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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

not to me, same skill req. look at the paycut.& increased lines

Posted By: . on 2009-09-01
In Reply to: Is 4.5 cpl on Dictaphone VR system good pay. - dt

Need to get out your calculator. Ask what is their production minimum and time to accomplish before being let go.

2000 lines a day, 250 lines an hour --listening/editing/fixing

at 4.5/ln
$90 a day
divide 8 hours is= $11.25hr.

10,000 lines a week=$450.


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How much of a paycut? NM
xx
re paycut

First of all, all the editors got their paycut, not just the ones who do speech rec.


Second of all, if you haven't gotten your pay cut, I'll bet that you do.


Or hey, maybe they value you more than the rest.


another MT paycut plus others
My friend had a pay cut last year (QA for an M company).  My older son was laid off a year and a half ago; my younger son had to take a pay cut, and some in his company have already been laid off.  So far, he's still got a job.  My MT friend's hubby has had to take 2 pay cuts (equaling about 35% less).  I, too, am happy to have a job.  And I don't have to pay for gas or office clothes.
ITS NOT A PAYCUT...ARE YOU THAT MUCH IN DENIAL???
Dear lord, lady, how many posts do you have to read that there is NO cut in way with VR before it sinks in?

I'm so frustrated with you and other posters with your mindset.

I am not management; I'm 99.9% sure none of the other VR supporters posting are mangement, either. The people at TT do not have to waste their time coming on these boards to coddle the likes of you who are hitting the panic button because *GASP* you have to learn something new.

Not happy about it? You know where the door is.

The rest of us will be happy to pick up the extra work.
Another paycut courtesy of AHDI...

the blows to our industry keep coming.


Link is from AHDI site:


They must have increased their
referral bonuses again. 
Time & skill is what MT has to offer. Not nitpicking
x
mediocre tying skill, that means 60-70 wpm is more
than sufficient to be a good MT. Knowledge is much more important than superfast typing. The high line count one achieves through Expanders and templates.
When will employers 'get' this?
You don't take into account an increased

productivity.  I know you don't know what it will be yet, but it will at least go up some from what it is now.   Probably initially there will be a loss of income as you learn the platform, but as long as there is enough work there is the potential for you to increase your lines. 


Experience does not equal skill. As an ex-recruiter for a large sm
national, I found that the length of time that someone has been a Transcriptionist does not always indicate their ability to transcribe well. I also found that some, not all, transcriptionists with a lot of experience had egos that were inflated to the point that they thought they were perfect. They would fail our test and call screaming at me, when the truth was that they just weren't that good.

Perhaps you should look into brushing up on your skills prior to taking tests or find out exactly what a company is looking for. Maybe your experience is not in the area that they need.

I don't want to start a war here but it is time for transcriptionists to realize that they are not always going to get every job they apply for. It is time for companies to crack down on quality. Quality is the only thing that we have over offshore.
1 month's training sounds like no real skill
involved to me. Sure, at that wage, I might consider it still, but I do take pride in the fact you cannot bring someone off the street and train them to do what I do in one month's time. A high wage at low skill doesn't sound realistic. I'd sure be skeptical of same.
Don't forget that the increased prices from this will
You have to think hard before shooting yourself in the foot! Can you really afford the injury?!

Doctors know EXACTLY what is going on. So do government officials - we all do.

WE are part of the problem - wanting lower priced healthcare, low priced insurance but not want to care one hoot about our health -- making gluttons of ourselves, not exercising, smoking, diabetes, heart disease, all the other crap people do to themselves (not to mention things that cannot be avoided). We don't want to pay so they find ways to lower cost and make it more affordable to ALL of us.

It will hurt us more in the long run by raising costs of healthcare and insurance to the point no one can afford it except the wealthy. Don't start with the line that only the wealthy can afford insurance and care now. Bull. It's a matter of priority...perhaps people can do without the brand new car or the satellite dish or all the video games, etc., and spend a little on insurance protection, etc.

It's NOT just offshoring. It is ALL of us. Every single one of us contribute to this picture one way or another.


meant increased line lengths.
x
They must be advertising increased referral bonuses again.

