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

U Show Me Yours I'll Show U Mine - What is my future like

Posted: Mar 11, 2011

Okay, I'm new so I am not making much yet. Can we all just make a post saying how many hours we work, what we gross, how long you've been transcribing, and whether it is vr or st? Don't name your company. This way we can guage what we can expect to be making down the line.

I've been transcribing for 2 months. This week I worked 37 hours and grossed $259.00 and it was 90% VR.

oy! - ICManiac

[ In Reply To ..]
Just as fair warning, this thread could turn into one of those where everyone says everyone else is boasting. The biggest thing to remember is that what I do now in 2011 may not net you the same wage in another 20 years (the amount of my experience in MT). There are so many factors from one set up to another, one MT to another, and with the way the industry is downturning, well, the money just won't be the same (most likely).

I do straight transcription, worked 6-1/2 hours yesterday and grossed $212. I don't care to share my weekly pay, but the number of hours I worked is about average for any given day.

So old, my abacus no longer calculates - GGM

[ In Reply To ..]

You stated you were new, so this is just advice, not criticism, and certainly not to discourage you. Everyone (in any job, any profession) starts out at the bottom, and most are able to climb their way to a living wage within a reasonable period of time. Your speed will improve and your income (hopefully) will also.

You appear to be making less than minimum wage. If you are an Employee, make sure they are paying you at least the minimum wage in your State (Federal minimum is $7.25 per hour, but a few States have a higher minimum wage).

If you are an Independent Contractor, please make sure you know all the IRS rules and regulations so you do not get into trouble with them at the end of the year.

Your attempt to get a picture of the future is an admirable one, but there are just too many variables in MT wages besides years in the industry – overtime, incentives, shift differential, weekend differential, etc.

But I do hope you are able to glean some useful information from the replies.

Good luck in your new career.

Oh, by the way, I am not ignoring your question. I am currently unemployed, but have been a Medical Transcriptionist for almost 40 years.

My stats - Been there done that

[ In Reply To ..]
40 hours - $900 gross - 40 years as an MT, 90% VR, 10% ST.

stats - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Obviously since it is production it varies, but with my incentive pay it is usually in the range of $850-950 per 40 to 45 hours/week, 50% straight transcription, 50% ISR, 20 years' experience.

My goodness, ladies :) I feel like such a - loser. Long time MT s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
and used to gross $450 to $500 a week PT (25-30 hours)ST. Now, with almost 100% VR, I made less. The only caveat: I suffer from back problems/sciatica and have to break frequently. Even so, I am very envious of high producers.

I feel worse than you! - Nony

[ In Reply To ..]
10+ yrs doing this and only making approximately $700/2 wks...FT!

I'd have to do almost 3K lines per day to make anywhere near $200/day like some are stating they are making! I've never been paid more than 8.5 cpl on ANY account. Some may say I must be a terrible MT, but my reviews are always great, never below 98% accuracy and always within TAT. I was even QA/trainer at one point (too many headaches, not worth the pay). Just this year I had to take a pay cut like everyone else (7 cpl for ST!) just to keep my job as the company was making everyone move from IC to employee. If you didn't agree to the pay, take a hike!

Needless to say I really hate my job now but nothing else out there can offer flexibility for the kids or pays more than min wage to someone without a college degree in their mid-30s, so I'm stuck.

At least until I win the lotto or inherit some insane wealth from an unknown relative, LOL!

nony...Look for another company! - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
7 cpl for ST! No wonder you are not making much! Look below at my pay rates and incentive pays, there are companies still paying a lot more. I am a CMT so do get paid extra for that (but only 0.025/line for that). I cannot turn out super high quantity either, but do ok (not great, but ok), but can't make myself type like a speed demon and not check my quality, so that does slow me down a bit. Good luck!

I'll show you mine...... - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been transcribing since the 60s. In the 90s I earned $60/hour. Now I earn $30-37 an hour depending on whether I have tough ESLs or not. I work for a medium-sized national with some tough (high ESL) accounts. I will be retiring in 189 days! (Florida, here we come!) Don't worry--your speed--and your earnings--will pick up, but it will never be like it was before the mid-90s. And always remember, accuracy comes before speed! :) Good luck to you!

