Work from home Companies

IC work [2008-07-23]
Snowbunny: Thank you for your information - one of the things I was concerned about is the scheduling...i prefer working the graveyard shift because i am a night owl, and I don't like working evenings and absolutely deplore working '9-to-5'..

IC work [2008-07-22]
Anne Marie P: Thank you so very much for your reply; I find it very helpful; and due to my current situation with the HMO big K - I have decided to go the route of IC. zoesnana

Work from home Companies [2008-02-26]
Can anyone tell me what Work from home Companies to be leary of when applying for jobs? Any help would be great. Thanks.

you are an IC if the company you work for does not pay your taxes.... [2007-12-30]
When you are an IC, you tell the company who contracts with you how much work you can provide. It is no different than any other contractor who tells you they will do something for so much money. If they do not perform what is promised, you will probably not rehire them. Same thing goes for IC's. You can be let go for not keeping your end of the bargain. There are great tax benefits for being an IC, but I strongly recommend you seek the assistance of a professional CPA for this come tax time.

your link didn't work - here's the link [2007-11-23]
there was an ET and an apostrophe at the end of your link - would've worked with or without the ET but not the apostrophe *grins* http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19684970

some companies do this [2007-08-22]
I have gone to Washington DC to train for a company before. They paid. Breakfast, lunch included. Transportation from hotel to company provided. I was only responsible for dinner moneywise. Group of about 14 of us. Made really good friends. No longer work with the company but still keep in touch with other MTs from training. This was about 5 years ago.

For whom do you work? [2007-04-10]
I'm currently working and unhappy. I have to know--for whom do you work? Thx.

The people who live and work in India....sm [2005-12-01]
speak the King's English.......................*tsk *tsk that you all don't get this. *LOL* WHAT THEY will have problems with are foreign doctors from all over the rest of the world, i.e., ESL and French MDs. I, personally, find the French accent the most difficult (and that's after being married to one of them for too long a time *lol*). just one person's opinion here :)

Medquist counts on the very VOLUME of their work to hide their billing *inaccuracies*. [2005-10-11]
They have some large hospitals.You take an 800 bed hospital getting a bill once a month that is 8 inches thick! Daily logs, sans LINE COUNTS, with just a total. Who is going to take the time to investigate that? These large services count on the overwhelming time it would take to verify billing. I have seen it done time and time again.

IC Taxes [2008-07-28]
Make sure you either get with a good accountant or get a really good tax program (we use TurboTax every year) because as an IC, taxes don't get taken out of your check, but you get to take deductions for everything that you use for your business. If you own your house, you can deduct the square footage of your office space from your mortgage, you can deduct part of your electricity bill, cell phone, internet, any equipment you have to buy, milage if you have to travel for work - the list can go on and on. Just make sure to keep receipts and good records - I got audited my first year as an IC. I passed with flying colors because everything was legit and I had a receipt to back it up. Hope this helps you and good luck!!! =)

If I might add a word or two [2008-07-22]
Make sure you fully understand the rules of being an IC. The number one rule is: The element of control. An IC has it. A service cannot tell you the hours and/or days you have to work, the pay rate, or anything else of that nature. The rules that apply to the service (which is an IC faction) also apply to you. Here's a web site with the rules: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

Working as an IC sm [2008-07-20]
I likeworking as an IC more than working as a full time employee....I just do not make good employee material due to my health. Although I really, really need health insurance, I just cannot deal with shift work but I will have to at this point and time in my life. I did just accept a job as an employee, tho, because I am getting older and I have to think about taxes, Medicare, etc.....So, I am praying that it will work out.......as I am determined to MAKE it work. You can make more money as an IC because taxes aren't taken out, BUT........you do have to put aside monies for paying taxes, etc...and with what most MTSOs are paying these days, the cost of living, the awful state of the economy, it is pretty hard to do that. Also, MOST companies even dictate a schedule to you anyway, even as an IC, which is wrong on so many levels, and I think we as MTs all know this.

working as an IC [2008-07-18]
Greetings: Can someone on this board give me some advice regarding working as an IC? I have 20+ years transcribing Pathology; I have also done the basic four, but I love Pathology. The hospital I work for has implemented VR, before that the outsourced our work (and our union did not do a THING about it)and some of us have already been given the boot. Only thing I will say is that it is a big HMO and it starts with the letterthat comes after J('nuff said). Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated

VR is here to stay [2008-07-03]
I think it serves any professional to keep up with any technology affecting their chosen profession. A medical Transcriptionist who refuses to learn editing of voice recognition files will end up being left behind. Having said that, if you're thinking about transcription work, then choose a school who isn't afraid of current technology and includes it in their curriculum. I love voice recognition. Working with it on a high-end technical level has made me understand that there isn't now, nor probably ever will be, a substitution for the human element. Trained editors will ALWAYS have job security. Because any speech rec system is only as good as the people behind the scenes writing the software. It's not an unlimited technology, and it simply cannot interpret certain things. I love reading some of the gobbledegook it spits out, and snicker while I edit it. Please stop being afraid of technology. Learn it, embrace it, get good at it, and secure your own future.

