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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Why in the world are American MTs working for India who treat you so disrespectfully?

Posted By: digging in on 2008-09-21
In Reply to: Anyone else at CardioScribes nervous about not receiving the line count yet? sm - need a real pay day

Nm


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India, Michael. The MT world is going to India. Wonder why? nm
!
American MTs/India
One of the reasons the work is sent to India at night is because very few MTs will work past 6 p.m.  I work a split shift and am shocked at how many MTs will only work between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mon-Fri (not 12 hours but only hours between those.)  Even when they are hired for one weekend day which is the way it is supposed to be now for new hires they don't show up on their weekend day and there are very few of us who work past 6 p.m.  If American MTs want the work they have to work all shifts.  If you are new in a company you get the crappy shifts and days until you work your way up after being their for awhile.  That's they way it is in corporate America-why do MTs think its not they way for them?  
Hey, I have India-American friends
They came here and became Americans, so please don't call them dot-heads. The difference in them is that they live here and observe the same standards we do and have to pay bills at the same rates do. I have no problem with them.

I understand the anger, but the real anger shouldn't be at them, but at our own countrymen who advocate it and sell out their own people. There's a fine line between profit and sleaze and shamless greed, and they've crossed it. Some hospitals are strongly against it and they need to start investigating and prosecuting those who trick them, IMO. There are security risks regardless how well software is made. Patient names, dictated S.S. numbers, etc. It's creepy, if you ask me. Anyone can jot the stuff down and they would not be accountable to an American court.

As long as Americans tolerate it, it will continue. Most aren't even aware of it and when you tell them, they're shocked and angry.

The American QA is out the door too. they are using their MEs from India
to do the QA on the foreign based MT and the MEs suck just as bad as the MTs do.
Heartland was started in India and American MTs should

Valuable lesson learned.  Never go to work for a company that is based on offshoring because they'll simply pull the rug out from under you.  I don't mean to sound heartless and I wish I had jobs to offer all the American MTs but I don't.


However, Mr. Ormond said the firm's transcription business started in India, and the company tried to bring it to the United States but it wasn't profitable. -- from the article. 


Those of us in the business a long time knew where their center of business was located from the beginning.


 


 


It's less an American co with branch in India, than an Indian
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
American Indian vs a person in India. nm
x
Let me sum it up for you, 80% of work is done in India, they just laid off a bunch of American

QA people, some of which were hired only a few months before they were fired, and they just now fired a lot of their upper management.  Something is in the wind at Focus and it smells like crap!  Don't work there.  If you do decide to ignore the warnings, don't believe anything they tell you!  They lie to you right up until they call and fire you.


Looks American but isnt. All MT work done in India. Hosps in IL dont know. Bound to fall.

This is all part of the cost-saving plan..first, send your American MTs work to India so we sit here
with nothing and then manipulate the way the lines are counted. Sounds like cost cutting at our expense to me. 
MT is not any different from the rest of the working world
The first time I raised my children, I ran my own day care. I was there with them as they grew up and if they needed to be at home, I had the flexibility of staying home with them. In order to stay in business and compete with other DCs in the area, I had to became a not-for-profit business. After owning it for 5 years, I actually started earning a salary, not just gas money. When they were older and I sold the business, all assets were - by law - transferred to another non-profit business. I never had the type of benefits or earned as great a salary then as I do now, and I worked twice as hard.

Now I am raising my grandchild while working at home as an MT. No matter what company where I work, I will not work unless things are in place that encourages my success. If I am not making $20-$30/hr, I am at the wrong company. Because I am an IC, everything is a tax write off. The total amount I owed in federal taxes last year was less than $300, and for state was $400.

