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

Less than WalMart Paycheck - Adios

Posted: Aug 26, 2011

Finally happened. My husband's 32/hr/wk WalMart check was more than mine today. How degrading is that? Big decision day today. Do I walk and spend 40 hours a week looking for a better job, which wouldn't take much?

I have tried everything to get my ASR production up. There is no way, at 40% less a line than full transcription rate, that I can even make a difference.

So, so depressed today. Don't know what to do.

I know... - this is peanuts

[ In Reply To ..]
I grossed 550.00 for 2 weeks! I am sick to my "havent eaten in days" stomach.

Completely Agree - Alex

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I agree and I am applying elsewhere. I think I brought home less than minimum wage. I cannot afford to work here anymore with the price of gas, groceries etc.

what's going on here?? - clementine

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For the last month I'm getting $100 less per paycheck. What's happening? Did they change our pay or what?

this has happened every couple of months - for 2 years now

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I think they are paying us for less and less and neglecting to tell us about it.

seems like every time they do an "update" - North MT

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Just saying, every weekend they have an update it seems the line counts gets smaller and smaller- maybe they have figured out a way to round off the lines and not pay us. Not sure what they are updating, but I also think the clients get routed to India during those updates too.

And now with no work again in the North on a Friday evening it makes me think that they have almost routed all the accounts they can and now we fight like dogs over the scraps that are left.

Adios - old and burned out

[ In Reply To ..]
Find another job first. Don't hurt yourself any more than you have to.

Old and burned out - Adios

[ In Reply To ..]
I know you are right. I just don't know how I can even sign on today to work. Just sooooooo discouraged. I live in a rural area so good jobs are hard to come by. I have been trying. I actually have 2 other jobs now. My husband said I should come work with him at WalMart. Fewer hours, more pay.

I have been doing this so long, just hurts that it has come to this.

The Q should just get it overwith and send all the work to India and put us out of our misery.

Adios - old and burned out

[ In Reply To ..]
I know it's hard. I work part-time to supplement Social Security. I'm sure I've been doing it even longer than you have and, oddly enough, I still like the work. The rest of it, however, is increasingly hard to swallow. I also think it's going to get worse. Most of the other companies out there are offering 8/4 cents for transcription/editing and I think that is what MQ is aiming for as far as their US MTs are concerned. I stick with it because, at my age, there are not many options, if any, but it is certainly a bitter pill.

OABO - Adios

[ In Reply To ..]
The work I still like, but I have to admit the ESL docs I have currently, added to ASR, and then trying to get production up, is just driving me over the edge.

I also work the second shift, so by the time I get off, I am so tired and so discouraged, tough way to go to bed at night. I read to get my mind totally focused on something else.

This is just not a career anymore. So sad. I knew one day EMR would probably take over, but I never figured, after working so long for the same company, albeit through many buy-outs, that we would be treated like this.

A Ray of Hope - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I do transcription when I am going to school. Professionally, I am a social worker. I'm fed up and have decided to "do something" about it. I am working with state legislators around the country to implement certification, registration, or licensure for at-home transcriptionists. I have done enough research to be able to substantiate that many home-based MTs are not complying with HIPAA and even have acquired samples of actual transcripts to be able to prove how insecure the current system is and to substantiate the need for certification or licensure. There is a growing movement to take back our business from the MTSOs, precisely because they are not paying a fair wage--and there IS something, collectively, that we can do about it.

to social worker - cr

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I guess I'm not following you. How is requiring all transcriptionists to be certified going to take back business from MTSOs? All that's going to do is make AHDI richer.

to social worker - Former MT

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I agree with you cr. I came graduated from an MT course and never got certified. It wouldn't have made me a better MT. I think it should just be illegal for MTSOs to outsource outside the US when it's the records of Americans. Who knows whose hands these records could fall into. It is well known the India is primarily Muslim, and they are bent on destroying all non-Muslim nations, particularly the US, what better way than destroy from within?

social worker - Mommom5

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't get your point. why make it harder on the transcriptionists? go after the MTSOs. You can certify all the transcriptionists you want but that does not mean a thing to the MTSOs. they still will find ways to cut our pay and get away with it.