The bottom line is.... [2008-06-29]
that offshored transcription work sucks. HIPAA does not apply, JCAHO does not apply, etc. There is really no obligation of offshored individual MTs or services to follow U.S. privacy laws. Plus I used to QA these reports, and 9 times out of 10 they have been horrible. The wrong patients were even put on reports!!! This is not to diss the offshored MTs which I am sure are as hardworking as we are, but to me it is a patient care issue.

NOT DO VR [2008-06-28]
What planet are you from? Don't do VR!! It's here and its going to stay. I don't recommend anyone anymore to get into medical transcription. Don't bother with school - just don't do it. If you want to try and work at home, then go into coding or billing, but not transcription. It's a dead field and its just getting worse. The pay has been cut even more, the doctor's are a joke, and it is not worth your training. And if you are training transcriptionists without teaching VR then you really are living on another planet.

Physical line count [2008-06-27]
I recently started a new job at a Florida hospital. I was told the line count incentive was 7 cents for lines over 1000. Well, after my first few days at work, I would note that I had typed 50 to 60 reports and my physical line count was only 1500 lines per night. When asking my boss, she was very vague about how physical line count was calculated. By the way, this is supposedly dictaphone's calculation of line count. Can anyone out there explain things a little better to me? I would think that spaces are not counted nor headers...... I feel like I was misled during the interview definitely. Thanks for your help!

Time to introduce a bill [2008-06-27]
This is great news but from my experience, the bottom line is all most companies care about. The company I worked for never paid for enough quality control hours-usually only one hour per day and outsourced it's MT work. Records came back with incorrect names, gender, diagnoses, procedures and labs because the outsourced Transcriptionist could not flag the work for the dictating doctor (boss said doctors were too busy to deal with it) and/or entered anything just to get the chart to clear medical records. They only dealt with issues when lawsuits arose and my guess would be that since most cases are arbitrated, the doctors were the winners yet again. All this is to say, even if the suits know they will get better quality, they do not care because they are only concerned with lining their pockets. It is not just MT jobs that suffer because of outsourcing. Will you (or anyone else for that matter)be denied work or insurance in the U.S. because an overseas transcriptionist entered erroneous information in your medical record? U.S. citizens would probably be outraged to discover this is happening to their private information despite HIPPA. I believe it is time to get tough and form a coalition to introduce a bill to end outsourcing of medical transcription. Time to take a stand and fight back.

you get what you pay for - [2008-06-20]
I attended M-TEC, graduated in 2001, and have been working at home doing acute care ever since. I cannot say enough good things about their program or about Kathy and Susan (who were reallythe only instructors back then, not sure about now). I had recruiters banging down my cyber door to test when they learned where I had gone to school. I tested with a few of them and had job offers within a few days of graduation. Many, many companies will waive the 2-year experience requirement if you graduate from M-TEC. I hear Andrews is also very good. You cannot go wrong with either of them. Remember, cheap, quick, and easy will not sustain you in the long run because you will be ill equipped for work in the real world. Best of luck.

Hospital Disabling Internet Access for MT's [2008-05-08]
I have a question and hope someone might be able to help me. I work at home as an MT. The company I currently work for does overflow work for a hospital; however, while on the hospital's platform to transcribe their reports, your email and internet are disabled and you cannot access either one - is this legal? I feel like this is an infringement of MY rights, c. It is my equipment, I pay the bills, yet I'm limited - and everyone knows the quickest and easiest way to find something is to look it up on the internet. I can understand the hospital is worried about patient confidentiality, c., but for them to dictate how and when I can use my own computer is ridiculous - like telling me I can drive my car, but can't use the A/C in the middle of a hot and muggy Florida summer! This really burns me up, esp when we don't haveQA and are supposed to send blanks directly to the doctors - who just love to b**ch when you're wrong while we are constantly correcting their mistakes and helping further inflate their over-sized *I* am GOD!!! egos!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

AMEN [2008-04-22]
Amen but where did you hear of this study?? Sometimes these are just rumors and everyone gets a jazzed up. I get a minimum of three phone calls a day on my business phone from either India or philippines. Maybe there are just too many companies there doing this work, or they are losing the work? I don't kn ow, but the guy from India is always called Joseph. Even in some of the emails. I agree with your comments about the work.

Outsourcing [2008-04-22]
I worked for an imaging center (I was already gone) that laid off the MT's and outsourced the work back in 2002. It lasted about a month. The doctors got mad and insisted to the suits to bring the MT back. They wasted so much time correcting and filling in blanks. They were spoiled with their MT and even stated that they did not read their reports when they signed them because they had that much confidence in the MT. Good news for the MT, she came back and demanded more money...and got it. Lesson learned.

You're right but ... [2008-04-11]
Yes, absolutely, the suits and middle managers have no clue at all, nada, zip, zilch about medical transcription. However, many doctors actually invest in offshore MT companies .... according to Wall Street Journal. It was, oh, maybe 10 years ago that there was a caption or article about medical transcription being where the money is, as in investments, etc. You're right. Typically the MDs don't know and don't care who transcribes their dictation. Most do care, however, about quality at least to some degree. I'm just glad someone came up with a study as to cost effectiveness for whatever reason. It's like they're thrown us a crumb. Hope we get the whole cookie soon.

