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I've been with them for a couple of years

Posted By: Lynn on 2005-12-16
In Reply to: hmmmm - not for me

Nothing changed from that article and it was a story about an incident from 15 years ago. The work is steady and my paycheck is on time. I have no complaints.


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I've been there a couple years and.....
I struggle everyday to meet my production. I'm really beginning to beleive the posts about the lines. I was PT with a different company before coming to TT and exceeded these lines in less than 6 hours. Something doesn't feel right here.
I've been there a couple of years and it has been a good fit for me, very flexible with my schedu
as long as production is being met.  We are definitely a growing company and sounds like you have the experience that we need.  Paychecks have been always on time for me, direct deposit.
I've been posting the same thing for a couple of years. I don't understand

why people feel like their company has to provide insurance and they may take a job they hate just for insurance.  Getting your own policy is almost always cheaper and then you aren't tied to a job/company you hate.


If you have pre-existing conditions situation may be different. 


I've tried just a couple but one bad one is enough. Here is just a sample..

MDI-FL, TransHealth, Precyse, Focus Infomatics... and I just started doing this at-home thing for a little over a year. What a bad deal.. I've been turned down by Spheris and Wedmedx because I did not meet their qualifications, although I have been doing this for 13 years with approximately five in acute care so go figure. I have worked for hospitals locally etc.. I thought working at home would be a good change..NOT.. what a nightmare, terrible supervisors, benefits, low pay, disorganization and much, much more. I may have to go back to the hospitals.


I've done this a couple of times in the past
I had specific questions regarding the platform and Expander program compatiblities, as well as how lines are counted among other issues. As the recruiter did not know the answer to these questions, I was given the name and number of the MT manager to speak with. At least one job I declined based on the manager's responses, not because I thought she did not handle the questions well, but found out enough to know the company was not what I was looking for.

On those occasions where I spoke directly to the MT manager, the companies were very impressed with my knowledge of both MT and word processing/computer issues and ended up wanting me to come to work to a greater degree than I feel they would have if I had not talked to the manager.

I don't think it would be inappropriate to ask. The worst that can happen is the recruiter says no and can't answer your detailed questions. In that case, that company is not a right fit for you.
I've been following your posts for a couple of months now
and I advised you long ago this was not a reliable service - unless I am mistaken - and I could be.  And my biggest question - are you absolutely positive you will get insurance with them?  Last time I knew they hired ICs only.  Truthfully, I would go for the unemployment and find another job with another service.
I did this a couple of years ago--SM
Hospital benefits were great.  Acct managed by Diskriter staff.  I had a decent acct manager but I have heard some of them have not been that good (the person I worked for has since left).  I used Chartscript, I like that platform, but the lines were tough to come by.  I normally would do a good 1500-1600 lines a day at my previous job (and at jobs I have had since Diskriter) with about 6 good hours of working and for some reason it took a full 8-hour day to get 1300 lines with Diskriter.  That is why I left.
It has been a couple of years since I was there
.
I did a couple of years ago.

If it is the same company, they pay weekly (nice), and are such nice people.  Everyone in the office was readily available to answer questions.  The only downside was they did not have a platform at that time.  Work was received and sent via FTP files, and I prefer to work on an actual platform.


 


 


I have been with them for a couple of years-sm
and I say they are great. Don't know anything at all about bait and switch - could be happening but it did not happen to me. I am with Shirley on the 9/10 because come on- it is a job. Probably account, account managers, things like that make a lot of difference but I say the management right up to the owner of this company are top of the line. Every issue I have ever had with them has been addressed fairly and settled fairly. I say talk to them.
A couple of years ago...sm
I had KU as a back-up account when I worked for MedQuist. I don't know if they outsourced all or their work to MQ or not.
This was a couple of years ago

and I really am over it.  Went through a false start with a company that looked like it would be a long-term home for me, but wasn't.  (This time, I was the one who said good-bye after a year.)  Now I'm with a company that I really like. 


Have you not noticed that the trend with employers nowadays is to fire you and have security escort you off the premises?  They do this so that discgruntled soon-to-be-ex employees have no time to mess things up on their way out rhe door.  Sure, SPi (a Philippine-owned company)  knew that the plan was to dump all of us when they acquired CyMed, but it was just  'good business' to play their hand close to the vest until they were ready.  They wanted us to want them, until they no longer needed us.  They needed us to work during the transition to offshore.  Then they were through with us.  At least I got unemployment.


