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

MTSO Overstaffing is the NORM Now, Right? - ThirdCompany

Posted: Dec 08, 2011

Last year I left the moderate-sized MTSO I worked for to work for a smaller company. My former employer had overstaffed the accounts to the point that I was borderline homeless, so I had no choice but to leave.

At first, things were better at the new company. The CPL is slightly better (9 versus 8 at the other gig), and I was making about $1200 every 2 weeks. That isn't great but at least I can live on it, and I work less than 30 hours per week.

About a month or so ago the new company started overstaffing too. Now I'm lucky if I make $400 a week, or $800 every paycheck.

6 or 8 of us on this account are looking for other jobs, so this company is about to be WITHOUT ANY MTs to work their precious account!!

Without MTs, you have no MTS. They need to remember that.

well, let me know where you are at - sounds like good money to me

[ In Reply To ..]
I work a lot more than 30 hours and dont make that, so I would be standing in line for that job. Just let me know when you all wanna leave, and I'll jump right in.

$400 a week is killer money to you? - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
How much experience do you have?

Or are you an MTSO?

Just to clarify... - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
MTSOs keep posting their spin all over this board. Suspiciously and interestingly, your post sounded just like those.

I'm not an MTSO and $400 looks pretty good to me right now - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been a transcriptionist for 14 years and I'm a single mom with a mortgage.

I left a great-paying job because I believed the lies of a small MTSO. It only took a few months before I was looking for something else - ANYTHING else. I ended up filing bankruptcy right before I landed a decent-paying job with a mid-sized MTSO. Out of nowhere they lowered the line rate, changed the platform and went to 80% VR. My pay plummeted to about $400 TWICE A MONTH. So, yeah, $400 a week looks pretty good right about now.

BTW, I just started with yet another company so hopefully they won't go changing things as soon as I get up to speed with them like the last two did.

So you're 3rd company too. - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
Monday I start a new PT gig just to bring in some extra cash. I can't survive on the other check.

Can you go back to your former employer, the "great-paying job?"

Best wishes to you; I hope your new job is a good fit.

When I left, they restructured and the job is not available anymore. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
The job I left was in an office going to EMR and I was transitioning into a different position, higher up the food chain.

So far this job is going well and has plenty of work. I'm giving myself 2 more weeks to get comfortable with accounts and then I'll be looking for a PT job to supplement though.

Good luck with your new PT gig.

I am an MT, for the Q and - it sounds like good money to me

[ In Reply To ..]
I went from making over 1200 every 2 weeks down to 600 every 2 weeks. So, yeah, 400 a week sounds like a raise to me.

If you like making really good money, this is not the board to - complain about making 20,000 a year

[ In Reply To ..]
Apparently these other people are making way less than that. Personally, I think that 20,000 a year is not enough to live on and take care of kids, unless you don't mind welfare.

SSDI recipients get... - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
Again, putting this into perspective:

I know 3 people drawing SSDI checks and other benefits. ALL 3 CAN AND DO WORK, they just do it under the table so the feds don't find out about it and they have tax-free cash. One speaks 5 languages quite fluently and could be making $40 per hour as a translator, but she has decided NOT to work so sits on her butt (actually she perceives herself as a "political crusader" and is involved as an "activist") and draws a check courtesy of taxpayers.

In addition to the $1100 to $1200 monthly stipend they each get, they also receive food stamps, transportation assistance in the form of bus passes, VA or other taxpayer-funded healthcare, and section 8 housing. In other words, they get to keep most of that $1200 per month because living expenses are largely already covered by vouchers, etc.

If you are making $600 every 2 weeks working for MedQuist, and you are responsible for your own bills (rent/mortgage, food, transportation, health care, etc.) you have less than those lazy bums on disability. (BTW, I'm not suggesting that ALL SSDI recipients are malingerers, but all of the ones that I have known have been.)