Stand firm! [2008-04-08]
I agree. I actually knew someone who typed some work with no spaces after a new client complained about the cost and said something about being ripped off because of paying for spaces. The gal that did this was actually a past president of AAMT, years ago I might add. She took it on the chin, took the next few tapes home, and returned a few reports with no spaces, no line spacing, etc. The office manager flipped her lid and went nutso on her. Hmmm, my friend said, I don't do anything I don't get paid for. End of story, end of a headache account. I still smile when I think of that story. That would be like a surgeon saying, Oh, I don't get paid for the stapling your wound shut, so I had the nurse use the masking tape. Single spacing after a period makes me crazy too. Do the math. It just to rip us off a bit. Think about how many spaces are saved over thousands and thousands of transcribed lines with single spacing after periods, and know if you are doing that you are undermining the profession and everyone in it. Quit being stupid. If your employer disagrees, tell him/her to have at it themselves.

This is a skilled trade [2008-04-08]
You know, an apprenticeship is just what we need. Really. I also think we should be paid hourly, and that hourly rate would increase significantly after a year or two of on-the-job training wherever you work. At the very, very least we should get paid as much as coders; and everyone knows they haul it in compared to medical transcriptionists. By the way, the coders rely on what we transcribe. Interesting.

Study on outsourcing -- For Real! [2008-04-08]
Put this under your hats, but there has been a study performed in Ohio regarding the cost effectiveness of outsourcing transcription versus bringing American MTs onboard to handle all of it. Oh, happy day!! The concensus is ..... sit up and read this twice ...... it is more lucrative to hire more people who are skilled and pay them a nice hourly rate with benefits than tooutsource some or all of the work.Hang in there. What goes around, comes around. It's about timethat the true cost effectiveness of inferior work be scrutinized. There are managers and QA's and editors and customer service people up the ying-yang who may have to worry a bit because I truly feelthat doctors across the county (many of whom have invested in outsourcing medical transcription)are beginning to realize that it definitely is a skill/profession that needs to stay here in The States. Woooohooo!

Work from home Companies [2008-02-26]
Can anyone tell me what Work from home Companies to be leary of when applying for jobs? Any help would be great. Thanks.

Job openings [2008-02-08]
Can anyone please send me emails on services who have been willing to supply the MT with up to date, state of the art, platforms to work on. I am so sick and tired of starting jobs with services only to find out you have to copy and paste your work from A to B, because of crappy platforms, or if you don't copy and paste, the platforms are so prehistoric, you could type faster on a selectric. I want to work, have 35 years exp in all field. I have invested major money into up to date computers, software, hardware, etc so I can perform my job for the service to the best of my ability - what comanpies have done the same for us? I am looking again - someday I might find that one service who is looking out for us, as well as their pocketbooks. I don't expect to make millions, I dont' mid ESL doctors, or doing OPS or even working weekends, all I ask is respect for our profession and provide us with quality tools to perform out jobs. ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED - I hope this posts, I have put many posts on this board, but they are never published ?

Anyone who is not happy with outsourcing... [2008-02-07]
...might want to consider Barack Obama for president: He says he will ensure that US companies that outsource work to other countries will LOSE the tax breaks. Something to consider anyway. This could really be an important issue to all medical transcriptionists.

you are an IC if the company you work for does not pay your taxes.... [2007-12-30]
When you are an IC, you tell the company who contracts with you how much work you can provide. It is no different than any other contractor who tells you they will do something for so much money. If they do not perform what is promised, you will probably not rehire them. Same thing goes for IC's. You can be let go for not keeping your end of the bargain. There are great tax benefits for being an IC, but I strongly recommend you seek the assistance of a professional CPA for this come tax time.

A two strike [2007-11-20]
would knock them back! Anything that hurts their business would work.

some companies do this [2007-08-22]
I have gone to Washington DC to train for a company before. They paid. Breakfast, lunch included. Transportation from hotel to company provided. I was only responsible for dinner moneywise. Group of about 14 of us. Made really good friends. No longer work with the company but still keep in touch with other MTs from training. This was about 5 years ago.

WELL if we EVER decide to unite based on [2007-08-18]
what we have in common!!! IF THIS CONCEPT ever gets off the ground, refuse any job that pays VBC - unless of course THAT is how we are allowed to return reports in: thepatientisa35yearoldmalewith... The suits think they'll just train the next batch of scribes to get less for more work. SAY NO TO THIS - by never accepting the new job. Or, don't complain if you DO accept it...

Well said... [2007-08-12]
I could not have expressed myself better. I have been an MT for 35+ years and have watched our line count/rates decline and be manipulated. We the worker bees are the ones that take it in the shorts...the big companies still get their profits. Our professional organization does not even support us. It is all about politics and lining pockets. If I did not love what I am doing, I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago.