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FUNNY THING ABOUT MT CONTRACTS - SM

Posted By: Bayou MT on 2009-06-16
In Reply to: Read your contract. - sm

They're about as LOPSIDED as a 3-legged dog/horse/donkey - take your pick.  WHO GETS TO WRITE THESE CONTRACTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?? Who has the most to say on what does or doesn't go into it?  Certainly not the MT.  They're almost all written by THEM - with the help of their attorney or in-house legal department - and I can guarantee you they didn't miss a trick.


Case in point:  Ever look at your apartment/house lease, for example - you know the tiny print on the back with about 200 clauses - favoring, guess whom?? IC status might have its merits for the MT - CERTAINLY for the MTSO - no taxes, no SS to pay for you ... no worry about lawsuit for wrongful termination or worry about you applying for Unemployment - but they STILL b---- and moan ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.   




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FUNNY THING ABOUT MT CONTRACTS - SM

They're about as LOPSIDED as a 3-legged dog/horse/donkey - take your pick.  WHO GETS TO WRITE THESE CONTRACTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?? Who has the most to say on what does or doesn't go into it?  Certainly not the MT.  They're almost all written by THEM - with the help of their attorney or in-house legal department - and I can guarantee you they didn't miss a trick.


Case in point:  Ever look at your apartment/house lease, for example - you know the tiny print on the back with about 200 clauses - favoring, guess whom?? IC status might have its merits for the MT - CERTAINLY for the MTSO - no taxes, no SS to pay for you ... no worry about lawsuit for wrongful termination or worry about you applying for Unemployment - but they STILL b---- and moan ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.   


funny thing
Every time this company is spoken about there is always just one that will state good - and never a name attached - I say run and run fast - worked there and no pay, late pay and too many problems with office staff. Low pay for too much grief.
Funny, thing ... even with building, you
can ALWAYS find someone to do a job cheaper, but you WILL sacrifice quality. You can find someone to build the screened in porch for $3000 instead of $5000, but there's no guarantee about the quality of work, nor the fact that the roof might come crashing down on your head someday.
Just thinkin it's funny that you thing THEY are
asdf
So funny! LOL! I kept thinking the same thing...
get spell check! LOL Calling names, and can't spell it right.  And in the MT biz. Somebody pass me a bun, please!
LOL. That was funny. I like that petty cash thing :)
/
Every week a different company has bad posts. The funny thing is that sm

it just goes round and round.  How about doing something about it rather than arguing back and forth.  I think we all can agree that there are good companies and bad companies but that for the most part they are all pretty similar.  Slipping through the cracks?  It happens.  Be the squeaky wheel and call the company.  Obviously they need people if they hire.  Perhaps your resume was stuck to another or your message not written down correctly.  Perhaps you misunderstood something and need to clarify it. Perhaps they misunderstood something and need to clarify it.  If you have chosen to work for a company and did your research, then you have to decide after a month or so if it is the right company for you or not.  Transcription is a very small world and these service owners talk amongst themselves.  They work on making transcription better not how to burn and tick off the next applicant.


Be realistic.  These companies all have good and bad points.  The really bad ones are obvious with the paychecks that do not arrive for months and those that continuously bounce checks and those that rip off their employees with fraudulent line counts.  But the ones that are constantly attacked on here are the ones that have been around for awhile and will continue with or without you.  MQ, Spheris, MDI, Transcend, Transolutions, Keystrokes, Heartland, TransHealth, OSI, Precyse and Cymed are going to continue to hire and fire and have happy MTs and MTs that do not like working for them.  The truly bad ones like XXXX and SS, to name a few, the ones that only have horrible posts are the ones that will fade away. 


How funny.. I did the Focus thing too but even they paid 4 cpl for editing, not 2.5, that is too low
but I understand your just trying to get the experience. I havent heard anything about AC but I say go for it.. You dont know until you try and your right ANYTHING is better than Focus.. They are a nightmare for sure.
I was a little troubled by that e-mail, too. The funny thing is, I work
an IC job that supplements my pay, and I got a call just Monday because I had not met my producton goal there. Apparently another vice president decided to earn a check this week...LOL.

