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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

12+ hours a day, 30 yrs exp, and can't make ends meet?

Posted By: curious on 2006-12-12
In Reply to: The pay doesn't match the knowledge level required! (s/m) - blahblahblahblahblah

How many lines do you type in that 12+ hours a day? What is your line rate? Get incentives?

Even if you typed 100 lines an hour, that's 1200 lines a day at 8 cpl that would $96 a day.

What in the world are you paying for rent?! lol


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You will work many hours over 40 to meet your lines nm
nm
I doubt you will make enough money in 5 hours a week to make
nm
Webmedx MTs - Do you make your hours? sm
I'm rather new and finding it hard to get my 35 hours in due to running out of work. I'm on multiple accounts, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

So are you able to get your hours? If so how?

If not, are there threats over losing insurance?

thanks,

Worried
You are an IC - they can't make you work all those hours unless you want to. sm
I'd just tell them that I was cutting back to X number of hours per day.
Now you can not make your lines in 9 hours!
x
If you can't make 1000 lines in 8 hours,
in the wrong profession.
I work 1 job, about 36 hours/week and make at
least that amount, plus have vacation and PTO, also an employee so they pay taxes.   I found that working multiple account keep me from making money because I have to learn so many doctors and be aware of the different formats/platforms and account specific stuff.  I used to work a bunch of jobs part-time and was working 7 days a week and lots and lots of hours and not making very much money.   If I worked the same hours on one account I could have easily made $80,000+/year. 
Now you can not make your lines in 9 hours! More time for 2nd Job.
x
I make about $1,500 a month working about 20 hours per week.

Believe me, I'm not bragging or slamming anybody at all.  No way.  I'm frustrated with my own income because I'd like to make more.  I'm willing to put in more hours to do it, too.  Honestly, I'm not that fast.  I have one very small local account and one small MTSO I subcontract for.  None of it is verbatim, it's clean up the grammar as you go, which totally slows me down.


I won't work for a national any more because I couldn't make enough money there.  I wasn't willing to tough it out for three months until I could make their line counts, especially when they had me on their worst accounts, pools of hundreds of dictators per hospital so I couldn't use my expander, and a new account every week.


I've said before that if I'm going to do MT, it's going to be on my terms.  I won't chain myself to a desk or be "on call" all day long waiting for work to come in.  Nationals don't pay you to sit there and wait for work.  That's bull.  Being on call IS working.  Other businesses pay their "on call" people at least minimum wage.  They skirt around the issue trying to use SE and IC terminology, but it's just a way of paying us less to be at their beck and call.


Don't give up on MT entirely.  You'll find your fit.  It just takes some searching.


Just wondering - how many hours do you normally have to work to make your 500 lines? Thanks! NM
NM
Not so easy when you make top pay and work days and hours of
xx
WMX-ers, please humor me. Are we seroiusly supposed to make up enough hours sm

to complete the required work week when there is no work?  Before everyone jumps on me saying that I am lazy, don't want to work, need to ask for more accounts, etc., give me a break.  I am quite new to the company, and I rely on a full-time work week for my benefits for my family.  I already have 5 accounts and have asked for more.  All are out of work (or so I am told).  I have four small children, so working all hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning is not possible on a daily basis (but I am willing to do what I can to get my hours in). 


I am asking an honest question here:  Is there no leeway at all during the extremely slow holiday months?  It is bad enough that I will pull in less money, but even worse that I could lose my benefits.  YES I know it is slow at all companies during the holiday season. YES I know I could get a job somewhere else. If a current or past WMX-er could please just give me some insight, I would greatly appreciate it. :-) I got up earlier today to get a jump on things, and I ran out of work earlier!  LOL  I ran out of work at 10 a.m. (again).


 


I make 1300 per month 10 hours per week (IC) extra job

I've been able to make my hours. No, you do not lose insurance if work should run out. nm
nm
I work at AMphion part-time and make as much there in 20 hours as I do at my FT job in 40
.
And expect to work long hours but somehow you only make peanuts.
I suspect that they must not pay for spaces, headers, etc.. as you can work all day and somehow you barely have any lines. I smell a rat.. very suspicious to me that you could work so hard and it just never adds up.
When you run out of work doyou have to make up lines/hours to keep bennies? (nm)
,
Low line counts - difficult to make 1200 lines in 8 hours. sm
25 years of experience as an Acute Care MT and I had a difficult time getting 200 lph with Bayscribe. Any other accounts with other companies, I could easily transcribe 350-400 lph. Not at MDI - very difficult. I loved the account, but again it was difficult to get a decent line count.