About 14 years in field, work 6-6.5-7 hours a day - Plug On. :)

[ In Reply To ..]
and gross about $1900-2100 every 2 weeks, so @$200 a day, a grand a week, @$30/hr. I also work on accounts that require heavy correction, both VR and ST, but the slightly above-average line rates mostly make up for that. I'm good at VR, better even than ST, but it is somewhat underpaid right now at my company so I now make more at ST.

BTW, I also started out training on production pay. That requires an outrageous sacrifice of income, I know. Just do everything you can to steepen that learning curve. Every single name and term you no longer have to look up means a significant jump in your speed.

I'd actually recommend slowing down further right up front to make lists, build entries in your expander, etc. The purpose is to make every time-consuming search of the World Wide Web the LAST time you do that by documenting the finding it in your expander--make it a customized reference for the work you do. Add related key words to the entry so, when you just can't remember what it is, you can search the expander for it. (Making your expander a personal version of Vera Pyle's indispensable reference book of the past, if you've ever seen it. I bless her memory.:)

Make every new long term you type out in its entirety the last time you do that by putting it in your expander the FIRST time. Having trouble remembering what letter(s) a drug or other term starts with? Add it under different spellings, both expanding to the correct one.

Add clinician specialties (or who they dictate for) to their name entries so you can do a search when you just can't make out their names. A hospital may have 500 people on staff, but you'll only see a fraction of those used again and again. "Own" your group ASAP. Nothing wastes more time than trying to figure out names.

This is all time-consuming up front, of course, BUT most of these entries will save you not just several keystrokes each time you use them but also at least several web searches, relistens, etc., until you reach that happy point where you seldom look up anything in most of your reports.

Reality (Let's do the math here) - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It would more useful to the OP if the rate of pay based on lph for VR/TR were to be shared. I dont' dispute any of these examples of hourly pay. However, since MTs generally are paid based on lph, the MTs who state their earnings as $200 per day working 6 hours a day doing VR must be making a very high VR line rate and/or producing well over 600 lph consistently.

Most large MTSOs are now offering .04 lph for VR. To earn the amounts posted here, you would need to produce over 700 lph, every hour for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Can this be accomplishd while maintaining any degree of accuracy, let alone the 98.5% or better required by most employers? Whether you are a new MT or seasoned, maintaining accuracy at those rates is doubtful.

Of course, other factors can help increase an MT's line count, such as being on the same account with just a few dictators who are limited to a couple of specialties, as well as a decent VR platform with only a handfull of dictators using it and a few MTs editing it.

line rates - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I am paid 0.058/line for VR and .09 for straight transcription, and usually get at least another 1 to 1.5 cents per line on top of this with incentives, if I reach the top tier I could get 2 cents per line extra, but with a 50:50 mix of straight and VR I can't get to that level, but some in my company do. And, that brings the rate for VR up to 0.078 per line, and those people are making even more!I have a bad feeling though that my company is going to be lowering our rates.

your company's incentives - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
are generous. I hope they stay that way for you. My line rate is similar to yours. Gradually over the last year the MTSO I work for, like many of the others, has taken away production incentives as well as gutted shift differntials.

They offer an incentive only if work gets very backed up. This incentive is usually for a 3 or 4-day time period and is based on the MT's 3 or 4-day line total produced in the previous week. Anything over that base amount would be paid at for example 0.03 extra. This can work out well if the MT is working all the days during the incentive period, and did not work all the days during the period used to determine when the MT's bonus lines kick in.

I'm paid hourly (sm) - Been there done that

[ In Reply To ..]
I work for a hospital and am paid $22.50 hour plus benefits and an incentive plan. I left an MTSO job where I was paid 10 cents a line for 100% straight typing.

You're one of the few fortunate ones. - MTSO took over our

[ In Reply To ..]
Rad dept by low-balling hosp ($2.15 per report). I worked for the small overflow MTSO and was paid per report and averaging $30/hr, on weekends $60/HR. Temporarily working now for MTSO as it tries to get its act together, making about $20/h. They offered hosp staff jobs at 7 cpl and no one took it. So they came back and offered per report at a rate cut and some of us stayed on temporarily and are still carrying the account. However, with all the emails and interruptions from the MTSO, AND with new types of reports that we were not trained on (where we have to go into PACS and read tech notes and transfer info to our reports), the report per hour rate has dropped significantly. They're working on interfaces (for 6 months now) and still not getting it to work but we have freeze-ups and slow-downs while they fiddle in the programs. MTSO also over-staffs when there is little work so we get screwed on that. Supposedly 3/31 is the big launch day for MTSO and we'll be laid off. I'm kind of looking forward to it. Saved enough to take a month or two off and will look for something in different field.