No matter how much they jump up and down, you cannot transcribe what is not there. I was more than happy to remind that individual I do not get paid unless I work, so not meeting goal is probably MORE critical to me.

I thought by busting my tush on 2 jobs I would be guaranteed never to run out of work, but both failed me this past holiday. For all the gymnastics, I will be working all weekend this weekend just to have a decent paycheck. Sigh.
contracts
Everyone should keep in mind contracts work both ways. If the company voids the contract in anyway - nonpayment, late pay if stated in the contract a date it is to be - then the entire contract is void. If you have a problem, go through the yellow pages for a free consult with an attorney - but the contract is not just for them it is for you too - so if it states you are to do 1000 lines a day and they do not offer it up, if the wording is proper - they voided the contract not you. If a company says the payday if Friday and you do not recieve it within a standard mail delivery date, they have voided the contract. So yes please everyone review what they sign to see if you can get what you deserve. So many of us just take it, I say get some legal advice - Lawyers hand it out like candy. If we dont - they will continue to bounce checks, pay late, decrease workloads, etc.
contracts
Tried to email you privately but it would not go through. can you send to my email and let me know company name you mean. I would like to know if it is the same one. thank you.
contracts
Anybody have this experience? I was just offered work from a company that sounded wonderful, just what I needed. No set schedule, work anytime, just set number of lines. Then I got the contract which stated basically paid on the 15th and 30th assuming payment received from client. What? I should do the work for their business and then they don't have to pay me until their client pays, if their client pays. I don't think so. The contract obviously precludes the MT from contacting the client so how do I know if the MTSO got paid or not or when they got paid. Just looking for other people's thoughts on this. Am I being paranoid? Have you ever been asked to sign such a contract? I have seen many postings on this board about people not being paid, and I do not want to be in that situation. I do the work for XXX Company. Doesn't XXX company owe me that money either way. I feel it is their responsibility to pay for work done for their company and THEN deal with the client for any nonpayment issues. What do you think? I politely told them I could not sign the contract with that statement included and asked them to reconsider their position, explaining my feelings on the subject.
contracts
Without reading the contracts, I would say that they need to give notice to change it, unless there is a clause in the original contract that they can change it at will. If you see a clause like that don't sign it.


RE: CONTRACTS
Right ... employees, IC or employee status, should have some type of contract with their employer.  But who usually writes the contract?  How many contracts presented by the MTSO actually allow for input from the MT?  For the most part, they are WORTHLESS, often detrimental, to the MT, since they are almost always one-sided favoring you know who.
contracts
Do you then sign a contract you disagree with? I don't understand doing that.

When I'm given a contract, I surely do take my pen and cross out what I do not agree to, add in what I want agreed to, and sign it.

This at the very least opens the door to negotiation of what I see as issues I can't work with. I've turned down contracts where the MTSO wasnt willing to negotiate to meet my terms. And more often than not, the MTSOs have been willing to work with me.
contracts
You can give direction to a contractor. You can tell the plumber you work until noon so he needs to fix your bathtub between 1 and 5. You can tell him you can only have a plumber there on Monday.

Most ICs do not ever bother SUBMITTING a contract to a service, which is just insanity. Instead, they kowtow to the demands of a service (treating them as employees), then kvetch when they aren't treated as ICs.

Education and knowing how to conduct BUSINESS is seemingly lost among way too many MTs.
You need to negotiate better contracts.
.
Depends on Contracts
I do not know whether the contract specifies only that the work be done in US, or that the provider not outsource at all. If so, that could void contracts. But at any rate, they will still need us US employees to do the work.
Some union contracts have more pay for certification. sm
At a facility I worked at for about 11 years, we had that benefit - $1.00 an hour for certification. You would have to find a unionized hospital and see how their contract reads.
Beware of contracts that state
you get paid when we do...  run, run as fast as you can...!  Do not sign it. 
MTSO HOSPITAL CONTRACTS

What duration of time is a contract with a hospital, one year? It is now April, meaning 50+ transcriptionists needed a year ago, means 50+ now fighting for work. ??