If it was the same one, it was because they increased work. Our op note accounts have been set for
I know because I am on the HIM Department management team, not just making general comments.

I talk to a lot of MTs who like Meditech, so I am going to disagree on that one but let's just agree to disagree. It is definitely a preference thing.

There are over 50 HIM accounts and more coming. HIM is catching up to Radiology fast at Keystrokes and it does not appear to have an end to the growth in sight. I am glad to be part of the excitement!
I quit my job when they increased our production rate...
by 10%, from 10 minutes of dictation equals one hour of work to 11 minutes of dictation equals one hour of work. Radiology went from 12 reports equals an hour of work to 16 reports equals an hour of work, a whopping 33% increase. The medical increase was not all that bad, I guess, but the senior Transcriptionist had a bad habit of assigning work to me by physician, what I would call programmed cherry-picking, and it goes without saying that the ones she assigned to me were the ones she wanted to avoid. Eight hours of work usually averaged about 1000 lines and I earned $14.69/hour or $30K annually. They had given us an 8% market increase based on prevailing local wages in July of 2006, because they wanted to be the preferred employer in the area, then in October of 2007 increased the production rate for medical by 10% and radiology by 33%. We went from being underpaid to underworked in the course of 15 months.
I started at 8 cpl, was increased to 9 cpl in 3 months and 9.5 in a year. nm
nm
Let's see...lousy sound quality, dictators with no skill, unavailable QA, running out of work.nm
s
I see they pay on a VBC line. Isn't that a huge paycut from a 65-char. line with spaces? nm
x
Not necessarily true. That is not a true test of skill.
Do you know how many people get others to take tests for them? It happens and it happens more often than you might think. The only skill that shows anyway is that you can do it.

We are actually more than a transcriptionist. We are specialists in our field and we are supposed to know some things regarding anatomy and physiology as a working base. That's how we can judge if a physician dictates something in accurately and many do because they can't pronounce or just are not thinking. That's why our skills of basic knowledge come into play and that means basic knowledge of body parts. If our job was just to sit there and type without thinking about what we are transcribing, then all patients are in trouble and this is just based on what I see as a QA person.

It's more than just knowing how to transcribe and some of the companies have discovered how to know what your basic knowledge is based on what you have picked up with your experience by utilizing your references etc. Hopefully that utilization of your references has taught you something that does stick in your head.

Beliefs like yours are just so far off base. You have to know what you are doing. It's not just about being able to listen and type. Base knowledge is a very important thing and the services have to find a way to know that knowledge base that is there in your head.


1800 lines is easily achieved. I average 300-340 lines per hour. nm
x
10 lines per minute = 1500 lines for 150 minutes - average. nm
x
I average 1200-1400 lines per day with a national, and am only getting around 600-800 lines per day.
It's been this way since the day before Thanksgiving. I've been doing this for almost 30 years now, and more often than from Thanksgiving until the new year is the slowest time of the year. I have some months where I am swamped with up to 2000 lines per day. I stash that little extra money, and take advantage of a handful of extremely slow days this time of the year to actually cook dinner, decorate for Christmas, or do Christmas shopping. I actually anticipate this slow time every year and have grown to enjoy the breathing time. Any time I have attempted to pick up extra work with another company to supplement these slow times, the minute I get adjusted to the new accounts, etc. I have no time to finish all of my work because my full time job with national gets slammed again. Hang in there if you can, and hopefully your work will pick up significantly around New Years.
They work with you to make sure you get the lines required or the amount of lines you want...
I have never had a problem getting more work
Minimum lines for FT used to be 60,000 keystrokes a day, about 925 lines. Pay was good. Just not a
s
Yes it is possible to double your lines. I cant type 460 lines an hour but I can get those with VR
x
Regular lines, not weighted lines
was what I got paid for....
12K lines payperiod is 6K lines a week.
nm
0.8 x 1000 lines = $80.00 - 0.8 x 1500 lines = $120.

It's not 1600 lines -- it's 16,000 lines...and
I've got my contract right here and have already gotten 2 checks and YES, I am getting 9.5 cpl base rate.

