It might even encourage the companies who care...
Posted By: MTPockets on 2008-06-04
In Reply to: And that's okay... - Donna
to truly offer more for American MTs. If they know we are willing to make them stronger against the Indians, et al, this might be the encouragement to pay a little more for better quality.
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If you've switched companies, encourage the rest!
If you've decided to join us in the fight to keep our confidential health information and MT jobs in the states and not sent overseas, PLEASE let us know and help encourage others to do the same. I recently have and currently work for MDI-MD. We really need to keep encouraging each other to make the move. If you're not sure if a company outsources to either Pakistan, India, or the Philippines, just ask here. We'll help figure it out for you!
Let's not quit and let this just remain a hot topic for a week or so! WE HAVE TO COME TOGETHER! Remember, if you take a cent less in pay, it's well worth it to help an American MT-based company prosper and help these companies that are more concerned about money than Americans' jobs lose MTs and possibly large accounts that these American MT-based companies could have a chance at acquiring.
This is US TAKING A STAND! I just want to encourage you all to truly consider this.
The companies I know of that definitely don't outsource offshore right now after THOROUGH research are Keystrokes, Axolotl, MDI-MD (where I work). I'll keep researching. Just remember to post here if you are questioning a company. I'm still researching others and am including Pakistan and the Phillipines in my searches.
I'm contacting medical facilities in my area (Pennsylvania) to let them know that their confidential medical information could possibly be outsourced offshore and to consider helping keep jobs in America by researching their MTSO and hire a company that doesn't do this. If you feel inclined to reach medical facilities in your area/state, PLEASE do this for all of your fellow MTs. I know there is at least one of you in each state on this board! 
Agree that most companies don't care - sm
about your problems, they just look at the bottom line and if the work is getting done or not. I had a similar experience with a different national. Mom was ill too, I was already PT but was not meeting quota, partly due to traveling to help out my dad and to see my mom, also due to no work when I logged on. I did talk to them about my situation and despite being told they understood and were fine with it, they canned me about 2 months into my mom's illness since I was not producing enough. So much for being understanding. I was doing the best I could in the circumstances. I understand their position, but don't say that it is okay and then fire you because you are not meeting quota (after they said it was okay not to). They were not shorthanded so it was not a question of keeping up with TAT, they had too many people and we were all fighting over the scraps as it was. I was not heart-broken to leave, it was their loss and I am glad to be away from all their crazy rules. I just went on to work more for my backup job in the long run.(I always work 2 to cover my butt).
Are there any companies who pay by the minute for acute care? nm
xx
The good companies who actually care about quality.
x
Please don't encourage something like this!
praising. This Company board is notorious for some of the most heartless scam artists and shark recruiters in the industry. I needn't name names, but anyone who has hung here for a while knows. They constantly prey on newbies, use them for a month or two, never pay them, and then toss them when they are done. They are shameless. You have no idea that kk is not one of these sharks. Maybe kk means well, but obviously kk has no idea of the industry, either. If kk were to hire onto a job for 11.5 cpl, or anything per line, and then turn around and farm out her work to someone else, a stranger, who then returns their work to kk for proofing, who sends it in to their MTSO, well, guess what? KK is now a SUBCONTRACTOR. There are lots of legalities to that, the least of which is taxes to newby who is getting paid by KK, not to mention KK's original source of work, who might not allow subcontracting. Remember those pesky little laws we have in MTing?? You can't do what KK is just so casually offering the OP. Let's hope for the best that KK was, indeed, just trying to be nice. But I seriously 100% doubt it - nobody can be in this business enough, and make an offer slick enough as that, to not know what they are doing. PLEASE believe me on this one, KK might not be the saint you would like to believe. I understand your wanting somebody out here to be a good guy, but I doubt this is the case here.
Trying To Encourage You
Sometimes people fire you for reasons they don't want to explain. You mentioned that your company is increasing its outsourcing on a daily basis. That's one possibility. Other possibilities include the proverbial personality clash, jealousy, or just wanting to hire their relative instead of you.