It doesn't matter if you pay me 11 cpl if I can't get a decent line count. Couldn't take the 3 x day e-mails either.
Bayscribe stinks!
Ho-hum, it never ends.
And exactly what is it about the board policy that you don't understand? There are so many people on here who seem to know everything, but obviously can't read well enough to abide by the no bullying/harassing policy. Is it really such a hard habit to break? Sad.
It never ends does it?
QA oversteps their bounds, they interpret things the way they like to interpret them, and they hate being told on.  So, let's just admit that as an MT we try our best to make it all jive, follow client specs, and meanwhile make a living.  All we ask is that QA have an open mind.  Not everyone is exactly alike.  I can say that I have argued QA myself and won.  I will not be bullied by a QA person just because they feel they have an upper hand.  We are all in this together.  To simply state that an MT needs to work on it when the client spec does not tell the MT what to do and then the MT gets a bad grade is just plain ridiculous.  Without the MT, there'd be no QA, so let's get real! 
Well one is in DC, name ends with ETC,
email me if that is the one, I'm testing for this one and will drop plans if this is IT
Sheesh! The BS never ends in this
business.  I was told for sure that it was all accounts. What a surprise.  Just another line. Doesn't this get tiresome?  Thanks for clarifying.  Guess they saw me coming.
Unless your account ends up in
But nothing personal.  It's a merely a business decision. 
It's been my experience that it ends on your last day worked. nm
xxxxxxxx
Usually pay period ends on the 15th and last

day of month.  Then you get paid somewhere around the 22nd for pay period ending on 15th and get paid around the 6th for pay period ending on the last day of the month.  If you work as an IC you may could expect pay one day after submitting an invoice, but if you work for a company it takes time to process payroll and then if DD it has to be submitted and it takes more than 1 day for that. 


When I worked for KS took me almost a month to get my first check. 


If you file the SS-8, there are consequences on both ends - sm

You will be asked to refile your taxes for the period in question.  This could help you or hurt you depending on your situation.  Things you were able to deduct fully may not be fully deductable as an employee or rather than a tax credit, they are now tax deductions which can at times help you or hurt you. 


I had a determination for a five year period and it was a wash.   There were also no penalties on my end.  The company on the other hand, did incur huge penalties and interest.  In the end, the only one who really gained was the IRS.  The company i worked with is now defunct.


There is no big windfall to the IC so if you hear of anyone who tells you they received a huge chunk of change by filing the SS-8, I'd think long and hard about believing it.  It may be possible, again given their tax situation, but highly doubtful. 


Listen, you know if you are being treated like an employee or an IC.  You have a choice - continue your working relationship if you are generally happy, or move on and find a better fit.  This has been going on for decades - control by the MTSOs and compliance by the supposed ICs, but I dont see anything changing anytime soon. 


Be careful before you go tilting at windmills :)


FIND A DIFFERENT PROFESSION IF YOU DON'T WANT W/ENDS!!
Are you dense people? You are expendable and someone will be glad to work the weekends. No wonder most of you are in low paying jobs you are afraid to leave, you can't aspire to anything more! Women are crazy. How many male MTs are there who come here and complain on a daily basis?
Current payperiod ends this Sunday 8/26...sm
Payday is 9/3 (but believe that is the holiday so not sure how that works). Pay is every other week on Mondays, so the following PP will be paid on 9/17. PPs run Mon-Sun. HTH
Sounds like my company - starts with T, ends with D.
No work to be found.
Isn't it also illegal on both ends to work for FREE?
There are labor laws in the United States, right? I have been an IC and MT, never an MTSO or subcontractor, but my husband has, and when he subbed out work or had temporary workers, he had to file 1099s for them at the end of year, etc. We can't even employ nannies off the books anymore in the USA, right? Second, on reading the OPs follow-up posts, something is way sharky about the OP. Not an innocent newbie at all, by the tone of things. Now he/she is running radio ads? Working getting paid twice what they should be? Whatever on earth that means, and I'm sure none of us are interested. Just a waste of board space, again. In fact, shouldn't this post be removed, since they basically admit they are ADVERTISING for work?? That doesn't stay on Company board and should be removed. Can someone tattle, please?
I hope I'm a patient whose care ends up
being compromised by all this 'robot transcription' cr@p. Then I'll find me a good lawyer, and sue, sue, sue my way to a happy and wealthy retirement.