I can certainly relate to AnnieM! and the points she raises. It is up to each of us individually to make our own way, but it is that way whether we work as MTs or as a pharmacy tech or on the assembly line putting together cars. Companies make profits off of our work -- and I have yet to see a non-profit MTSO, pharmacy, car company, etc. My car is 10 years old. I don't have new furniture or carpet (and I won't until little bit is older), and I have one credit card that pays my bills for the rewards that is paid off each month. I don't know of any other profession where at least a bachelor's degree is required that would allow me to stay home to work and provide better pay and benefits/flexibility. If we all got BS degrees, then maybe we could expect and get more...but then we wouldn't be MTs anymore, would we?
3rd world things they are working for what we have,
x
See, it is working, we are strong and standing up for our American sister MTs!
We can make this a positive. You are already doing that! We former Heartlanders appreciate what you have done for us. We cannot remain silent.
Every American MT should boycott working for any company that outsources! n/m
GRRRRR!
I do NOT feel that I am treated disrespectfully! Quite the opposite, really. sm

ALL of the support people I have dealt with have been extremely polite and helpful.  I hear please and thank you all of the time.  You do not get that too much anywhere nowadays, it seems.


Granted, I would have been happy if I had been like the one poster and had been paid this Saturday, which is what the original post was abuot, it seems, but I always know that I WILL be paid. It is not like some of these MTSOs I read about who write bad checks, give excuses about paying late, cheat you on your pay, etc.  They are very honest people and I never worry about that end.  In fact, they have shown me kindness in the past where others would not have cared at all. 


There are problems with all companies, and this company is not perfect, but then again I have not found any company that IS perfect.  Admittedly, when I was first told that the company was in India, I was a bit taken aback as I had always viewed them as the enemy.  However, all of the transcription is done in the US, and the work is sent to India to be pasted into the GEMMS platform. How it works out to be cost effective for them I do not know, but anything that saves me having to type directly into that nasty platform (GEMMS) is a blessing.  I now have a couple of other jobs, but that is only because I wanted to be an employee with benefits.


I feel bad that this whole thing has turned into a bashing of the company and especially Tonya.  It is true that she has gotten busy, but I always know that I can email her or call her and she will get back with me.  There are times that the work dried up for me and I was not happy, especially when I saw ads for more MTs, but I also blame myself for not talking to the right people about it.  Most issues can be worked out if you just deal directly with the people who can help you and not just come anonymously on a message board and complain.  In fact, I wrote to Tonya about the paycheck issue, and she confirmed for me that they had my invoice and the funds had been issued, so that was that.


Bottom line, the pay is decent, the work is easy, and the people are great.  People could find far worse places to work.


I apologize for the long post, but when I saw that post, it really annoyed me.  Thanks for letting me vent. 



And you're okay with working for a company that sends most of its work to India and

whose workforce is predominantly Indian?  You're okay with the loss of American jobs, the falling recession we are in and the falling economy due in big part to the offshoring of American jobs?  How okay will you be when you lose your job to an Indian and you have to apply for food stamps and unemployment?


Sell-out MTs like you are the reason good MTs cannot make a decent wage anymore, why good MTs cannot find a good job anymore, and why sweats shops in third world countries are thriving.  How do you look at yourself in the mirror?


Focus Infomatics employs 800 American MTs and over 3000 Indian MTs.  Tech support is in India.  The company itself is still run by the same Indian man who started the company and sold out to Nuance.  He made a bundle when he sold and he is still making a bundle running the company while he pays his own countrymen and woman peanuts!  He's selling out his own people and you are selling out yours!  On second thought, I guess you belong at Focus with your own kind!


What world is that? Wally World?
nm
If that is how they treat their new MTs,
then just imagine how they must treat their MTs on average or for the long run! Gee Willikers! I doubt you'd have much positive to look forward to if you stayed. For that person to treat you that way so quickly -- she must both be used to doing so to others and gets away with it from the company. That gives her a lot of power to make other people miserable. I would let that place take a hike. I sure hope I don't run into her on my job search.

Good luck to you in whatever you decide.
Yes, when you treat the MT like....

I have to say if the MTs weren't  treated like they are in sweat shops and constantly hounded about their production and could get paid a decent wage, then maybe the quality could get better.  But, when you are paid on production and someone just out of school has yet to build up speed, and they are being hounded as to why they are not producing their line count, then they feel rushed and yes, making careless mistakes.  I have been MTing for 3 years, and I surely do wish I would have chosen another field.  I am currently getting myself ready to go back to school and get into diagnostic medical sonography.  The only thing I will miss is being able to work from home and be more available to my family.  Sorry in advance for any typos or punctuation errors. 