I don't know what other people are getting. Don't really care. I work for MY paycheck. Gosh.
Why would they "fix" lines? The more lines you
transcribe, the more you make, the more you make, the more you make. It wouldn't profit any company to put a lid on line counts.
lines
My lines have dropped too and I thought it was because I was slacking off or something - my checks have been 300 dollars less for the past 3 pay periods....hmmmmm
300+ lines?
can you email me - I want to know HOW you do it? tanks! myfingershurt63@yahoo.com
Like I said--how many lines do you do?
A whole lot of people don't like it--a whole lot more than do.  How many lines are you able to do?  Care to share since you love Transcend so much.  Is it more than 400 lines an hour typing and more than 600 lines an hour editing?  If not, you can't understand my situation at all.
How do you get 1-1/2 lines?
On my account, I never get that, the most I'm offered is 0.05 a line extra.
lines..
they are saying 250 because I want $15 per hour,but honestly..I'm having a hard time keeping up.....I can do the 250, but it would take time to get used to the dictators and get all templates/abbreviations on the system. I was offered a job with Medquist for 8 cpl, 8.5 if you go over a certain number of lines.... however, they get such bad press I haven't sent in thep paperwork and was thinking of only trying them part time to start.....anyone with any advice? TIA
8 cpl for 11,000 lines a pay, 8.5 for 14,000 lines and over. nm
x
hrs/v/lines
From what I hear it all depends on the MQ office you work out of. I understand Amherst has a fit if your off by 15 minutes.
UGH, I think it should be either or lines or hours, not both. They just want to get the max out of us!!!
3 lines
I have 3 lines. My long distance is through AT&T from a long time ago. It is unlimited and it covers all three lines.
Yes, I have to say how many lines I will do but
I don't have to work a set schedule.  If you read the post above mine, you will see that the poster says she thinks it's because people just get on 24/7 whenever they feel like it and type and that's why there is no work, and it sounds like she thinks it would be better if we worked within a certain time frame so we could get our work in during those hours.  I don't think that is the problem at all.  I have been with MDI for several years and having access was never a problem before; when I was ready to work there was work.  I think the problem now is that there are just too many people and not enough work to go around.
lines
usually around 5000 lines per pay period.
lines

It depends on the company.


dsg lines
Can anyone share how many lines per hour you do approximately at DSG.  I work there and just seems like it takes me forever to get lines in....
osi lines
I use a lot of templates and some I use probably 15 times a day, and I noticed one day that where this particular template used to be about 30 lines, it is now 27. I have been a Transcriptionist for a long time and I know how actual lines are not the ones I see on the page.
Yes, yes, and seems to be okay with lines. nm
s
For how many lines?
125?
lines per day
Ack!! I'd be in a lot of pain in my wrists and back if I had to do 1800 lines every single day! Maybe I'm getting too old for this...sigh.
NEW??? Well, how many lines do you do and get 11 cpl?
x
lines
I just started with Webmedx about a month ago and am too averaging about 110 lph being faced with the minimum requirement of 150 lph.  They gave me my first account, and it was almost always out of work (this was an immediate need and quick hire for this account, I begged for another account and they gave it to me, that one is nearly almost out of work, I now have 4 accounts and still run out OR they ESL is so bad that I can hardly crank out a report and have to put it in QA and it takes (most of the time) forever to hear anything back.  I email my manager and it takes days to hear back from her.  I email the help desk (and have even called) and it takes them FOREVER to respond to a problem, and then when they do it is after the problem has been solved and they just say, well it seems to be running okay now, let us know if you have any further problems.  I'm sorry but I am just not used to that kind of thing.  If you cannot even hear from your manager same day that can be crucial!  I am struggling to get any lines out and I am just frustrated to my eyeballs.  I  need LINES and I just cannot seem to get them to understand that.  Anyway, my two cents, along with a little venting.
lines
are you still there? I've only been there about a month now and cannot get in a good line count to save my life. I used to do 1800+ at my previous job and averaged $22/hour there, but at webmedx I am averaging about $6/hr! teenagers at McDonald's are making more than I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lines PT
PT lines are 6000 a pay period.