LOOK OUT HOSPITALS AND CLINICS - READY OR NOT, HERE I (AND THOUSANDS LIKE ME)COME!
Pay period ends on 15th, checks on the 20th. This
is pretty standard industry-wide. 
You certainly are a lucky ducky. Wait until the honeymoon ends.
x
This drama NEVER ends! It is SOOOOOO scary, and so boring at the same time!
Now Lee will come on, with an empassioned plea to please call her, and yada, yada, the misunderstandings. This person left, or that person left, or now a new bolt of lightning. It is getting ABSURD to have this regurgitated at least weekly on this board!  Same old, same old. I would NEVER work for Keystrokes, and can't imagine anyone falling for this saga and applying.  Something is VERY wrong in KS land.
What happens if you don't meet your
xx
I meet
and some days exceed the minimum line count. As with any job, there's a learning curve. This is not a place where you can have a day of training and be up to speed. It will take 2-3 weeks before you are likely meeting production lines. You are, however, paid hourly while training, so it takes some of the pressure off.
I have 4 "criteria" to meet to get it....(sm)
I have to have 98% on QA;

I have to type the schedule I committed to or arrange for;

I have to type 1600 lines on weekends;

And agreed to the incentive plan (which I signed and sent in when I started).

I had 13,823 lines this past payperiod. I had to work for it, no doubt about it. I really want to get to the 16,000 and even more but I don't know that I can do it consistently. Of course, I'm still learning my accounts so I'm sure it could get a bit easier or faster. It's no walk in the park, though. I have to concentrate and just really stick to it.

A friend of mine who referred me to MQ, she types 18,000 PLUS every check. I kid you not, she is the fastest thing on the keyboard I have ever seen. When I'm at her house, I just sit and laugh listening to her type -- she sounds like some kind of machine gun in there! ROFL

Now I would LOVE to type that much but I doubt seriously I EVER get it!!!

Too bad..I could really spend that money really well!!! ROFL
as long as I meet TAT on my ....
doctors. I have a responsibility of a few doctors and as long as there work is all in within TAT I get to pick when I work. I think these kind of jobs are more IC jobs, so keep your eyes open on the board for IC jobs were you can make your own hours. I am sorry for all the rudeness on this board. I think people look for any way to cut or degrade or turn around anything anybody posts here.

Good luck!
as long as I meet my TAT
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. That's basically what I'm looking for and basically what I do now. I guess it must have come out wrong because farther down in the posts I noticed one similar to mind worded differently and there were no rude emails in response to that post.
Yes I cannot meet my quota
Hope we pick up soon
They want you to meet your daily
lines counts. I don't think that is asking for too much.
How easy or difficult is it to meet your
line requirements with their accounts and typing platform?
I don't see it as a conflict of interest. If you meet your

obligations to each company it isn't anyone's business what you do. 


When you sign a contract with a company rarely is there a clause about not working for oneone else, only a noncomplete clause.


Now if you are using their equipment for the other company I see a major issue with that, maybe not illegal, but certainly not ethical.  I


 


No, it's per pay period and relatively easy to meet!
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I did not meet my line count...sm

and I worked a few extra hours on my days off to try to get more lines, but there wasn't much work then either. 


Leads actually are expected to meet
a certain quota like everyone else. Otherwise, they'd starve. Leads have to pay their bills like everyone else.
Thanks for your help, but I don't think I could ever meet the quota needed. sm

I am working all the time editing/fixing and trying to remember all the rules for each account.  I do not see with the way the platform is ever being able to make the amount needed to keep my insurance, and they have already extended my insurance for me before.  I thought when I started doing more editing I might be able to get more lines, but then I would have to do double the lines, and with the way the reports are looking when I see them there is too much fixing to ever get there.  It looks like when the computer does not know what the doctor is saying in plain English it just types whatever it wants.  It is actually amusing how it comes up with a whole sentence of unrelated words.


Sorry, I work 15 hours a day 5 days a week and 5 hours the other 2, when I come here I dont proof.
nm
I don't understand. Even as an IC, there are deadlines to meet for the client.
nm
Got an email wanting to know why I did not meet my production.....

1100 lines a day which is EASY to meet sm
I am fairly fast, but I got that 1100 on MY VERY FIRST DAY!!!

Lines are easy to get and I have so much work, it is unreal. I can and want to go all day and past it. I still have 4.75 hours to make up this week, but the work is holding at a high level and they are so low stress, I am not tired right now after 9.5 hours today, just want a break for a bit and a hot meal, then back to it.

I can't say enough good things about this place, I just can't.