harder for MTSOs, not transcriptionists - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
It does not make it harder for US-based MTs. Requiring MTs to be certified, registered, or licensed by the state will effectively keep MTSOs from sending work offshore. Again, EVERY profession (example: certified nursing assistants) that have some form of state certification, registration, or licensure) have dealt with these issues--and in every case, requiring certification, registration, or licensure has ensured public safety and, importantly, increased wages. Starting salary of a CNA is $15+ an hour in most areas. Before the movement to require certification, a lot of home health care agencies hired "assistants" for minimum wage. I agree that MTSOs still will try to cheat us--and we need to be vigilant and communicate with each other when this occurs (as with MedQuist) and, when necessary, hire attorneys to file class action litigation. Many big law firms file class action cases for free--if the defendant is big enough, precisely because they can make so much money even with a settlement. See all the ads on television about class action litigation for medical devices or medications? Many MTs simply do not know what to do when the MTSO is classifying them as an IC but treating them as employee, or requiring them to work overtime and trying to pay them the same rate per line, anyway. So, we have to educate the public, educate MTs about their rights, and make sure our profession is treated as the true profession that it is!

licensure by state keeps work from going overseas - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I think the most important point to be made here is that state certification or licensure is exactly what would keep MTSOs from outsourcing our work to India or elsewhere, where it can (and does) fall into unseemly hands. That is a catastrophe in the making. Just imagine how hard it would be for MTSOs to send work offshore if all MTs had to be certified, registered, or licensed by one of the 50 United States. It would not be tougher to become an MT within the US, but it would require more supervision (a good thing) than most MTs are getting by MTSOs. Schools vary in their training, and permitting students to see outcome data (passing rates, for example) as nursing schools must provide would enable prospective MT students to select the best school for them.

sorry dont think so - North MT

[ In Reply To ..]
While I applaud your effort, we also have a federal government who is looking the other way while many jobs, including transcription, leave the country because it is cheaper to do business elsewhere. Until the government makes these companies pay a fine or lowers the cost of doing business in the US transcription will be just one of many industries to leave the US and never coming back. Licensing by the state or whatever you are suggesting will always be trumped by the federal government.

licensure by state - frustrated MME

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree! Just not aware of what we can do to get the MTSO's prohibited from outsourcing work offshore. I did write to my local hospital that I go to when sick, a large teaching hospital, stating how I feel about being a patient there, and not having the security of my privacy, etc.
I think the hospitals must be made aware of the situation - most are probably not even aware that their work is being outsourced.
We need some form of "organization" to make any progress in this situation!

Correction - old and burned out

[ In Reply To ..]
India is primarily Hindu. Pakistan is primarily Muslim.

Not through AHDI! - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
In my opinion, AHDI no longer has the interests of MTs in mind. I am talking about certification, (as in certified nursing assistant), registration (as in RN), or license (as in Licensed Professional Counselor) by individual states with a standardized national test designed for this purpose. State certification/registration/licensure is the true hallmark of a "profession" and it is designed to protect the public, usually supervised by a state-appointed board of professionals. Medical transcription is totally unregulated, and the fact that anyone can do it without any real oversight is what enables the MTSOs to pay MTs so little. Moreover, cert/registration/licensure would keep MTSOs from going overseas with our work--where the American public loses all control of its medical records. It would increase respect for the profession and increase our incomes. It's simple supply and demand. The more desperate MTSOs are for people, the lower their standards. Since the pay people by the line and not by the hour, they could care less how little one produces. They just assign a newbie to an easy clinic account and let them "figure it out," making less than minimum wage to start, and trying to convince everyone that we should just be grateful we have jobs in this tough economy. That is exactly the mentality of business owners, not MTs. And plenty of MTSO owners come on this board pretending to be MTs, telling YOU how grateful they are just to have a job, at all. The real MTs, in contrast, are the ones struggling and wondering if it is better anywhere else, often hurt (more than angry) at being misled by false promises of being able to "easily" transcribe 1000 lines by noon or "easily" being able to do 400 LPH. Any REAL MT will know how preposterous that sounds and see the obvious discrepancy between hard, cold reality and what the MTSOs and many MT schools want newbies to believe. Licensure of MTs does NOT need to be expensive, and with licensure EVERY occupation has seen an increase in wages (see RNs, for example--heck look at what CNAs with 2 weeks of training make!). What is costing hospitals money is paying the MTSOs. Imagine how much they could save If they paid MTs 3/4 of what they pay MTSOs! It is a win-win for hospitals and clinics as well as MTs! What is destroying our industry is the false claims by MTSOs that we can do SR twice as fast as straight transcription. I say again: There is no valid, reliable, empirical evidence that this is true. The best peer-reviewed data indicate SR--AT BEST--is only 85% accurate, and it increases speed only nominally (10% to 25% on a finely tuned system). First, we get oversight by state boards and get keep the profession PROFESSIONAL. Working from home still will be possible--it is cost-effective. Many hospitals still keep transcription inhouse but have MTs who work from home. So, don't believe any MTSO that tells you licensure will just make AHDI money. AHDI won't see a penny.