SSDI - Darby

[ In Reply To ..]
I receive SSDI but do not qualify for food stamps or transportation assistance. I'd sure like to know how your friends managed to get those things. On SSDI you are allowed to work and earn up to $1000 per month (the amount allowed goes up a little every year) so I work part time as an MT, but it is getting very hard to find an employer who will allow me to work the minimum hours needed to earn that $1000/month. Most employers require at least 20 or 25 hours per week for part time, which would put me over the limit. Even though I receive SSDI, I am very worried that with all these changes I won't be able to find part-time work as an MT in the coming years and don't know how to do anything else. I don't feel like going back to school at my age and who would hire me if I did train for something else? Probably no one. I'd sure like to find a job that pays under the table, but don't think those jobs are that easy to find. Would you mind telling me what your friends are doing that they are being paid under the table for? Much appreciated. Thanks!

ThirdCompany - SusanG.

[ In Reply To ..]
I live in a building that has some HUD/Section 8 (although I myself am a full-pay tenant). You would not believe what SOME (again, not ALL) of the free-riders do. One woman on SSDI has liquor delivered by the CASE to her apartment. (She's known as a party girl.) I know a woman who is on SSDI who gets food stamps and runs a very profitable housecleaning business on the side and under the table. She makes about $150 a day, all tax-free. Well, not exactly tax-free, since you and I pay for it. For the people who really and truly are disabled and cannot work, I say, give them whatever they need to meet their needs. But if they are well enough to throw parties with liquor by the case or to run a covert business, I say kick 'em off and make them work like we do.

$600 a week sounds fantastic - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I cannot fathom anyone thinking that is not great money???

I said 4, not 6. - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
I am making $400 per week, not $600. That was clearly stated both in the text of my message and the subject line.

Big difference there -- 400 per week versus 600, or 800 per check ($1600 per month) versus $1200 per check ($2400 per month).

$1200 per check was what I USED TO MAKE. That is good money. Unfortunately that is NOT what I'm making now (repeating myself here so it will sink in with you).

I was OBVIOUSLY talking to the poster who said - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
she made $600 a week. Are you serious? You have no clue how to read??????

I totally understand where you're coming from. For those of us paying - a mortage alone, every dollar, sm

[ In Reply To ..]
counts. I wouldn't even be able to pay half my mortage with that. Hope you find something else.

Putting this into perspective... - ThirdCompany

[ In Reply To ..]
Putting this into perspective, cab drivers (who are considered "unskilled" labor as far as I know) make about $1000 a week in my city.

Maybe I should start driving a cab....

It is shocking to me how little money MTSOs think we need to survive - in this economy, sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I think $400 a week might have been nice back in the 1980s (I wasn't make a mortgage payment and all the bills that come along with it and didn't have kids). Obviously the above poster isn't the sole provider for a family. It takes over $700 a month to feed my family. It seems to cost an arm and a leg to go to the grocery store these days. It is sad what my own income has turned into. The MTSOs I have been working for lately have me jumping through hoops for the client without the compensation that should go with it. It's like they forgot my fingers on the keyboard is worth money to me. I don't get paid to set up all these faxes and make sure this "I" is dotted and that "T" is crossed when it has nothing to do with my time as a transcriptionist getting paid by the line. No one is paying me anything extra to make sure this is on the chart and that is on the chart, yet it seems to have become part of my daily routine. Okay, sorry, went off on a rant of my own there.

Do ya think what facitilties are willing to pay, has nothing to - do with what MTSO pays us? nn

[ In Reply To ..]
x

That's bunk. - FormerMTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
Facilities are not paying less than they did before; in fact, that figure has remained fairly stable for the last 10 years or so.

Obviously you haven't read this board about people getting pay cuts - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Let's face it, we're not living back in the 60s where men were taking care of the entire - family. Women are doing it alone now, sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I do wonder if the tables were turned and I were man, if there would be more consideration for my income because I have mouths to feed. It seems to me they simply don't care and seem to think we are going to pull a wad of money out of somewhere to help pay the bills. Living expenses alone would not be covered by $400 a week. Unfortunately, I'm too old and wrinkled to take on a part-time job down at the local strip joint to earn some extra cash. Besides that, who the heck wants to work 24/7 and never have a life with your family? Not me. I like seeing my children grow up and spending time with them. It's getting harder and harder to do though with the way some of these companies want us to flex our time to make up our lines. Try hiring me for a job that actually has work that needs to be typed.

I can relate - SD

[ In Reply To ..]
Don't you mean work that needs edited?? That is the whole problem, the reason they can keep cutting our pay, the reason there are fewer and fewer jobs every week. A lot of us would still be making enough to live if we were still transcribing...

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