Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I'm sorry you are tired of it. The truth is.

Posted By: Sarah on 2006-04-21
In Reply to: Tired of the gloom and doom - Amber

The pay is less and so are the benefits.  Having been in the field 35 years, I can tell you this is true and so can most other long timer MTs.  There is anything gloom and doom about speaking the truth. And for your information, nurses are making MORE not LESS.  Let's get real here.


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

Sure thing...M.M. Hate to trash a person personally but the truth is the truth. nm
x
tired, tired, tired of all the tech
problems with these platforms.  I just want to work on an old fashioned program, like WP5.1 or Medrite, maybe with voice wave.  Too many problems.  Does anybody know any companies that use something like these.  Just call me a dinosaur lover. 
or they know the truth and the truth hurts. NM
poo
The truth

Many good and bad things can be said about this company.  I am currently with them, going on my 5th year. 


First the downside.  They do outsource offshore, no secret, says so on their website.  Hospitals can choose either U.S. or if unwilling to pay that higher rate can opt for the offshore services at a reduced rate.  The reason they do this is at the request of the HOSPITAL, and to stay competitive with other vendors.


They have had some dishonest supervisors in the past that allowed cherrypicking to occur, now if you get caught doing so, you can be written up and terminated, it is NOT tolerated anymore and those who get caught do get reprimanded (I am on a team who has had several cherrypickers and the whole group got the nasty emails so everyone would know it was going on and that they better not do it because it hurt the whole group).


They do have clients that are soley re-record and overflow.  But, they also have full service accounts that are not re-record.  The sound quality on both is superb, only a slight difference on re-record, but not enough to complain about. 


Their pay is fair and if you are as good as an MT as everyone claims to be, you can make really good money with them.  The faster you type and more accurate you are the more you make, plain and simple.  If you know your terminology and don't have to waste time looking up things, no reason to not meet and exceed your required line counts and get that incentive.  Also, have heard that they are now paying extra incentive for 2nd and 3rd shift to get people to work those shifts - not something that used to happen.


Overall, I would suggest this company to anyone that is a quality MT, if you don't want to work hard, don't waste your time because that is how you make money in this field.  I'm not a cheerleader for the company and there may be other companies out there that are better, but to each his/her own.  No company is a perfect fit for every MT, this just happens to be mine for the time being.  You have nothing at all to lose by applying and trying them out for awhile other than a learning experience for yourself.  Who knows, they might be a perfect match for your needs.


 


 


Just the truth
Like I've said, I've never posted here before but everyone reaches a breaking point. I didn't mind lying low and minding my own business for all those years because I had 3 accounts to work on so rarely ran out of work. 2 were their worst accounts but I've never worked for any other company at home, only in hospitals. I am just so disillusioned that they would offer us a quality incentive after complaining how bad the quality was and that they were losing accounts and then for those of us that have always done good work, the money never came. And the fact that they just ignored my messages not once but 3 times is so unprofessional. I am totally ashamed that the VPs would stoop so low. I probably would have accepted an excuse if they would have replied and been upfront about the incentive thing falling through but they didn't do that. Its just too much to swallow and it makes me sad to think people would treat employees that way. They are going through so many people so quickly that soon no one will want to work there. Its a shame because I really liked 2 people that you had to deal with on a daily basis and they were always nice. Unfortunately they are not in a position to make changes that desperately need to be made.
To tell you the truth,

I really don't care whether MQ finds out I am posting comments or not.  What are they going to do?  Fire me before I can quit?  Blackball me so I can't get another MT job anywhere? 


Also, I sincerely doubt that with the reduced staff MQ has, they have enough people to sit around and monitor/read our postings here. 


