up addresses if you can avoid it. If you do, then you're releasing medical information and may be in violation of HIPAA. Don't report errors more than once. If you have a doc whose consistently doing something wrong, report it once and only once.

Above all only do your job. Don't cover for your manager or supervisor. You're not being paid to do that.

Remember if what you're doing doesn't produce lines, you're not being paid for it. Don't work for free.
Hope this helps.

A lot of good advice, Maximize. Would you please - explain the potential HIPAA violation? sm

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"Don't look up addresses if you can avoid it. If you do, then you're releasing medical information and may be in violation of HIPAA."

How does, say, googling a dictated address to confirm lead to releasing medical information? Are you saying there's a risk of getting the wrong address that should be passed on to QA? Or?

Thanks very much.

Because - me

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IMO you're assuming that the address you found is in fact the destination for the medical information. You are, in essence, choosing to release that info. I never look up addresses. If the dictator doesn't provide it, I don't type it. I also don't get paid for it because the platform I used doesn't count those lines as they are part of header/footer, which I don't get paid for.

I don't even look up addresses out of the patient database. I can't confirm that the address is correct (and often they are not) and I won't be responsible for releasing any medical information. If the doc wants it sent, he or she needs to dictate the address.

Not the MTs decision... - MT

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MTs are not supposed to decide whether they are going to look up and add addresses or not. If the company/client you work for requires you to add addresses, then, well, you need to add them. If it is optional, then you can choose to leave it out. If you are intentionally leaving out addresses when this is required, eventually your reports are going to go through QA and you will have an issue because you didn't follow account specifics. If it is required, you need to find out exactly where they expect you to find current addresses, what is acceptable to use and what is not. Get it in writing. It is not good advice to tell MTs to just leave things out.

Yes it is our decision, we can go to jail!!! - Tired Old MT

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While I appreciate your professionalism, you are indeed running a risk if you release medical reports, even at the request of the physician. It is our responsibility to make very very sure the report goes to the right person, so if there is any vagueness whatsoever, let the physician's office do it. The poster you replied to, gave us extremely good advice which we would all do well to follow. The laws covering patient confidentiality are extremely comprehensive, and you can find with the best of intentions paying not only a heavy fine but ending up in prison for a couple of years. The laws in fact are so harsh that I find myself asking is this job worth it if I send a cc at the dicator's request and he has dictated an incorrect fax # or address. The law will fall just as harshly on us as on the person responsible, and no written guarantee from the MTSO is going to protect us. It is a good idea, though to make sure that some liability insurance is provided by your employer, they can at least protect you financially although and provide you with an attorney, although they can't prevent a felony prosecution. Err on the side of caution here.

Education is key... - MT

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It's a matter of client preference, not MT's choice. You do realize that many physicians are automatically CC'd in the background without an MT entering any CC information, right? The MT's name and/or ID # is usually listed at the bottom of the report, too. You are being very paranoid. If a physician specifically asks that a report be sent to the address of a specific physician, an MT should NEVER simply disregard that request because of HIPAA. The proper course of action, as I stated previously, is to find out where the client prefers physician addresses to be taken from. They may have their own list available. I hope you also realize that MTs generally work for a hospital/physician/company who is responsible for HIPAA compliance. This is really a no-brainer. If the client makes a request, we honor that request. If it is questionable, we ask questions. NEVER should an MT disregard a client request simply because the MT is unsure. This topic really sheds light on just how out of touch MTs are with HIPAA compliance.

I use the provided database - me

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for physician addresses and that is automated by the software. I don't look up patient addresses and I don't look up physician addresses even if requested by the dictator. If the dictator provides an address, I transcribe it exactly as dictated. I don't use Google or any other unrelated site for this information. HIPAA will not absolve me from blame if my employer chooses to scapegoat me rather than pay the fine themselves.

Contradictions... - MT

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This is what you said in your post above: I don't even look up addresses out of the patient database. I can't confirm that the address is correct (and often they are not) and I won't be responsible for releasing any medical information.

Now, you are saying that you use addresses from the provided database. So, which is it? You use addresses provided or you don't? Get your story straight.

If an address is not dictated but a request is made to send to a physician's address, guess what you are supposed to do? You are supposed to flag the report and let the physician provide the correct address. You are not supposed to just leave it out to "maximize" your time, as you stated originally.

