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

MT Salaries - Upping the Anty - Lynn

Posted: Feb 28, 2011

I have been an MT for over 25 years - In 1982, I was making 10 cents a line. In 2011, I am making 10 cents a line, which doesn't even include Capital Letters!

I have read many posting on this site complaining about lack of income....and what I've realized is WE have sold out our profession by being willing to not demand higher salaries; yes, we have competition from outsourcing companies around the world who are willing to work for peanuts, but with all the new HIPPA rules, etc., this should be enough incentive for hospitals, the medical staff, AND the patients to demand their medical records be kept confidential in THIS COUNTRY.

Are we ready to elevate our profession again to what it once was and demand a decent salary? I just looked at the Resume Board site and there are (believe it or not) MTs who are willing to work for 6 cents a line!!! This is a disgrace to those of us who have prided ourselves on our profession! We all need to ban together and raise the anty now.

But this will take ALL of us refusing to make below 10 cents a line (with just a few years experience), and at least 14 cents a line for those of us who have done this for years and years. I'd love to hear from others who are willing to raise the BAR in this profession. It is honorable and we provide a huge service...our medical records aer legal documents, and we can be held GREATLY accountable by the new Government rules regarding all of our work. If we can be penalized and fine thousands of dollars for a mistake, we need to raise the Anty, demand higher wages, and that our medical records be kept in our country safe and sound.

I'd love to hear your responses!

salary - ladonna

[ In Reply To ..]
I totally agree 100%. I have been doing this for 28 years. However, I was fortunate enough to work inside the hospital so I was paid an hourly wage. I had just got a raise to $17 an hour when the frigging hospital decided to lay us off. Now I am making 10 cents a line. I can't even take a decent vacation or get sick! Several years ago, I took over a doctor's office transcription from a friend and she told me to charge him 12 cents a line because that was the rate. Why is that not true now? How can anyone make a decent living on that and no benefits?

TDK = they don't care sm - soulshine

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Please don't take offense at that. I am convinced we are just a "front" for their Indian businesses.

My anty would object. NM - anon

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x

And so will my uncly. - nm

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x

I'm with you 100%. Just got done looking at 100's - of MT jobs, wanting top-not skill and - sm

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experience, but then offering IC status only, no benefits, demanding you work Sat. AND Sun., no shift differential, etc. Oh... and 7 - 8.5 cpl "to start". (Of course, we know they should have written, "7-8.5 cpl - FOREVER", because we all know we'll never see a raise, not at the rate we're currently going.

I've always preferred employee jobs, have never considered IC because I know I couldn't afford to buy my own insurance. I wouldn't even consider IC unless it was at 14-15 cpl to START, not to mention a shift differential if they were going to demand that I work evening hours or anytime on weekends or holidays. 7 cpl for IC? Hah! Get real, MTSOs.

Even if the absurdity of the so-called "demands" of HIPAA, which still somehow allow the work to be done offshore, weren't already part of the picture, the current LACK OF MORALITY of offshoring good American jobs is truly a pathetic state of affairs in a country that seems to pride itself on always taking a moral high-road over other countries in the world, ESPECIALLY the 3rd World.

HIPAA needs to take a close look at this dilemma. How can we, the MTs, be held legally and financially accountable for errors in transcription at the rate we're paid? Especially since that very same pay-scale (and the employer paying it) MANDATES ever-faster TATs. Go faster and faster, for less and less money, but NEVER MAKE A MISTAKE. In their dreams.

yeah, that is just plain old crazy talk - sorry

[ In Reply To ..]
There are so many "fresh out of school MTs" that will need to break their way in, and they will work for whatever is offered to do so.

Additionally, I don't care how much you or anyone else protests, if you wont do the work for less, they certainly will offshore.

You are fighting a lost battle. This field is dead in the US.

It's ailing, but not dead yet. It will die, however, if - we, the MTs, allow the MTSO to kill it. nm

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My opinion? Those who think MT can go back to what it was - are delusional. 14 cpl?? ROFL nm

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x

So obviously you who are all-seeing and all- - knowing mustve already jumped ship. (sm)

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What field did you decide to get into, and is it one where your training as an MT benefitted you? Or did you have to start out from scratch in something completely out of the medical field?

I am doing fine in MT just as it is. But I know THIS is the reality. - It isnt going back and I can live with that. nm

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x

this post - is ridiculous

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Since the majority of MTs here work through a middle man, DEMANDING anything, much less 14 cpl is ludicrous. Many of the MTs I know who have their own accounts are barely able to garner a fee of 14 cpl.

MTs are NOT in a position to demand anything. There are no education requirements. There is a vast difference in talent between graduates of one program to another. There are endless number of long-time MTs who just aren't up to snuff and think longevity makes their services more valuable than they truly are.

WE (as in collective we) did not do this to ourselves. But there is a segment of MTs that have helped drive prices down, who thought undercutting would have no consequence other than to land them the accounts.

Economy, technology, global labor pools, American MT talent (real talent not perceived talent) all add into the mix to create a downward trend to wages.

Demanding is going to do very little, but if you, making your 10 cpl, can in good conscience tell MTs making less and supporting their families that they should quit because you think they should demand better, then demand away.

It's not going to do much more than provide a greater impetus to utilize global labor or embrace technology.

agree - ...

[ In Reply To ..]
I cannot think of one industry that came back from the brink by demanding higher salaries.

Furthermore, offshoring is not (NOT) a HIPAA violation. Do I approve of offshoring? No. But we need to come up with a better argument if we want to build a case against offshoring, because HIPAA is not going to do it.

