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 don't do chart notes and I make more than 7 cents a line

Posted By: If you're making that it's because on 2005-11-25
In Reply to: If you like doing chart notes at 7 cpl! (nm) - Giggle!

they don't think you can handle a more intricate account and you should try working on your MT skills.

Giggle at that, hon.


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

I make 4 cents a line, work part and make
over $500 a week on part.
Oh, they make money off us. Line rate is 17 cents a gross line.nm
z
I currently make 3.0 cents per line
and I average about 2400 - 3000 lines per day.
I make 9 cents per line. I am not

on an account with VR.   Regarding the platform, there are several.  Do you have one in particular?


How can you possibly make any $$ for 2 cents per line???

 


Am I missing something??


I get 10-12 cents a line from clients so I can only pay 6-71/2 to make any profit.
There are some clinics/hospital that will pay more but they also want you to do a lot more secretary stuff which the management staff does and you do not see.  I know some of the huge nationals are raking in the profit and not spreading it around to well deserved transcriptionists but us smaller nationals or local companies are not getting those huge accounts that pay 16-20? cents a line.  There is overhead too to pay like your utility bills, dictation equipment and upkeep, long distance phone bills, advertising, paper, printers, ink, faxes, health insurance, etc and then the income for the management team, proofers, and computer techs.  I am not trying to take up for the huge companies that rake it in but if you haven't had your own business in the field then you really can't speak about what goes on after you turn in your work because you have no idea.  Making comments to ad that can't offer more like me does not help anyone.  I find plenty of experience transcriptionists happy with the pay, workload, and TAT.  I wish I could offer more but when you are only making 3-4 cents of profit and still have your overhead that is not greedy.  Your checks are nearly the same as the transcriptionists. If you don't like the pay find your own account - you do the leg work and don't respond to if it does not interests you as it does to a lot of people.
Can an MT make a decent living earning 7 cents per line


Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth.  It would be great to be paid 10-11-12-13 cents per line (as an employee not IC), but that is not a reality in this job market.  Yes, MTs will take jobs that pay 7 cents per line, but that MTSO is not necessarily underpaying or demeaning the MTs that work for them. 


 


Bottom line is that you have to do your homework because, yes, there are people who can make a living on 7 cents a line and will take those jobs.   It really depends on your skills and how dedicated you are to making your maximum possible lines per hour.  The MTSO that is offering only 7 cents a line but has easy dictators can actually pay you more per check if you type more lines per hour than an MTSO that is offering 10 cents a line but has horrible quality, ESL dictators, nasty QA, etc and you can barely type 100 lines an hour because of it. 


 


MY TIP:  When you interview, ask what the approximate minimum and maximum lines per hour that the other MTs that are doing EXACTLY the same accounts that you are going to be doing are achieving per hour/day/pay period.  If the recruiter/MTSO will not tell you that information, you probably don’t want to work there anyway so just terminate the interview before wasting any more of your time.  The slowest MTs are probably new and the ones achieving 200-250-300 lines per hour have been there a long time and know the account(s) forwards and backwards.  If you plan to make that MTSO a long-term employer, you will have a pretty good idea of what you can potentially achieve if you stay there long enough.  Don’t let them tell you the “average” of all the MTs that work for the company or what their perfect employee Suzie Q types.   We all know every account is different, so Suzie Q who just started last week and is already doing 150 lines per hour may have easier accounts than the one you are going to be working on, so that is not very representative of what your account(s) is really going to be like.  Ask specifically about the accounts you will be assigned to and don’t let them distract you.  Again, if they don’t want to tell you, terminate the interview. 


 


According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, in 2004 !!!, the MEDIAN hourly earnings for a Medical Transcriptionist (probably  mostly hospital and office based) in May of 2004, was $13.64 an hour. 


 


Just for reference, it seems like most MTSOs have a 6000 lines per week minimum production standard which is about 150 line per hour (40 hour week) on average for full-time MTs.   


 


·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.07) = $10.50 per hour.


 


·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.08) = $12.00 per hour. 


 


·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.09) = $13.50 per hour. 


 


·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.10) = $15.00 per hour. 


 


If you are one of the highly trained experienced MT and type 200 lines per hour on average, you are even better off. 


 


·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.07) = $14.00 per hour.


 


·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.08) = $16.00 per hour. 


 


·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.09) = $18.00 per hour. 


 


·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.10) = $20.00 per hour. 


 


 


The median hourly earnings in 2004 was $13.64 per hour.  That was almost 4 years ago.  With a minimal 2% per year cost of living/inflation increase, by 2008 the median hourly earning should be about $14.76 per hour.       