Regarding your HIPAA fears, I would suggest you learn more about what you are responsible for and what you are not, as you are clearly lacking education in this regard. If you are serious about learning, go to the AHIMA Web site and search for educational material.

I use it - me

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I use that database for physician addresses. I don't use any for patient addresses. I also flag according to established policy if I am unsure as to the recipient's identity (such as two people with the same name). If a physician dictates a letter to a patient, he or she must also dictate that address or the letter will be transcribed w/o an address. Review of current HIPAA regulations will not save me if my employer decides to scapegoat me if my transcription of an address results in medical info being sent to the wrong recipient.

Each individual must make these decisions. I prefer not to leave myself vulnerable to potential retribution by my employer.

Being a scapegoat... - MT

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You are now adding patient addresses into this discussion? This is embarrassing, really.

You absolutely need to review current HIPAA regulations. You are very confused regarding what you are responsible for and what you are not responsible for. You won't need to be "saved." Your employer is the responsible party. Again, if you had educated yourself in this regard, we would not even need to have this current discussion.

As I said - me

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We each make our own choices.

responsibility & education - tired old MT

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I am sorry to say this but you are mistaken and I am quite well educated in this regard. And it is sad that your employer has not educated you properly regarding HIPAA laws, or if you are an MTSO owner, you have not done your research or talked to an attorney about this. So let me say it again, if YOU release a medical report to an individual or organization that is not authorized to receive it, whether or not it is a simple mistake or, god forbid, deliberate on your part, YOU are civilly and criminally responsible for it. The organization you work for will also be held criminally and civilly responsible (and not only that but the person who receives the information will also be held criminally and civilly liable.) Although a jury may find that you not guilty if it was just an innocent mistake, don't count on it. Besides, do you really want to go through a criminal trial? Further, beware, you cannot discuss a case with anyone who is not authorized to receie the information, even if you have removed all identifying details. I wish all of you who are arguing about this would protect yourselves and take a long serious look at the laws, perhaps discuss it with a lawyer as well. These laws are so serious, we should be asking ourselves if we should continue working in this field at all if our employers require us to release the records at anyone, we do not have enough information at our fingertips to verify that person or agency is authorized to recieve the report. What we should do, all of us, is band together, as a profession and agree that we will NOT ever send a cc to anyone ever, even if we cannot agree on anything else! What we should do is transcribe/edit the report for the dictator/institution, and that is it. They can send out the cc's. We should not under any circumstances do so, the risk is too great and the compensation is too small. Please please please take me seriously and check this out for yourselves.

You are misinformed... - MT

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Not only are you misinformed and repeating the same wrong information over and over, you should also use paragraphs. You are not helping anyone here by providing inaccurate information. Repetition does not equate to accuracy.

Misinformation? - tired old MT

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Really, so you think am I misinformed? Is it worth the risk finding out the hard way? Are you that arrogant, so certain you know all that there is to know, that you think you must be right without even bothering to find out?

Not only that but in your arrogance you are willing to mislead everyone else who does not know for certain, who is looking for information, and as well may send innocent parties to jail because you are so smugly sure you are right, that you are the perfect MT incapable of being wrong!

I urge all of you who have questions about this not to take my word for it, or this other person's, but instead check relevant statutes for yourself or talk to an attorney! This is very very serious. I repeat, ad nauseum, with, and without, paragraphs:

If you release medical information to a party who is not authorized to receive it, not only will you be held civilly liable but criminally as well, and it does not matter whether it was a deliberate or a mistake. If the person whose medical medical record was mishandled, decides to prosecute you, and it was an honest mistake, the jury might find you not guilty, but is it worth it?

The agency receiving the unathorized information will also face civil and criminal charges and, as well, your employer, the institution, and the dictating physician.

Despite what you said, there is a point in going on and on about this, until the moderator shuts this thread down, and that is that the MT could be in serious trouble if she (or he) does not take extreme care in releasing medical reports (the safest thing to do as a profession would be to refuse to send cc's at all) and just in case that person does not read through the entire thread, but just these specific posts, that she (or he) gets the correct information.

So Dear Reader, should you think we are just a couple of quarrelsome MTs with nothing better to do (actually I do but work is very slow today) please just check with a lawyer, the legal dept of your MTSO or hospital, or the head of your medical record department.

