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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Go back to retirement s/m

Posted By: gourdpainter on 2009-06-16
In Reply to: Gourdpainter, where in the world do you get your info from? - VR here

I'll ignore that juvenile comment.


I didn't SAY that anyone with a dictionary could do VR or anything else ACCURATELY.  I have, however, SEEN companies who used non-MTs to do Q.A.  Are you absolutely certain YOU aren't being Q.A.-d by such a person?  Furthermore, with companies ever looking for ways to cut MT pay, they might just do that doncha think?  I'm sorry to enlighten you to the fact that MT isn't nearly the big deal some of you try to make it.  Most of us old-timers received OTJ training in a HOSPITAL which gave us an education you'll never dream of getting in any of the MT schools.


IMHO you need a few more years experience as an MT and maybe, just maybe you could learn something from us old grandmas if you weren't so wet behind the ears that your hearing is impaired.


 




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Retirement
I will retire in four years. I always advise people who ask me to look at other careers than MTing. Its golden era is long past. I really loathe those matchbook schools (you know, the ones with Sally Struthers in their advertising copy) telling people they can make 40K by taking their pathetic little course. If I had a dollar for everyone who has come to me crying about how they cannot get a job with their so-called diploma from some such school, I could retire right now very nicely. Meanwhile, I hope people will really weigh their options carefully before becoming an MT. It looks to me like MQ really messed up this field for so many in so many ways.
Retirement? What is that?
I start drawing my retirement this year- not quitting MTing- just want to have twice as much coming in per month as I am getting now. Cha-Ching.
Retirement
I believe that people who work hard all their life deserve to retire.  They should not be forced into retirement with nothing to show for their hard work.  We had dinner guests last  night and the topic of conversation that someone brought up had to do with some complaining about older workers taking jobs away from younger workers.  None of those in attendance are employed, all have a fairly comfortable retirement.  My question was how many people of retirement age do you suppose actually want to work and how many HAVE to work to be sure they have food?  Not everyone is physically able to work after reaching retirement age.  It should be a choice.  How many 70 year olds do you suppose actually want to work or would they rather pursue things they weren't able to do when they were younger and had the responsibility of a full-time job?  I, for one, am thankful that I am still physically able to work full-time (if I chose to do so) and still pursue other things as I have done all my life.  I've always had more than one basket, my favorite when I did MT and was also a livestock broker.  Unfortunately, I am no longer physically strong enough to pursue the livestock brokering.  I find that I am just as happy working for free for things I truly believe in.  Some on this board say that I should go back to painting gourds (which I still do) but I also have a heart for my MT sisters and brothers who are hurting and if I can make even a little difference in their lives, I will do what I can.
Unless you are retirement age now, I doubt your
hee..hee
I don't see retirement in my future, unless it's the
:(
Me too. I have stopped even considering anywhere else. I am here until retirement.
And that is such a stress-free thing, never to have to retrain for a new company again!
fat cat may be close to retirement sm
but she still has some humanity about her! Probably why she still has a job so close to retirement.

Not all companies have the attitudes that you post. In this business, there is absolutely no call for that kind of attitude. The companies can cover their butts. Half of them don't have work anyway.

I have been through exactly what the poster posted and I told MQ to stick it after 23 years. Have not had a problem getting a job and have been upfront and honest about the situation I found myself in.

When an employer calls someone at hospice and starts ragging on them, knowing full well there is no work to do the 8 HOURS I WAS SCHEDULED PER WEEK, then its time to get out. I did and never looked back. Probably was the boost I needed to get out of that place.

I applaud the OP for doing what she did. Family comes before any doggone job. She won't have a problem geting UE either. She applied for FMLA, they denied her, what else can she do? FMLA is there for situations just like this.

I don't blame her for telling the higher-ups. I would have let them know too before I left that place and never looked back.

Wish I knew waht place it was!
Retirement and taxes

Here's the scoop on SS and taxes.  They  do not penalize you once you reach full retirement age, HOWEVER, if you continue to work they will continue to deduct SS from your paycheck and at the end of the year if you make over a certain amount, you also pay taxes on your SS benefits up to 85% of what you receive from SS..


