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

Dear Management - tired of being screwed

Posted: Jun 09, 2011

Dear Management,

I have enjoyed working for you for the past several years ... best place I have worked in during my 20+ years as an MT. HOWEVER, why do you find it ethical to find ways to sneak in the back door and take money out of my pocket, thinking I will not notice.

Yes, I understand, you need your own line counting system because the one I type in for the client gives me partial credit for headers and footers, and of course I shouldn't get credit for those after having searched and searched the system for those mislabeled MRN numbers and with mush-mouthed docs quickly saying names and not spelling them or spending my time trying to determine if the dictator is attending, resident, PA, or CRNP and filling in all the spots correctly (being sarcastic here, but gave up on the header/footer issue at least 10 years ago). Lets be honest. The biggest reason for having your own line counting system is not to take a few lines for headers and footers, it is simply to take more of my hard earned money anytime you so desire .... without any discussion at all. You increase the difference slowly over time, thinking we won't notice.

As my husband is currently unemployed (wonderful economy we have going on right now), I have been working my butt off trying to get my line count up, and I have been successfully doing just that, which of course, puts me into the higher tiers on your incentive scale. Maybe I got a little greedy? Is that it? Is that what made you come in the back door and take some of it back, thinking I wouldn't be watching.

Guess what ... your GOOD MTs will notice. We will always notice because we are detailed oriented people, which makes us good MTs. We are the ones you want working for you ... the ones you keep your clients happy and keep you in business. And by the way, every time the account gets behind and you call/e-mail begging for help, I almost always am willing to help. I care about keeping my primary account/client happy because this is my bread and butter. I am a good, reliable, always-gets-in-my-line count, always-shows-up-for-work MT who also keeps my quality high. You reward me by sneaking through the back door to take money away from me .... from my pocket to yours. It is stealing!

The dishonesty in his industry makes me just want to vomit. Sitting here, right now, during my shift stewing and brewing. I have work at the moment, and I am having a hard time finding any motivation because I feel I have been treated like poop!

You say you want to be the best in the industry, caring so much about following HIPPA guidelines to the T. If this is so, why can you stoop to such dishonest levels? Please be honest. I would much rather someone approach me talking about a pay cut rather than sneaking around using your line counting system to rip me off and treating me like I am so ignorant that I won't notice. No respect at all.

Sincerely,

Your dedictated MT

**** I won't give the name of the company I work for, but really, it doesn't matter. There are many of them that use this same practice.

Sounds like my company, but I'm sure they are all the same anymore - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Tip-Toe Through The Back Door. - Peek-A Boo! I See You!

[ In Reply To ..]
Do you think character/line-count compensation should be abolished? Do you think compensation via per unit of dictation or a report count would be more...equitable? Or, do you think production compensation should be abolished altogether for employee-status MT's, that compensation should be hourly wage only?

Line count - tired of being screwed

[ In Reply To ..]
I have no problem with counting characters/lines. I think it is fine, and I don't see any advantage of units of dictation over line count because there will be just as many variables, i.e. fast talkers, slow talkers, sloppy talkers, etc. I think hourly wage would only work if there was an incentive program on top of it.

I just wish transcription services would be ethical and honest and stop using different sneaky methods to keep more money in their pockets like line counting systems.

hourly pay... hmmm..... - NocturnalHooter

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, since our employers can utilize software that counts our keystrokes, tells them how many minutes was have been working on a specific job, etc., it seems like going back to hourly pay could work. What would you consider to be a fair hourly pay rate? Keep in mind that the most I ever made in the hospital in-house was about $11/hour (in 1996). I think since surveillance methods are rather advanced these days, an in-home office could easily become a substitute for an in-house cubicle. What do you think?

Last time I worked in-house, I only made $9/hour. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I would not want to go hourly. This is the main reason I stick with being an IC. When I last worked in-house, I only made $9/hour. When I recently looked into in-house jobs again, they were paying anywhere from $13-15/hour. That would be a huge paycut for me, so I stay an IC. Plus I enjoy my flexible schedule. I would love to have benefits again, but can't afford that big of cut in pay. Better off just paying for my own insurance.

Last job I had that was hourly pay was answering phones - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
and setting appointments for a doctor's office and I was making $13.50/hour, which is about $5 more an hour than I make now and required no skills other than how to input information into a computer about demographics. However, with the money I'm saving in daycare and fuel, I'll deal with the paycut. I do believe we should be paid more, however. Just because we work from home doesn't mean our skill is any less than it would be in-house. In fact, in-house I could probably be a better MT because I would have access to patient charts and could look things up instead of having to send to QA.

Wow - man

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been feeling the same thing! I was going slowly with VR before really pushing for speed, finally gave all I have trying to increase line count with VR which was good for about a month and then it seems like I spending nearly the same time with less production. How are they doing this? I am going to watch much more closely and perhaps do a line count of my own, but how and why? Discouraging! I wonder if we are working for the same company.

I hear you! - oaf

[ In Reply To ..]
I totally agree with you! Let's see since 2000:
1. Gross pay for everything then --
2. Switched to 65 character per line.
3. Got rid of paying for the pain in the butt headers/footers - truly another aggravation.
4. Now a lot of places going VBC - no spaces paid for.

I live in Washington State and I think we are the highest minimum hour wage in the state (about 8.75 I think). Some days I know I don't make that. I don't even count the computer babysitting while waiting for jobs to come in. I think all companies are the same. I too love my company - they are just adjusting to try to keep contracts. What a cut-throat business we are in now.. As I've said before counting the days to Social Security (when it is actually years but that is too depressing).

Worked for a company last year that wouldn't even let me check my own - Steph

[ In Reply To ..]
line counts! I was shocked. We ARE a detail-oriented bunch, and the pay was low but I was desperate. When the pay is low, EVERY line truly counts. I counted all my lines and verified their counting system. When my reports would come back later, there was not even a way I could figure out how they were reducing them! One would be 97 lines by my count and 38 by theirs, another would be 68 lines by my count and 54 in theirs. When I asked about how to count lines to see the difference, they told me there was no way for me to check my own lines!

I quit the next day. There is no way in HELL I will work somewhere that just wants me to trust them on how much I typed that day. That is ridiculous! And when I started to smell something fishy I counted my own lines by copying and pasting in Word and doing a simple character count. It is not rocket science!

Shortly after that I decided to IC and freelance ONLY and that has worked wonders for me. No more counting pennies and lines! :)

I Get Paid Hourly - Staying Put

[ In Reply To ..]
I feel fortunate to work for a company at home getting paid almost $19 an hour with all bennies. I was going to look for a job as an IC, but maybe I'd be safer staying with this company! YIKES!

getting screwed - MTM

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm hearing you. They have found so many ways to chop up our pay over the past 10-15 years, we are lucky to earn minimum wage now and still need to decipher some of the most difficult dictation, medical tests, medications, etc. I've ever encountered. I'm a seasoned medical transcriptionist with 40 years experience, and I have seen it all. We need to do something here about all the work going to India and other third world countries, keeping our pay cut to a minimum.

check this link by state. Some of our top notch hospitals in the US are sending work to this company.

http://www.rekhatranscription.com/hospitalsdirectory/illinois.htm

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