And I challenge you, the poster who keeps arguing with me, to do the same for your own future's sake. Talk your MTSO's legal department or the medical record administrator/legal department of your hospital. You will find out that I am right and you are WRONG!!!!

Thank you.

not paranoid, IT IS THE LAW!!!!! - old MT

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I urge all of you in the strongest possible terms to take a look at the HPIAA laws for yourselves. Don't take my word for it, don't take the word of any MT here, look up the law for yourself, it is extremely harsh. I say YES YES YES you can go to prison and pay a hefty fine for an honest mistake, so stop arguing and go look up the law for yourself, prove me wrong, and make me look like a paranoid idiot and a fool shooting my ignorant mouth off. If the platform you are using sends out background CC's and you have nothing to do with it, this may (or may not) protect you, you would be well advised to look into it. I wish we had an organization that was actually useful, that would issue some kind of a blanket warning to all of you who are comfortable in your ignorance -- comfortable until one day the police show up and arrest you, and you are assessed thousands of dollars in fines, because the doctor transposed a fax number and YOU sent the report to a department store instead of where it was intended to go. My personal preference would be, and it would be the safest way to go, is to take the stance that the MT NEVER EVER sends a cc. We just transcribe the reports, and the institution or the physician takes the responsibility for sending out the reports.

Jail! Jail! Jail! - MT

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Your posts are laughable at best.

that's just incorrect - sm

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I don't disagree with your rant that people should be careful with protected health information, but HIPAA laws are in place so that we can punish gross negligence. Incidental errors are not meant to be heavily fined or to include jail time.

You need to educate yourself, NOT the law. - MT

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Besides the fact that we are not sending or releasing anything by simply typing a cc (on a document that is signed off by the physician), please look up things like breach exclusions, especially in regards to good faith, unintentional acquisition, and inadvertent disclosure.

Criminal penalties ONLY apply to those who "willfully" and "knowingly" obtain or disclose health information. The police are not going to "show up and arrest" an MT for a cc on a document that was signed off by the dictating physician. You need to stop spreading false information.

^^^^THIS^^^^ - nm

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nm

How silly, that an MT could "go to jail" for a cc?! - MT

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If a cc went to the wrong physician/address, the onus is on the dictating physician because it's assumed (although I know they don't) that they have reviewed and signed off on the document. Secondly, it's still addressed to a confidentiality-bound physician, not the public, not a newspaper, not a family member, etc. And thirdly, we have no responsibility at all concerning how a cc reaches a recipient; we don't actually send/mail/"release" anything. I do ABSOLUTELY agree with the fact that we shouldn't spend time Googling addresses for so many reasons - we're doing it for free, you can't be 100% sure it's correct, etc. - but certainly not because "we can go to jail". How ridiculous. Sheesh.

Tired Old MT - Old Pro

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I agree with you.

The client is responsible, not you - sm

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Unless you, personally, are sending copies to those addresses, you are not releasing anything.

The hospital which contracts for the transcription service is the one doing the releasing. The service, if it is so foolish as to send electronic, faxed, or hard copies, can be responsible.

If you are following the instructions provided to you by the hospital/client and the service, and you are not personally releasing anything, then you are not in violation of HIPAA.

That being said, I do agree with expecting the doctor to dictate the address if he wants anything sent. I do not think MTs need to be guessing at addresses just because it creates a HIPAA risk FOR THE HOSPITAL. Some clerk at the hospital is going to send that off to that address.

I don't think most hospitals are that foolish, though. Not now. I think doctors continue to dictate that they want copies sent to other people, but they are not aware of the risk or the fact that hospitals aren't doing what they ask. It's just habit.

You are wrong - tired old MT

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Not only is the institution you are working for reponsible, criminally and civilly, but you are as well, and not only that but the person or institution receiving the medical report in error will be held responsible as well!!!

You need to be aware of just how serious these laws are. The best way we could all protect ourselves, is to take the position that we do not EVER release a medical report to anyone except the person who dictates it.

I CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND - Molly

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I certain can relate to you. I am 70 and still working. Handed over my home to my grandson as I could not keep up a 13 room house. Now I find my grandson a self-employed carpenter has been without work for months and I am stuggling to help pay the bills I wanted to get rid of. I work for 0.075 a line straight typing a short cry from 0.095 that I made 4 years ago, but love the account and doing the best with it. Now we are going as of May to VR and I will be back up the creek without a paddle. I think after this job if I cannot do a decent wage with VR and editing, that is going to be the end and I will find a way to survive on my retirement SS.

Being an MT these days is a continual dilemma. - -(sm)-Meerkat

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I'm your age, been an MT for 35 years, and rarely getting those 7.5 cpl straight typing jobs anymore. For me, it's mainly the crummy 3.5 cpl VR editing jobs. When the work even comes in. (I'm on MTStars right now because as usual, there's no work).

During another lull today, I cleaned off part of my desk, and found old budgets from paychecks of 1 and 2 years ago. Was pretty P-O'ed to see I'm making about $200 less per paycheck than just last year. I'm going to dump this lousy job just as soon as I can find another (most likely NOT in MT.. the jobs are drying up as fast as the work is). But in the meantime, I have to keep limping along at this joke of a job.

So far, I've been existing on a wing and a prayer, a few side jobs that dribble in occasionally, and my savings, to supplement my anemic little MT paychecks.

So far, I haven't found a viable way to increase my speed enough to make 3.5 cpl work for me. My speed is up from a couple years ago, which would be nice if I were doing straight transcription, but I'm not. It's mostly VR. I'm afraid I don't buy into the myths that: VR is faster; or that most keyboard shortcuts touted by my employer are boons to production. A couple of them, yes. But most actually slow me down, so I don't use them, which of course they condemn me for every chance they get.

I coax a wee bit more speed out of these tired old fingers by keeping them warm. I can't type fast with cold hands. And I keep my brain awake with heavy caffeine use.

I get two pretty distinct kinds of VR reports to edit. One group consists of reports dictated by doctors who have "trained" the VR software more extensively (at least, as much as that VR cow-dung software CAN be trained). Those have a lower number of physical corrections I have to make in the report. The second group consists of doctors using VR which recognizes far less of what they say. I guess there are lots of reasons for this, and it isn't necessarily because they're bad dictators. One of my best doctors' work comes back a garbled mess from VR that looks like a foreign language. For those reports that I know for a fact that I can type faster than edit, I simply erase the VR mess, and completely type it myself. Since it's frequently the same couple of doctors that this happens to, I made my own templates that I can copy and paste into the H&P or ROS, for example, if needed.

I'm normally pretty anal about punctuation, but, since my employer has said, Go easy on the punctuation, I've taken them at their word on this, and I try to stifle the urge to turn VR's less-than-perfect punctuation into a perfectly punctuated work of art. The same goes for if there are too many "ands" in the sentence, or if the sentence ends with a preposition. If it's dictated that way, and VR spells it correctly, I leave it whenever possible. That will squeeze out a few extra lines per minute of transcription.

I try to do all demographic fill-ins first. Demographics can be one of my weak points, and making a mental note to send a CC to Dr. So&So when I get to the end of the report often doesn't work. So I do demographic entries the second they come up, even if I'm in the beginning or the middle of the report.

I think most of us keep work logs. I put only the info. I absolutely need on them, and have developed sort of a shorthand to keep it short and sweet. Each job gets a start & finish time. Gaps in work (NJA, break time, phone call, other interruption) get blocked out to make it easier and faster to count my working hours at the end of the day. It also helps me keep abreast of what sort of things are distracting me. I put the job number, and shorten that by putting quotation marks for most of the number, and just using the last 2 or 3 digits. That way I only have to write the long number once or twice all day. Then I put the type of report (H/P, DS, OP, etc) and the dictator's last name. And that's it!

Since our pay has dropped so drastically, I no longer feel compelled to proofread the report with the same diligence I do on my sideline work, which is general transcription of meetings, etc. For 3.5 cpl, if they want "perfect", then maybe they should just give up on the VR. It's a bit of a gamble, but I'm usually able to squeak by with 98+% accuracy on QA. I always run a spell-check at the end of the report, and I go back and do a quick eyeball of the report, looking for blanks, or any glaring mistakes, such as un-spaced new paragraphs, accidental duplications, etc. But that's it.