This happened to the employees of the local branch of a national restaurant chain.  It was my favorite breakfast place and the company was closing restaurants all over the country, but the locals were assured that this was a profitable shop (it was always crowded) and they would be okay.  Right up until the morning they reported to work to find a sign on the door that the place had closed.  Had the corporate office given them notice, many would have found other positions prior to the closing.  What would the company have done then?  They weren't quite ready to close and needed those people to keep the place staffed until they were ready.  Dog eat dog world.


So I'm a lot more proactive now and at the first rumblings of a problem my resume goes out there.  This is what happened with my last job.  Things started to seem 'just not right' and so I found my current job.  But if I become uncomfortable here, I'll start looking again immediately. 


I left a couple of years ago
From what I heard they still deduct like crazy but maybe they are better now than they used to be.
I worked for them for a couple of years - sm
It was awful. What should take me 3-4 hours to transcribe one hour - would take me up to 6 hours. These are seminars with MULTIPLE speakers. Everybody talks at once and you do not know who is who but are expected to know that!! I would keep many notes by my keyboard such as accent, deepening of voice, female or male,etc. But when you are working on a transcript that is 4 hours long, you are obviously not going to sit for 16 hours to finish it. The pay was good, but I would break it down and realize that it is not that great. Sometimes I only made $10/hour because of the all the accents of people and everyone talking over each other. The quality was many times not that great because they would record next to an air conditioner or to the person that had a cold and cough so I would have tons of inaudibles. Very frustrating work. The pay at the time took up to six weeks to get. They might have changed that since I left, but I do know that they were offshoring a lot of their work because they do have such a large turnover. One of my friends still works there and she told me that the company lost quite a few clients because the offshore work was hilariously pathetic. So maybe now they are changing their ways and structure. Who knows. But It is very difficult work.
I had an offer from them a couple of years ago.
Hmm.
I used Cquence for a couple years
I thought it was a pain in the rear.
not just these days over the last couple years
revolving door lol
I worked for them a couple of years ago and
pay was above average and on time, but work flow was a little undependable, sometimes very heavy or sometimes nothing.
I have only been there a year, so I don't know about a couple of years ago - SM
My experience has been nothing but good. I have always had tons of work and great supervisors. I am always left alone to do my work and never bothered by tons of e-mails or phone calls. Whenever I have needed help or had a question, someone has always been there for me and have always been more than willing to help me or answer any questions that I may have. My pay is always correct and on time, and I have been able to make much more money at Keystrokes than I have at any other company that I have worked for in the past. I have no clue what they were like more than a year ago. Perhaps they did have some problems back then, but that has not been my experience at all there.
I tried to work with them a couple of years ago...
xx
I did ortho a couple of years ago...
and it was definitely a challenge! What I did was got an ortho word book and studied it when I could. I also took as many repeated phrases as I could and put them in autotype. Hope this helps!
I worked for them for a couple of years
right out of school - they're a good company to work for. Granted, this has been a while back, but they were very nice, very helpful and always paid on time (most importantly!) Good luck to you if you decide to apply! =)
Yes, a couple years ago when looking I know I was in touch with them regarding....sm
a position and talked to the recruiter, I forget who it was, I will try to look in my records that I faithfully keep, but they were a recruiting company that works for many companies on contract as a middle man to help get prospective MTs, do some leg work, some phone calls, etc., weed things out, and send good prospects along, at least in my case with the lady I was speaking to.....have you spoken/communicated with them?
I got a pen for MT week a couple of years ago
--
I took this to LD's a couple years back and
x
Actually, within the last couple of years the IRS has really been cracking down on this.
The government is losing a ton of money in lost taxes when companies miss classify employees as ICs. Even some states such as Colorado are starting to impose stiff fines for companies violating this law. People just need to stand up for themselves and start reporting these companies to the IRS and their state labor boards.
I worked for them a couple of years back sm
Nice bunch of people, all IC. Nice platform. Always had plenty of work and I think they paid 7 cents a line. I did weekends and always had work. I'd go back to work for them if I could. They had lots of radiology and acute care and tons of cardiac.
Very happy at TransHealth. Been there a couple of years. nm
 
Worked for Spheris a couple of years ago
I worked for Spheris and would not recommend it to anyone who wants the least bit of flexibility in their schedule. You are expected to punch in and out to the minute on an online timeclock according to a very strict preset schedule. You aren't allowed to deviate from it without jumping through hoops and getting time off approved or adjusting your schedule, and you can't ask earlier than 2 weeks before the date you want changed. Kinda puts a damper on making vacation plans that may never be approved. I prefer a more open 12-hour window to work my 8 hours in, with no one keeping electronic tabs on my 24/7. I'll bet the FBI knows less about what their employees are doing on a minute-by-minute basis. I do have to say that their platform is pretty awesome, though. Wish the company I'm at now had it.
I worked for them a couple of years back... SM
They are a pretty good company to work for.  Pay always on time.  Work flow waxes and wanes sometimes, but pretty consistent.  I liked them.  Only reason I left was to take a job in the office which didn't work out.  I'd go back to them in a heartbeat if I didn't need bennies.
It didn't when I worked with MQ, but that was a couple of years ago. SM
Instant Text works very well with DQS, though.
I like ChartMatrix. Have worked on it for a couple of years...sm

