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

Career change back to MT? - Seeking Advice

Posted: Sep 24, 2011

I was a medical transcriptionist for 9 years, working from home. Two years ago, I left the field and took an opportunity elsewhere. At the time, it was a better opportunity financially. It turns out that this position is not what I thought it was going to be. The money is nice, but the stress and the job itself are making me miserable! When I quit transcribing 2 years ago, I was making about 0.9 cents/line and only working part-time. My current position pays about $38K/year. I'm looking for advice in a couple areas:

1. Do you think it will be hard for me to get back into transcription after 2 years?

2. On the financial end, I would like to stay close to what I am making now ($38K). I am able to work full-time hours at this point in my life so I feel I can make more money than I did 2 years ago. Is it unrealistic to make this kind of money transcribing? What is the going rate per line?

I really appreciate any advice you can offer. I hesitate to make a career change because I don't want to hinder my family financially, but the stress is getting to be more than I can handle.

Thank you in advance!

way more stress in MT now - simon

[ In Reply To ..]
There are few who make $38,000. Most have to work much more than full time for that.

There is no certainty anymore, accounts dropping left and right to electronic or India, companies buying out companies, just a big mess.

That is the only thing I can offer.

MT is NOT the job you want if you are looking to reduce stress.... - Kiki

[ In Reply To ..]
The norm for this job is decreasing pay (I have 12 years' experience and I went from making around 45k to barely making 30k per year and working harder to do so). Pay cuts, "no work available" (because of accounts being moved to India), working on many unfamiliar accounts regularly, not to mention at some companies removal of production bonuses we had in the past, are driving good MTs AWAY from this field.

I agree with simon also - grammaw

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been transcribing for over 20 years and it is getting to be a big hassle. If I had known back then it would be going to VR, then I would have gone into billing and coding or something else anyway. Now, I am going to go for billing and coding now as transcription will be a thing of the past before you know it with all the technology around. I try to tell people who ask me about how to get into transcription now, don't, it is not the great job it used to be.

I have to agree with Simon. sm - JustPassingThrough

[ In Reply To ..]
If there is any way that you can make your present work situation work, do it. If not, try to find another line of work that will allow you to meet your financial obligations.

MT has changed drastically from even two years ago. Average rate of pay for straight transcription is 7 to 9 CPL (that's for both employee and IC). The kicker though is that most companies are moving to editing which only pays half of that.

To specifically answer your questions:

1) If you're coming back into the same specialty, then maybe you won't have problems transitioning back in. If you were primarily a clinic MT before though, there's very little clinic work available now and learning acute care with no previous experience in it is more than probably going to prove to be a major challenge.

2) Determining potential income in this business has always been fraught with a number of variables. Those variables have now increased. You're going to find that overall there are now more production-killing platforms, production-killing dictators, many work-related distractions to your time that you won't be paid for, account overstaffing due to tight TATs, and an even higher percentage of ESL's than there were two years ago. Even if you're lucky enough to land another gig at 9 CPL straight typing, you won't actually know what you can actually make until you try.

I've been stuck in a job that I hate before, so I understand what you're going through on the one that you have now. I urge you though to consider your options carefully before coming back to MT. It's just not a good bet for people who have to make significant contributions to their household income right now.

I hope this helps. The best of luck to you in whatever you decide!

Seeking Advice - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
Nine years is a world away. You cannot compare apples and oranges. Please consider that there is a TON of stress in MT right now. I think it will be extremely difficult to get back into MT after two years away. Not trying to cast aspersions on you--I am sure that you are an excellent MT, but there are other factors at play here. I recently "retired" from the MT world, and I can tell you that we had over 300 applications for every one opening in my last company. Think about that. You will be competing with people with 10, 20 and even 30+ years of experience with no breaks for other jobs. As far as making money, I was working part-time and made 43K per year. The rates of pay (I almost wrote "rates of pain"--how is that for a Freudian slip?) seem to vary but if you can make 8 cpl, you are doing better than most. Forget about any raises. Some companies are yanking insurance and other bennies right and left. My biggest worry for you is the stress that you will encounter in today's MT environment. Nine years ago it was so different that there is no comparison. We are literally in a dog-eat-dog market, and the dogs are getting smaller each year. Between trying to find an honest company for which to work and trying to make a decent wage, there is a lot of stress. Factor into the equation the fact that many companies run out of work rather often. That is problematic if you have a mortgage or rent payment you are trying to cover with MTing. I have a niece who a couple of years ago wanted to become an MT. I told her that she was free to make her own choices, of course, but in no way would I help her become an MT. It is not worth it. (She later became an EMT. It is a much more physical job but there is always work for a good EMT.) Anyway, there is my take on it for what it is worth. If I were starting over (I am nearly 70), I would try to beef up my math skills (ha!) and become an engineer. I am serious. Whatever you decide, I wish you the very best of luck and success. Just remember--if you go into MT, prepare for lots of grief and low income. I am not griping about having made 43K/part-time, but there are not too many of us that fortunate anymore. Truly, I would not advise anybody to go into this field right now. Or maybe ever. That makes me sad, but that is how it is.

