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What's a good line rate for a newbie? - Rachel

Posted: Jun 21, 2014

What's a good line rate for a newbie?

Just got out of school and applying for jobs. I want to make sure I don't sell myself short, but yet not ask for too much.

Help! Lol

What everyone else gets --- not much. - nm

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I've seen - rates as

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low as 6 cpl for straight and 3 cpl for VR. Don't fall for it - they're just taking advantage of newbies. It's impossible to make a living on that, no matter what a recruiter may tell you.

Should have asked that BEFORE signing - up for school.

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Why did you sign up for something like this in the first place? Didn't you investigate it?

Line rates - Oldie

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There really is no good answer for that. Many MTs will tell you that you determine the line rate. If you are planning to get hired on as a MT at a company they determine the pay rate, not you. I've been in this field for 18 years. Years ago I used to work in a radiology clinic. I started at $14/hour. My very first job as MT fresh out of school was at another clinic and they started me at $12/hour. The last job that I worked in a hospital when I left I was making $16/hour. It's been so long since I worked in a facility I don't know what they pay anymore. If you are planning to work from home it's pretty bleak. I type 83 wpm been doing this 18 years and my average hourly wage now is around $5 to $6/hour. $8 if I'm lucky. The reason being is new accounts. New dictators, some difficult to understand. Spend a lot of time looking up doctor's names. If they are dictating and says the patient was seen by Dr. Pzienotomuznkopetuny you have to keep looking for the name. Many times we are told to listen 2 or 3 times then send on. Sometimes that would mean a report with 50% blanks, which I refuse to send to the client like that, so spend more time researching and usually end up with a blank or two. Or you will need to look up words you've never heard, surgical instruments, types of sutures, types of biopsies, etc. Some dictators will spend the first 2 minutes of the dictation saying "hi, this is Dr. --- I'm dictating a --- for patient ---. His date of birth is ---, etc, etc. It's all patient information that we don't get paid to type or locate, yet we have to find the correct patient. So for all this I get paid 8 cents a line regular typing and 4 cents a line VR. Clients will also want to pay as low as they can. Depending on what system you work on some places pay even lower for headers (around 3 cents since you don't type it and it's already in the system). I had a doctor today pronounce words entirely different than what they are. For an op report he kept saying Kiter Tonsin closure. I spent about 5-10 minutes searching. It was Carter Thomason CloseSure System. I did a robotic laparoscopic procedure (never did one before). Took awhile to find Prograsp (kept pronouncing it prigraf). Oh and this one he kept saying Xycouterine peritoneum. It was actually vesicouterine. I find even after all my years in this field I'm still searching and finding new words.

Wish there was something solid we could tell you. It will all depend on what the companies want to pay you. You have to start somewhere. If you start too low though you will spend a lot of time frustrated to spend so much time working with such a small paycheck. Within the past two years with the introduction of EMR to many facilities all over the country we have seen our jobs go. I had a really great account they no longer need MTs. In just two years my pay has dropped by 1/2 of what I used to make 2 years ago. Very sad. I think if I were you I'd try and get a position working in a facility. At the last hospital I worked inside at (back around the year 2002 I worked inside transcribing and I helped the medical records department. I would do whatever you can to acquire other skills along the way so that you make yourself more valuable to a company. Wishing you the best of luck.

You should send that holey report to client. If get enough, maybe - they will say something to docs. nm

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