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

Life expectancy of MT - Evelyn

Posted: Mar 12, 2014

With all this talk about the coding offer, what do you all think is the life expectancy of the current MTs? How quickly are we going to be phased out in favor of coders? Do you think MM will keep a skeleton crew of MTs on board and, if so, how will they be chosen? Do we hang on for however long and, once we're laid off, then collect unemployment? Or do we jump ship now?

Life expectancy ... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
What won't be phased out of the MT division will eventually be laid off, of that I have no doubt. They will need a verrrry small and basic Editing crew on the domestic side to correct the horrible work from the global side but the Transcription division has been a huge expense for them that they can no longer afford. Every time a company "restructures" the biggest and easiest cut to make is to the work force so there is no doubt in my mind that a major layoff is coming not just for MTs/MMEs but also for TSMs and QCs. I believe the Coding offer is the one and only life raft that MM is going to throw out to us and that they only plan to keep the very best of the best (hence the top 60 scores on the test) and the rest of us are fair game for layoff.

As to your question about jumping ship now, I would say if you don't already have a plan in place, you need to make one NOW. NOW is the time. Take tax money and invest in school, get your financial aid papers ready for a college program, put together your resume, and put action to whatever plan you have because I am almost completely certain we "may" have 6 months to a year (tops) before things really start to fall apart.

yeah, that sounds about right. - anon2

[ In Reply To ..]
I give it 2 years absolute tops.

They will still need MMEs (if they are still even in the MT biz 2 years from now).

Perhaps they are "restructuring" out of that and strictly into medical billing, as it is more lucrative.

Can you expound on this please? - curious

[ In Reply To ..]
This coder thing bothers me, because it would be so much cheaper for them to just hire coders if they needed them, instead of training them themselves. So that says to me that they can save money by paying them much less than the going rate for coders. Do you think they are getting ready to get out of transcription completely, and wouldn't that be a good thing? What about alll of the places that have not outsourced their transcription? Are they safe?

It's all speculation. - No one has a crystal ball

[ In Reply To ..]
It seems the coding thing is an indicator that MModal is moving towards the medical billing side of things.

This industry has been going down for a decade or more. In the end my speculation is there will be a handful of MMEs/QA in the US.

There is no money in MT anymore for the MT or the corporation. MModal is 750 million in debt, that is the only clue you need. The need to find a way to be profitable. That is what the coding thing is all about.

I've heard it's til end of 2014. - Starting to look that way.

[ In Reply To ..]
X

Do you mind if I ask ... where did you hear that? - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't mean that in a sarcastic way ... just wondering if it came from a reliable source or if it's just someone's best guess.

Several higher-ups in the medical field, - not from other MTs.

[ In Reply To ..]

.

OK ... thank you, 2014 is what I thought too. :) - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

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