On a side note, HIPAA has nothing whatsoever to do with "new" government rules. HIPAA was not ushered in by the new administration or healthcare reform.

Finally, no one (NO ONE) is going to be fined thousands of dollars for a mistake. HIPAA does not punish MTs for errors. This is some kind of backwards thinking. Nothing in the HIPAA rules accounts for this conclusion.

Upping the anty - dl

[ In Reply To ..]
Unfortunately, if the hospitals are paying the services 16 cpl, then the services aren't likely to pay the MT 14 cpl.

Most hospitals are paying services 12 to 14 cpl. sm - RealityCheck

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I have been on both sides of the situation now, and was surprised that most hospitals will only pay 12 to 14 cpl, usually at the 12 cpl end. These are big health systems, and they are demanding those rates AND that is for work done in the United States. For VR, they demand in the 8 to 10 cpl range. I was really surprised to learn this, and realized that MTSOs are feeling the pinch too. I was in sales for an MTSO, a very large one, and the sales team was told not to go under 14 cpl ever, no matter what. All that did was eliminate us from the competition. Even our VA hospitals, government contracts, have gone for 10 and 11 cpl without VR!

Not sure if I agree with these numbers - I had accounts paying 10 cpl 15 yrs ago. sm - hoping not true

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I can't see how the larger companies could be funding their greedy wants and lifestyles by charging hospital accounts only 12 or even 14 cpl. Minimal benefit packages alone will cost an employer at least 2-3 cpl to provide. If you subract that from 14 cpl being charged for the service and you pay a transcriptionist even just 8 cpl without incentives or shift differentials, that leaves only 3 or 4 cpl profit. Therefore, in my mind those numbers just don't add up. 3-4 cpl could be quite a significant profit margin with large-volume accounts IF you didn't have massive business costs and overheads and the cost of reimbursing investors to the tune of millions of dollars to deal with. However, the fact is that MTSO companies today, both large and small, are greedy, and those costs described above are real, and the transcription companies are already locked into those huge overheads. Add the unnecessary but substantial 6-figure incomes being paid to CEOs as well as the salaries paid to still other office personnel, all of whom typically don't add anything to the income stream but only take money out, and also the fact that many MTs working for any given transcription company are often paid more than any 8 cpl, and you can begin to see just how quickly the 3-4 cpl left over on a 14 cpl contract is going to be eaten up. By my estimates, companies today offering good benefit packages and compensation to the transcriptionist above 7 or 8 cpl can't survive on 12-14 cpl contracts. They just can't. That's why they're going overseas to get the labor for less and wanting us on this side of the pond to then fix what comes back for them through editing procedures and/or edit reports coming through the severely inefficient VR technology as it exists today for 3-5 cpl - not necessarily to be able to charge substantially less for their service (12-14 cpl), but to be able to see a greater profit margin left over to be able to pay their own massive salaries and extravagant and greedy lifestyles that they all aspire to.

Now realize that even if you can pay a Pakistan company 5 cpl to transcribe the initial dictation, you still have to add another at least 3-5 cpl for a decent American MT to fix that resultant mess, and you're right back to that minimum 8 cpl the company has to pay to produce the report. Solution - get the chumps in the US to just edit the ridiculous mess that doctors call dictation today for half of what they used to type it for while at the same time getting them (the chumps) to help train the VR technology to eventually be able to, at the very least, get by with a lot fewer MTs tomorrow than are needed today. They're not stupid, but I'm beginning to think they imagine we are, and so far as an industry we seem to be proving them right. That's my take on it anyway. What are your thoughts?

I think you are right. - nm

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x

you just NOW realized this? NM - just askin

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.

Hard to pay the MT 14 cpl if the MTSO is only - sm

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getting 12 cpl from the facilities. Our company recently had to drop their cpl from the major trauma center we have the account for in order to retain the account. We went from a straight cpl pay to a tiered pay system--which worked better for the high producers (me included as I was "new"), but those at the top of the pay scale technically had a decrease in pay.

MTSOs are selling themselves too cheaply. - Competition alone seems to drive them, -

[ In Reply To ..]
not long-term sustainability, nor reputation for quality.

Too bad. You get what you pay for.

Suits dont care to have a 18 cpl doc. They are happy with a 12 cpl - doc. that will just be stuffed in a file. nm

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x

Nice thought/dream, but unrealistic - Ship has already sailed

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Cannot go back. MTs being phased out for new technology and offshoring is killing any hope of ever making a higher wage. Sure, we can quit our jobs and demand higher wages, but only hurting ourselves by not having any job at all in MT. Any resume stating 14 cpl will be imediately dumped, probably with a chuckle on the reader's part, no matter how much experience you have. The MT profession, sadly, is on its way out and nothing is going to stop that.

Upping ante - MT in FL

[ In Reply To ..]
Not sure where you work, but I was making 10 cpl several years ago, but the last few years each time they phase out an account I'm working on and then give me a new account it is always less than the account I had previously. The larger companies pay smaller and smaller line rates and are buying out all the other companies. We can ask for a higher rate, but without quitting when they say no and then never again finding another job that pays 9 or even 8 cpl once we quit, we are pretty much stuck accepting what is offered. I always ask for more, but they always say no. Unfortunately it is either work for some money and be employed or quit in protest and be unemployed for an extended period of time...or find a new job that, natch, is paying the same or less than you had. I started at 10 cpl 20 years ago, moved up to 12-14 cpl 15 years ago, and over the last five years that has dropped to under 9 cpl with each account transition. My company quotes a line rate for new hires, but fails to mention that is only for that account. Each time the employee is switched to a new account it is always a lower-paying account and their income therefore drops down to the new lower rate.

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