So we would pay more money for certification - and get fast food wages

[ In Reply To ..]
With these wages, having to be certified would certainly give the MT industry an early death. Who would want to pay more for the silly certification, which really doesn't prove anything, and then still get paid peanut shells? I promise you that this would have no consequence to any MTSO, just the MTs.

What happens where aren't enough people willing to work for "peanuts"? - hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
?

working for peanuts - verla

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don't ya know they've got that already figured out -- goes to India - they just call peanuts rupees (sp?)

Cross-national Internet is not HIPAA compliant - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
The problem with offshoring medical transcription to India is that there is no way to make it legitimately HIPAA compliant. Once the information crosses the U.S. border, US sovereignty to control the information is lost. Just to see if it is possible, an undercover investigator bought copies of transcripts done by MTs in India. It is a major vulnerability to identity theft, among other things.

I agree. I have posted a link - Dinosaur

[ In Reply To ..]
here about the selling of medical records. In my opinion, no records of a personal nature should leave the US. No medical records, financial information, not even airline information, nothing that would put the American public at risk.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221186/Private-medical-records-sale-Harley-Street-clinic-patients-files-outsourced-input--end-black-market.html

Blow the whistle on Offshoring to India - FormerMQ

[ In Reply To ..]
Look at the comments posted in that article linked by "Dinosaur". First one I looked at a woman claims she was contacted by phone from someone she now believes illegally had her medical information. How about posting/tweeting...like on Twitter or Facebook?

cross-national internet... - frustrated MME

[ In Reply To ..]
If that's the case (which I believe it probably is), why doesn't the government do something to prevent MTSO's from outsourcing offshore? Would like to find out!

Yeah I would like to see all those "happy" people - who can do a million lines

[ In Reply To ..]
a day type what I had today and tell me how much they made. Had bad report after bad report.

Try Nuance or Phoenix MedCom - Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I am convinced that ASR really is just a clever way to cut our wages. The executives reason we 'should' be able to go twice as fast with ASR, but I have never seen it. Even when the ASR gets almost everything right, it is only 25% faster than what I can do with straight transcription using word expansion and templates. Virtually everyone I know doing ASR (that is a lot of people now) are struggling to make $10 an hour, and most are struggling to make minimum wage. It just feels very unfair.

medquist wages - Former MT

[ In Reply To ..]
It's so sad what MedQuist has done to so many honest, hard-working MTs. I was in the transcription field for 10 years until I just recently left. I went through several buyouts from the time I started, but stayed with the same account I had. Then that fateful day when MedQ "acquired" Spheris. Things were okay the first couple of months, and just as I breathed a sigh of relief, I got that first "MT Reward" Email, then just a few months later I received another "reward" (pay cut.) By then I had already gone to part time, taking on more hours at another job locally. The last straw was when the account I had been on forever was "experiencing decreased volume and going away." AKA... headed to Inida probably. At that point I accpeted the full time job offered to me with my other employer, and have moved on. I make more $$$ and am treated well and am blessed to work with some awesome people. However, I still love medical transcription, and miss it very much. I actually did not mind SR, it was the theory that it should be twice as fast as actual typing, and the lower pay rate that put me under. As much as I loved working from home, I had to move on or not have a home to work from. I don't know exactly what sort of game the Q is playing, they let people with all the experience just leave, and then keep posting for additional MTs on mtjobs.com. The only contact I have received so far, from the Q itself was a form letter with the prepaid UPS stickers to return my equipment. I am still in touch with my supervisor because she was awesome, but I figure I would have lost her too when I would have had to totally learn a new account, and the familiarity was the only way I was making anything at all. It's very sad.... I do wonder if the facility I was typing for all those years is aware the work is going offshore? Best of luck to you all. There is life after the Q....

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