They don't go up b/c hospitals have contracts with MTSOs, sm
saying this is the rate for 2 yrs or whatever. The company may want to pay you more, but they aren't getting reimbursed a high rate from hospitals or clinics.
I'm an IC and I won't accept contracts that have line

IC.  Those of you who agree to working a certain amount of lines are being taken advantage of, and you also make it harder for us true ICs who know that line quotas should not be enforced.


If these companies worry about keeping the client happy, then hire more people.  The company I work for does just that.  If I can't work for some reason, then someone else picks it up.  If they can't work, then I pick up the slack. 


Those of you who want steady work put up with the rules and accept IC status because you want to work every day.  Well in response to your lazy post, then don't come on here crying when you run out of work because as an IC these companies do not have to promise you any work or provide it all. 


So it doesn't work both ways.  Most ICs, by definition, should really be employees especially with set schedules and set hours. 


As soon I see that I have to work set days or type a certain amount of lines I bypass that crookery of a company.  Sorry, that's how it is and I do fine in the salary and job department, and I am a true IC that makes my own rules.  I am by no means lazy but I will not tolerate set rules when none should be set unless they want to offer me employee status.



P/S:  You all cry when these companies run out of work and when you're an IC, they don't owe you any work; so the joke is on you for not looking out for yourself and instead trying to make excuses for these companies who are getting away with paying ICs and controlling ICs when it's against the law.


 


Yes, the hospital contracts out to the MTSO who is an IC...sm
and has to hire people to fullfill that contract. They have the option of hiring independent contractors with some sort of line quota in a period of time or hire employees who work a schedule enabling them to meet turnaround times more precisely but having to pay employment taxes and give benefits. A company can have of mix of these employees but there is definitely a difference by law. I myself prefer flexible part-time, but so far those jobs have been hard to find.
Our contracts will expire at the end of 2009

at which point we will have to sign all that HIPAA confidentiality stuff and probably noncompete agreements with Transcend too.  While the 2009 MDI contract says they have to pay us a certain line rate for 12 months (and this would be binding on Transcend as well)  I bet what we signed says we cannot compete for at least  couple of years (and this would be binding on us as it pertains to what would now be Transcend accounts.)  Don't have time to hunt up and read my contract right now but I would be very surprised if the noncompete agreement expired at the end of 2009.  Way to easy to walk off with accounts that way. 


 


I'm not posting contracts. You're insane!
I don't care if they don't believe me. I'm the one getting paid. What do I care if they don't believe me? I can understand the problem with others getting hired in at higher rates, but truly that is their situation, not mine.

You're real sharp but not I'm not dull enough to bite that! LMAO
Good Point, But Contracts One-Sided
Sorry for duplication, I now see both your posts. You bring up a good point, though sometimes these contracts are one-sided and allow a lot of manipulation of job pool by client. But fact remains that US-only work remains and someone has to do it, preferably those of us already trained. Hopefully one way or another we will remain working for those clients. ???
Sten-Tel contract, anyone with any info on their contracts? more inside
I received their contract and had my attorney look at it and some red flags came up.  One of the things that is in it is an indemnity clause stating that I an as an IC hold them harmless for ANY liability even if it's THEIR fault.  And there is no guarantee of any certain amount of work or amount of hours in it.  Please help and advise if you can.  I would like to hear from any previous Sten-Tel workers or present ones.  Thanks.
As a service, I do not carry liability insurance...on contracts,
I line out that clause. The liability for MT work is extremely low. I personally have never heard of any MT being brought into court on a transcription. Has anyone else? Therefore, liability insurance is either a) not necessary or b) if purchased, would be really really cheap as the liability is practically nonexistent. None of my clients has ever been offended that I don't carry liability. I simply tell 'em that no body does.
Non-compete clauses in contracts. Has anyone refused to sign this and still got the job? nm
nm
Companies close old and gain new contracts all the time. (SM)
Stop rumoring.

If you have information, share with the Administrator or myself. Otherwise, leave rumoring off the board.

Goldbird

I've got a question about contracts. How legally binding are they?

I was reading the MDI discussion below and a couple of ex-MDI MTs have said that their contracts were changed while they were still employed forcing them to work different days, different schedules, etc.  I worked for JLG not too long ago and they basically did the same thing.  I signed a contract stating a certain wage and then they basically breached the contract and completely changed my wage. 