That said, wait a couple of days and then take a deep breath, and go back in and ask to see examples of your reports that demonstrate the quality issues they referenced in firing you. Ask them to show you your mistakes.
If they agree to do that, try to write down the biggest mistakes, then go home and learn from those mistakes before you apply for new positions elsewhere.
If they don't agree to do that, see paragraph #1. You probably weren't fired for quality problems in that case.
Either way, you have already invested yourself in MT as a career. Don't let one person (who may be misinformed, jealous, vindictive, or anything else) take away your dignity. You can and will find a better job, and if you want it to be in MT, it will be!
Good luck!
I agree, but it is what it is.....the companies don't care about anything but TAT and lines, line
Unfortunately, it all boils down to the bottom line, money.
I believe a "thank you" is warranted in many cases, but don't hold your breath for one.
It is sad, very sad.
Because these companies no longer care about their employees anymore. nm
nm
The owner will encourage you to
talk to her current staff, etc., but that is definitely biased. An anonymous board like this is is a safer.
Don't know about platform. They do encourage (sm)
backup accounts.
Are there companies out there that have clinic work? Tired of acute care..
I have both hospital and clinic experience, but I am tired of working for large hospitals where you cannot get familiar with the accounts or the dictators. I work part-time for an orthopedic surgeon and I love doing it as I can breeze through it because I have learned his style, voice etc.. It is getting so frustrating every day doing different doctors who either cannot speak English or choose to speed talk and ramble on so fast. Do they think we are miracle workers?? I guess you could say I want an easy account, which by now, I have figured out, does not exist OR does it?? HELP.. any ideas besides getting out of this profession 
So, MTSOs actually ENCOURAGE the leads.sm
to cherry-pick only the work they want to do -- a wonderful setup!. This, and their salary, too. Which doesn't surprise any of us, but where does this despicable and unfair practice leave the regular MTs, who are not salaried and only have the measly few pennies per line for the garbage that they are allowed, even encouraged, to throw at us?
Yeah, but the AMA doesn't encourage patients to go
Yes, it happens. But the AMA doesn't encourage it. The AAMT on the other hand has done more to systematically destroy the MT profession than any other organization out there.
Careful. If you encourage poster to be proactive & U
x
Does the Medical Transcription industry encourage job-hoppers?
First off I want to make it clear that I am not “bashing” any MTs by asking the questions below. Also sorry this is so long. Please bear with me. -- Spelling and grammar police please take a break !!!
I have been following some posts and just got curious. So if we all could just take a deep breath, give it some serious thought, stay on point and not get carried away with other opinions, I think we can get some good honest opinions about why the MTSOs are treating their employees like “equipment.”
What I have noticed is that when there are MTs looking for information about certain companies they often get replies such as: I worked for them but “left after 1 month – 2 months – 6 months,” Then there are MTSO owners who complain that after offering an MT a position the MT either says “no thanks” the day they are suppose to start working or are never heard from again. This gives me the impression that there are MTs out there who treat working as an MT like they treat buying a new pair of shoes --- try them out for awhile and then return them if they don’t fit. No emotional attachment involved.
I am fast approaching 60 years of age and have been an MT for over 35 years. I was one of the first to take the CMT test when AAMT first organized way back when. My first MT job was transcribing from cassette tapes, using a typewriter and sticky paper for clinic notes and sheets of paper for hospital reports. So obviously I have seen a lot of changes in the MT business. Personally over the past 35+ years I have had 6 employers (4 inhouse before MTSOs offered working from home and 2 national MTSOs for the past 15 years). Personally I am TERRIFIED of having to find a new job --- interviews, equipment setup, new platform to learn, loss in earnings during training, and so forth and so forth. That being said I have a feeling I will need to be looking for a new position within the next six months and I am curious as to what type of employment search atmosphere I will be encountering.
My curiosity stems from my impression that many MTs are comfortable “job-hopping.” When they state they only stayed at a company for 1-2-6 months it is presented as matter-of-fact – no-big-deal. I can see why they feel that way. With several hundred MTSOs out there and most constantly looking for new employees, even the worst MT in the world could start working at age 20, work for a different company every 6 months and still not work for them all by the time they retire. In my opinion that is what is causing the MTSOs to treat their MTs so badly, offer them less and less as starting wages, and not be responsive to questions or problems. The MTSO invests quite a bit of money into hiring a new employee. They either have to pay someone in their HR Department or a Recruiting Agency to do the initial resume search, testing, and interviewing. There is a ton of paperwork. If the MTSO supplies the computer, their IT Department has to set up the computer and ship it out which means shipping charges for the computer or paperwork. And someone has to train the new MT. All those expenses are incurred by the MTSO before the MT even starts to produce. I can see why some of the MTSOs are resorting to questionable “bait and switch” tactics. They probably also send out the oldest computers to the new MTs to cover themselves in case the MT quits and doesn’t ship it back in a timely manner. It seems to me that the majority of complainers about type of work, amount of work, or computer problems that they are experiencing are the newly hired MTs.
Because of all the “short-term” complainers, someone looking for information about a particular company is often given incomplete or misleading opinions based on limited information. Can anyone honestly with 100% accuracy adamantly state a company is “#1” or “the worst on earth” when they only worked there for 2 months? I would love to see any MT who posts a positive or negative comment about a company to also admit to how long they actually worked for the company and if they are currently employed there or not. I think that would give their opinions a lot more weight.
Obviously, not every MTSO is the “dream job” for every MT and for any MT to state they work for the “best company” is hubris and can even be fighting words to employees of other good or even great companies. It can also lead to disappointment when an MT applies to the “best company” only to find out it does not fit their needs. I feel that if the MTs on this board would try to leave personal opinions aside and give relevant information about a company it would be easier for an MT to find a good fit with ONE company and not have to “job-hop,” If more MTs would work for a company for at least a year before quitting and moving on maybe the MTSOs would actually be willing to offer newly hired MTs the same respect they offer the MTs that have been working for them for 5-10-15 or more years.
Finally to my questions. I am curious to see if my opinion is based in fact. Are there a significant number of MTs who “job hop?”
These questions are primarily directed at employees of MTSOs, large or small, but inhouse hospital or clinic MTs are also welcome to respond. I realize IC MTs have a whole different set of guidelines they go by and often have multiple clients at the same time. But if you are an IC and wish to give your opinion, please feel free to do so – just state that you are an IC so there is no confusion.
Please answer as many questions as you feel comfortable giving information about (I hope you will answer most because of the anonymity of this board):
1. How long have you been working as an MT?
2. How many DIFFERENT companies have you worked for (even if it was only for a few hours) in the last 10 years? (If you left but came back later that is only 1.)
3. How many companies have you accepted an offer of employment from but then never actually started working for them?
4. How many companies have you quit working for within the first pay period?
5. How many companies have you quit from?
6. Have many companies have you been terminated from (I guess the word “fired” from is no longer politically correct) i.e. you were not meeting line requirements, QA requirements, time commitment requirements (signing on late, leaving early), or being told you don’t have the necessary experience/expertise for the accounts assigned to you, etc?
7. How many companies have you left because they were bought out by another MTSO and you did not like how the new MTSO was treating you?
8. How many companies that you were working for completely went out of business (was not bought by another company) and told you that you had to find a new job yourself?
9. What is the shortest period of time that you have worked for one company? (Even if it was only for a few hours) What is the longest period of time that you have worked for one company?
10. Have you ever continued working for your former company while training with a new company?
11. Have you ever worked for two different companies (2 part-time or 1 full-time and 1 part-time) during the same time period? For how many months/years did you work for two different companies?
12. What is your primary reason for applying to a certain company (pay, insurance, flexible schedule, equipment provided, sign-on bonus, referral from another MT, etc)?
13. What is your primary reason for leaving a company (cannot maintain minimum required number of lines, not assigned accounts or job types as originally discussed, running out of work too frequently, difficult platform, computer slowness/crashes, management conflicts, QA conflicts, other “bait and switch” type of issues where the MTSO said one thing but you ended up doing something entirely different, personal, family, etc)?
