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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I actually did make over $20,000 my first year

Posted By: WiMT on 2005-12-21
In Reply to: If you get an hourly job, you can. But alone, on production as a newbie, sm - MTx32

I'm definitely not a genius, to say the least, but I think being an MT is just a good fit for me.  I already had a background in journalism and typesetting, so I had a grasp of grammar and could type very, very quickly.  I'm good with computers and the Internet, which helps with the tech part and with research.  I didn't make as much the first 6 months, but once I got going the income started picking up.  I was lucky to land a job making 9 cents a line that first year which also helped, and I also was working A LOT, for a few different companies.  I'm now in my fourth year and am making over $30,000, a year but am not constantly working as I was that first year.  Obviously not everyone can do it.  All of the pieces, the skills, have to be there, along with some luck in landing a good account, but it can be done.


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Last year $36K part time, going to make more this year full time BUT sm

I AGREE it IS getting harder to make money.  I used to make $24 very part time 10 years ago and now...well it is Word and platforms versus WP5.1.  I got 7.5 cents a byte line then and I get 9.5 cents a character line now.  That IS a huge different in point of fact.


OH I WANT MY WORDPERFECT 5.1 BACK!!!!! Bwaaah!


no- you will not make 25K your first year
nm
Yes, I make over that every year, always have. NM
.
Do 16 y/o babysitters make $74k/year? That's what I sm
did this year :)
Are you saying that Transcend DOES make you work 1 year before? : (
Thanks for the info!  I was thinking of applying there.
How much can I expect to make the first year of MT work, around $20,000?
or more
How do these MT schools get away with saying you can make $40,000 per year. That is a fake
advertisement and should be banned!
I disagree...I make a nice $37,000 a year, which is
really good for my area, paid hourly rather than production. I worked my way up to get to this point. I guess it depends on how you look at it and your lifestyle.
I "only" make $1.15 per report and have made over $62,000 this year so far. I only work 8 hou
5 days a week and pick up one 4-hour weekend shift a month. It depends on the account, your company, the report length, your expanders, normals, etc. I made $1.43 with Edix before I switched and even though I took a per report loss, I make more money in the past 2 years than ever with Edix. I rarely run out of work, which is a HUGE factor. I know that the company I work for is both praised and condemned on this board, but I am happy at KS.
I also got put on 2 atrocious ESL accts with them last year. Couldn't make any lines. These dudes
s
my first year I made 16k. Doubled that second year. Going on year 6 with (sm)

two local accounts I earned 23,000.00 and a national I earned 35,400... 58,400 this year.  Don't ask me how many hours, though, I really have no idea.  I'm pretty motivated.  (When people ask me how many hours I work a week I reply as many as it takes  I'd say 40-50/week.  I am also a fitness instructer and personal trainer, about 5 hours a week or so.  Decent money (sometimes under the table!) but mostly I just do it for fun and to be social and wear cute work-out clothes. 


that first year was a rough one... but I consider it part of my education. 


 


I'm pretty motivated. 


Bare minimum? I make over $50,000 a year in 40 hours a week. That is not bare minimum. sm
Bare minimum would be $8 an hour which is $16,640 a year or $10 an hour which is $20,800 a year. I make more than twice that and that is NOT bare minimum.

I worked to get my typing speed to 80 wpm. I worked to get my Expanders user-friendly and plentiful. I am not the fastest because I look up what I do not know, but I am lucky to have a very good memory so if I type it a few times, I do not have to look it up. I keep notes when I run across something I do not know. I am interested in my profession and read the magazines for our profession and network with other transcriptionists during my free time, devoting a minimum of 2 hours per week to networking and learning new things.

I am not the fastest MT, but I am accurate and boiled it down to simple math. I need to transcribe 250 lines per hour for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. At 10cpl, that is 2000 lines a day x 5 days per week x 50 weeks per year. I take 2 weeks off per year during July to visit my grandchildren (unpaid), 1 week a year to vacation with my husband (paid) and 1 week a year to spring clean (paid). I have worked for the same company for 4 years and 8 years for the one before this.

I treat my work hours as work hours and take 1/2 hour for lunch which I do not include in my 8 hours. I pretend that I am working outside the home and do not answer the door, get the mail, do laundry, etc. If I have a good day and go over the 2000, I bank it in my mind for days that are not as good and make sure that I get 10,000 lines each week.

My W2 each year is consistently $50,000. A few years it was higher, but I worked a few weekends, which I no longer do.

