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

After five years I was making $14.50/hr

Posted By: Okie MT on 2007-09-28
In Reply to: Need my fellow MTs opinions...sm - mimi

We got one hour of PTO (paid time off) for every 10 hours worked, so that's just a little less than 3 weeks a year. We had a 401K that was pretty decent, good health insurance, life insurance equal to two years' pay, and they offered AFLAC and disability insurance as well.


Oklahoma's cost of living is among the lowest in the nation....I don't know how people living in California can make it on $8-$12/hr.




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

Are you making less than you did 3 years ago? sm
Unfortunately, I was making a LOT more.  Went from $900 a week to an occasional $900 a week and so many dead slow weeks it's about time to quit.  I will not be able to afford another computer and pay the overhead with so many slow weeks.  Of course, the alternative is to work for a very low line rate and I have found it is not worth it to work for pennies.
After being an MT for 2 years, how much should I be making? sm

I feel like I can't get out of this rut of making enough money to just pay my bills and nothing left over.  What would you say the average annual salary should be after 2 years of acute care work?


Thanks


Me 2, 15-20 years ago I was making about $70,000 a year

Now it seems, I'm just scraping by, juggling the utility bills and paying whichever one has sent me the 24-hour disconnect notice this month; it's become a grim miserable job compared to what it was.  I'm nearing retirement age, but I doubt retirement is going to be in my future for a very long time.


The single worst thing that ever happened to us was going from the gross line count to the character count, and not adjusting the line rate upward to parity -- not to mention the adjustments that should have been made to accommodate all the extra time spent struggling to make sense of huge increase in ESL dictations that has occurred over the last 15 years, and of course there should have been COLAs as well, which we all know has not happened.


In the 1980s, with the advent of powerful and affordable PCs, free lance transcription became much more common.  So if you were experienced, disciplined and organized, you could be much better off economically by working for yourself -- although there were definitely advantages to working in-hospital.  There were great benefits and the salary was indeed enough to support a small family (albeit very modestly.) 


For a number of years during that time, many of us worked part time in the hospital for benefits, but made our real money at home.


But in my case, the time came when it just made no economic sense to work in-housel, I was better buying off buying private insurance for major medical care, tax-deferred annuities, and self-insuring the little stuff. 


I would just pick up tapes from the hospital every morning, and drop off the work (which I printed out) from the day before.


I usually had 24 hours to transcribe tapes which I did during school hours, when things were peaceful and quiet. 


I transcribed a couple thousand GROSS lines day.  Every single character line counted, so by taking advantage of headers/footers, creative macros, word expansions, etc., I really boosted my productivity far beyond to what I could do in-house on the self-correcting Selectric, Wang or Mag Card, or whatever 10-years behind technology was currently being used, plus all the office distractions and politics, and I definitely did not to have to work 24/7 to earn a good living. (Oh how I loved WP5.1!)


In fact, 2000 gross lines a day, 5 days a week at 10 cents a line (courier 10-pitch font, one-inch margins) was very very do-able for an experienced productive acute-care MT, provided she had good equipment, good reference books, and stayed focused.  It would take about 5-6 hours a day to get that amount of work done.  So figure the math out for yourselves, that's just a tad under $50,000 a year, certainly not a high standard of living in those days but adequate when it meant you could stay home and be actually be a full time parent when your children were home from school, and very comfortable, if you were married with a working spouse, or had rerliable child support, or social security for your children (if you were widowed.)


If you chose to work some weekends and evenings, it was not that all that difficult to hit that $75,000 a year mark, which I did for a couple of years so I was able to pay the tuition at a good boarding school -- and cruelly thwarted my teen-aged son's only ambition in life, which was to become a high school drop-out.


Things have gotten bad, no doubt about that, and the worst part of it is, is that most of the big MTSOs are still charging the hospitals as much as we used to earn, and sometimes even more, but the MT is no longer earning it, and often can't get enough work to meet the line counts required by the MTSOs for benefits (although the cost of those benefits are reflected in the cost charged to the hospital.) 


I don't know what the answer is, as the electronic immigrant is such a huge threat.


It's pretty darn awful, and I feel very very bad for those of you starting out in this field, and I do hope things change for you (and that someday soon I can retire.)


And the point that the person made is that that she was worth $75,000 a year, not necessarily that she was getting it or could get it, and I absolutely agree with her.  This is a hard tough job if it's done right -- it's mentally tiring, it's hard on your back, your hands, your neck (and your behind.)


It requires a lot of time -- it requires focus, you must stay alert, and must give 100% of your attention to what you are doing 100% of the time, it takes education and brains -- and now a word of truth which my 35+ years experience gives me the right to say aloud -- it's not fulfilling, wonderful, lovable and enjoyable, it's often as repetitious and tedious as an assembly line but infinitely more frustrating.