some truth--but...
I agree with your point that people are car pooling, etc., which contributes to the lay offs.  Foreign cars being better than American made, sorry, that I don't agree with..but we are all entitled to our own opinion and I respect yours as well.  Maybe you had a bad experience with an American made car to give you this opinion.  Don't give up.  There are good American made cars out there as well.   Just, think about this, when you go and buy a used car, and I commend you for doing that...I think it is smart, just think about buying an American made car.   I think we need to support our own and maybe if we do things will be better for our children and their children!!  We can't change the world in a day as it took much longer to get us to the state we are in, but if everyone made a conscious effort to do just 1 thing everyday to support our economy by buying USA or even making an effort to let your hospital know how you feel about them offshoring when your American earned $ are what is supporting them, if everyone would do just one thing a day, that would be just 1 less thing to support the off-shore community, and 1 less thing per each person in the entire United states adds up to billions of less things done for off-shoring.  Now that will make a difference, and just think if each person would do just 2 things each day, etc.....It can be done!!   Just make some noise.  That is what these companies whether it be medical transcription, car dealers, or whatever, do not want!! 
You want me to not tell the truth? Why?
I made 38K as a base with added $$ over a certain number of hires a month. I was offered more by another major MTSO, but I decided to get out of recruiting altogether for reasons cited in my other post, and declined the offer.

A recruiter I know personally was paid much, much more than I was and I have no reason to believe she'd lie to me. She made a great deal with the company. Sometimes it's about who you know, or your reputation in the business. They want you bad enough, they'll pay.

You can't equate what production pays versus working a deal with senior management for a salaried position. There are QA managers and MT supervisors out there making $30K, and there are those out there making $50-60K and probably more. (I was offered 50K to supervise, but you couldn't pay me enough to assume that particular nightmare.) Bottom line is that it's all about the deal.

Bottom line: Just because you don't believe it, or haven't seen it personally, doesn't mean it isn't so.
tell them the truth and see what they say!
nm
Ain't that the truth

Awhile ago they were having some big brujaja and taking up huge amounts of space on this forum, pushing everything else out. We asked the mod to give them their own board, and she did. Thanks...


Spheris is an okay company. I have nothing bad to say about them. I left for personal reasons. Never tried the #1 squid, but I had worked for a number of companies they ate up.


 


 


 


Just tell them the truth (sm)
Tell them your kids come first and you have other commitments than your job. If they want mandatory OT, if you are willing to do OT, tell them it has to be at your convenience or you will be unable to fulfill the requirement. If they are in that desperate need for OT they will take it when they can get it and when it's convenient for you. If you don't want to do it tell them you aren't doing it you have other commitments that came before the OT was instituted and you can't just get rid of those responsibilities. they will deal with it, they need you.
Boy, that's the truth!
It seems that all companies are offering 7 cents per line even if you have 10+ years' experience or more...........
Boy, is that the truth!!
I have gone through this in the years, also, and it is crap to say the least, the very least!! 
See? They tell the truth.
nm
Boy is that not the truth...
I get a daily update on what is going on with the account and my leader askes us to work on such and such and we do. I however work earlier than I get that report and later in the afternoon and evening, so I get to make a choice about what I get done that day based on what is required. If we need work on OPs I concentrate on Ops for about half my shift adn then I might go do some H&PS and then work on a few discharge summaries. Always keeping my eye on the backlog. It is really, really, really great that I get to choose. That way I am not stuck on having to do op reports day in and day out and day in...well you get the picture. I get to have a cross section of reports and I really x3 like that. Now I am certainly not going to site on HPs or whatever if were are several days behind in op reports. I guess I just like that I can make that decision.
The Truth...
It has been my experience with Focus that they are very good to work for as an MT. They offered me a position on the SWAT team which I declined due to the fact that the hourly rate would be about a 50% pay cut from my MT pay. They came back later with a per line paid QA position which I accepted. I have been doing that for some time now, however on Thursday they called me out of the blue and let me know they were eliminating US based QA/QC on the platform I was working on. To add insult to they offered me a position with a 1 cent pay cut and a change from M-F first shift to Sun-Thurs 2nd or 3rd shift. I honestly feel that this job offer was more or less a way to eliminate my ability to recieve unemployment. Now I get to wait at least a week to get setup and trained for the new platform.
Again, not the truth sm
I have been there a year. When have I run out of work? Holidays. July 4th was okay, but nothing on Labor Day much. The only other time was for about 3 hours late in July. Other than that, I have never run out. I don't wait for anything to load, my Q is always full.

Part of what you are hearing is the pickiness of others. Many MTs at TT are cherry pickers of sorts. They refuse a secondary account. They refuse work types (although I do too) and worst of all, they refuse to do certain doctors. They are not telling the whole truth.

