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

Coding pay after training and apprenticeship is - wiscomt

Posted: Mar 13, 2014

My HDSM answered my question about pay as follows......"pay is structured differently and is hourly. Initial pay is based on experience with the growth potential to be more than transcription." How do you all interpret this? I say it means that there's the possibility pay will be less than benefit rate to start. No one will have enough "experience" to justify anything higher than their minmum pay rate. Feedback welcome :-)

We could "possibly" make more than transcription someday?! - That doesnt sound good. NM

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well i for one will only accept the training when I know how much the pay will be - East MT

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it's not your supervisor's job to tell you that. It' s up to the person who offers you the training.

Pay - CT

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The info I got this morning, boy is this all fun --yours said, mine said-- was that it was benefit rate during training and $16/hr for apprenticeship...

I will take that all day long - thanks

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Don't worry -- you'll get to - anon

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And THAT my friends, is how the annual coding salary will drop from $48,000 a year to $32,000. See how easy that was? That's what happens when you treat your employees poorly then throw them scraps. You make them grateful for anything you throw their way.

Yeah, $16 an hour sounds good to me too - anon

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I wish I could tell you I was sorry, but I'm not.

You forget we all live in different parts of the country, so $16 for one person is like $8 or $25 for people living elsewhere. That is the REAL issue about why coder wages will go down. Any job that can be done remotely is at risk.

That is the reality, so since this is your wake-up call, good morning to you.

yep. I live in south Alabama. $16/hour is great and that is just - the apprentice pay. Hot diggity dog!

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Same here for me - I live in a blue-collar town in the middle of the desert - anon

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There's nothing here but a dusty old Air Force base and a missile defense manufacturer - $16 an hour might as well be a million. If I earned that I might even be the richest girl in town!

You do realize that what you guys are saying is exactly what the Indians said - when our pay was driven down... NM

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Bingo! Truer words were never written. - Skepticaltothemax

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You too could have made $48,000 a year - anon

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Many coders work remotely, so where you live does not affect it. If you'd only grown a backbone . . . .

And then you'll say "But I really need to work from home" - anon

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So I'll do it for $10 an hour. And before you know it, you are making minimum wage, stuck in transcription hell,only this time it's called coding. Don't say you weren't warned. Do you not THINK MModal doesn't know what you they are doing? The writing on the wall is so bright it might be written in fluorescent paint.

Does that dusty old AFB have a hospital? - There are HIM jobs there.

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NM

does the dusty old AFB - have anything to do with aliens?

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I spent my childhood there.

16 an hour, as an apprentice, as a complete newbie? - Yes please!

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As opposed to the scenario where I shell out thousands for coding training PLUS work another job full time, with no guarantee of a coding job afterwards. Where is the problem?

As for the argument that the MM training will be inferior to School X, no one knows that for sure. ICD-10 is new to everybody right now.

Here is the thinking error - anon

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A select few have a skill and can command a high wage. The natural progression of this is that more and more people enter into that lucrative field, which widens the applicant pool, and ultimately leads to lower wages. It is supply and demand. Throw the ability to hire remote workers into the mix and you have the recipe for lowering wages. It is the natural progression of things and to attack people on this board who want this job is misguided, to say the least.

No one is being attacked - anon

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The idea being attacked is the glee for which people are feeling for being taken advantage of. Coding IS a valuable skill; one that people should be appropriately compensated for.

And a lot of people apparently think $16 hr - is appropriate compensation

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And, yes, people are being attacked.

I mean if you think being called spineless and a wimp is being attacked, which I do.

A lot of people who have never done coding - anon

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AHIMA and AAPC would disagree with those people

It's not brain surgery - anon

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I confess, I have never done coding. However, I did work in-house with my cubicle right next to the coders and was friends with them.

They were NOT in the next cubby solving the mysteries of cold fusion. They researched, they applied appropriate codes to the bills. They yelled at the doctors from time to time for being idiots in their documentation. It takes an intelligent human who is proficient at research to do the job. It is working as a date pusher. My husband works as a data pusher with a MASTERS DEGREE and he started out at $22 an hour.

