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owner/pay rates - br FORWARDED FROM JOBS BOARD - IMANMT2

Posted: Jan 19, 2011

This was posted on the jobs board. Let's get some dialogue going on this, shall we?

owner/pay rates - br

Posted: Jan 19th, 2011 - 3:37 pm

I own an MT company (used to be a full time MT) and have MTs submitting resumes and requesting pay rates at .10 cpl or more. There's no way I can pay this rate and still keep my company afloat. Partly due to the economy, I can't charge my clients very much or else they will drop me and move onto someone else (i.e. India). How are companies able to pay out at that rate or higher and still make a profit?? (A profit that covers electricity, ink, paper, etc.) Any body have any ideas??

owner/pay rates - br

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for re-posting to the correct area; new to the site - would appreciate any feedback!

Sounds like you underbid your contract with your clients (sm) - OTE

[ In Reply To ..]
I work for a small MTSO right now that pays 10 cpl on an easy, clear orthopaedic surgeon (and he does not dictate surgeries). So it can be done. .you cannot let the client dictate what they will pay. If you want to pay an experienced MT, not have QA, pay for software (if you are using one) then you have to charge more.

owner/pay rates - br

[ In Reply To ..]
That's a good point; I'd like to be a fly on the wall when some of these negotiations go on, you know? I've had multiple clients call asking how they can cut their transcription expense due to their budget cuts. The last "suggestion" I result to is a lower rate. There are companies waiting in line to take some of these clients and will charge lower, not sure how they do it.

No QA would be great, but all of my clients expect (and demand 100% accuracy) and I have experienced MTs who are unable to consistently turn in perfect reports, due to carelessness or laziness. So to avoid losing the account due to errors, I have QA.

Just seeing things differently now that I'm on the other end (full time MT going to owner and not typing as much)!

Can you weed them out? - IMANMT2

[ In Reply To ..]
The MTs that are costing you money by making you pay second person to complete reports that one person should be doing. Times the whole work volume. It might be kind of difficult and slow depending on the numbers of MTs.

Make every MT responsible for blanks and what she types and bringing it to someone's attention when she submits it or before she submits it.

I think there are lots of options to keep the line rate a reasonable one.

Typically, in MT, our line rate is our line rate.. if we need more money we squeeze more work out of the account (if it will give). In other words, we increase our volume to make more money. 8 cpl at 200 lines an hour is 16/hour 760 a week around 3000 a month and 36,000 a year (kind of in line with the hooey the MT Schools are spreading, huh?).

I say 8 cpl because I'm sort of old school and to me that is a base rate, less is less and more is always nice. Even if it's 0.25 more. It adds up.

I like flirting around with incentives.

In 2004, I made 10 cpl working a surgery center account (love me some ops - money) in the western part of the country. Great. I got a 15-dollar Starbuck's card for Christmas. Okay. I loved it. Our town doesn't even have a Starbucks. I still have the card and it still has 15 dollars on it (I check my accout periodically). It meant a lot to me to get that at Christmas time. So much good will, you have no idea.

I think, in talking with prospective MTs, the economy could play in your favor, in delineating exactly what you will need from them to make it work for everybody. I think they would be understanding, and if they aren't I'd find someone else who was.

And not all MTs who want a reasonable or higher rate of pay deserve it.

You know what the VA does? They are punitivie about errors to the prime contractor. I've seen SOLs that say more than a certain number of errors in a single report (if they are found in a random audit) of a report type will forfeit the earnings of that report type for a month. :D That DID make me laugh. I thought you have fun with that. Those are contracts to avoid. That is thousands of dollars. But you get the point.

But on that line, you could back bill for QA. Sorry. That sounds mean, I know. Nothing drastic, just a little attention getter.

I don't have any ideas but I work IC for a girl part-time who (sm) - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
charges the doctor that I do for her .14 line and only pays me .085 CPL. I have 23 years experience with acute care and clinical and have not been able to find a job that is willing to pay over .08 CPL. Actually, recently when applying with a company, I was offered .07 CPL and in my opinion, that is an insult for someone with experience.

I believe that the people who are sending you resumes and wanting 10 CPL are just hoping and praying that you are 1 of a few that will pay it.

now WHERE to begin? - IMANMT2

[ In Reply To ..]
To answer your question they bill higher and they started out billing higher.

A lot of the jobs offered at the lower rates (until the MTSOs see that people will work for them and that becomes THEIR rate of pay, too) are just women who were typing for some docs, got too big and had to hire help. But their line rate won't support the help they need to keep their clients. (This is also where India first got their biz from regular folks over here.) People trying to become full-blown businesses off of accounts that are worked best from home by a single MT.