As for over hiring, that is not really true either. IF they do, it is not deliberate. If a hospital says we have X amount of lines per month at our previous company, then TT hires based on those numbers. If the previous service was padding lines or didn't report accurately for whatever reason, then yes, TT over hired, but through no fault of their own. They try to run initial numbers of MTs high with new accounts because of attrition.

ALL companies have this problem: Hire 20 MTs. 5 stick to the job, their schedule and their commitment to you. 5 flake from day one. 10 won't show up regularly and when they do, they don't meet their commitment. Given that a company hires based on a certain number of lines generated, hires to their minimum requirements (say 1200 lines per MT per day)...the bad habits of the majority of MTs leaves them high and dry. Either you work your existing MTs harder or you hire more. Of course, when a flake pulls her head out of her rear and starts to try to meet her commitment, there isn't going to be the sort or amount of work she wants to do.

This is why I defend TT because I work there, because I am still ecstatically happy after a year, because I have never had a problem and I am glad I didn't listen to all the dissenters. TT is not my only job and I don't keep a second because I don't have work anytime I want it. I work my second job because I love it and they love having me on the team. I am part of management at my PT job and I see both sides of this equation.

Of my dozen or so MTs, I have 1 whose work is stellar and she won't show up. I have one who is not quite the MT she thinks she is, but she is good enough and she shows up every day. I have one who is a very hard worker, but whose work is sub par. The rest are fair to passing quality wise and work most of their shifts. That one really good quality MT is 10% of my team. The hard workers are 20% of my team and the other 70% is so-so. I am not the only team manager putting up with this.

I am telling you people to grow up. Act like a professional, live up to your commitments and do your job. Furthermore, take a page from Amanda's book, the MT with the timer on the main board last week, and sit down and work! You'll find that this business is not going down the toilet. It is merely that most MTs prefer to witch, moan and complain while they do the swirly dance.
We know the truth
The truth is you work for TTD.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step.  Go ahead, take the first step.  We are here for ya! 
They just don't like the truth. nm
  OP when she hears the truth.
that is the TRUTH
those two can make a person nuts...i think they are both bipolar and forgot to take their meds....
Whether you want to believe it or not, just truth
This person has a family to support. She quit a job because they asked if she wanted the 3 days off they offered for a death in the family. That is the way businesses run whether you want to believe or not. Now she is having to think about unemployment when she had a job where she had been for 3 years. I said I sucked it up when my vacation time was taken away. Probably working from home is even worse than working inhouse. When working inhouse my mother was dying in another state. I had to find someone to come in and relieve me of my job so I could spend the last day of my mother's life with her - I was the only 1 working in my office at that time. Do not preach to me. I have been there before. Honesty sometimes is hard to deal with.
That is the truth! Maybe they should sm
all apply at the Q, work for slave wages and hate everybody! Sounds like a great mix huh?
Truth
Is it cyberbullying when the CEO of a company signs a post that way?  Not guessing who it is, they signed it for crying out loud.
Okay, here's the truth
So I inquired about this and learned exactly ONE person moved from QA back to doing MT. That's hardly a trend. And it's hardly the downsizing of the QA department that it was made out to be.

Like I said, take these posts with a grain of salt. This proved to be another rumor-monger with half-truths trying to cause a panic.
because i'm tired of you or whoever
Nonsense about MQ going under.  Vague statements like "watch out" or "be scared, changes on the way" and nothing to back it up.  I work for this company and so do about 9,999 people, you are playing with our minds here.  I have sifted through everyone one of these postings worried i'm going to lose my job.  Sorry if it was not you, but someone is doing it.
Tired? Where are you getting the
variables of 8, 16, or 24 hour work weeks? I've read everything and see nothing about that.

I'm currently an SE (having just switched from FTE several months ago!), tier 3, and capped at the line rate, but see NOTHING about part time having to work in 8, 16, or 24 hours. Perhaps my eyes are worse than I thought!
Tired of it too...
Work myself to death and can't get line requirement.  Was told they paid for headers and footers, but apparently not..Made up to $18/hr in private sector and if I get close to $10, it's a REALLY good day. 
sorry I'm tired, not your, you are.
nm
Sorry, I am tired
and did not read your post that well. Here is a link to help you convert from DocQScribe expansions to Shorthand:

http://www.productivitytalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1590

It may take a little tweaking to get it right, but it sure beats starting over.