Contrary to what chatty says, they do not want you to take early retirement.  They encourage you to wait until full retirement age.  That way you might die and they never have to pay a penny.  The death benefit to your beneficiary is a whopping $225.  If you do the math, you are much better off taking retirement at the earliest possible moment.


QUESTION RE. RETIREMENT - sm

 


I know about this 1-dollar-for-2 for taking early retirement - but I was wondering:  Do they take 50% of your Social Security benefits or 50% of your paycheck?  If they take half your paycheck, you're essentially working for nothing.  If you're working for low wages, it won't pay to go to work.  If you have a fairly decent salary between ages 62-66, then it's a TOTAL ------g ripoff!  Just wondering.


I have 7 yrs until retirement and I doubt is any MT work SM
will be done in US. I am thinking of other jobs. Instead of some work going to India, or perhaps some other country, most of the work will be done offshore and we in the US will be left little. I'm not hysterical over this, I just consider it a fact of life.
MDI-MD employees, how are you funding your retirement?

To those of you who are working for MDI-MD, have any of you found alternative ways of funding your retirement since the company doesn't offer this benefit? 


Any and all positive input would be appreciated. 


I am past retirement and do not care anything
about leaving. I want to have my pay from my job and also draw from my social security. Those are my plans and working independent, still travel and do what I want to do and have the money to accomplish.
You're past retirement age
and you only have 36 years?  One can say anything they want annonymously but I do believe a person who is past retirement age would have better sense than to tell a fellow MT to go back to retirement.  LOL
The only people that are going to make it with VR or ASR are MTs that are nearing retirement and

dont mind the lower wages and who probably already have problems with muscles and tendons from years of MTing or others who as people said are slower transcribers or part time people just supplementing their income who just want to plug along and make a few bucks. Anyone who is self supporting and needs a good income will not make it on those rates without killing themselves and if one company gets away with it they all will because I am sure MQ is next when they come out with their new pay plan and ASR rates and then they will all follow suit. Why send this work overseas and then have to edit it again so I guess they just hope they have everyone behind the 8 ball.


 


Only about 8 more years till retirement, but I AM going to take the test. (sm)
Have never felt the urge to do so in the past, but the company I am working for now reimburses the testing fees and you get a small raise because you are a CMT. It all adds up to being beneficial for me money-wise, so.... I chose to do it for that reason and that reason alone.

Nope, hope to supplement my retirement years.
x
retiring from Spheris? Gonna get retirement pay from them or Social Security? nm
.
since I didn't pay into social security as an IC, I started a retirement plan to cover me.
x
I worked in QA for Transcending back in 2000-2001. They were paying hourly back then. SM

The accounts weren't too horribly bad.  The reason I ended up leaving was because slowly but surely they began to inch closer and closer to paying QA by production.  When I first started, the quota was something like 30 reports a day.   We simply had to make sure that we QA'd all reports that were close to being out of TAT first and then do the rest.  Then, my supervisor left and they hired a new one who immediately called a big teleconference meeting and said we had to up production to 60 reports a day.  Then, they started counting lines.  Which was fine because they were still paying hourly.


Next, there was an MT who used VR software because she was blind - yes blind.  Again, when I first started, I was told we had to edit her entire reports because she used the VR software and we had to make sure that everything was correct and made sense.  Then, we are told only check the blanks.  I wasn't comfortable with that and I continued to completely proof every word.  Then I was called on the carpet not because I wasn't meeting the production quota, but because I was ONLY meeting the production quota.  I told them I was proofing all of the MT's work that used VR, I was told that no one ever told me to proof every word of the VR reports and that I needed to fill in blanks and move on.  When I voiced my concerns, I was told that was my job, to fill in blanks and I should move on and strive to product above the standards.  Next thing you know, rumors abounded about changing the QA staff to being paid on production.  So I left. 