14. Are you really happy at your present company or are you just working there because you are afraid if you try another company it will be worse and not better? How long have you worked at this company? Do you plan to continue working at this company for at least 1 year (of course barring unforeseen personal or professional events). Would you be willing to give the name of your present company?
15. Do you think you will retired as a Medical Transcriptionist (or in the Medical Transcription field, such as an Editor, Supervisor, etc) or do you think you will switch careers at some point before retirement?
Thank you for your time.
If you would like to e-mail me with any questions or responses, I would be happy to hear from all of you.
Thank you for satisfying my curiosity and giving me some insight as to where the Medical Transcription field is heading in the future.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
Didnt think of it cause I dont care. Wouldnt care if
x
Of course they care. They care you make just a tad bit
this way they don't have to shell out the sign ons, the full-time benefits. Oh, they keep watch on how you are doing and their budget. THey will use you til you drop and try to tell you that it is your lack of skills or speed keeping you from the full time pay which a person can't even pay bills with to begin with. Imagine that.. Use your skills, work hard, try your best, do well on QA, but make short of full time so no benefits, no extras, and no paying bills. This adds up to you broke, them rich, and a no-win situation... for the MT that is...
TransTech and Medware, are these companies considered large, medium-sized or small companies? (sm)
TIA
Yikes.. That is only inline with companies like Focus and such. "Real" companies pay their MTs
decent rate. I make over 5 cpl editing. So, if I got that slap in the face, I'd be outta there.
Do the research...most companies, and not just MT companies, do not pay for maternity leave...
we get time off but not paid...and I really don't even understand the point of you posting this...
How do you know which companies are Nationals and which are smaller companies.
Is there a list somewhere? I'm new to this.
By "most of the companies", I meant MORE than MT companies.
clarification
Sten-Tel is the platform. Different companies use it, pay and how companies run are different. nm
:P
They don't care (sm)
They know they can replace us in about a minute or just send the stuff to India.
And we'll never get a union, there are still people who will defend these horrible companies who cut our pay, etc., so that we cannot do anything.
There are a few MTSOs complaining they cannot find good people, probably because they pay so poorly that nobody will work for them.
I know you probably don't care now,
something happened. You know…things happen in this life that we cannot control. Maybe it was her intention to call you right back and then she was unable to. Maybe if you got down off your high horse for a minute and realized she was only a human, you could have given her a call and gotten a great opportunity. But that's just my take, I'm not trying to flame at you or anything, but when persuing a job, I would think you might have given her another call if you were really interested.
I care too and I do believe that just because
a person works for a company that offshores, it does not mean they are going to lose their jobs. Yes, it would be a surprise that they send ALL their work offshore. Have you seen some of that work?
Well, many of us have to work companies that do a little offshore as a necessity to put food in our mouths so no, it does not generally matter that they offshore as that is a fact of life. All the US MTs losing their jobs however is a surprise and the QA too and THAT is something we should all care about.
I hope all the companies out there open their doors to this circumstance and take a stand against this kind of treatment of our own workforce.
It is totally bizarre.
They could care less.
.
They don't care. sm
They have a whole new audience in India, Pakistan, et al. When AMERICAN MTs finally started rebelling by dropping out of their *organization* they had to look elsewhere for members and it's clear to see where they are going. Don't need them. Never have, never will. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
who am I to say you do not care about others...
read your own posts...you are speaking loud enough for all to hear how much respect you have for other people.
I will let you have the last word, because you have more than proven my point.
Thank you...
They don't care.
If you have ever had in-house escription MTs from the escription company time, then you know how terrible their work is. Our clinic let their MTs work on our doctors all they wanted. TTS is cheap, which is why they got the account. The doctors are also switching to EMR and many are no longer dictating at all. If the clinic had been a decent company, they wouldn't have gotten rid of my department to begin with.
Care to tell us
nm
Think what you want. Don't really care - nm
nm
Why don't we care for the ones already here?