Tired Too...
There is too much unpaid time, period, in this industry. There is a significant amount of time worked that isn't paid. We don't get paid by time, we get paid by moving fingers. I recently had a situation where I was having a new application installed. It was installed wrong and I fought the thing all day trying to figure out the problem. Finally, someone sees one little box not checked. I miss an entire day of pay, but the person who screwed up my install gets paid. Now there is something very wrong with this picture. I'm personally working on changing it, but it is a long road to hoe. Our pay structure is a little confusing to the average attorney.
Tired
I so agree with you. I would never, and I do mean NEVER, advise anybody to choose this line of work. It has been good to me in the 80s and first half of the 90s, and it has been all downhill from there.....
okay, i am tired, but....come on
Okay, I think I saw one typo....big deal. Here is someone offering their time and probably blood, sweat and tears for FREE, and we have to point out their mistakes. Hey, SM email me and if I get the job I am trying for, I would look into if you could type some, and I proofread for you and you don't have to work for free... you work for half of what I get and I will be getting I hope 11 cpl, so I will pay you 5.5 cpl. How does that sound?
To old and tired
I am with you. Since the late sixties I have made a lot of money MTing (until the 90s). Today I would absolutely NOT advise anyone to become an MT for any reason. Since I have three years until retirement, I will stick with it, but I now make exactly half what I made in 1997.

tired
I am incredibly happy at MDI-MD. They are kind, honest, the work is plentiful and I have never been happier.
Tired
No need to Google, here you go:

http://www.transmdi.com/home/
I'm with tired

I've been an MT for about 18 years now and when I get my periodic social security statements and when I look at my earnings record I could just cry!  My income went up steadily for the first 4 years or so and since then it has gone consistently down!  I now make about 1/4 of what I made at my highest point and I work just as much, if not more.  I am so sick and tired of this crap!  I know many long-time MT's and don't know of any who is doing better than they had 10 years ago or who is happy with their companies, or hasn't worked for so many national companies that they have lost count.  These companies benefit from our experience while we have to deal with their crappy platforms, bogus line counts and QA people who think they are the queens of medical transcription, each one with their own set of rules and very little MT experience.  If I have a blank, then I might need your help; otherwise, don't tell me where the hell to put a comma and don't add words to dictation that I know is not there or take out words that I know were there, especially when I have no way of relistening (although for the umpteenth time) to the dictation - Got to find something wrong with the dictation, that justifies the need for your QA position, and then when the company wants to change that big 8 cents per line they promised me to 7 cents a line to up their profit, they then can lower my QA score.


The new thing now is to pay you about 2.5 cents per line for templets!!  What a bunch of crap!  That templet wouldn't be there if I didn't put it there and more than half the time the templets need to be altered, either because the dictator wants it changed or because it was screwed up in the first place.


I'm sorry, but all you Happy, Happy MT's that say you work for national companies sound a little too much like job recruiters for these companies.


Being a good medical Transcriptionist is NOT an easy job.  We pretty much have to know about as much as a doctor does in any given specialty without actually going to medical school.  We have to keep up to date on any new instruments, drugs, etc., in every specialty and God forbid we put a comma where AAMT says it should not be today or type in or on when the QA person says the dictator did not state this.  All this and my 19-year-old daughter makes way more than I do!  Now that I think about it, so does everyone working at McDonald's!  Sad thing is that I have sat on my butt typing for so many hours for so many years that I don't think I could stand on my feet for 8 hours a day and I am way too young to retire.


Good luck to you that stay behind, I'm out of here!  Now this post will either be deleted or all the Happy MT's will attack!  At this point, I've typed way too much without getting paid for it anyway, so have fun, it's all yours!


 


I am tired. LOL!!!!! Getting.
nm
So tired
I agree with you. I have always believed that we should take our complaints to the person in power to resolve it. In this case, that means handling it with whoever at LM deals with things like that. We on this board did not cause the problem and we on this board cannot fix it.
so tired.....

what exactly are big girl panties?


Would those be kind of like grannie panties?  Little girl panties are kind of like grannie panties, but a lot smaller.  The again, my teen plus girls wear thongs, so would those be big girl panties?  Those are lot smaller than little girl panties, material wise. 