It IS possible.
Last year, there was a letter sent that told us what we earned the previous year. sm
In the past, it has been all or nothing; if you did not hit the lines for full time for the year, you did not get PTO. I talked to my lead this morning about a last-minute vacation and she told me that the yearly packets are going out in a week or so and that the new policy will acrue PTO by the pay period or month. I like that a lot better, but she also made it sound like they are upping the amount of lines needed to acrue PTO. I normally get between 15 and 20,000 lines per pay period, so I am sure that will be fine but I am worried about the periods that have lower volumes, like most of January every year.
Webmedx lets you carry them from year to year sm
You can accrue up to 140 hours (I think) before you stop the accrual process. Don't have to use it all in one year.
I would stick it out, most places are slow now through the end of the year every year (nm)
x
I doubt you will make enough money in 5 hours a week to make
nm
I make 4 cents a line, work part and make
over $500 a week on part.
Great post! I make 0.085 at Keystrokes and make more than at any sm
other company in the last 5 years. Why? Because there is always work for me. I love starting work each day, knowing that the company I work for appreciates me and has plenty of work. Transtech and Keystrokes sound very similar; those of us that work for either can count our blessings that we are not part of the cesspool or huge corporate mess that makes up the biggest few companies. We do not have to worry about our jobs getting sent overseas and we see a future in this business!!!
Yeah, but we don't make what docs make. nm
nm
But we don't even make what in-house make.
It would be different if we made the same as the in-house MTs.  In a lot of cases, most of the people working in-house make much more including benefits than we do at home as full-time employees.  That's where I think the unfairness comes in.  The in-house employees don't all work every single weekend.  Most of them rotate at a much higher salary and much better benefits.  The MTs at home are expected to fill in for the in-house for less money, less benefits and give more and more back in the form of weekends and holidays.   Most remote MTs only receive benefits contingent on production, and even then they're not nearly as good as in-house benefits.  How is that equal in the healthcare team perspective?
you might want to make sure you don't make yourself look like an IDOT before you go any further.
/
I make $1.10 per report and make much more sm
than by the line. Day by day it varies and goes back and forth, but over a long period, it is better by the report. Make sure they pay links though; this is key.
Do Shapin MTs really only make 6 cpl and QAs make 1.5 cpl?
/
Why can't you make money with all OPs? I do all OPs and make
good money.  I'm not with WebMedX though. 
I'm happy with what I make. I still make more than if I went anywhere else and hardly noone in th
biz gives raises so I feel blessed that I make a lot more than most, raise or no raise.
And always make sure you don't make line
counts that amount to anything.  They always place you with impossible ESLs as soon as you start making decent money. 
I make more than that with Spheris but never have work. I would rather make $1.25 and have work. s
My SIL works for KS, and she gets paid double for linked reports too. Where do you get $2.25? I am ready to leave Spheris.
Have been with them for over a year...sm
and have no complaints. Pay is always on time and they have direct deposit. I have rarely ran out of work on my main account, but when I do I have a backup account to work on. There are incentives offered often as well. I don't see a high turnover rate...the reason they are hiring new MTs is because they have new accounts. Good luck in your job search!
Been on it for over a year and
still struggling. My lines went from 1,500 to 2,000 a day down to 800 to 1,000 if I am lucky. Still haven't found the courage to quit :(
Yes, they were. This year and I believe one other year. nm

Last year
Last year when I worked there I live in Texas and had BCBS of Tennessee through them since they are located in TN. Just FYI. Good luck!
Well over a year..nm
xx
first year pay
I was lucky to make 15000 the first year.

I am making it now but hard in the beginning.
Wow, a year?

 That's great!!  I know of one that is $3000.00! You have a great deal there.


Been with them almost a year
I've been with SPI/Cymed for almost a year (at the beginning of March) and the benefits seem to be okay, but I have never had to use them. When I first started with them last March, it was still just Cymed. I did hear that since they merged with SPI that the benefits were supposed to be less expensive when they go to get them again this year.
No, it's DURING second year (after 1)
nm
From 1 year ago...
Left because of having little to know work.  Seems like they way overhired.  They might do better now as I am seeing more than just clinic work
It's over a year old.
nm
Been with them over 1 year now - sm
as a statutory employee. I would say scheduling is flexible depending on your account and what you and your manager work out. They have been an excellent company to work for and the people there are terrific. If you need support they are right there with you and if you don't they don't bug you and let you run. Their pay is very comparable and always on time. I plan on retiring with this company!
year-old
{Bksp}-year-old
year-old
You would type 41 yo for the expansion to work.
year-old
But I use ESP expander. What I have started to do is build expansions with every age as they come up in reports. For instance if patient is a 41-year-old, I make an expansion of 41yo. I figure I will only have to do it around 105 times at most! If it turns out I have already made that expansion, I then create 41yof or 41yom expansions for female or male patient.
This was from a little over a year ago
so not sure if it's changed, but someone said it was about $75 per month for single coverage (just yourself).  Not sure about the employee plus spouse or family coverage amount.
Nothing this year . Not yet anyway nm
nm
Yes, have been there a year.
They pay based on a 65-character line with spaces included. They pay more than most other nationals and care very much about their employees and treat them very well. They are always looking for ways to improve to make us happy. I have 2 accounts and have never even come close to running out of work on either one, even during the major holidays. I have always made excellent money there. They pay by direct deposit on the 1st and 15th of the month. They have been continuously growing since I first started and have been constantly getting new accounts and expanding the ones that they already have. Hope this helps.
Every year it is where is my W2. They have until
1/31 to mail them.  If I get mine early great, but I don't start looking for it until the first part of February. 
You will pay the same but just throughout the year
If you made that much as an employee, you just would not have had as much in your pocket as they would have withheld it for you throughout the year.  As an IC you need to me strick enough to do that or have your husband hold out more to pay for your income.  You will only pay 7.5% more in the social security which you should somehow be able to find enough deductions to make that up.   But again, have your husband with hold your taxes.   You pay the same it is how you pay it.   Pretend you are the employee and withold 20% like they would from your check and put it in a separate account.  Then you have enough to pay your taxes.  Again it is not MORE taxes it is just how you pay the taxes and being able to put that money aside for it. 
I have been there about a year
They are nice people to work for and I enjoy my TM.  We have plenty of work and I heard we are starting a very large hospital in a few weeks.  The health insurance is with Aetna and it is a good plan with a low deductable, plus they pay by direct deposit every two weeks.  I came from another company as an IC and always seemed to be chasing a check or two, so having direct deposit is nice.  I would say that as a company I am happy at MedScribe. 
I have been there for a year and never got one
I was started at 9 cpl when I started a year ago. I was never told anything about a raise then.
$20,000 last year for PT
I work about 20 hours a week, and I took probably 2 weeks off from work total.
$37K last year, should do about $48K this year if it keeps up. sm

How?  Expanders...normals you build up yourself, and sitting down for long periods of time. 


And so you know, I make that on 8.5 to 9.5 cpl depending on the account and which of my jobs I am doing.  I work two PT situations.