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 prefer the term ''downwardly mobile'' nm

Posted By: Bummed out on 2009-08-31
In Reply to: Myself, I liked the "self-limiting" descriptor. - CynicalMT

x


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

Opinion? its a legal labor term - not a generic term for quibbling.
x
I prefer to be off a day during the week so I prefer a Tues-Sat schedule. nm
nm
They are being built in Mobile, AL
So at least the jobs will be here.
our own Claudia Tessier in 2003...she is executive director of Mobile Health Care Alliance. check t
http://www.mohca.org/presentations/MoHCAintro0103.pdf

this is, in fact, doing away with medical transcription as we know it. rather than free text, there will be standardized text at point-of-service. even coders and billers will be replaced by the computers.

this is at the MOHCA site as well.
Prefer MT
I've done both, but prefer transcribing.  Can earn more and go faster.  QA was fine, but pay was sooooo low.
Definitely prefer QA over MT.
I actually make more doing QA but I guess I am lucky to be paid a pretty high hourly rate compared to what others say they make doing QA(shocked!). I began to really hate transcribing after many years as it became very boring and eventually not challenging enough for me. Plus my arms ached all the time. Everyone is different though, of course.
Prefer QA to MT (sm)
I make a lot more doing QA then MT. Very satisfied with my hourly rate and honestly enjoy my job!
This is exactly why I much prefer being--sm
an IC. Sure, some of these companies sound all wonderful with their benefits and all, but I guess I just do not trust very much, and shy away from accepting any benefit package with a company I cannot see or be physically involved in. The MTSO that I work for recently merged with another company who offered employee status with benefits. It all sounded really good, but when asked specifics about some of the benefits, I received quite vague answers. The one thing that spooked me was when they sent a letter explaining employee benefits and it stated *if you choose to become an employee, your rate of pay may change (but it did not specify to what)*. and also regarding their insurance benefits, it mentioned that $400 would be deducted from employee's pay every pay period, for single coverage!!! I have checked into getting my own individual coverage and I felt that $180 a month was too much to pay, so for a $400 pay cut every two weeks, wow! I decided to remain an IC. That way, I take care of my own taxes. I know exactly what is being paid into my SS every year, because it is ME that is paying it. And, if I choose to have a retirement fund, at least I know any money I put into it is actually going there. In other words, I retain control of my finances and do not rely on some ghost company somewhere to do that for me. It is all a matter of trust these days, and I have been burnt enough in the past that I trust hardly anyone anymore. These *companies* do not know you and you don't know them, so what is to stop them from doing exactly what you have described? You have my sympathies.

I wish you the very best and I truly hope you get your money back. It may be a long drawn out process though, but be persistent! Good luck to you!
Would you prefer....
I am wondering how many of you enjoy having daily e-mails that shares things about the company and your co-workers, such as maybe how long they have been employed and maybe something like spotlighting each MT each different month just to find out a little bit about your coworkers?  The reason I ask this is because I used to work for a company about a year ago who had this type of thing and I really enjoyed it.  It would even have something in it like bloopers from dictations and such.  The company I have now you have nothing like that at all.  We have our company e-mail, but the extent is just information about changes in account specs or the daily workload.  I have seen names on the IM and just wondered about my fellow team mates.  It was just a thought.  Would like nice, honest answers... Please no meanies
First Choice does, also, WP5.1. I prefer it, too. nm
xx
Why do you prefer OP notes? nm

+++


No, just as an employee. I think they have just a few ICs and prefer
to hire employees. I imagine though that working for them as an IC is pretty much the same as an employee with the exception of no benefits. U have been in this business for 20 years and this is by far the best company I have ever worked for.
done both and prefer IC status
I have been an IC for over 15 years. For the first 12, I was not incorporated. I just filed using my SS#. I incorporated three years ago, and now things are a bit more complicated but I seem to get more write offs.

My husband claims only a few on his taxes, so he seems to cover the both of us. I do not pay quarterly, and just about break even at the end of the year. We usually even end up getting a refund on our personal.

I have a CPA who is expensive but very familiar with home based business and what you need to pay or not pay.

I also work for a company where I am an employee, so throw that in the mix, and my tax return is kinda crazy. I prefer the IC status with all the write off's and such. My corporate filing fee is $750 per year and that is all I ever pay (well at least for the last three years).

Hope this helps.
I have used both, prefer Shorthand (SM)
Learning curve was too tedious and long on instant text. I found I could program ShortHand to do most of the same things.
I prefer nationals. SM
I have worked years in hospital settings. It does have its advantages. Here's what I see the pros/cons are:

Inhouse Pros:
-- When you are done for the day, you're done!
-- You are not faced with family/friend disruption (see cons, too)
-- Company provides everything
-- Socializing is easy
-- Provides a change of environment
-- You have immediate access to assistance on all levels
-- HR and Payroll are usually in the same bldg and you can go down directly to them
-- Mgmt is readily available
-- You can usually view the entire workload and see how it is being distributed or balanced and have more input
-- Workload is limited to your employer's work only



Cons:
-- If you get too close to coworkers, they become intrustive on your work
-- If you don't share coworkers' perspectives, you can be given quite a cold shoulder treatment
-- You have to conform to a dress code usually
-- You have to leave the house in bad weather, park - sometimes walk a ways or even pay fo parking, etc.
-- Usually much more structured work and break times that are not too flexible
-- Usually paid hourly..sometimes with incentive plans. If you are really fast, probably not a good setup for you.

Love Nationals:
-- Work from home
-- Co provides equipment
-- Plenty of work and varieties of work
-- Paid on production -- great producers do very well
-- No worries about coworkers and social settings (getting along with annoying workers, etc.)

I've done both and I prefer..
hourly because I would have a set income already.
I actually prefer to be trained
this way rather than getting stuck on the phone endless hours. Would you mind emailing me the name of the company?
I'm with you. I prefer per report
/
Do u prefer being an IC or employee?
Do you prefer being an IC or employee? I have been an MT for a little over 2 years, and I've always been an IC (subcontracting for a small transcription service). I like the flexibility in my schedule, but I feel a little left out in the cold when it comes to tech support, not having PTO to fall on when work runs low, etc.
I prefer my own computer.
Been working at home 12 years and have always used my own computer. None of my employers have gotten into it for any reason. If I have a problem with something computer related, my husband takes care of it.
Maybe I should not even use the term ESL

Maybe I should have said horrible dictators, because some of the ESL guys are not that bad honestly.  It just happens that they used a horrible dictator with bad audio for the transcribing portion of the test.  You do have to think $$ these days, no matter who you transcribe for.  If you are on let's say an Ortho account, and there are horrible dictators there (ESLs and all) that it interferes with your income.  You are making $30,000/year - while on a previous Ortho account you know you were making over $40,000/year.  Honestly, aren't you going to look for a more profitable account??  You can be the best MT in the world, but it is still the dictator's responsibility for what prints out, isn't it.  Accurate garbage is still accurate garbage.  Is it profitable?  We really do work for the paychecks - not the doctor, the company, or even the patient for that matter.  If not, then you should be volunteering.


I think you have to use their equipment, if that matters at all. I prefer my own. nm
m
I prefer quiet, too. Everything seems fine. nm
x
I earned more doing MT work but I prefer QA
because I love it. I enjoy the mentoring aspect plus MT took its toll on my bones and I absolutely could not do it anymore if I wanted to because of that.
Not afraid - just prefer straightforward
It's great that this company has given you so much and that you feel such a strong allegiance to the COO. My point was that the name and their website are misleading.

Work ethics, offshoring, fear aside, all I stated was that if they're not American owned, they shouldn't give the impression they are. A high-caliber company, regardless of location, should be able to attract high-caliber MTs without subterfuge.
This is why I prefer group over individual..

The bottom line is that.. When you have group insurance, you have a set rate, along with everyone else, regardless of your health insurance..and when it renews each year, it will only go up based on the group's rate, nothing to do with your personal health history and it is generally better benefits overall. Now, you have a private policy, can only afford one with a huge deductible (major medical)..well, during the year, you had an emergency surgery, heart attack..whatever.. Well, first off you have that preminum which is high, then you have all of that deductible to meet, upwards of $5000..THEN, your shocked at renewal time that they jacked up your preminum about $200 a month..and then your stuck..You can pay that outrageous amount or go without insurance because another private insurance wont touch you will all of your medical claims in the past 10 years. If they do touch you, it won't be cheap. So, your bad to square one.. crappy insurance at a bad price or signing up with a company for okay rates but better insurance.