PS: I recall one of my colleagues from those early years of my career, now gone from this earth, telling me that the 1960s were really the "fat" years, that things actually began to decline salary-wise, in real dollars, in the 1970s. 


You are an exception to the rule. After 20 years, I'd like to be making
dd
You're okay making LESS than you made 10-20 years ago?
I'm not. No, every "job" doesn't work itself DOWN the ladder of success. I'm working to earn a living, I'm working to have goals, to better myself and my way of life. I would never settle for a job that keeps paying less and less. Sorry, but I disagree with you but to each his own.
Yes! My kids (above, age 22 and 24) started out making more than I make after 30 years of MT!
.
I was making 6.5 cpl in 1975 at a service -- 30 years later most jobs
Talk about PITIFUL.
10 years here, too, and making 8.4....same as i was 5 years ago. nm
f
my friend just finished her BSN 2 years ago, working 32 hr/week making $60K with benefits nm
x
Haven't heard in years. Supposedly making it harder to get money
xx
I have 13 years experience and just started a hospital job working from home making $16 an hour

and with a really good incentive plan.  I live in the Kansas City area.  $10 seems like a low starting point even with only two years experience which is the usual benchmark for hospital MT jobs. 


It's been my experience that the low end of the pay scale for hospital employed MTs was around $12 an hour.  Also, it's been my experience that the pay offered is usually based on years of experience and how well you perform on the transcription test.


I would say if their pay is that low, they should at least be making it up with incentive and it doesn't sound like they are.


JMO


sure i was. i'm making fun of the people who are making a case for background checks, etc
to do medical transcription at home as if they may do something AWFUL with the info they receive. So if you want an invasion of privacy let's REALLY invade it and make sure fat chicks don't transcribe because they are so busy eating they can't get the work done, they mess up the keyboard with food and if they are provided health insurance they will raise the rates for the company sky high because their health risks are higher than others. Then there are the psychological issues overweight people bring to the table. After we eliminate fat people, we can go on to eliminate diabetic people who may have low blood sugar while typing and go into a spell and type the wrong thing. I could go on and on through the process of elimination. How about prescribed medications that may cloud your thinking? So you take Ambien to sleep but you have an Ambien groggy hangover when you are transcribing? Should they transcribe. How about your teens are on your last nerves and you take a Xanax? Should you be allowed to transcribe?
You realize by doing that they're making more money & you're making less? You should reconsid

58, AHP/self-taught, trained at hospital 5 years, now with 2 of my own accounts for 10 years, employ
Also worn out 2 keyboards in 4 years. I will never retire. DH will come home some day from work and I'll be slumped over my keyboard. I put in 14 hours a day 7 days a week.
Pack years = packs smoked per day x years of smoking - sm
25 pack-years = 25 years of 1 pack a day, or 12-1/2 years of 2 packs a day.

I don't think pack-years applies to someone who smokes only cigars. But I don't know for sure.
I worked for Cbay for 3 years. I was also part of their lay off back many years ago. sm
Even though I got stuck in a lay off era, I still love the company. They paid well then. The people were nice (exception of 1 person) and if I had the opportunity I would go back again. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depending on how u look at it), I have a great paying job right now, so I am not looking for a change. I do know that at one time, they asked management to accept late paychecks, but never sure of the reason why. My check was never late.
I know it used to be 5-10 years back, but the laws changed within the last 2 years. They can only g
x
6 years legal then switched to medical 17+ years ago. sm

I don't mind doing legal and will do it now from time to time, but be prepared to be totally bored out of your mind.


At least that's the way I feel.  I love to transcribe, learned legal in college, went on to get my paralegal degree, etc., etc., but I did temp work when the kids were younger, which was about 90% medical and I would never go back to legal except for once in a while.


Booooooring.


 


 


Only 3 years away from reaching total years for retirement
but if I had to do this and raise a family, would feel exactly like you do. The pay is terrible compared to what I used to make. I work 32 hours a week, hope to be able to continue even after full retirement age. I have worked on VR now and unless places get to where they really do not care about how their reports look, think they will need MTs. I very seldom do a report and it is 100%, just cannot remember 1 like that and most take a lot more editing. Working now because want to, not have to anymore, thank goodness!!
I dumped my ex 20 years ago, but got lucky 13 years ago

It would take me all night and pages and pages to describe what a bad person my ex-husband was.  After six years of putting up with his OCD, verbal abuse and alcohol, I left him the house, took the kids (5 and 1) and didn't look back. That was 20 years ago.