I am not quite sure what you mean by the big girl panties.  Oh, I recall, it is a stupid phrase that sounds totally rediculous! 


 


Okay, may be I am just tired or ....

That I am just stupid but can someone please tell me what this ad means ....


Prefer someone with a solid Hospital/Basic 4 background, who will be able to do a few blanks on this account as well.


A few blanks????  Is that editing?  It has been a really long day and I just don't get this at all.  Please, please explain.  TIA 


Do you all get tired
of trying to explain to people what kind of work you do and they seem to be so interested and think it is a plush job when you work at home.  You try to explain to them and they keep asking questions.  It just gets to me sometimes.  I just say I'm in medical records.
tired MT
My business adviser says that we were often treated like employees rather than ICs, i.e., I regularly got memos from my liaison asking for a commitment as to WHAT HOURS I could cover stats on Saturdays, etc. If you are a true IC, they do not ask you do cover specific hours. I do NOT plan to file for unemployment as I already have another job, but this is something you might think about. If you were ever asked to commit to certain hours, etc., then for the purposes of IRS classification (and perhaps the Labor Department would see it in the same light), you are seen as something other than an IC. Businesses have been using the IC classification to avoid paying benefits and other things for years; however, the IRS is bearing down more forcefully on such abuses. Businesses cannot have it both ways. If they are going to require a schedule or specific time commitment from your people, then by definition, they are not IC but employees. I got this straight from a pro's mouth. If you have any e-mails, etc. asking you to commit to a schedule, my advice would be to print them out and keep them. Take them with you to the unemployment office to establish that you really were an employee. Good luck!
Tired of it also
While I don't agree with off shoring I do agree with the original poster in that this board is more of a gripe board than anything else. I've only been an MT for two years, was trained on VR but do have some text work every once in awhile. I love VR and it HAS helped me learn a lot quicker than if I were straight typing. I admit it is worrisome what the future holds but at the same time IMO you either do something about it or you sit there and gripe about wages, no work, India etc. Change is what it is...it happens in every industry you either roll with it or refuse to accept it. Did any of you honestly think that this industry would not advance? That technology would not bring new ways to do things? I just don't get it and while I do come to this board for more information than anything else..it's like a broken record sometimes.
Just be honest and tell the truth.
If the service is one of integrity, they'll appreciate your honesty.

Diskriter Truth
Oh such a lady like response, Gee, I'd really want you on my team!  People are entitled to offer their opinions and experiences with various companies, and if you are unhappy with the comments, then the professional attitutde to take is one the other very professional poster did with her response, and I agree with him/her in what she said.  As far as names, we are not allowed to post names of people on these boards, but I guess you did not understand that part.  I wonder what type of MT you are!  Typing all in caps, why yell at someone for an opinion about a company that somene obviously has had a bad experience with, and I would not post information that was untrue, I would suggest you read the archives about Diskriter!  It's people like you that give medical transcriptionists a bad name that use such language!  We are professionals here, and using such language is uncalled for.  One would have thought you could has posted something much more professional and much more articulate.  Shame on you!
She's telling the truth about this one. It is
terrible, no work, system is out of order a few times a day, and they just hire more and more people when the accounts have no work on them. 
If they told the truth...
nobody would go near them.
Well, they are not telling the truth! sm
I was offered an incentive package to stay with them and that was on eScription! I turned it down and left anyway. Prefer working for Americans!
truth in the matter
I know people who still work with Transhealth and they are just sticking with it until something better comes. They don't feel appreciated. When I worked with them, the mgmt team needed to practice their professional skills. Everyone has their right to post their opinion and that is what it is, an opinion like anyone else who posts positive/negative comments about the company or any other company. It is up to the person to make the best decision and all we can provide is our opinions regarding the matter.
Exactly..please stick to the truth.
nm
FINALLY THE TRUTH ABOUT OSI
About a year ago one of the owners, Andy Renfroe was speaking for all of the owners and sent a companywide email after OSi got caught sending work to India. This is a portion of the email that he sent to OSI employees, and this is why people quit and are still quitting OSI in droves - because OSI never admitted this until they got caught! This is the truth and you can take it with a grain of salt if you want to.