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

Major Changes - what next - J.Lynn

Posted: Dec 09, 2013

Hi All. Hope you are healthy and doing well in general. I'm new to posting on this site, though have been following it for years, receiving some invaluable information and tips. Thank you for that. Recently, however, I've been faced with upcoming termination in a few months due to my current employer's decision to outsource to Amphion. I know very little about this company, though from what I am learning it sounds like MTs are earning anywhere from 8-14 dollars per hour. Can anyone verify this? It also sounds like the benefits package in terms of health insurance, etc., is rather expensive. Coming from a position of working for a clinic, the financial impact is something that could potentially be devastating and I want to explore all of my options at this point. I have used both Dolby and Dictaphone, and wonder how they compare to Triton (I have found Dolby to be less than user friendly and have had my production nearly chopped in half as a result of the change). Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my comment and for your responses.

look at the company board too - office girl

[ In Reply To ..]
You can go to the company board, look for the Google search button, and search Amphion to see some feedback. I jumped ship before this happened to me. I hope you can get some helpful answers here. Good luck to you.

Thank you for your honesty - J.Lynn

[ In Reply To ..]
I am grateful for the honesty from all of you who have taken a moment to share your thoughts and experiences. I cannot say it is a surprise, though I think part of me was hoping it would be different than what I expected. I think my best bet is going to be returning back to school at this point if I can figure out a way to swing it and look for something else in the interim. Hugs to you all. J.Lynn -

What next, you ask? Get out now! - find something else. SM

[ In Reply To ..]
You've been following the board, you must know by now that MT is in its death throes, and if you've looked further you could see that Amphion is no saving grace for you.

Go back to school, go flip burgers, walk dogs, wash cars, ANYTHING but sticking with MT. A dozen other people on this site will tell you the same obvious thing.

Brutally honest, but true.

Agree, get out NOW. - Do not wait.

[ In Reply To ..]
Your best bet is to take any other job your employer has, even if it is housekeeping. Chances are very good your pay will be better.

If you cannot find anything, stay employed by going with the company you were outsourced to. Immediately look for a job that is NOT in MT. Get enrolled in a retraining program. There are suggestions all over this board.

I worked for Amphion - let me amplify others' comments - GET OUT NOW - wheres_my_job

[ In Reply To ..]
Amphion was (like most MT jobs now) demoralizing, degrading psychological torture. When you work like a dog, pour forth tremendous effort to get your line count up to a living wage (not a GREAT wage mind, merely a living wage!) and it does not happen, because the pay is TOO LOW for the amount of acct specs, demographics that you enter FOR FREE, pend notes that you enter FOR FREE - you run out of work constantly, work not available beginning of shift, REGARDLESS OF WHEN YOU START YOUR SHIFT - it's mental torture. Or try getting the absolute worst dictator ALL DAY LONG.

I am so glad I'm not an MT anymore - even if my pay is not good, "dumb" job, whatever - it is a thousand times better than the psychological torture of no jobs available, low pay for the work that is there, horrible SR, etc.

In short, I worked for Amphion and that was the LAST MT job I will EVER have. Start hitting craigslist, monster.com, indeed.com, careerbuilder, whatever you need to do, but get a job outside of MT.

It is not worth it to be demoralized by an experience like Amphion, and THEN start job hunting, AFTER you've been beaten down psychologically for 6 months, a year, or whatever.

And you can replace the word "amphion" with any other company - big or small and its all still so true. sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm still doing MT in-house in the clniic setting and when they convert to EHR, this will be my last MT job ever. I will NEVER work for another MTSO from home. Never. Like everyone else here, I have dealt with lying MTSOs who called me an IC when I was actually in the role of employee. I have seen a company USE us to train the software and get the account under good control and send the whole account to India. I have seen everything in between. Five years ago, my wages were cut in half and they never recovered. The job I have now is only about $5 an hour below where I was in the heyday and its fairly good wages and absurdly cheap insurance. But they are going to install an EHR program next spring and I'm already looking for another job. The next job will NOT be in medical transcription. After 20 years, I'm out. I can't go from $25 an hour to $8 an hour. It isn't possible. So its good-bye MT!!

No such thing - As a good MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
Your clinic outsourced to a medical transcription service organization. There is no such thing as a decent one anymore.

I suppose Amphion is smaller than the 2 biggies, but those 2 biggies buy up the smaller ones.

You will not make a good hourly wage---you'll be paid on production at a very low rate.

Also, you don't mention if you have acute care experience, but most of these places require acute care. If you've been doing clinic for years, you are going to find yourself in tears trying to do acute care with no experience or proper schooling.

Sorry, I have nothing good to say about any of these companies. I saw them go downhill over the 14 years I worked with them.

I left MT over a year ago. You will find yourself sick to your stomach most of the time. If you must, go with the company, but have a good plan of attack to get out of the field.

I'm currently at Amphion...see message - Scoop

[ In Reply To ..]
First off, sorry to hear that your hospital is sending you all to work at home for an MTSO.

Secondly, this job is feast or famine and now with more MTs coming home and now working for Amphion, that means more hands in the cookie jar, so to speak.

Just in my overall experience with them, believe it or not, it's not that bad of a company in general, just the overall politics of any MTSO; however I am looking to get out of MT for good just because I know myself that I cannot continue this "career" for another 30 years until retirement due to either lots of work or no work. I cannot have a paycheck that varies so much every 2 weeks. Sometimes you have alot of lines and a bigger check, then next month you barely made minimum line count requirement. If you fail to meet line count they legally have to pay you minimum wage, which they only do 3 months and then you're let go. Then it's either work slower to meet QA standards and have less lines = less pay OR work hard, work fast, produce more lines = more pay BUT then your QA suffers and your percentage drops down and your new CPL is in a lower tier, which means less money. This happened to me. If you want any kind of "raise", this is the way to do it.

It may not add up to alot, I figured about 30 cents an hour average but it adds up for the month total, which can be $60 plus. That to me is like a tank of gas, a bag of dog food, groceries for the month (just me and hubby, no kids luckily), but that still is less than what you were making. I cannot say what they pay for CPL but I myself average $10-11/hour. Not bad for WAH with no gas costs, clothes, lunches, makeup, etc. But it is less than what I was making 6 years ago (not MT) and I've been trying to get out ever since. Potential employers see MT on your resume and don't ever call or interview let alone hire. I'm looking for a different non-MT FT job with benefits that pays at least $12 an hour (keep dreaming I know) or else a 2nd PT job on weekends just to get ahead.

I skipped Christmas presents this year because I'm barely keeping afloat this month and I have a mortgage.

AND don't forget, working nights, weekends, holidays, which are required, and if you have NJA today, you have to make up those hours to get those lines in some other way, like working extra other days or even on your day off, BUT you can't put more than 40 hours on your timecard. We are paid strictly production, CPL, but have a set schedule and cannot go over 40. This makes so sense. It should be one or the other.

The only "good" things I can say is that my team leads are nice ladies and I have decent insurance coverage ($160 a month just for me, hubby added would be $500) and earning PTO. BUT if you don't use it by 12/31 you lose it and they don't pay out any unused. I've tried. I asked. They don't care.

So, sorry so long, but here's the truth. I wish I saw these boards 5 years ago, I would've toughed it out at my old job. Seriously, don't do it!

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