There are 2 versions, the one they've been using for the past few years and a new one they're rolling out that can also be used with ASR.  I like the new one a lot better than the old one, but the old one was pretty good.  There are a lot more Keystrokes with the new ChartMatrix.


I have not worked on Enterprise, so I cannot comment on that.  Sorry.


I worked for Breitner a couple years ago

for about 3 months (if that).  They had more excuses for my check not being on time or the amount was wrong or the accountant was new or the accountant was on vacation or.....WHATEVER!  Glad I'm outta there.  They are thieves!  You get a subtraction for headings!!


 


not matching for a couple years now since I left.
It was just sitting there. Started another 401K with next job. Let it ride say the politicians...yeah, right. Could have done better in Vegas.
That was a couple of years ago. Greed, India, not enough

QA, lies, lies, and more lies.  They lost a couple of accounts and they lost a major account, what little was left wasn't much.    I've heard L started another company and M is still her slave.  Don't know any other details.


 


That was a couple of years ago. Greed, India, not enough

QA, lies, lies, and more lies.  They lost a couple of accounts and then they lost a major account, what little was left wasn't much.    Owners divorced.  I've heard L started another company and M is still her slave.  Don't know any other details.


Until about the last year it was a great place to work and it took a lot of adjusting going from gross lines to 65 lines. 


Well put; I'm hoping to hang onto this for a couple more years (sm)
when I could retire - although I'd really like to keep working for a while longer. However, I think if I was a decade or 2 or 3 younger I would be looking into the field of medical information technology.

I worked for Keystrokes for a couple of years...
I was very happy with the company.  I didn't have a problem with them, just needed to take a leave for a while and ended up starting with another company a few months later.  It's been about a year and a half since I worked for them, but at that time there was plenty of work.  I had no problems with supervision.  I really don't have anything negative, but again it's been a while, so I don't know what the workload is like these days.  Hope that helps - good luck!
Are they still around? I thought they folded a couple of years ago. Does their website have a
s
I tested a couple of years back; never heard anything...
I emailed them for update; still never heard anything.
Annudder is right. I used ExText a couple of years ago, and my cable sm

went out and in a pinch I took my computer over to a friend's house, and she had dialup and it was AWFUL .. everything was incredibly slow, from downloading the files in my queue, to anytime I accessed the internet.  Of course, dialup compared to the cable or DSL is slow anyway, but it was very time consuming.  The only thing I can say was it was better than not working at all. 


Good luck! 


I worked on site for many years. I've been doing this for 10 years... sm
I've worked on site, at home, for small MTSOs, for nationals, for hospitals. I've been paid per line, per minute, and per hour. I've been an MT and a QA. I have ALWAYS worked weekends and ALWAYS worked nights for the shift differential because MTs can't survive on 6 or 7 cents a line. At least I can't and I type 105 wpm.

I've BEEN dedicated from day 1, sister, so you are barking up the wrong tree.
It has been a couple of years but I tried to work there and lasted 1 day and so did a friend of mine
The ESL were AWFUL.. It was all I got and I could not understand anything they said. They were out of California so had a real mixed bag of ESL but none of it was doable.  Things could have changed, who knows.
I left Amphion a couple of years ago and never looked back.
It was one of the best moves I ever made.
I've been a QA 15 years and I've never heard
of any company only paying for the actual Keystrokes of the blank. You would literally make less than minimum wage that way. Waaay less.
I've been doing it for 4 years now. There are many