The difference is between being a PRIME contractor (with all the bells and whistles) at subcontractor rates or being a subcontractor at subcontractor rates. Because really when an MT gets a doctor (USUALLY) the money she makes is in line with an employee working the same position. That is why he hired her and not the big MTSO.

I have noticed in this business you see a lot of women prime contractors who still act like subcontractors or paid employees.

And you want to make X profit on every line. Right?

Someone small, small, getting themselves in a too-much-work for too-little-money scenario might find a reliable "partner" and split the work 50/50 or near to that.

You have to do some number crunching. Calculate the cost of your business per hour, what revenue you have to generate per hour, then you'll know if a line rate you are charging is adequate or not.

I think when a company grows, it grows in all directions. And accounts and clients that were profitable when you were a "full-time MT" may not be profitable for your company as a full-time manager with a work force you have to compensate and keep to keep the accounts.

It's all in the math and I do love math, especially when it has dollar signs. :)

Hmmmm - me

[ In Reply To ..]
If you pay 10 cpl I will work for you right now. :) Clients are learning that the work done in India is substandard to say the least - and it must affect their TAT if it has to come back to the US for an American MLS to correct before it can be submitted - what would that do to STAT dictation? :) Many companies now are hiring only US MLS and state so on their boards when posting jobs. I say, you get what you pay for.

owner/pay rates - MTVA

[ In Reply To ..]
You say you have electricity, ink, paper etc. to cover. Do you not think the MT has those expenses too? How much time do you actually put into the report as compared to the actual MT? That is the percentage you should be making from the report. 1% time 1% income. I dont think it is right to assume that if you acquired accounts that the MTs working them are going to pay your bills for you.

Don't know what to tell you but we all have - sm - ITKMT

[ In Reply To ..]
same expenses pretty much, though I don't have to print stuff out, why do you?? Everything should be on the computer, transmitted via the computer, etc. The company I work for charges .12 cpl, I get 0.08 cpl. If I ever get a raise it will only be 0.005, I will never see more than that. They have lost accounts to India as the doctors in question did not want to pay .12 cpl anymore. So it is tough I know. Those that demand .10 a line (and yes I would love that too) don't understand that the accounts/doctors a smaller MTSO can handle know that they can get India to do it for half that if not even less; they don't care if it it top notch quality, they just want to save that money which could be thousands of dollars. I will be soliciting for accounts myself soon and hope to land a few at .12 (just lost one at .13 due to doc closing up shop), and will hire others to help but .08 (may .09) will be as high as I will be going. If someone wants more then they can go out and get their own accounts, simple as that.

owner/pay rates - tired MT

[ In Reply To ..]
We have bills to pay too. The last time I looked when the price of a gallon of milk goes it goes up for me too. To have years of experience and not to take that into account when considering pay is another issue. This is a dying business as we know it. Just look at the job posts on this site.

When I was fresh out of school and working a part time job for a clinic I was getting 11.5 cents per line, now I am getting 8 cents and now he is talking about not paying for spaces. We already do not get paid for filling in any of the demographic screen, he doesn't pay if the keyboard is not moving. What about research, looking up words to produce a quality document. I am still working, just doing it for free. I don't know of any other job that requires you to do any part of your job for free except ours. So am I happy with taking less, no. I don't think anyone is or would be. As far as I am concerned India can have this job and as the saying goes you get what you pay for. When a doctor gets sued because of lousy quality that causes a mistake in the treatment of his patient, maybe then they will realize we are worth every cent we get.

Pay rate/client charge - MT Owner

[ In Reply To ..]
Unfortunately, most MTs do not realize the costs associated with actually owning the business. If you are lucky enough to charge 12-15 cpl, and then paying out 10cpl - you will not be in business long before you will be in debt. With the costs for even web-based hosting sites for the dictation there are many "hidden" costs to the MTSO - we pay $0.07 per minute for our MDs to dictate on our system. We use encrypted email for delivery of completed reports.
So no cost there. We have to pay per check for all direct deposits to the MTs, internet charges, plus we the MTSO are in the business to make a living. Combine that with the EMR taking away a lot of our work and we have a very different business situation. All hospitals and doctors are looking to lower their costs. The way the bigger MTSOs do it - large accounts with volume, creative billing, etc. etc. etc. I do pay my MTs 8 cpl and wish it could be more - just can't happen. So to the MT who thinks you need to charge more - she has no idea and needs to learn more about the MTSO side of this.

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