Our rates of pay have either gone stagnant or DOWN. - Hayseed

[ In Reply To ..]
I was making more 5 years ago than I am now. Company pulled health insurance completely and work flow is scary unreliable. I haven't seen a pay increase in at LEAST 5 years and no bonuses or holiday/end-of-year gifts to speak of. I've had to go where the work is, often working weekends, holidays, overnights--whatever it takes to pull a paycheck. I've lost touch with family, friends, and my own sanity.

I would say that this is one of the most stressful lines of work I have ever been exposed to, simply because of the unpredictible nature of the work flow itself. It's kind of like fishing...it can be there in ample quantities one minute and completely dried up the next for days or even weeks. Very, VERY scary, especially when you are the financial backbone of a family.

Everything is about meeting crazy turnaround times these days, so companies tend to over hire. Most of them see us as "flakes" who can't commit to a specified shift (which, BTW, shift work is now the norm; choosing your own hours is long gone), which sadly I have seen first hand myself and that bums me out because it makes us all look bad.

I'm riding this pony until it's dead though. Absolutely NO work in my rural podunk neck of the woods, not even at fast food joints let alone private practices or hospitals. I'd probably have to commute a good 2 hours to find decent work and even then my paycheck would get eaten up in fuel costs...so here I stay. My backup plan is to go off the grid, get all medieval, and just somehow survive.
;-)

RE: - Seeking Advice

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for the feedback everyone. The responses are definitely consistent.

I appreciate the help!

They are only consistent because the naysayers jumped on first. sm - LoveBeingAnMT

[ In Reply To ..]
It's not all negative. It's true that rates have stayed the same or gone down, but our tools have improved and I do about the same as I always did. I will be called a liar or a suit, but I am neither. I still make $48,000 a year, which is a good living for me. I still love words, still love finding the word for a blank and still love transcribing. I think the ones who should've moved on years ago, or should never have started, are finally been weeded out. What's going to be left are those of us with good work ethics who think about the patient first.

YES! I have been saying the same thing. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I do think we're going through a weeding-out period. We're losing people who got inadequate training in the first place and even those who have been working for years doing poor work and getting away with it all these years. We're losing people who were just doing a little MT on the side for fun. We're losing people who don't have the fundamental skills required, and yes, typing, spelling, and grammar are still a few of those fundamental skills required for transcription. We're losing some of those with poor work ethics, especially those who believe that all QA people are bad, all management is out to get them, and they will do their work whenever they feel like it.

I just read your message again, because you are so right!!! Thank you for telling the truth. Many of us keep quiet because those who should never have been in this kind of work in the first place will attack anyone who does tell the truth. There are other truths that people are afraid to talk about too, like professional credentials and why people who get poor training do poorly. This is a very tough time for everyone, no matter what you do for a living or how excellent you are at doing the work you do. Even those with good work ethics are struggling in this horrible economy. In an repressed economy that even hurts those with a good education, excellent skills and work ethics, those who have poor skills and work ethics don't have a chance.

Where do you work? What company, hospital? - --

[ In Reply To ..]
What company now pays an MT $48K for working? While you may not agree with the "naysayers" about the low salary, no number of hours spent working will get an MT close to $48K, ESPECIALLY if the person is a newbie or has limited experience. What company, physician, or hospital pays this salary for a new MT?

I am not salary; I am paid on production. I work for a large MTSO. sm - LoveBeingAnMT

[ In Reply To ..]
How dare you say there's no way I make that? I don't lie, and I don't have a reason to inflate the numbers. I also never said I was new; I have been doing transcription for 22 years.

Do the math: I make 9.5 cpl and transcribe between 2000 and 2300 lines every day, working 8 hours. I work Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to midnight. I use expanders, can do any work type and take pride in my work. While I'm working, I don't answer my phone, answer the door, do laundry or homeschool my kids (good thing as they are both over 30!). My husband works the same shift as I do, and he is off on Saturdays and Sundays, while I am off on Sundays and Mondays. We treat Sunday like others treat Saturdays, but we don't have to deal with crowds. Yesterday, we watched football, went out for pizza and a movie. I spend Mondays doing my errands, cleaning my house and catching up with personal things, AFTER I go to breakfast with my sister and 2 other friends.

