A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
So this is what it has come to? $15 an hour max? - Seasoned MT
Posted: Feb 08, 2014
I know some of you are struggling to make minimum wage. I have 32 years of teaching hospital experience. I have had my own accounts. I have had my own service. And now after 32 years the most I can make, typing has hard and as fast as I can, is $15 an hour. If I were 5 years older, I could retire (not that I can afford to retire, but I would get almost as much in Social Security as I get now working).I've made the big bucks. I have had many lucrative years as an MT. I remember where MTs were so in demand (like coders are now) and I could pick and choose and name my price. For the first time in 30+ years, I don't have enough money to cover all the bills.Soooo depressing. And what is even worse is that transcription managers are contributing to it. I once worked in a hospital where the transcription manager stood up and fought for the MTs she supervised, defended us, advocated for us. Now it seems like they want to sell us out by giving us less money, cutting hourly rate, cutting incentive, going to production, etc. I almost wonder if the transcription managers get a bonus if they save money for the hospital by cutting MT pay.So here I am, too young to retire, too old to start over, and all my experience in the field of MT, which doesn't pay anything anymore. Yay me.
What a sad situation - Not an MT anymore and proud
[ In Reply To ..]This is absolutely a sad situation. After 30 years of dedicated service, you are left with basically nothing. It is depressing, I know. I worked in this pathetic field for over 10 years and finally I opened my eyes to what was happening and got out. Being an MT is nothing short of being an online virtual sweat shop worker. If you make $15, you are doing way better than 99% of the MT workers, but still, with your experience, you should be way above that. No matter how fast I type, I stayed constantly at about $4-$5 an hour. When I worked as an MT, I would type fast, complete many reports, but as soon as the MT supervisors or QA realized that I had done several lines, they always emailed me and told me the work was low or to log out or some reason to stop me from working. I could not get ahead in this field, no matter how hard I tried. I could tell you absolute horror stories about working in this field...things that would blow your mind....things that are so unbelievable that I would be embarrassed to admit I actually subjected myself to such treatment. MTing is modern day slavery. Yes, we are in it by choice, but MT work has a way of trapping you...by offering you the option of working from home, by making you believe you can make good money...they use several tactics to trap you in the field...then once you are in there, it is a mind game...they make you believe that you have to depend on them, that you are not worthy of any other type of work...the nature of the work puts you into depression---listening about sick people all day, overworked, underpaid....all this leads to depression...it is a trap. Once you are in it, it is hard to get out of it...when you go out into the world and apply to other jobs, the employers look at you like you are nothing...that your work is not relevant or real. Then to try to explain what you did to other potential employers....it does not count as a real job. They look at you like you are lazy or something. MT work does nothing for you except put a few extra dollars in your pocket. This field is good only as a secondary job...for someone wanting a little extra grocery money. The abuse I endured in this field is unreal. I feel sorry for you. I really do and I hope you can find something you like doing and can make some real money. I have learned that MTing only destroys your life. People need to get out of it. Let doctors do their own reports. I bet most doctors don't even realize the abuse that the MTs go through. Honestly, the government or AMA needs to regulate rules on how much MT companies have to pay its worker and the benefits they should offer and the conditions the MTs have to work under. Until this is done, this type of work is going straight to hell on a jet plane.
SignOfTimes - SageBrush
[ In Reply To ..]Being one that managed to go back to school as a nontraditional student (worked evening shift) and get my BS, I ended up staying with MT. Getting older and starting a new career in the face of economic collapse is sometimes not a good move so you stay with what you know best. Actually a MTSO came to my rescue when the local teaching hospital I had been at for 20+ hired a CEO to take over our department. He replaced the the manager who had been there for 25+ years who always had our backs. I really thought I would be in a a new career during the end of my working years. Good jobs are like hen's teeth, HTF. Having a good education does not open the doors it used to. Life for most is tough now days.
Try 40+years - Old and Tired MT
[ In Reply To ..]I have done MT for way over 40 years and I still am too poor to retire. I was a CMT as well and dropped it because the so-called AAMT did absolutely nothing to help our cause-- actually promoted outsourcing to India so they could get those MTs certified as well. That's why I could give a rip about their so-called "Bible", the Book of Style. They are nothing but a bunch of old biddies in Modesto that have lined their pocketbooks by making sure that we can't even survive, much less line ours. They have sold us down the river instead of fighting for us, as evidenced when they even took the word "transcription" out of their name!
Not surprised they're from Modesto... - what an armpit of a town! N-M
[ In Reply To ..]
me too - sm
[ In Reply To ..]at it for 40 years. Quit the MTSOs and took a local/remote job. Only making $14/hr, but there are good benefits. but it is crazy, with my experience and knowledge to have to settle for this. (the other MTs said I should be "training" them) I also agree with managers not having our backs anymore. They used to know, understand and/or be able to DO the work, not so now. In fact, my first evaluation, they want to rate me as "average" even though my production was more than anyone elses, and my accuracy was 99.4% to 100% (these are THEIR figures). I'm ticked. So a raise I hoped for will probably be little to nothing, but then again, it was nothing at all with the MTSOs either. We used to garner respect. Now we are "lucky" to have a job.
online virtual sweat shop workers! - noneya
[ In Reply To ..]You hit the nail on the head with that one!!! That sums it up perfectly! That is all we are to the MTSOs and they prove that over, and over, and over.
I make $30 an hour on my job still - sm
[ In Reply To ..]That is hauling butt and it is a clinic account so I have templates/shortcuts out the wazoo! It is only part-time work though and I haven't been able to do that well on other jobs I have had recently, so I am hanging on to this one.
$15 an hour - In the same boat
[ In Reply To ..]I know a lot of people who would love to be making $15 an hour. However, I do understand what you are saying. When my MT job ended, I took a pay cut when I started my new job. I have had to learn within my means. I'm working my way back up, but will never see my MT salary again. It may seem as if transcription managers are "selling people out," but remember that in the hospital chain of command they are pretty close to the bottom and answer to numerous administrators. When managers are told to come up with a budget that meets a certain bottom line or to cut costs where they can, unfortunately the MTs suffer. As far as managers getting bonuses for saving the facility money, yes, that is true. I know for years we all heard that our department was not revenue generating, but without our documentation the billing/coding can't get done, and a multimillion dollar lawsuit because some foreign entity transcription service messed up someone's lab values or medication dose ends up costing more in the long run. What goes around, comes around, although not soon enough for me.
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