I thought I was smart not keeping my group insurance through work because it was $400 a month (deductible $1000 etc..) so I went and got myself a family plan through private insurance for ONLY $196 a month.. Yes, then I had a $5000 deductible and come to find out my prescription benefits were only 50% instead of the $10-40 I had been paying. One of my son's prescription cost us $100 a month with that great insurance, and it would have only been $25 on my old group policy. Yes, I was saving a lot of money..NOT. I did check into my private insurance to get a policy similar to my group one.. and imagine that.. they wanted over $1000 a month for decent insurance. So, no thanks. I'll stay with group..It's worth it in the long run.


I prefer ESL to speed talkers - and about 80-90%. nm
nm
I work Sun-Thurs and prefer it. sm
My activities are usually on Friday and Saturday and this schedule works out great for me. What if you rotated weekends and just happened to have plans on the weekend you were scheduled to work and then nobody would trade with you? That would suck. This way I'm always off or if there is work available, I will work especially in winter. Would also prefer to work Thanksgiving and Christmas and have the summer holidays off. But that's just me.
I've used both and I prefer Medrite
It's more user friendly as far as someone who's used to Word programs go. It's got its little idiosyncrasies like any program but I've tried several different ones over the last few years and so far I'm favoring Medrite over the scribe platforms I've tried. It Is slower tho, that's the only thing. It's slow loading up when u first turn it on, slow to look up past reports but its not significant enough to warrant me looking elsewhere when I consider that for me its just easier to navigate.

Plus it has its own built-in word expansion which again is a no-brainer. It's just like autocorrect. And you don't have to start from scratch, it already has a lot of the more common words already in there, you just add some as you go. For me, Bayscribe took much longer to learn, it seemed like everything was more complicated than it needed to be but I did manage to learn it so it's not impossible.

Also, Medrite has a problem with using ShortHand but as I use their word expansion 100% I don't even miss it.

Hope this helps. :)
Need a new gig...prefer IC status at this point and...
I really need it to be true IC status. I do most of my work between the hours of 9 am and 11 pm every day. I don't want to be chained to my PC. I like to be able to run my errands, clean my house, do whatever I need to do without having to report my every move. I don't like being chased down by phone because I wasn't on right at 9 in the morning...maybe I have things to do and won't be on until the evening. I don't want to be on AIM or Yahoo IM either. Just let me work. Know that I will consistently work every day between those hours and if something comes up I will let you know. And platforms...do any of these jobs have decent platforms? I strongly dislike the platform I am currently using, it closes out of word every time you complete a report and has to reload the next one...very time consuming. Yeah yeah...I am a Prima Donna...we all have our cross to bear.
As an IC, I prefer pool work.
I have done pool work and been assigned docs and I prefer working a pool. When I was assigned docs, my lines varied so much. I never knew how much I was going to get each day. Some days I would get over 1500 lines, some days only 500. It made it very hard to plan my day as I never knew how long I was going to have to work. I never made enough money, yet I found it hard to work a second job as some weeks I would be loaded down with work from company 1 and not have time to work my commited lines for company 2, yet the following week I would get very few lines. Working a pool, I know I can get in at least 1000 lines a day every day (rarely have issues on my account with not enough work and usually do anywhere from 1500-2200). I don't have to guess how much I am going to make that day as I am in control of how many lines I take versus someone else sending the work.

Also, as soon as I get up, I can start working (like to start my day around 4 a.m. and be done around noon). I don't have to sit around wondering when my reports are going to be sent to me and waste half the day waiting when the company decides to send them at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 9 a.m.

Also, when only assigned 1 or 2 docs, if they take vacation, you are typically out of work for a week or two with little to no notice (at least in my experience). With a pool, you don't have that problem. If a doc goes on vacation, you have plenty of others to transcribe for. I also tend to get bored easily, so I prefer transcribing for multiple docs. I transcribe for about 15 docs now and I am very familiar with each of them and can transcribe over 250 lph. This would be different though if I was transcribing acute care and had 100+ docs though. But in that instance, pool work is better as it makes TAT faster.