If being a transcriptionist is not working for you, you might look to see what else isn't working in your life. It could be you and lack of time management skills or lack of work ethic. It is not impossible, and I do not mean to sound condescending, but it really ticks me off when people say that it's impossible to make a good living at being a transcriptionist.

My sister and both of our breakfast buddies are also transcriptionists and all 4 of us make over $40,000 a year. One of them is a radiology transcriptionist, and she has had years that she is over $70,000. I just don't like all the repetition or short reports, I would get bored.

Yes, we all work for the same company and no, I'm not going to mention which one, but it is one of the largest ones, not MQ, and it gets bashed on here quite often. The four of us laugh about the posts, because we know they are BS.

So there, off to breakfast I go!

I make great money too. - radMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been an MT for 15 years and have always made great money. It has never varied over the years, even with the advent of VR. Most of those years were spent at the Q, but not all. I have always treated this job like any other in life - showing up exactly on time, pumping out reports with no interruptions other than Mother Nature and not signing off until the very minute my shift ends. So yes, it is indeed possible to still make great money at this thing we call medical transcription. Stop the bashing :)

where do you work LoveBeinganMT? -nm - anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

Seeking Advice, I have to agree. I've come to suspect - my company deliberately sabotaged

[ In Reply To ..]
earnings to bring them down. Not by cheating on line counts but by changing our work, and changing it again. In our region primary accounts were replaced with a general mix of accounts. We have an incentive plan I can barely reach the bottom rungs of now, instead of the top. Dozens of templates are absolutely worthless--I haven't heard from those dictators in months. This was implemented in a period when we frequently ran out of work, so there were plenty of people to keep work in tat even as ability to earn incentive pay dropped.

Anyway, that kind of thing, in addition to overt wage cuts, is happening a lot. For the last couple of years, every time any program change has been implemented, I've made less, even after getting used to it and making new macros, in spite of assurances that it should be the same, maybe better. One of my hospitals apparently canned some of its data input people, because now we find ourselves doing more at our end--resulting in lower line counts. And on and on. This may not be happening everywhere, but seems to be fairly common, and the good-paying companies are in competition with the many lower-pay ones. Just be warned, and good luck.

There are some companies that are bottom-feeders and will do - see message

[ In Reply To ..]
There are some companies that are bottom feeders and will do anything and everything to make money, at the expense of their clients and the medical transcriptionists who work for them. It's a shame that the better companies have to compete with the slimy ones, but that's the system we work under. They have the ball in their court. They can do just about anything they want. There are no laws or regulations to keep them honest. Just hope to find a job working for one of the good guys, which, as we all know, are harder and harder to find in our country, not just in medical transcription, but in all fields of work.

DON'T BLAME THE MTS, BLAME THE CHEAP COMPANIES - CINDY

[ In Reply To ..]
I know there are a lot of complaints on here and they are justified. Many MT companies are just terrible at their rate of pay, and benefits. The couple of MTs on here that had good things to say, well maybe they work for a decent company, which is rare these days. I've been doing this since 1984 and I worked for some really great companies some paying up to 12 cents a line. I would like to see 1 company that offers 12 cents a line, even 10 cents. I'm making 8 cents a line with over 25 years experience. Between the cost of insurance which is nearly 700.00 a month, my take home pay is horrible. Can hardly make it from paycheck to paycheck. When the MTSO took over all the hospitals we got shortchanged. I made 12.50 an hour in 1991 at a hospital with good insurance at a cheap price. Where can I find that kind of job these days. Nowhere. Don't blame it on the MTs for complaining. They are still here for a reason because that's what they have been doing all these years and haven't decided to move on yet. I'm just now going back to school and I too hope there is less stress at my new job after I graduate. Just consider whoever still has a great job lucky. If we were all working for great companies that paid decent we wouldn't all be complaining.

An in answer to the question about whether you should get back into this field, I think cashiers at grocery stores make more than we do now. Good luck. The only benefit you get is staying home.

AMEN Credentials as an RN, CMT, and RHI will not get higher salary! - --

[ In Reply To ..]
On what facts do you base your assumption that the reason MTs are leaving the field or being let go is due to lack of work ethic? Who makes a statement like this about MTs that have left the field regardless of the reason. How presumptive! Consider the conditions under which transcription is performed, mainly poor audio files based on inaudible VR/SR and earning .04 cents a line. MQ MTs get docked pay for leaving blanks when audio is clearly beyond bad. No matter how many hours I work and maintain a consistent work ethic and intellect, my salary will not change. A $48K salary means you at least get work versus no jobs available.

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