I wasn't looking to get married again, but I did.  After 13 years I only complain when hubby doesn't see things my way. :) 


My older kids, who were 5 and 1 when I left, are married and have kids of their own now.  My husband gets the Father's Day cards.  Their "real" father sits alone in the perfect little house I left behind and let him have and he drinks himself into oblivion every night because nobody is "perfect" enough, including his kids and his grandkids that he never sees. 


Sad, but true.  So glad I smartened up and got  out of there when I did.


We have been supporting other countries for years and years now.
What is the big deal.  Look at your clothes, cars, items in your house.  You will see mostly China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan etc., etc.  We have not supported our own people like we should have for years now!!!!
Only 2 in 13 years for me. First Edix for 8 and now Webmedx for nearly 5 years. nm
.
When I trained, back years and years ago
We did not have spell checking nor the internet (Google for instantaneous help). OMG, how did we do it? We used Correcting Selectrics with the lift-off tape to correct errors- you only had dictionaries, both English and medical, to look up things so yes we did have to learn to spell all those big longgggggggggg words.
MT: 24 years. Same company: 11 years same co. after buyout.
x
Grammar Question: 9 years' ago or 9 years ago? *sm*
I have a terrible time trying to remember this rule! HELP!
Worked inhouse for years and years
Inhouse transcription from 1973 to approximately 1992 and we had no downtime for answering the phones and when the physicians came into the room (or others) needing some assistance, just part of the job. I did not feel bad about doing it then and I dont see why you would either. You don’t realize that probably you are making right now more than if you are outsourced, right? You have hourly salary plus incentive. Guess how many of us have that now? Probably inevitable about outsourcing so I would say just enjoy while you can. The pay our here now sinks further and further. I make, for instance, 4 cents a line for voice recognition and 8 for straight. Now, more complaining?
making up.....

I suggest you have your father read my post and explain it to you.  Apparently you have poor comprehension skills.  Talk about ignorance.


My point was NEW immigrants who come here not to become American.  Obviously, this is not apply to all NEW immigrants, because as we know, many of them bust their butts to become American in every way including service in the military.  My point was that so many of the NEW immigrants, meaning those from the last 25-30 years, come with different aspirations than previous groups.  This is documented by social scientists who have been studying this very point for a couple of decades.  Look up some articles in any journal of American sociology or political science and you will find research on this subject.  


 I am perfectly aware of New Spain and New France and even that Russia once owned parts what is now Washington state and Oregon.  Do the people in Northwest US demand to have legal papers printed in Russian because 400 years ago, Russia settled that land?   Are you aware of the language controversy in Quebec, Canada?  We don't need that in this country and having English as our accepted common language has helped prevent some of the fighting and death that results from people coming to blows over language.  Language is the root of "the Troubles" as the Irish call their 100 years of conflict with England.  England passed a law making English the official language and forbad Gaelic in public places, including schools.  Look how that has worked for them.   In the U.S., it has worked because it has been understood as a custom and new immigrants were proud to learn English, because it was a mark of American citizenship.


You need a history lesson - New Spain was SOLD to the U.S. government  and New France was sold to the U.S. government by their respective kings because France and Spain needed money to finance their wars with each other.   So, Spain left voluntarily.


BTW, my brother wrote my parents in English during WWII and his letters were confiscated - is there a group that will protest such actions again Irish-German Americans? 


Wnat to see what ignorace looks like?  Got a mirror?


I am making......
17.00 per hour with a home-based hospital job (you have to be local to the hospita) PLUS a generous incentive with a "quite easy to attain" minimum line count and then 8 cents a line after the minimum is met.  Plus I have all the benefits of being an employee (which I am) including paid vacation and benefits.  I've been the national route and I didn't find any of them to be paying well, plus I was always running out of work.  We are swamped all the time and NEVER run out at the hospital.  If we do run out, which has never happened, we can go into the department and shred paper or something.  I wish more hospitals would go back to having a department.  That's where you'll find your dignity IMHO.
You were making LESS than THIS????

unless u r making $25/hr

not impressed one bit


you can make $12.50 an hour being a secretary and be dumb as


dirt.


you can make $12.50 an hour doing data entry and not know one


word of medicine or the other junk we have to know and be responsible


for and get grief from QA about.


you can make $12.50 an hour doing a lot of things and not have to


put up with the junk MTs are having to put up with now.