So, someone who has 3 months of training and is working as an apprentice in a position they have never done before making $16/hr is more than fair.

If that's what you think, enjoy coding. - anon

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I agree, I think $16 an hour for an apprentice is fine. However, I take exception with people saying "I'll work that every day of the week". I suspect they will get their wish. That's a lot of stress for $16 a week.

Yeah, there are all kinds of stress - anon

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Like working for $8-10/hr and trying to figure out how to pay the rent and feed your kids, while working full time at a job where you can barely understand the gum chewing, slurring, ESL doc and trying to unmangle the speech wreck. Do you think MTs don't know stress?

I get that coding and MT are NOTHING a like, and hopefully others realize this too before taking the leap. However, coding on its face is no harder and no more stressful than MT, it is merely different and pays more.

So, yup, more competition drives wages down. However, I am not going to turn down an opportunity to almost double my salary because it may reduce yours by a couple of bucks. Sorry your trips to the spa are not my responsibility.

You made $8 to $10 in transcription because you accepted that amount - anon

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Not because that is what a transcriptionist is worth. The same will happen with coding. You are doing it to yourself. Thanks for the example.

I made $15 an hour in transcription, by the way - anon

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I've done both jobs. I agree, they are different but equal in difficulty, however infinitely more stress with coding. No comparison. When a hospital wants their money, they want it now.

Technology did that transcription. - Technology will do it to coding

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I did not develop VR technology. I did nothing but roll with the punches when they came. The workers never had any control over their pay. What world do you live in?? The MTSOs came to us with VR and said you WILL be paid half of what you used to make.

So, I guess you expected that every single MT should have just quit that day right? You know, because they had the luxury to do that.

If you really believe that the WORKER controls the pay scale of any job, you are delusional.

Any job that can be done remotely and off-shore will see their wages go down. It isn't the little worker drones fault, it is how corporations operate.

No one should sell their soul to work from home - anon

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There were other jobs. VR didn't make you stay and put up with subpar work conditions. You did that. You CHOSE to put up with that just so you could work from home. My facility has transcriptionists using VR -- they are making $15 an hour. So no, VR isn't entirely to blame. And now I'm done -- say what you will. You have responsibility in being treated badly. You did in transcription and you will in coding. None of us are victims.

There were other jobs? And you know this how? - High Horse Kicker

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I lived in a small community with 1 hospital. The hospital outsourced to MedQuist. So I went and got a job at a doctor's office, guess what, they went to point and click and fired ALL of us.

The town I lived in had minimum wage jobs and those were hard to come by too.

How dare you sit in judgement of people who you don't have a clue what their lives are or why they had to make certain choices.

Well, no bricks and mortar workplaces near me - are offering this kind of apprenticeship.

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I am actually tired of working from home and have been looking for outside jobs for a while, so I am not interested in selling my soul to work at home!

If the pay is decent, this is just a damn good opportunity, pure and simple, working at home or not.

Anyway, nobody actually KNOWS what the pay will be. It is all just speculation at this point.

You sat next to coders... - anon

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so you think you can be a coder?!? It requires a lot more than being proficient at research! Yes, $16/hour is more than fair for 3 months of training and working as an apprentice. HOWEVER, coding is VERY difficult. I am a former MT of 30+ years and now work as a coder and biller. I am extremely detail oriented, but the attention to detail required with coding can be completely overwhelming. Wait until you have to file appeals due to errors made by the insurance companies or, better yet, Medicare. It is an extremely frustrating occupation, especially if you have to do the payment posting and billing portion as well. I look for a new job everyday (just finished applying for one). I wish you the best of luck and hope you like it. Please report back on how easy the transition is for you.

Reading comprehension - anon

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I begin to wonder if people actually read the posts. When I get a response like this one.

I get that coders feel superior to MTs. The barrage of angry coders on this board the last couple of days drove that fact home.

I spent time with the coders as a friend and co-worker, which is what I said. I stand by my statements, coding does not take an Einstein level of intelligence.

Histrionics do seem to be a trait of coders, if the last few days are a measure.

That's a huge reason I don't want to be a coder - - I dont want to have to work with them!

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...

I am a coder - I code.

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I never have had to file any appeals, or post payment or do any billing. That is the billing side which I have nothing to do with, thankfully.

The thinking error is on your end - SM

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60 new coders aren't going to make a dent in wages.

The certification exams, in particular AHIMA's, have a very low pass rate. That is intentional to keep supply lower than the demand.

Did you read the post I was resonding to??? - anon

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Cuz I agree with you, 60 people who take a training course are not going to destroy the world as we know it. However, if you read through the posts from coders since this announcement from MModal for a coding program, they are flipping out. The sky is falling according to them. It's the beginning of the end of all that was once good and holy in the world of coding.

My post was more about the evolution of coding in years to come, not specifically about this pilot program. Sure, if this coding thing works out for MModal it could potentially drive wages down eventually. But the natural progression is for that anyway because it is something that can be done remotely.

I have also said elsewhere that of those first 60, how many can we really expect to succeed? I would say no more than half. Mainly because a lot of people applying are not well suited to be a coder and don't fully understand how very different the skill set is from MT. And of those who do pass the initial training, how many of them can pass the certification testing?

Maybe 25 of the 60 and that is being optimistic.

Nope. Not flipping out - anon

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You mistake panic on my part for trying to educate people going into coding, and not knowing what they are getting into, to not sell themselves short. They have been treated so poorly, for so long, that they'll take anything. Of course, if they want to work for peanuts, their employer will let them, but they don't have to. As far as how many can succeed -- transcriptionists are pretty bright. I imagine some will drop out because they don't LIKE coding, but I don't anticipate a huge failure rate. Maybe for the certification exam, but that probably depends on which one they take as well.

You are not "educating" anyone by spreading - inaccuracies.

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I think that is what you don't get...your gloomy predictions are unfounded.

You can't educate anyone on coding because you don't know coding.

I am a coder - anon

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It's true, I don't know everything about coding, as I have only been working in the field for a year.

The problem isn't that I'm not a "real enough" coder for you - anon

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The problem probably is that you've never been a transcriptionist. I just got out of that mess. I know only too well what is going on in both worlds.

So that is pay for training and apprenticeship, but what is day to day - pay when done with training?nm

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Nobody knows.... - CT

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It's all purely conjecture at this point. No one knows anything. So, for those who find out next week if they're in, please keep us posted on what to expect. I spoke with a school this morning that I'd used for MT training that partners heavily with MM for MT placement, and they were 1) not aware this was occurring, 2) not aware MM was belly up in debt, and 3) in disbelief anyone would think that they could sufficiently train someone in 3 months part-time to do ICD-10. They said it seemed a bit far reaching...

I'd like to hear from those in the program in a week or two and see how they're feeling about all of it

Thus the reason I am hesitating to test - anon

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I am not sure it is going to be a raging success and they will need to tweak it. The first group could end up sacrificial lambs.

that's certainly your - prerogative nm

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nm

Is there for certain going to be another group? - anon

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I certainly understand your reasoning, but I would hate to see you miss out.

Maybe, maybe not... - this is a pilot program

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But hopefully it will be a huge success and there will be many more to come.

Not a coder, but other "corporate" position - @@

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I have a position similar to coding in that you are paid hourly. I don't know specifically what coders make per hour or if the benefits would be the same. I used to be a transcriptionist and now am paid by the hour and while I get paid a lot less, the benefits more than make up for it. IF the benefits are the same for all hourly employees, you automatically get 5 (I think) holidays off, including the Friday after Thanksgiving, and you get actual sick days apart from PTO. For PTO, the longer you have been here, the more you get. I have topped out at 25 days per year PTO, which does not have to be used for holidays or sick days.

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