options available.   Lots of campgrounds have some type of connection.  Sometimes they just have a central jack for dial-up, sometimes they have connections at each site, though there may only be xx number of lines for the entire campground so that you are still limited with on-line time.  I found that even in this day of technology some dial-up speeds are really, really slow and it may take 4 hours to download a day of work.   A lot of campgrounds now are going to WiFi, especially in the bigger cities.   If you have a wireless card and the campground is a hot spot you can access their network (usually for a fee) and get high-speed access from your RV.   You can use your cell phone, which I have done in a pinch, but we often traveled where there was absolutely no signal of any kind like in the Black Mountains of SD.    There are wireless cards called air cards and this will allow you to access an open hot spot while doing down the road, though most hot spots are not open networks so you can't rely on that 100%.  Places like B&N and Starbucks are hot spots for a few.  You could access them from the parking lot so if you are traveling from point A to point B, you could just stop to rest or have a coffee and download at the same time.  You can also use satellite.  With satellite as long as you have a clear view of the southern sky you can get access, even in the middle of a field with no electricity (as long as you have a generator/inverter).   You can get a system similar to what you would have in a residential situation and set it up every time you move or you can have a system installed on your roof that makes it much easier for about ($5000 and $99/mo).  Downloads are not always high-speed and if weather conditions are severe you might not be able to get a signal or keep it, and uploads are much slower than downloads.   We have utilized all of the above at some time or other.  I had Earthlink as my ISP and they have lots of local access numbers and an 800#.  Only twice in the 9 months we lived on the road full-time was I not able to get a signal of some type (before we got out satellite).


I recommend getting a campground directly from Trailer Life.  You can find it at probably any parts/service center or dealership for campers and may find it at B&N.   The don't list all campgrounds, because you have to pay for a listing, but there are campgrounds all over the U.S. listed and they list amenities, such as if pets are allowed, if they have internet access and what type of access, etc.   This will help you make decisions about where to stay.  You can also go on-line before leaving and print out a list of B&N and Starbucks and the like that have hot spots to use in a pinch.  KOA campgrounds should all have some type of access, but they are more expensive and I don't think they are as nice a campground as some others.


If you don't already, you will want direct deposit setup and have all your bills setup to be viewed on-line, so that if you don't have to worry about having your mail forwarded so often or about paying bills on-time.  I had all regular payments automatically drafted and bills like credit cards I paid on-line.


Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.


 


I've been an MT for over 20 years now.

Others who have seen me type say they've never seen anybody type so fast in their life.  My typing speed has been described as truly amazing by others.  There's no question that I have true natural ability when it comes to being an MT, so my knowledge or abilities are definitely NOT the issue here. 


For years now, I have purposely worked for many of the companies out there in order to evaluate differences between line counts.  I've done every kind of work there is too (Basic 4, ER, radiology, etc...).  I'm a very well rounded MT.


I've found that MDI gives the absolute lowest line counts.  I was able to average anywhere from 250-400 lph with all the other companies I worked for and this was after only 1-2 weeks of working with them as compared to working for MDI for years and knowing the account up, down and sideways!!  So when I see people like you posting they average 300-350 at MDI, I really question this???  Also, I never had to pay long distance for anybody else either.  Most other companies offer an 800 number or went internet files a long time ago. 


I'm sorry you can't stomach the many negativities your company has, but in my experience, there's way better out there and I'm entitled to my opinion.


Merry Christmas :)


I've been doing this 20 years and still need
reference books and need to research.   If you are putting out a poor quality product and you know you are there is no excuse.   You should be proofing your reports or going back and relistening.    I'm sorry life is rough, but that is no excuse for poor quality work.   I don't work for KS, but I think you are wrong in putting the blame on them. 
I've been an IC for 13-1/2 years and it's
bites me in the ass, it's the social security tax.
I've been an IC for years, While it has its sm
drawbacks, it also has its advantages.

A drawback is having to buy my own health insurance and having no other company benefits such as paid time off. Any time I'm not pounding the keys when I'm supposed to, I'm not making any money.

The main advantage is that I can draw up a contract with a company for hours/production that realistically fit ME! The easiest thing to do after this is stick to my commitment and schedule and things usually balance out.

Another advantage is being able to deduct expenses, reference books, computer, at-home office, some utilities, phone, gas/car if you pick up and deliver, etc. This means extra tax forms which cost$, but that's part of having your own business.

Don't forget, though, to stash away the taxes that the company would have matched for social security, etc. This is the self-employment tax.

And don't forget to save receipts for any business-related items, income coming in, etc.

As another poster said, gauge your taxes on what you made the year before if that is typical of what you usually do.

Don't be late with your quarterly estimated taxes as that will bite you in the buttocks as a late fee come tax prep time. By this, I mean that by January 15/16 (the date of the fourth quarterly payment for the year before), you should have sent in all you think you owe for that year.

Talk to a tax specialist and get the best advice. It's a bit complicated, but that's THEIR job. You just need to transcribe, pay your estimated taxes on time, keep track of expenses, and save receipts for tax day.

I find it helpful to keep a folder for the year and just plop IC-related receipts, etc., in it as they occur.



not the OP, but I've been there 4.5 years
nm