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

New person starting out - me

Posted: Jan 19, 2015

I worked in this business over 30 years and my daughter has always had an interest. She talked to the major school and they told her the starting salary is about 40,000, and that a large proportion pay by the hour. I told her the truth about the hours and about what she could expect to make with pay going down so much. I would like some feedback about what new people out of school are seeing as far as the pay now. It's been a long time since I actually transcribed, I was in middle management for 15 years.

Lucky to make minimum wage - Any more questions?-nm

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xx

...and that's if you're lucky enough to find a job. - Most of them have gone to India.

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nm

Look at posts... - JOttS

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OMG! Are you kidding? Take a look at the posts on this site. Better yet, have your daughter take a look at these posts. Particularly take notice of the posts under "Looking to become an MT." Take these posts seriously. These are from experienced MTs (myself included) who know and are living proof of what's happening to this once respected and important part of the medical profession. If she wants anything to do with the profession today, maybe she might consider becoming a medical assistant. Looks like there's more future there. JOS

Oh, sure. We're all rolling in the dough. - Those days are long gone.

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The days of making $40K and being paid hourly are long gone. The schools that lie to their prospective students should be sued for taking people's hard-earned money when they (the schools) KNOW there's going to be very little chance of a newbie ever making that kind of money in this nearly-dead industry.

Even those of us with decades of experience have seen our once-excellent income go down to, at best, minimum wage levels. Most of us still in MT careers are working more than one job just to make ends meet. Many of us have cut our MT work down to part time and sought full time employment outside of the MT industry.

I would hate to see your daughter waste her money on an MT school. She won't make her money back, I'm sorry to say. Choose another health care career such as MOA, x-ray tech, phlebotomist, patient scheduler, etc.

New person starting out - anonie

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I totally agree with this. I can remember that I got really good pay working at our hospital and then for a private company doing ER notes from all over the country. Then came three nationals and they kept on going down and down. I had to retire early because there just was no way I could maintain full-time pay. Now I work part-time and supplement my SS.

Such a shame this evolved into what it is today. I blame offshoring and VR, but more offshoring. They have done really awful damage to people's lives by outsourcing no matter what it is.

I do not personally want my records to go overseas. I do not trust any of the MTs because they can't speak good English let alone type medical terminology. Try getting help from some tech in India through Comcast. They take forever and all they are doing when they say hold is look in a book for answers. If it is not there, too bad for you. You have wasted probably an hour or so. Ugh. I want help from American people who speak English.

Forever - Meh

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I don't know about Comcast, but I called Dell for customer service before and the people are obviously in India and to say they take forever is an understatement. They act like they have all the time in the world and act as if the customer (such as myself) have all the time in the world. It is ridiculous. Not only do they take forever and ever trying to resolve a problem, but they actually created a problem. I called them to help me install a virum software onto my computer. I made the mistake of allowing Dell representative to take hold of my computer to install the anti-virus program and he screwed up my computer. I thought they're supposed to be professionals, so I trusted them. Never again. And then I tried to have them fix my computer for days, hours each day, to no avail. They ruined my computer. Fortunately, the computer was about 6 years old already. However, it wasn't broken until I had a Dell representative in India do somethng to it.

I just have to reply - MTMT

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Remember the Dell commercials where they showed a guy on the phone with Dell at 3 am? I thought it was false advertising because the Dell tech was American.. haha!

I was having a problem with my printer one time and the person actually told me to pick up my printer, turn it upside down, and shake it! I said I'm not doing that.

And how about the ones who tell you they want to do a total reset of your computer? They tried that one on my husband (on more than one occasion) and he refused. He would end up calling a local repair guy and getting a quick fix, without doing a reset that would have wiped out everything he had saved.

I no longer buy Dell products. I bought my last computer from a local computer store, where I can call them or take the computer in if I have a problem... and I can understand every word they say!

Same Here - Meh

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No more Dell. They suck and have no customer service. For "customer service", may as well go to a neighbor who knows nothing at all about computers and the neighbors goes to library to get some books, spends 5 hours a day, 7 days a week trying to fix a problem, and takes up your time also in the meanwhile, and in the end the problem is still unsolved. That's literally the "customer service" I got from Dell. They act like you have limitless amount of time and they solve nothing too. How can they have so much time to spare? They must get paid by the hour at the same rate no matter what, whether they solve any issues or not. They deserve customers to leave them for their greed and outsourcing of jobs at the detriment of their customers as well as higher U.S. unemployment rate.

I had a similar situation in that my daughter wanted - to be an MT....I tried

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to dissuade her many times; she didn't want to listen (kids!).....so she signed up at Andrews, went through the course and did actually get a job. She hated it. She couldn't make minimum wage at the first job; they let her go. She got a little better and at the second one she was doing okay (for her). But then she realized on her own this was a terrible choice she made. Luckily she was very young and could easily give it up. She is in nursing school now and loves it. But I wish she didn't have to waste the money on the loan for MT school! She is paying for that now.

WTF - Meh

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Minimum wage is the norm. I graduated from MTEC and make minimum wage. Your daughter should ask that person who told her the starting salary is about $40,000 what specific company/s that hire MT fresh out of school that pay that amount. Bet that person would be tongue-tied.

I haven't seen that kind of money in 8 years... - sm,..

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It's more like minimum wage. If you can't understand the doctor, you can't go fast. If you can't go fast, you can't make any money. All the easy reports are point and click or sent overseas.

Wow... if you can make... - JOttS

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minimum wage as an MT nowadays, you're lucky! It can be pretty difficult trying to even calculate an "hourly wage" when working for an MTSO--or even on your own--if all you get is sporadic work and not on a regular basis. How do you count your hours realistically? Are you really making minimum wage if you count your "working" hours on that kind of schedule? I'd like to know how many MTs are really making minimum wage on their schedules; and are benefits included? Minimum wage here in CA is $9/hr. I'm assuming it's the same across the country. Just curious... JOS

Far more than minimum wage here. - Marge

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I am always surprised when I hear people saying they don't even make minimum wage. :( I make FAR and above minimum wage. I make more than I did as a nurse. No, calculating "hours" is not that easy but I try to figure an average of what I work when I am able to sit down and do nothing but type. Suffice it to say that I have not gone back into the hospital (nursing) field as I can make much more doing transcription from home.

My story. - sm

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I left nursing and made more working as an MT. Things changed over the past ten years and MT wages decreased dramatically. I recently went back to nursing where I am making almost $40 an hour. When I left nursing I made $9 an hour. My best year as an MT I made $25 an hour. That was back in 2007. Things have really changed.

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