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

Transcriptionists should not be paid by productivity! - OP

Posted: Dec 04, 2014

I just can't hold it in any longer! HAVE to vent about this! And if you are going to PROMISE somebody a full-time job....HAVE THE WORK AVAILABLE TO DO!!!! AND, don't bellyache when you end up having to pay that person minimum wage because they are not able to meet your (sometimes impossible) quota for reasons beyond that person's control (i.e. difficult dictators, having to go looking for the patient because the dictator did not put in all the information, etc). Also, I feel that being paid by productivity actually fosters cherrypicking (we all have to make a living, right?). And who wants to be constantly "reminded" that they are not meeting quota?

We should do as McDonald's workers are - doing right now. They are - sm

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currently holding the largest fast food strike in history. I predict more workers, not just McDonald's and Walmart, will be jumping on this bandwagon, because the problem has become so rampant in the U.S. Just like the McDonald's workers, MT's are ALSO being cheated on their paychecks!

MTs should not WORK - for productivity...

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and should have quit working on "production" about 15 years when the hospitals were taken over mainly by foreigners who could barely speak English. MTSOs have simply figured out a great way to run their companies... have thousands of workers available to do the work and not have to pay any of them for being there. It's a capitalist dream.

This is a bed we have made for ourselves and now we have to sleep (and starve) in it.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion.... - but speaking as one who

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has been trying to get another job, it is not that easy. But, I keep trying!

paid by productivity - phatty

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I agree that we should be paid a salary, and a decent one at that. We do more than edit or correct reports. We have to do a lot of researching. If you get hospitals in Louisiana, for example, there are 64 parishes with some impossible names to know, let alone spell and that goes across the board when you have all these different accounts. It is just awful now. More accounts in our pools, a higher quality score that we have to maintain, and yet the pay (at least mine) has not gone up 1 red cent! This is so UNFAIR.

Tell me about it. As an MT you have to - sm

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be practically perfect at English, grammar and punctuation. Have a knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, medications/dosages, labs, diagnoses along with their signs and symptoms (in case you don't know what the doc is saying).

And on top of all that you gotta be computer/tech savvy, detail oriented, able to work independently. And having good math skills aint a bad idea either when it comes to calculating your lines and pay...forgot to mention, must have common sense and be good at research.

you read my mind! - Me too

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Me too. I have another no work situation. again. Every freaking day for weeks! This is getting ridiculous. I have a hard time believing that nothing is going on with this account/company. I feel like the company has to know that something is going on with that account. either going to VR or electronic record.

MT pay by productivity ? - Disappointed

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I agree with everyone so far. I wish I had known 10 years ago what I know now, I would have never gotten into MT-ing. It's a shame what we get paid per line but when you get dictators that (as everyone has said) you have to look up crap, fill in demographics because they don't or put it in incorrectly, try to figure out what the ESL is saying (yes, English is difficult but if you don't have it, get someone ELSE to dictator for you), looking up spellings, looking up drugs in old records (like glimiprizide), etc. We all know the pain. That's okay, I enjoy learning new things every day. But if I have to spend time looking stuff up, verifying things, listening to the dictator eat their lunch/dinner, go to the bathroom, have a conversation with others in the room, etc then doggone it, I should be PAID for that time. And if the work is not there (like Christmas, which I am NOT allowed to take off) then pay me minimum wage anyway. You can SEE that I log in every 15 or 20 minutes looking for work so it's not like you can't prove I wasn't looking. I get tired of "management" telling me that if MTs were paid a salary, then they wouldn't work as hard. Rubbish. You've got us with a minimum line count per hour/day now so that's an invalid reason. I wish I knew the answer to light a fire under someone (hey congress person, I'm talking to you).

PAID FOR EVERYTHING IN OLD DAYS - CINDY

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Back in the day of the 80-90s we got an extra amount per line because they took into account that we were getting a good amount per line because of all the extras we had to do. Originally when I started we got paid by the physical line. I started out at 3.2 cents a physical line and I bet it was more than I am making now. Physical lines are paid even if there is only 3 words on them. Over the years I was up to 10 cents a line, and that was from my hourly paid job to bring their extra work home and type it at night, so I got my 400.00 per week plus 10 cents a line to work on stuff at home. I save so much I bought my first house with it. The whole industry went bad when they started charging it at 65 character line. 65 character line is almost a line and a half in physical lines. They don't take into account all the extra stuff we have to do. Look up account specs, look up drugs, search for different kinds of prosthetic s of guide wires or any such thing on the internet. Whoever invented this 65 characters per line really ruined it for all of us. I even worked for a company that used to pay us by the character on a fancy electric typewriter and I still made much more than I do now. Now your damned for everything you do.

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