 


2004 --------- $13.64


2005 x 2% = $13.91


2006 x 2% = $14.19


2007 x 2% = $14.47


2008 x 2% = $14.76


 


So, in my humble opinion, if you are an experienced MT with 5 or more years of experience, when you call that MTSO offering 7 cents per line the accounts you will be assigned to should be easy enough so that you can make an average of 210 lines per hour within a relatively short period of time.  If they say their experienced MTs are only doing 175 to 200 lines per hour on average, that MTSO is drastically underpaying their experienced MTs and it is time for you to move on.  If they say their MTs are averaging 250 to 300 lines per hour, then that MTSO may be worth looking into further, even if their starting wage is lower than what you originally thought you should be getting paid. 


 


I think if WE ALL start doing this, the MTSOs will start to figure out that we are not going to work for companies that underpay our skills and experience.  If enough experienced MTs hang up on these companies, eventually they will figure out that the recruiters/supervisors need to be more honest with us regarding their pay structure and the difficulty of their accounts. 


 


Some food for thought !! 


 


More information from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: 


Medical transcriptionists had median hourly earnings of $13.64 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.50 and $16.32. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.67, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $19.11. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists in May 2004 were:














General medical and surgical hospitals


$13.83


Offices of physicians


13.40


Business support services


13.40


 


 


If you want more information, check out the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web page for Medical Transcriptionist. 


 


http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm


 


 


 


If you like doing chart notes at 7 cpl! (nm)
xx
and so is scribbling all his notes into the chart and thinking
of the 'dreadful' dictation of the long, narrative, espensive reports to the MTs.
Does anyone know anything about a company called Chart Notes out of Illinois - sm
Do they offshore?  They claim to have transcriptionists with 10-12 years experience.  Any info on this company or experience anyone has had with this company would really help us out.
9 cents for clinic notes
nm
I also work for 8 cents a line. I left a job typing OPs for 10-11 cents sm
to take a clinic job. I made an average of $17-18 an hour with OPs, now make $16-17 an hour, but the work is easier on me. I do not call that poor pay. I type 200+ lines an hour. True, it isn't the $26-27 an hour I was making 10 years ago at a hospital, but that's gone for good. I have excellent skills, make better than 99% on QA at any company I have worked for, and some of those have been very demanding.

I'm afraid the people that are expecting to make $20-30 an hour in MT are going to be disappointed. A few can still make that amount, but for the average good transcriptionist, the pay is much more likely to run $15-20. Benefits are pretty much gone. However, I feel that what I'm making is considerably above what I could make in another field, unless I decide to teach, which I will not do. Still, I make more than I would at Walmart or Burger King, or even a secretarial job. It's my choice. Good luck to you.
The mentoring program does not pay 8-1/2 cents per line. Believe it is like 6 cents.
n/m
Do they still pay you 5 cents a line and 2 cents if you send anything to QA?
xx
I have a problem with 7 cents and 8 cents a line because
...when I started 15 years ago, my very first MT job started me out at 8 cents a gross line, then went to 9 cents a gross line after only a year. I was SOOO happy and proud of myself for choosing a profession that paid so well - I imagined myself making a lot of $$ once I had 10 or 15 years experience behind me...

Well that never happened; in fact, it all went backwards, pay wise. The company I worked for back then sold out to a national, and of course the pay was cut, and 9 cents a gross line was never to be had again, at least not that I could find. I am considered living in poverty now. I started out great but have ended up very badly.

I think my own personal problem is that it's hard for me to let go the fact that I made good money just starting out and how everything I had ever learned about jobs, careers and pay was that the more experience and education you have in a particular field, the more your pay goes up as each year passes. Well my pay has been consistently taking a nosedive for at least a decade now. I actually have to work MORE to make at least as much as I did years ago, and it's killing me health-wise as far as my wrists, my legs, my neck, my back....

It also kills me that I'm going to have to accept 7 or 8 cents a 65-character line when I made so much more than that 15 years ago.

I suppose to someone who's just starting out, 7 or 8 cents would seem pretty good, though. Maybe that's why I haven't been able to land any jobs with my resume. They may not want me with my years of experience, probably want a newbie who will be more grateful about such low pay. I dunno.

I could just kick myself for wasting money on MT school those years ago when I could've spent it on a career that would actually LAST and where I'd be making great money after being in the same field for 15 years. There's just no reward to this business. None at all, IMO.