It is 110% my opinion that as a species humans should learn to take care of the children who are already here. It breaks my heart to hear of children bounced around in foster care and sometimes given back to *parents* who didn't want them in the first place. I know there are good people doing foster care - but it's not the same as having someone to call mom and dad and having a home on a permanent basis. There are still orphanages here, maybe not like in Oliver Twist but not a home with a mom and dad either. There is a whole generation of children in Africa who are being orphaned by AIDS and genocide. There are orphans being created in the Middle East every day because of war. There are children in South America living in garbage dumps and being exterminated by the police as if they were vermin. There are children in Asia tossed aside because they are the wrong. There are so many beautiful children already here who need permanent homes and people to call mom and dad. When are we as a species going to get serious about caring for them?
I really don’t care to do because
i really love the acct I work on and feel comfortable there. I don’t know why I should change when I feel the work being doled out to others not on my acct. Wonder if overhired on some accts and now not enough for them. Do you use VR on your particular acct and do you like the one you are on?
Some don't care if you have a second job (sm)
but they will have you sign a non-compete agreement, including Keystrokes. But the big ones such as MQ usually won't let you have a second job. Someone was on this board a while back who claimed she worked for S and MQ, which to my knowledge is not allowed, but that was a while back.
Anyway, if I was you, I would play down the second job; Keystrokes is hiring full time anyway, so it would have to be your first 
I don't care where in the US you are sm
charging a client 0.07 is too low. Indian companies charge more than that. Have your friend take a job with a company and earn benes and let those local ones go. No way can be worth dealing with all the office BS for that wage. Trust me, those clients will come back and willingly accept a pay hike after what they see is out there. Even .09 is too low no matter where you are. Nationals are charging their clients between .15-.17 per line and these are clients from everywhere.
We don't really care about you and... SM
your experiences anyway. I figured you hadn't stayed at 1 company, not many of us have that luxury. And I certainly know that it costs money to hire people. But my point is just what I said, no different if she tests them all now or tries one and dumps them in a couple days or a week and then starts another one. Plus, you keep mentioning this equipment stuff, but the OP never said that that was the case. She might very well be just using her own.
they care...
I am not sure what is going on with the pay issues, but I used to work there in work flow and I know for a fact that they value the MTs, so it is not intentional. The VP of the company speaks very highly of the MTs and the wages they pay impressed me, since I remember them starting at 10cpl, and they do straight typing, so that sounds good to me since I am making .04 cpl on VR. I hope things work out for them soon and that you all will be paid on time.
could care less
I could care less about YOUR work reputation, but YOU should care.
Taken care of. nm
They don't care
NM
Taken care of.
About day care
Day care does not raise your kid. Day care only covers you while you are working. The bulk of the child rearing still is done by the tired working mom. Working is a very good example for your child and it is a way of showing your love, providing for your child. Trust me, I did it for years. The only reason I started working from home was that the school schedule had too much time off. Day care isn't raising your kid any more than a SCHOOL is raising your kid.
anyone care for the.....sm
ATSI platform? I believe it's Enterprise? Any other info also appreciated.
You really don't care?
If you really didn't care you would find something else to do besides write SO WHAT all day. I think you care about finding just ONE person who will agree with you and it's not happening. Well, unless there is another person who signed up and is going to come on and help ya out. There can't possibly be more than 2 of you, could there? 
MT - we just want you to care! Please care!
You may not have gotten that new career, but when one door closes another opens! We all appreciate your opinions. Please, don't go, but just understand that when a company is trying to ram it to us we like to know and we like our fellow MTs to know that the money should be in our pockets not companies who are simply trying to make a fast buck on our hard work!
Good luck to you!
Signed,
Just another MT/Poster here! 
I don't care
I don't care where the owner goes, as long as I get my paycheck twice a month. She runs the company, she is entitled to spend profits as she sees fit.
Taken care of. NM
This has been taken care of. NM
They don't care...
Most companies do not care about their MTs, Spheris included. All that matters to them is the bottom line. It is all about the money. Things are not like a long time ago where you could basically expect a raise every year or so. It would be nice to have a raise even if it was every other year. I guess I am getting tired of jumping through hoops of fire that are getting smaller and smaller every day. They expect more from us MTs but want to pay us less and less.
Well, I guess things could be worse though as there are a lot of people who don't even have a job.
They know this, of course. They don't care. nm
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