For blanks (we're allowed 3), I will go back and listen again while I'm still in the report. Such as if later on, I suddenly get a hunch that maybe I knew what that word was. Or, if the word is re-dictated later in the report, and I can now suddenly hear it, I'll go back and fill it in. But I absolutely DO NOT go back and re-listen to all my blanks, regardless of number, once I'm done, to try to fill any more in. Most of the time it's not going to make a difference in my favor, so I don't do it.

Depending on your account, or how well your software works, how good your dictator is, or how good your hearing and/or sound quality is, SOMETIMES you can squeeze a little speed out of editing by speeding up the sound. But only sometimes. My company thinks we should be listening to everything on "chipmunk speed", but it's just not possible with most of the dictators. Even with the good ones, there's a certain amount of risk to speeding it up while you're editing, because if your mind wanders, you can miss a larger chunk of the dictation.

I'm distractable enough that I wouldn't be surprised if I have ADD. So I'm always looking for tricks to keep me focused. For me, most only work marginally, and to get the best help from them I have to continually switch up and rotate the tricks. They can include setting a timer and trying to do nothing but typing during those timed periods. I'm so distractable that I can't set it for an hour at a time; I have to set it for 15-20 minute blocks of time. After a day of doing that, however, I have to toss the timer, and try a new trick the next day. I don't have anyone who depends on me (other than me!) so I can take my phone off the hook. Setting the answer machine doesn't work, because I still hear the ring, the click, and the message, and they all distract me!

My cats have pretty much learned that while I'm at the computer, I'm not at their beck and call for every little thing they want. Most of the time, they just come and go quietly from my office, or sleep on my desk. If however, one of them starts distracting me merely to be annoying, then he or she gets banished from the office. If I had roommates or children, the same rule would apply to them, as well. Except for the sleeping on the desk part!

I've found one way to at least partially quiet the jillion thoughts and ideas that jump out of my head while I' transcribing. You know, like: Oh- I've got to go get the car's oil changed! Oh- I've got to remember to buy a new pen/peanut butter/milk/etc. next time I go to the store! Oh- I've got to remember to call so&so! Oh- I've got the greatest idea for my next art/sewing/cooking/craft/gardening project! And so on and so forth. I make it a point to keep a pad of scratch paper next to me, and when a thought comes up, I quickly write it down. Then, it's there in case I need it (and frequently, later, I DON'T!). And my brain is free to forget about it for now, and get back to work, because now I don't have to worry about forgetting whatever it was that I thought was so important. This is especially true if I'm about to travel somewhere, or do anything that requires a checklist beforehand. That way less gets forgotten, there's less to worry about, and thus more free space in the brain to (try to) focus on working.

Great Points & Tips (sm) - Morgan

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The hardest thing for me to do is to convince myself that being as conscientious as I always have been no longer works if you want to survive in this business financially at half the line rate. Problem is all the MTSOs require all this free labor (research, demographics, logs, emails, proofing, etc. or they can fire you, so it takes a lot of adjustments and tweaks to come to a workable level of quality. There is no way we can provide the service we used to at now half the pay and MTSO are kidding themselves to expect that.

To the original poster, a couple of points: I hope you are collecting disability. I am due to a number of disabilities at age 60. There is no way I could survive on today's MT salary without the disability. I've used my entire IRA just to stay alive the last few years.

The other message for the OP is to get the daughter who won't work out of your house and if grandchildren are involved do not let her use that to extort support from you. As long as she has someone supporting her, she doesn't have the incentive to work.

Sorry, but if your deadbeat daughter wont work - kick her lazy behind out

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Your disabled behind should not be taking care of her and her children as well as her significant other. That is beyond the realm of normal. That is how you can give yourself a raise, get rid of the dead weight.

My first thought also, maybe... - anon4

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you should seek out some sound advice for your mom and you for senior housing or whatever else you qualify for if you're not in your own home. I know a bit about sorry deadbeat relatives (they'll never move in with me, by God. I plan to hit the road after my mom with Alzheimer's is gone. Good luck.

You are absolutely right. - If the

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deadbeat daughter and SO won't contribute, they have no business occupying space in your home. Throw them out and change the locks. They need to be taking care of their children and their own lives. You cannot afford to support them, your health will suffer with all the stress, and you're not doing them any favors. They need to grow spines and learn to take care of themselves and their children.