There just seemed to me to be too little concern for quality and more emphasis on quantity and I just didn't want to be part of company who would take money out of my pocket just to line their own and that's what they were doing by putting QA on production.  I also am not comfortable with the job of QA being thought of as a blank filler.  There is much more to the QA profession than just simply filling in blanks. 


I don't know if Transcend ever did start paying QA by production, but I could see that the idea was being floated there.  Maybe there was a enough protest that they didn't change from hourly. 


Good luck to you!


Phoenix Medcom- Another apply a few months back, ask to take a test and never heard back??
I applied a month or two ago, received an email from someone asking if I would take a test and said she was getting ready to go on vacation for a week, so I hurried and immediately and told her I'd love to take the test. I never heard back. I waiting thinking she went on vacation and would contact me when she got back to do the test but nothing...very strange..Just wondered if this happened to anyone else.
Has everyone heard back from Keystrokes yet regarding the email we received a while back?
Just wandering why I haven't heard any response yet.
I sent them an email back in August and never heard back sm
Is this company on Long Island? I checked out their website and even tried calling once. Were you successful in contacting them? All i know is that the company is owned by some doctors.

Hopefully, you will hear back. Unfortunately, I immediately heard back from MD-IT
but somehow with over 16 years of experience, I blew the test.  I was soooo disappoionted and yet pretty stunned.  I am by no means perfect but I haven't flunked a test in years.  I expected it in my early years but not this far down the road. I was so confident and they will not tell you which part you did not pass and why so it really just blew my mind.  I must have been in shock for like two hours after I got the email. Oh well, someone will want me....hopefully.  I was thinking about OSi but I don't think I could take another rejection if I never heard back. 
I had the same thing happen, went back to MQ, went back to KS and could not be sm

happier.  I am on a different account then the first time and it is as if it is a different company.  I have a great lead who leaves us alone most of the time but is there when I need her.  It showed me that you can have a different experience within the same company.


I have to say that in the few weeks since they have the new office, it is much more organized probably because there are a lot of people there all the time.  I had the pleasure of speaking to the new HR manager who was HR at a hospital, got my questions answered about insurance as I am going to full time and had a live voice pick up the phone.


Not all change is bad.  This is one company that has changed for the better. 


I was reading about the back up help. I would like also to have some back up work.
I am not getting anywhere near 12,000 lines this go around.  My goal is 12,000 lines each pay period.
Back away from the hoops!! Back away!
I worked for them about 6 months - same mess to get hired - FBI check is right! It was unreal. I was so excited, though - they promised me the moon, and I really thought I had found my new home after centuries with that other company who shall not be named.  What a disappointment, to say the least. All around horrible experience, and I would NEVER recommend them. Certainly they were not worth the hoops at all. Total waste of effort.
Back to ya!
--
Thanks for getting back with me!
x
Has anyone gone back
to Transcend after receiving letter asking you to come back?  If so, how are things this time around?
I'm not looking for a pat on the back and
I know it is like that everywhere but I'm sick and tired of cleaning up after this person, getting phone calls begging me to fix this or that because they can't count on this other MT; I mean the list goes on and on. I know that in this field flexibility is everything but I'm also not bending over and taking it anymore, I'm flexed out!
They got back to where

Get off of her back!
This was a simple question. If you don't have the answer, don't post. No get in the shower!

Wanna play?
We can BACK IT UP
As a Medquist or MQ employee, and I have seen many on this board, we have legitimate complaints about what has been going on.