WHAT MTSO? - mt2

[ In Reply To ..]
MTSO didn't offer you a job?

Sorry - I wasn't clear. - The big MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
Took over Radiology Dept. at hospital, the 6-person MTSO that did overflow, and an off-site radiology facility where hospital rads also read films. I've been lumping all the MTs who worked for all 3 into "hospital" because we all did the transcription for the same Rad MD. The big MTSO did offer us all initially 7 cpl and we all turned it down. In fact, they were counting on us taking the jobs and we surprised when we didn't. However, their MTs were not doing well with the client so they came back and offered us a per report rate close to what the overflow staff was making (hosp workers were hourly). Only a few of us who worked for the overflow MTSO took them up on the offer. Once they finally get up and running, they will switch over to the 7 cpl rate. We'll be leaving then.

Reality - mt2

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree with you. She must be doing acute care. In radiology once the rads get used to VR they start to self correct and then we have far too many editors on the account. Right now we get 4-5 reports an hour and 8 or 9 or maybe more editors who are all pouncing on that report. It is nothing to get a handfull of reports in 3-4 hour, or to sit for hours waiting for the work. While I like VR it really has taken work away from the transcriptionists. I used to do 200+ a day or better transcribing, now I am lucky to get 100 at a much lesser rate.

Variable hrs, 8-14 per day, 6 days/week. - Gross this year was just over - s/msg

[ In Reply To ..]
$20,000. (I made $47,000 in 2005).
Transcribing since 1976.
My VR work in the past 3 years or so has gone from 0% to roughly 60%-plus. (Varies from day to day). Unless some kind of a change happens, I expect to make even less this year, and in the years ahead.

mine at 10 years - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm doing about 90% VR and 10% ST. I'm at 0.065 for VR and gross about $1600 to $1800 every 2 weeks.

I remember the early days when I started and wondering if I would make over $5 an hour. You WILL get better. Take advantage of the shortcuts and don't be afraid to ask questions here. There is a lot of good info around. Good luck to you!

Things have really changed - HappyMT

[ In Reply To ..]
20+ years MT, OJT training in a VA Claims Office at $9.00/hour. First job was cold calling in phone book at $12.00/hour (1990). Podiatriast had a fit when I went to $13.00/hour (but helped him understand he could pay me $13/hour or someone slower at $6/hour who takes two hours to do what I type in one hour (105 wpm)so he agreed. Picked up other accounts at 9 cpl way back then, early 90s. Have always had at least couple of subcontractors working for me so I can take time off. After changing states, charged 10 cpl. Best year ever grossed $90,000, paying out $30,000 of that to two part-time subs. Lost lot of those accounts to in-house hand-held computers, and stopped dictating, writing notes, even to India. I know for a fact (because I typed the letters) they were fighting with insurance companies for low reimbursements. Like everyone else, income way down since the 90s, grossed $40,000 in 2010; paid out $25,000 to subs. Very little straight typing anymore, so hard to make the $40/hour. Happy now to make $30/hour. Much slower production with EMR, short notes. Tried editing once, hated it because I had to listen to the whole file at 3 cpl. I think I made minimum wage. Before current account worked at 8-8.5 cpl as a sub myself, $1100-1200 every two weeks. Even with all the changes, I would not trade it for anything, working from home, not dealing with office politics, surrounded by my 4-legged best friends and no one to answer to but myself. Plan to draw SS in 3 years (pray it is still there) and cut way back. HUGE changes in this field but pros still outweigh the cons for me. Sorry so long!

Thank You! - What My Future Is Like

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you all so much for your answers and your great advice. :-) I appreciate learning from you and I have taken your advice to heart. There is nothing like learning from those that have "been there and done that."

I guess speed and wisdom of the job will come eventually if I keep pressing my nose to the grindstone.

I know a lot of you used to make more money than you do now. Still, to me, you guys are making a pretty impressive paycheck.

Thank you all for taking the time to give me and others a glimpse of what our futures could possibly be with hard work and perserverance.

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