Guess it is good that each company does it different so we can each find what works for us.
I managed 400 lph VR within my first week using. Now prefer it. sm
I would not have believed it if I had experienced it!
AMEN! I too prefer to just work sm
and let the crap be handled by somebody else. I have been there done that as they say. The MTs who think the MTSOs have it so easy, no problems, raking in money and cashing the check and usually the same MTs who care about nothing but how much they can put out an hour and quality and patient care be d_____d! If they really understood the business they couldn't even come up with these crazy ideas!
I PREFER VR to straight. I really like it. The BAD angle...sm
about VR is that the pay is to miserable.
Then MTs come along and say (or pretend) that they can do 600 lines per hour, because they are the LUCKY ones, 1 in a million.

Then MTSOs and clients say,

'If she can do it, why not others.'

That's what p****s me off.


medical term

"Palpation over the muscular tissues reveals mild tenderness in the bilateral paraspinals (s/l: clavatus or quivatus, and spiro-glineal) region."  I can't figure it out and am hoping someone out there will give it a shot!  The words in parentheses aren't words I know, they just sound like what he's saying.  TIA.


medical term
It could be gluteal. I thought of that too, but just can't figure out what he's saying before that if it is gluteal. S/l spiro or could be superior......don't hear left or right unfortunately. thanks very much.
What do you mean by no long-term QA

Do you want no QA department at all? Do you want to not have to have your work checked all the time? I'm not sure what you mean.


Difficulty with a term
This s/l D-timer and is a test done to r/o pulmonary embolus.
Any help appreciated.
ESL is a relative term.
Just because they have an accent doesn't make them any more difficult to do than the average Joe.  JMHO. 
Oh my. You actually use that term enough to need an expander?
nm
Ooh! A new term. What is a squid? (nm)
.
Well, that's what we do. It's an appropriate term. At least its better than typist. nm

nm


"Transcribers" is NEVER an appropriate term
A transcriber is a machine. A Transcriptionist is a person. They, and we, should always remember the difference.
when you use the term "Indian"..

or any ethnicity within a derogatory connotation, it most certainly is racist.  Go check your dictionary for the definition. 


No, I think whatever it is, it's far more serious and long-term
I don't think it's just an overhiring spree, to be perfectly honest. I think there's something else going on.

Too many MTs on too many different accounts, all with no or minimal work, ICs suddenly having to chain themselves to their computers 24/7 hoping for work to show up, no explanation for the lack of work, total silence from the powers that be.

Scarily, it sounds very similar to what our fellow MTs at the Q went through.

I'm not saying they're offshoring but I am saying their lack of any explanation, lack of any response to emails from MTs, and that ludicrous email this morning all kind of point toward SOMETHING being askew.

I don't want to be a sitting duck so I'm applying elsewhere at this point. No matter how great they have been in the past, their behavior over the past month or so has left me VERY skeptical about the future with them.
I could never figure that term out myself.

Does management really not realize that if you run out of work on your primary account and have to work on 3, 4, or 5 different accounts that are unfamiliar and sometimes all on different platforms, that in itself is limiting?  I've done this so many times I can't even begin to count them.  I'm lucky if I make $8 an hour doing this, and the ONLY way it would help me reach my needed rate to qualify for full-time benefits is if I do it 15 hours a day!  How is this 'self-limiting?' If you're THAT familiar with your backup accounts where you're making what you do on your primary, you're running out of work consistently and this would make what they say about it being occasional an inconsistency.


The term *stagger*
is such BS. Do they stagger for us? Anymore staggering and we won't be able to walk aka function.
probably don't even know what the term means...
and you couldn't take advice from anyone, as you think you are just too perfect. you're right and everybody else is wrong. the world revolves around you, you, you. cold, heartless, compassionless, unempathetic you.
Whichever you prefer. You can use yours or they will provide you with one at no cost.
s
I'm joining their team, too. I was told they prefer that
nm
I think 3 cpl is fair. And I would prefer having the flexibility of my own schedule.
x