I would NOT recommend this field to anyone just getting started. To me, it's a dead field.

I'd have more freedom working at McDonalds (for a number of reasons), and, believe me, I've been considering taking a local job around my home for minimum wage. At least I'd have a consistent paycheck and would know exactly what I'm getting every 2 weeks, then build from there as far as another job or two.

Well anyway that's all. I really need a job. I'm going down, going under, and it's a shame because I do very good work and have all this experience but no one seems to want me, even the low-paying companies. Oh well.
I make $18.50 typing in EMR notes -- too low
Sometimes even if they put you on an hourly rate if you are considered management they can not pay overtime and just pay you for the 40 hours worked, look at the contract carefully and see if it is an Exempt (exempt from overtime) or Non exempt (paid for overtime and actual hours worked).  See if they pay time and half for over time also.  Like I said, I type for just one doc into EMR's and make $18.50 hour, about 8 to 10 hours per week.   Seems very low to me,.
are clinic notes productive... 2 and 3 line reports?
Can you turn them around pretty fast or do they slow you down?
Where can I make 10 cents plus sm
I know what you are saying.  Where can a fabulous MT make 10 plus cents a line?  No editing required.
Your 2 cents is more than Shapin QA make. nm
x
rates 6.5 to 7 cents .NEVER make more at Jack-in-Box
I emailed first (as is my thing prior to spending time testing) They did email back after I asked for the lowest to highest rate offered for the position.

email response below
Hi there,

We pay $0.065 to 0.007 starting depending upon experience. Some
companies pay various amounts per line, but it also is important to see
what their line consists of. We pay based on a 65 character line count.

Thanks!

Synernet Transcription
(207) 771-3470
877-771-3470
10 cents per line
so does AccuSTAT, Wisconsin for ER work!!!
This would be cents per line.
If it were more like 65-70 cpl, it would be characters per line.
CPL = cents per line

Then of course you need to know how they define a line.  "Standard" is 65 characters is a line, but that might be with spaces or without spaces being counted.  Also, not all companies a define a line this way, and it could be gross line (anything on a line, even one character is considered a line), or it could be a character line (with or without spaces).


But...CPL means cents per line.


MA 3 cents per line

Yes, yes.  I worked for them for one whole day.  The only reason I applied was because I was born in Mass (but now live in AZ) and it was an editing job, which I wanted to try doing, since I trained MTs for so long and edited their reports, etc.  Anyway, the supervisor, Bobbi, was an absolute tyrant nightmare.  Training was done over the phone, and she was so nasty and bitter, she made you feel like you had never done a thing in the medical field ever before.  For example, I was not following what she was talking about as far as her formatting statements, and she was going on like, what are you talking about???!!!    I had to take a Valium and Rolaids, and then she told me to go ahead and transcribe some reports.......I have been doing transcription over 20-years, and wanted to just edit.  Well, she said she was going out for the evening, but there should be no problem with the system and sending the reports on after I transcribed them.  Well, there sure was.  I contacted the lady that was her assistant, and SHE ragged on me for contacting her.  I said, 'sorry, I can't send the reports.  Something is wrong with the system, so I am just going to email them to you, so you know they have been done at least.   The next morning I woke up and emailed Bobbi that I am not right for this job.  Nobody is.  That has been years ago, and amazingly she cannot hold on to anybody for that Editor job.  It was so bad, I cannot remember the name of the company - Maybe something like Infomatics, or something.  She was an absolute horror.  Don't work for her.  You will not be happy........ 


Deb


QA at 2 cents per line...
Is this fair pay?  Tomorrow I have an interview with a company that pays 2 cents a line for proofreading.  This seems a bit low, but I dont have anything to compare it to.  This might be a good opportunity to learning something new and get some experience in QA - since it seems like QA might be the way to stay in this industry a bit longer with all of the offshoring and VR now.
6 cents a line!?!?!
I have almost seven years experience and some people have the nerve of offering 6 cpl IC status.  I think that is crazy.  Even if it is the same doctors and no ESLs.  I have worked for a couple of places where I make 8 cpl and have the same doctors and no ESLs.  I could understand if I were a newby or I tested for them and did bad.  They never even tested me.  They just send me an email stating what they offer.
at least 4 cents a line
I got my first editing job for 4 cents per line. 2 cents is slave labor.
3 cents per line
Are you sure they didn't mean 3 cents per line added to 7.5 cents per line? 
Their ad says 6 to 9 cents per line; not 6 to 8 (nm)
xx
I get 3-1/2 cents per line..nm
d
8 cents a line...
I regularly see people posting that 0.08/line is very low pay.  I have only been paid by the line for the past 2 years...before that I was paid hourly and worked for a hospital.  When I decided to work at home and saw that I could expect to get paid 7.5 to 8 per line...I thought that was decent.  I regularly type between 200 and 300 lines per hour...so even at my minimum that is $16/hour....I can't make that at Burger King.
6.5 cents a line?!?!?!
No wonder Spheris doesn't give a rip about keeping their top-notch employees.