So what are the deal with contracts anyway?!?!??!?!?!  Why do we bother to sign them if the companies aren't honoring their side of it?  And shouldn't the MT be able to take legal action against an MTSO that has breached their contract?  Shouldn't there be legal ramifications?  The MTSOs make sure to put in noncompete clauses in the contracts so we don't steal any of their clients and try to scare us into believing that if we try to steal their clients, they'll sue, but then they completely disregard the fact that they signed the contract and they could be sued for not meeting their end of the deal!


I HAVE HAD IT!!!!  These MTSOs are getting away with too much!  I have a file folder the size of a freaking PDR with nothing but contracts I've received throughout my career as an MT and I'd bet that if I sit down and go through them, not one of the MTSOs honored them.


When the hospital contracts an MTSO they are abiding by contract
and the hospital CAN ask that the work be done at certain times. That does not make the MTSO an employee now does it?

They CAN contract a person out to do work at certain times with certain turn around times, and that is NOT called an employee. It is called CONTRACTING someone out to do the job they need done when they need it done.


Most contracts said either party can quit or fire at any time. Would be unusual to get locked into
s
Debate is one thing, and posting is one thing,
but this is getting absurd. I think it must be the same person, otherwise multiples who cannot stay on topic?? Why can't you STICK with the subject? The subject of my post was NOT what your cent per line rate was or is - I could care less- and not how much money you made last year, this year, or in your life, but how silly the comment was that your cents per line rate means NOTHING, that its up to you - some fluff like that. That is just so silly. Again, working for the same company, same account, is one going to make more money being paid more per line? OF course! This is so frustrating and really makes me so tired of reading this garbage let alone posting. Its like a nightmare. And also makes me completely believe that the original company must pay peanuts.
good thing it is a temporary thing sm
because people with your attitude don't stay in anything very long anyway. Nobody has to listen to that crap to keep their job.

You don't know me either. you can say old fart all you want (when did 53 get to be old fart....too funny) but at least I am a valuable employee who can get a decent job!
That is really funny
The majority cannot be wrong.  Your first post brought on the reactions of many, all saying the same thing.  Your first post was rude.  It just was. It sounded hateful.  No way that 5 different people read it wrong.  Funny how you descend upon the poor OP and basically rip her apart and then call the rest of us vultures.  So funny.  You are not one to be preaching about attitudes and how we should watch them.  Talk to the woman in the mirror first. 
OMG HOW FUNNY!!!
NM
it's funny that
the packet states no one will get a pay cut but they gave out pay cuts before people trained on DEP as DEP has only a certain pay level, so they were told. I guess this means no pay cuts with this packet. Pretty smarmy, huh??
too funny
nm
I think it is funny that you all
want to say that JACKO and the others you mentioned are the only rudes ones on this board. Look over the posts. Pretty much everyone here is rude. I've never seen anything like it.
that is funny....unfortunately if they were not that way, I don't many of us would have a job-LOL
nm
Too funny. He gets around. nm
x
Funny
Please, why is it that if someone has been treated badly and there are issues that that person tries to convey to another for their own warning, why is that a grudge?  You watch too much TV!
Too funny.
I have two dried up accounts as well. Yet they are still hiring. Go figure.
lol, and for 8 cpl! Now, that's funny.
x
Funny
Oh what like I'm scared? Yes M.E. are my initials, you better believe it. Saying liar is not slanderous. Especially since this board makes disclaimers. Funny.
How funny!!!
Was it a lady by the name of Phyllis Tate who contacted you?  She is always going on cruises.  I turned down that company one week after I started working there.  That place is so darn screwed up.  Do not consider taking a job whatsoever!!!
THAT WAS FUNNY!
So funny!!  Yes, we know how to focus and concentrate and we know how to DROWN out nonessentials of background noise.
Funny....
I sent a resume to them and one of the questions was how much ESL do I do. I told them over 50% and that was why I was leaving my current job. They emailed me back and said based on my ESL answer, I was not a suitable candidate for their company.
lol that was funny
/