They have a low pay scale. They treat you like
The owner is nice enough, but she does not like to pay until her client pays her and she will make you sign a paper stating you agree to that.  Just be careful what you sign.  You might like it if you like EMDAT.  There is no training.  You train yourself through a website she gives you for EMDAT.  Again pay is low.
I don't agree-because Men treat U the way U..NM

But they are!! Treat employees very well
nm
If you treat your employees well, why

would you make the statement all but 1 would turn on you if someone offered something better?  Most MTs I know are thankful to work for someone who treats them well, something that is no longer the norm in this business, and generally stick it out for the long haul, until the MTSO offshores or there is no work or not enough work to feed our families.  Somehow it has been lost that an employee well treated and well paid is an asset, not a liability.  I don't know about you, but I appreciate respect for the work I do and the knowledge I bring to the table and that respect comes in many forms, most notably a living wage.  You can be darn sure that in these economic times and with the depressed wages we have had to settle for because MTSOs, large and small, offshore or live high and mighty off the backs of us MT slaves, I'm looking out for #1.  Loyalty and respect are earned.  Very few companies today exhibit business and/or moral practices that earn them either. 


 


I like my company. They treat me well.
industry's *standard* pay.

BUT ------ Thanks to AAMT/AHDI, greedy hospital CEO's who want more money & more management, at the expense of less of everything else (including patient care), and MTSO's without the backbone to stand by a rate that means they can pay their MT's a living wage, even *the industry's best* pay just isn't cutting it. Not as a single person, anyway.

Changing jobs would just make my situation worse. But if the payscale doesn't go up soon, I'll have no choice but to get out. I already cant ever retire, thanks to the Wall Street pigs. And thanks to greedy people buying into the MT industry to make a fast, easy buck, just makeing ends meet is getting near-impossible. I could understand it if I had no education and no skills. But as a person who is pretty much at the top of their game in MT, I'm so disappointed that my work, my hours, and my knowledge aren't paid what they're worth. A very respected doctor/professor once told me that MTs are *one of the doctors' strongest lines of defense against mistakes, malpractice, and lawsuits*. He used to thank me personally every year, even though the rest of the hospital didn't seem to give a crap, for catching those tiny dictation errors that ALL doctors make, and for bringing things that seemed questionable to his attention. As a result, we both learned continually, and quality was job-one for him, as well as for me.

Now, it's just a numbers game. Crank out those lines. Cut those corners. Someday that continual haste is going to cost a lot (if it hasn't already). A life. A job. A medical licensure. A few million in a lawsuit. We used to be important players in the quality of medical care documentation. Now, we're just *expendable* cogs in the wheel.
They treat their employees VERY well.
I have been there for over 2 years and don't plan on going anywhere else. They will go out of their way to do anything they can for you if you are a hard working employee. I have never been with a company who treats their employees this well.
They don't treat you well on the CM side
You may not think it makes a difference, but it's like working for a different company. I think the staff is very abusive and disrespectful to the MTs and each other. Webmedx needs to go in there and clean house from the supervisors down.

Read ChartMatrix MT's post below. The culture really does make a difference. Apparently, she doesn't have work, either. Bad on both counts.
And that they will treat you like FAMILY, too.
Can't argue that one. I guess like most of MY family, these yahoos would never pay me what they owed me, either.

I cannot believe they still have the audacity to advertise here.


They're going to treat you the same as all other employees
and you'll not get your way by threatening and stomping your feet. You hold no more weight than the rest of us with them. Just how expensive is it for YOU to type for MQ who is PAYING YOU? LOL
?? I don't see how you can say that... I love MDI and they treat their employees well.
I have never had a bad experience with them and I certainly would not call them nasty.
And why do MTSOs treat ICs as employees? nm
x
Well, just don't go to work for Focus. They don't treat
their staff very well, they are all Indian including your leads, and there is at least one guy there who is very male chauvenistic. 
I work for 2 companies and both treat me very well. sm
Contented MTs generally don't come to these boards to complain, so our side is not represented well.

There are some very good companies out there. I've managed to find 2!

