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

how in the world do I figure how to charge? - furner42

Posted: Dec 05, 2011

Hi! I have been a transcriptionist for over 15 years. I have only worked in a hospital and from home. The home job had been ELIMINATED, so I have not transcribed in about a year and a half. I have never had to figure my lines as the hptl or powers that be have always just magically issued a paycheck.

Recently I was offered a PT job typing for a local clinic and I need work so of course I accepted and offered 8 cents a line. I know a line is based on a 65-character line. I am typine in Microsoft Word and of course this shows lines, characters w/spaces, words, characters w/out spaces, etc. What I did then was to go through each document I typed and highlight each 65-character line and for example one page came out to 6 lines. Do I multiply 6 x $0.08? If this is correct then I am making only 48 CENTS for this page????

This can't be right. This man is an extremely tough dictator and really does take quite a while to type and yes I am aware of the "learning curve," but come on! What have I done wrong? What have I gotten myself into??? I really need someone to help me out.......PLEASE

Thank you so much!!!!

Line counts - Fussy

[ In Reply To ..]
I've typed clinics for years. I fit as many notes on a page as I can. When I'm done with the whole document, get a character count in Word, including spaces, divide that by 65 (characters), hit the equal button, then times that by the cents per line you charge.

reply to fussy - furner42

[ In Reply To ..]
Well thank you, but they requested I save each doc separately to the flash drive they provided me. So I can use the characters w/spaces count Microsoft Word provides? I must sound pretty stupid - so what you are saying I should copy and paste each file/document I typed and paste all of them under the 1st doc saved and then look at total characters w/spaces and do as you suggested? thanks Fussy for your patience and your help!!!

Google line counting programs - Anne

[ In Reply To ..]
or something similar. There are several available. Some are free. I believe MTStars used to offer a line calculator, but I don't know whether it is still available. The one I used was from, I believe, MedPen. The program asks how you want to calculate your lines (i.e. 0.08 per 65 characters) and you specify what file you want to calculate, and counts it all up for you and gives you a record of how many lines each document had and how much money that equates to. Easy peasy.

You don't have to copy them into one document. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
If you get a patient list, write the number of lines beside each patient name and add them up at the end. If you don't get a list, jot the file name and number of lines on a piece of paper and add them up at the end.

Too time consuming - Fussy

[ In Reply To ..]
You'll never make any money cutting and pasting and it would be very frustrating. I agree with writing the line count beside each patient name is probably the easiest way to go. In your situation, it's just going to take time no matter what you do. For one account I have, I jot down the character count for each document, then go back later and figure the line count. It's time consuming but sometimes you don't have a choice.

A line-counting program will do all the calculations - Anne

[ In Reply To ..]
for you and give you a document with a list of your documents and the line counts for each one, multiplied by your line rate and all added up into an invoice with your name and address and whatever other information you tell it to include. There are free programs, but the paid ones are not at all expensive. They are well worth the cost. It takes about a minute for a line-counting program to calculate the lines and prepare an invoice for printing.

Abacus - Christine

[ In Reply To ..]
I use a line counting program called Abacus. When you open Abacus, you go to settings and tell it how you want your work calculated, i.e. do you include typed characters, typed spaces, tabs, formatting keystrokes, etc. Then you go to the directory where your work is, highlight all the documents you want to count, and it does it all for you. It will give you both a line count and a character count. Just takes a minute or so. Good luck! :)

Line count - PT MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I use the Microsoft Word line count characters with spaces then divide the number by 65 to come up with my number of lines at the end of the pay period. Hopefully you do not have to do it on a by the report basis, I think you would lose a lot of lines that way. Hope this helps!

What have you gotten yourself into?Ã�Â - dm

[ In Reply To ..]
Probably a job you underbid on. As noted, the fastest way to figure lines is with a program designed to do that, 65 characters and spaces being the usual line setting. However, if you didn't agree on a definition of a line with the client, try to bill him by old-style gross lines (any line with a character on it is a line when billing gross lines). You'll make more that way.

And yes, you may make only 48 cents for a page with just a few lines of dictation based on the way you bid the job.

Production MTs can do at least 150 65-character-and-space lines per hour, which comes out to $12 an hour at 8 cpl. On clinic work, once you get your templates set up and your expander loaded, you should be able to do 250 or more, which will give you more like $20 an hour. You're likely to find it a tough transition from your previous cushy job with its hourly pay, though. And good luck getting any kind of raise from this guy. You probably only got the job because of the low-ball bid. If you want more money, you're probably going to need to find a different client to get it from.

Line count-Sylvan Gold IV - luckyladyinca

[ In Reply To ..]
Sylvan IV Gold Edition counts headers, footers, bold as 2, underline as 2, etc., spaces, tabs, format changes. You can also adjust the cpl. I use 60 cpl and not 65. I send a disclaimer to the clients exactly what constitutes a line. Hope this helps.

Line counting in word ... SM - MidwestMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Not sure why you're doing individual documents ... I simply page break between patients if each one is a different "document".

At the end go down to the bottom and click on word count (I'm running 2007 so might be different in your particular version), then take characters w/spaces and divide by 65. There's your line count. That's how I do it anyway.

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