And why should they care that MTs with decades of experience are walking away in droves, when they can just get some newbie to work for peanuts?

No offense to you personally, but the MTs who are willing to work for next to nothing are driving the entire MT profession down the drain.

I started 23 years ago at 8.5 cents a line.

If we keep devaluing ourselves, how do we expect MTSOs to place any value in us either?

'Nuff said.
6.5 cents per line
sdf
only 6 cents per line
You probably should try to get your own accounts, by calling doctors and/or putting an ad on MTStars like I did with my resume and my specialties, because doctors' staff do look at it.  I should know, I am doing a major account because of it.  I wish you the best.
I believe it was 7.5 cents a line, even
with 17 years' experience. Plus their software and system did not sound efficient.
Umm, take the 4.5 cents/line!

Even at a moderate pace and 100% reading of each report, that is more than $11.00 an hour.


 


5 - 7 cents/line..........
I bet it is for voice recognition
I would do QA for 2 cents/line
If all I had to do was fill in blanks, with ZERO proofreading and feedback. 
At 6 to 8 cents/line?
Are they kidding?
Pay is low - 0.05 cents per line
I'm not sure what platform they use.
It's 8 cents a line, it's in the ad. nm
 
Here is my 3 cents (per line)

I SO agree with what you said.  Loved the platform (EditScript V8) and the account was really not that difficult & good sound quality.  However, they had too many people trying to train the VR and sometimes it was a mess.  The 3 cpl for the VR is RIDICULOUS, especially when on some reports it would be quicker just to manually type the entire report rather than edit.  I was told I could not use a word expansion program, so I HATED that part.  We also could not copy/paste repetitive phrases of dictators from another report due to alleged HIPAA violations.  I truly don't see how a generic phrase or even paragraph for a procedure, as long as patient names are not mentioned, is a violation of HIPAA.  I think it has more to do with training the VR program.


My pay was relatively on time and accurate, but it just was not worth my while at 3 cents per line.  I also hated the panicking e-mails and the nastygram e-mails I received CONSTANTLY.  The nastygrams were just a blanket e-mail to everyone saying if they didn't do this or that they would be TERMINATED and constantly crying wolf about backlogs when at times there was no backlog!  I don't consider 4 jobs to be a backlog.  I now work for a small service where I am getting top dollar (12 cpl weekends) for relatively easy work & am happy that I quit.  Maybe someone else will do fine at TTD and will like to work that way.  Maybe they will make a lot of money at 3 cpl, but it sure wasn't me.


3 cents a line for VR

In order to make $20.00 an hour, which is what I make most days, I would need to edit 666 lines an hour.  Is that even possible? 


Hmm.... 666.....hmmm


 


3 cents a line for VR

In order to make $20.00 an hour, which is what I make most days, I would need to edit 666 lines an hour.  Is that even possible? 


Hmm.... 666.....hmmm


 


Good post MissIndigo....I make 6.5 cents for VR sm
and I do agree it would be difficult to do it at 4 cents a line. We are fortunate, and yes it is possible to increase speed even after a year of doing VR, 4 cents still would seem completely unfair to me. I have in no way doubled my production lines. I may have increased by 50% or 75% of normal line rate, so I think 6.5 to 7 cents is more than fair. No matter what the rate, no one in this industry should think is easy and not have to pay extremely close attention. Good luck to you Ms. Indy. You have a great attitude, I watch your posts. You are a true professional.
Huh? When did 9.5 cents base per line become...
nm
I think you said you are making 10.5 cents/line, but you still have - sm
taxes taken out of your pay, approximately 30%, right? I realize you have other benefits, like paid vacation and health benefits, but you are still having taxes taken out.
I was offered 10 cents/line. I think they pay very well! nm
x
Pay is six cents gross line.
x
10 cents/line for radiology at

MDI  in Florida.  if you have Meditech experience.  If you don't, they will train you on it.  Giving sign-on bonus through March.  Diskriter pays by report, 1.05 -1.25.  Just have to do your research.  Its a pain.


 


 


 


1.5 cents per line. nuff said