BTW, we're not nickeled and dimed. We're pennied, or ha'pennied!

Unlike government employees, we're paid on production, so lots of work gets done.

;)




As companies being allowed to treat their MT's like this.

If TT and the other companies who do not pay for downtimr/no work to their at-home MT's when they log on and there is NO WORK, then these companies would assuredly be more careful about letting us run out of work. 


Discussion was about having to stick to a schedule when they want us to, but in no work situations, mgmt will forget about a schedule then and request us not to  call the office, nor email on those days, and we are allowed to be flexible with our schedules (at their convenience).  These companies who run out of work need to be paying for downtime/no work situations, and they will be more careful about surprising us with no work days when we log into the system.


 This began as a discussion about sticking to a schedule, not about $$$ saved up. 


This is misleading. They have all ICs, so it cannot be said that they treat their employees well.
I had a rude awakening about being an IC and will never go that route again!
people should treat others the way they want to be treated. nm
.
That sure is a RUDE way to treat a co-worker.
Actions like that usually do.
They hire you as an IC and treat you as an employee. nm
.
I'll bet the Saudis will treat you...
a whole lot better than Transcend does.  Arabs are known for being extremely generous, unlike many of these 'American' transcription companies.
I agree with all the above. Know how to treat transcriptionists, and I don't just mean on holida
nm
Been there. My company didn't treat me horribly
but because I could do the very worst ESLs I got dumped on.  Work is assigned by the company and there isn't supposed to be cherry-picking, but there obviously was.  I could do the dictation, but it slowed me down considerably.  On top of the bad dictator it seemed the sound quality was also bad.  I would be stressed at the end of the day and end up with a headache.  If I were getting paid by the hour I would have still be a bit stressed, but not as much because I didn't have to worry about producing lines.  My MTSO has told me a couple of stories too.  I have looked for another position a couple of times, but every company that offered me a position didn't want to pay me what I was currently making, didn't allow me the flexibility that I have, didn't have the friendly platform that I currently have, and I had to be connected to the internet to work the whole time.  I like to get outside when the weather is nice and with my current job I download my work and then I can get off-line.  I can take my laptop outside and work.   I still read the job boards on occasion, but I have decided I can't do any better anywhere else, so I'll just accept whatever issues there are and deal with them.  
Stay away from Fast Chart. Their pay is low and they don't treat you very well. nm
nm
I treat my days of no work as an unexpected day off..
get a lot done at home, go to town and do the shopping I would have had to do on my day off. Every now and then it is nice to have a day off that is unexpected. I make up anything that I have to on my days off...just like in the real *outside* job world. If I miss a day or two of pay I don't sweat it...that is why I have a little extra $$ put away.
I think that is very good advice but how do you know if a company is going to treat you well?

During the interview they will tell you all kinds of wonderful stuff.  Are you saying it is better to look a company offering a lower line rate as an indication of a better place to work?  You could be right.


It seems kind of sad though in our industry that in order to get decent management the personal price is to take a cut in pay.  Why can't it be good management and good pay at the same time? 


This industry is insane... they treat you like garbage and ...
you get no respect... here is the deal... many women want to work from home to be there for the kids... the MTSOs know this and push what anyone will put up with to the limits. It ain't worth it.

I you're going to treat your employees poorly, you
.
If transcend has so much to hide and has to treat everyone with threats, they stay away.
That is a big red flag in everyone's face.  From what I read, they are going downhill fast with lots of disgruntled employees anyway, so I am sure they will all leave the company "at will" when they find new jobs. 
I work for JLG and they are just fine. They treat you well with small little perks.
So they pay by 65 characters. So does most everyone else. They pay on time and are reliable which is better than I can say for some others around here.
MTSO not loyal friend, relative. Best not to treat
ms
No, if they knowingly tested you when you had crappy sound effects what would they treat you like a
.
Just how are they to work for as far as accounts, ESLs, etc. The usual things such as how they treat
the MTs and so on.
I agree.. Too many companies treat employees unfairly and feel they can get away with it.
Too many MTs would have just turned the other cheek, chocking it up to a bad experience and moved on, which is what I probably would have done, but the buck has to stop somewhere. Good for that MT...