You betcha kick her lazy butt out - Nick

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You aren't helping these sort of people by enabling their bad behavior. I know. I am going through this with someone in my extended family right now. The Bank of Nick is closing and they are not happy.

how I supplement my income - give it a try

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I enter sweepstakes. Now before you go rolling your eyes, know that this year I won $25,000 from Coke. I also won a couple of $1000 prizes and many,many $100 and smaller prizes. this was my best year ever in sweepstakes. I have been at it for about 20 years. It's all mainly online now, hardly any mailing in. What I can use, I use. What I can't use, I sell.

I visit this site every morning and check for the latest sweepstakes: http://www.sweepsadvantage.com/new.php. Look at the instant wins, the dailies and the one entries (I just ignore the rest). Look for sweeps that have a bunch of prizes, or that don't run for very long. Look for sweeps that have daily drawings, with a winner every day. I spend about 1-2 hours every morning entering. Give it a try. You have little to lose.

One last note, sweeps are really thin right this particular moment, because of Christmas. They'll pick up again after the first of the year.

Try speeding up the playback...I find it really makes little - FBL

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difference in clarity, but the job ends sooner so you can move on to the next. I usually speed up by 40% max, any more than that distorts the speech. As stated above, don't waste much time on blanks or proofreading, just trust your fingers and go!

FBL - Old Pro

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Don't waste much time on blanks or proofreading? Say what?

I was referencing the other poster's advice, to - FBL

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not spend inordinate amounts of time going over and over blanks and proofreading. Didn't say don't do it at all, LOL!

Merry Christmas!

I agree, but... - MT

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I now work for a company who counts as errors, for example, not correcting VR "the" x-ray to "her" x-ray. When I trained employees in my former position, as instructed by VR software developers, everyone was to correct for meaning and not over-edit. Now that I'm with a new company, I can't speed it up because of QA grading me for such ridiculous trivial "errors". So frustrating.

Work for the right MTSO/Account - Morgan

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I had a horrid account with KS where I was making about $4.00 per hour because the dictations were all less than l minute long and half of what I did was unpaid. The sound quality horrible and required an audio booster to hear the dictation, which I couldn't afford. They had another account that used much better software, had great sound quality and long reports, but I'd go a whole month without finding any work available on that account.

I'm now with LM and could not be happier. We are treated with respect and the software, dictators, sound quality, and report length is far better so I can make more than twice as much as I did with LM at the same line rate, although still not enough to live on.

Morgan - Knitter

[ In Reply To ..]
I am also with LM and love it. I worked for a huge national before that was abusive and hard to work for. I have never been a happy as I am now. Sure, we run out of work sometimes, but we did at the big national and a couple of smaller places, too.

Have you tried applying for partial SSI or disability? - sounds like you would qualify..sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Sorry I have no tricks or tips for you, as 7cpl is just really not much. The only thing I could suggest is work as much as physically and mentally possible and keep distractions to a minimum, when working, focus on work and line count and thats it.

Other than that, I would highly suggest applying for partial SSI or even disability.

Work - pugcastle

[ In Reply To ..]
Have you considered general transcription? Typically it is less pay than medical but not with the rates per line MT work is paying these days. It might be a good way to supplement if you're a fast typist. I work for a company that requires a bachelor's degree, so with your masters, you would qualify. Feel free to PM if you are interested! Just wanted to share this option with you.

I would also consider - applying for SNAP, or

[ In Reply To ..]
other benefits. Also, why not just ask for a raise or try to find something that pays better? I work for the dreaded Mmodal and they pay way better than that (I make 6 cpl editing). If I could stay focused and not be bored out of my mind, I probably would do pretty well with them.

I also agree with dumping the freeloading children.

Best of luck to you.

bad, bad situation - jane

[ In Reply To ..]
what about the significant other? can he not help out? you did not take him to raise!! glad your mom is okay.

templates - me

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Most of my work is templates, templates I set up. Try find an account that uses templates, and you will be able to make money. Some fields use them more extensively than others. I basically am just typing patient name and dates on my reports and get paid for the entire report, which I am very fortunate. I am very disabled, and the work I do have to transcribe out takes me forever and causes a great deal of pain.

Operative reports, procedures, etc.... I also made a lot of money doing their office work before that went EMR. Good luck.

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