The REAL FACT here is that many of our offices are closing or have closed, we have been transferred to the Amherst office, we have no work, no one wants to discuss it and many other issues. There are problems and this is a FACT.
RUN and don't look back.
They are BY FAR the worst company to work for.  Pay, even though it is direct deposit, was never on time. Sure, they offered to pay for you overdraft fees, but it took forever to actually get your pay.  And they would never tell you in advance that it was going to be late so you could avoid the problems.  Plus, they had horrible supervisors that did not know what they were doing.  Always were IM you and causing you to lose time while wanting to chit-chat....They had some good accounts but lost them due to being unprofessional and other reasons that I do not know.  Stay away!  Horrible place! 
RUN and don't look back!!!!..sm
I was an employee with them.  I can sum it up.  If you don't mind not knowing when you are going to receive your payday (even though it is direct deposit) then they are a great company.  Honestly, they are horrible.  They are the most unprofessional company I have EVER seen and been employed by.  It was not just one instance of pay arriving late, but I quit at the third time in a row.  And they did not warn you ahead of time....they mentioned it the DAY that you were supposed to be getting your payday, and they did not do that until so many people raised such a stink over it!  Plus, the so-called supervisors are a joke.  They do not know what they are doing and are the most foul-mouthed individuals I have ever seen.  PLUS, they keep IM you ever few minutes to where you cannot get your work done. They had an EXCELLENT account and lost it due to so much unprofessionalism because they could not get their act together.  Please, run and don't look back...otherwise, you will just be looking for your paycheck that doesn't arrive until weeks later....
Well, they can come back now!

This is a message on the main page...


MTStars has been staunchly against the offshoring of American Private Health Information, but realizes that MTStars must evolve with the ever changing views of conducting business in the global economy. The hands of time cannot be turned back on the widespread transfer of information globally and as of January 1, 2006, MTStars opened itself up to include the global environment.


Back up help.

If anyone is interested, I have an oral surgery account that I need back-up help with every once in a while.  This will be p.r.n. Very easy.  0.07/65-character line with spaces.  Will need wave file player and MS Word.


Back-up help
I would be interested in helping you out when you need it? Would you be interested in helping me? I need back up help for a clinic account (2 docs) on occasion also. Do you happen to have a call-in line of some type?

Sue
Exactly! We should be the ones doing the back-
ground checks on some of these companies, right? Unbelievable! Just such a total waste of time, $$, and real ego killers some of these outfits. Its a shame...
Would never go back there
nm
Me too, went back into QA.
Unfortunately though many other recruiters are not MTs, makes sense right? LOL
I came back
I thought the grass was greener, but it was not.  I left because I thought a little higher line rate would help my situation.  The work was not steady so the higher line rate meant nothing.  I called my Medware team leader and since I left on good terms they hired me back and I am so thankful.  I like working afternoons so I have the morning to get things done around the house. 
RUN AND NEVER LOOK BACK!
I, unfortunately, had the worst experience of my MT career working for Focus for just over a month. They drove me insane, so I quit after only a few weeks. Someone else said that they only talked to one American person the whole time they worked there, and the same goes for me, and that was someone in HR at their office in Massachusetts. Their tech support, QA and account managers are the worst. You can never understand a word they are saying. I even got yelled at one time by one of the techs in India because I was disturbing his work by asking for help when their software locked up my entire computer and I completely lost a 5 page report and never got it back. They kept telling me that my quality was below par, yet at any other company I have always been between 98 and 100%. In fact, the company that I started working for after I quit Focus (and I am still at) took my off full review a month early because I was doing so well. They will belittle any American MT and make you think that you are the worst they have ever seen.
They got back with me the same day, but
I still wouldn't recommend them.  They represent some of the same companies that post ads here and the $$ is no different, so you basically just end up testing twice, whereas you can contact the company yourself and test only once. 
Yes it was on here and it has been quite a while back
.
comes right back to THEM! (NM)
.
Come back and tell us how you like
xx
I just went back to MQ
Never thought I would but they offered me 0.075 more per line than I used to get there! For the past four months I struggled with a company using the Scribe platform, which I feel is 10 years behind the times and very slow. I missed DocQScribe and VR. I was also being micromanaged by QA at the new company which never happened in my 17 years of transcribing. The people were very nice, but couldn't stand the nit-picky critique, especially when it didn't follow the BOS or basic modern grammar. I didn't want to lose my good habits.
And you are?? Go back to bed.
x
Thanks and right back at you!
nm
Thanks! right back at cha!
x