 


IT is making me
My eyes keep moving up, down, up, down. I'm getting a headache. How long does it take to adjust to this?
No, making way more. nm
x
Making more now
I worked for a hospital for 5 years and then we moved... tried another national who didn't pay much, and then started with OSi and am making more than I ever have (including 25 years of secretarial work)! I've read so many negative posts here about OSi, but I think those who have complaints tend to voice them more than those who don't. I'm very happy with them as far as money, schedule, and flexibility. I know from reading previous posts that many will assume I'm part of management just trying to give them a plug. No, I'm not part of OSi management. Just a very happy transcriptionist.
Men Making More LOL
That is because they choose wisely and don't accept just anything. I am female and quite often make more than most women. Having been in the MT business for only 3-4 yrs I am constantly amazed at the rates offered and accepted, and the lack of understanding at the complexity and enormity of education required to do this job. When someone offers me a low salary I tell them what I think of it and just go on to the next company. I have always known why there aren't a lot of men in MT work - the salary. In places where typing pays decent $$$ there are tons and tons of men.
making the big $$$
I was actually referring to the above posts that state they are making $50 to $60K per year.
Making $100,000/yr?
Is that really possible without having your own service?
ya know, when I'm making

70k a year, I can have the 850 square foot bedroom if I want. In fact, my home is a mere 2200 square foot, on 5 acres in the country, only worth $450,000 but I paid off the mortgage in full in 7 years, by- yep, you guessed it-- working my MTSO.  I have no debts. I own 4 cars. I have money stuffed in my 401k. The point was made in an earlier post by our beloved Patti, who chooses to live in 1000 square feet - and also put 15K in her retirement account and takes home 50K. When Patti mentioned her home was 1000 square feet, some ignorant troll said  (now say this in a high falsetto) "shocked! my bedroom is 850 square feet! How can you possibly live in only 1000 square feet."  Jealous, no. Anyone who wants to own, maintain, clean their 850 square foot bedroom can be my guest. Me - I go for a little smaller but still nice, with more freedom and lifestyle. That's why I put in my 5-10 hours a week running my service while you're working full time. LOL!


What we SHOULD be making, and what most of us ARE making (sm)
are two different things. We SHOULD be getting from 12-18 cents per line. In reality, most of us are somewhere between 7 and 9 cents a line.
I'm making nowhere near that much
I'm either working for the wrong companies or am really slow, my best is 200 lines an hour, which translates to at best 18 bucks an hour, Wish I was faster I guess
What I would like to know..... IF they are indeed making that much then.... sm
how are they doing it? VR? Would love to know the secret. Those of you claiming to make a ton of money, please do share how you do it. Have been doing this for 15+ years and I am seeing a quick decline in pay and seeing these companies getting away with making the lines harder to get with how they calculate them. This profession quickly going downhill.
More than what she is making, I'm sure.
x
If you are making 9.5....

I would ask for at least 11.  If you have been there that long, why not?  I always ask for more than i really want cause you can negotiate.  If you end up with 10.5 that is still a good rate. 


For ESL's I want 11, but I don't get snippy if i have some here and there.  I do one now exclusively and he can be a big pain but i can understand him fine and ESLs are great for making normals because in my experience they repeat A LOT. 


The going rates around here seems to be 8 cpl with many companies...you are doing good at what you have but there is nothing wrong with levering your experience and services for more money.  You have proven yourself already to these people.  If they turn you down you can start looking elsewhere but only do so if you are taking a step up. 


 


I was making 16/hr when i was QA n/m
x
Making changes

Alright folks let's move this off the word help board because it's become a different discussion.  First of all, I personally believe that we should type what doctors say, everything they say and not change a thing.  So if they say Synthroid 100 mg, leave it.  If they say There was changes.  Leave it.  However, our companies and many hospitals don't agree. 


If you were to try to get a job editing books at a publlishing house you would need a degree in English and you'd get paid a whole heck of a lot more than we do.  But we do the same job, fixing the English of doctors, having perfect punctuation, correcting verb tenses.  Not to mention the medical side, knowing all the drug dosages, correct lab values (yeah we get marked off for those too).  I love it when I have to leave something blank like I just did "H&H 13/4/38"  ???


IMHO we don't get paid enough to do all we have to do.  We are not just typists.  My friend is a nurse and when I told her everything we have to know she told me we could all be nurses!  This is because I carried on a conversation with her about cardiac cath, CABG and people who have IV dye allergies and the compliance issues with Mucomyst.  She was shocked.


We get no respect from many doctors.  I actually had a PCP that I went to when I was sick say that because I was an MT I knew too much about medicine in a really condescending voice.  Had another say then what do you suggest when he tried to tell me he'd done all the possible tests.  Corrected another to his face. 


So call me whatever you want but if I hear the doctor say something that is inappropriate in the same manner that Potassium 132 is inappropriate or Synthroid 100 mg is inappropriate, I'm going to leave a blank.  Maybe the doctor is mad or frustrated but the medical record is a legal document that the patient can get access to anytime they want.  So when the doctor calls a patient a land whale or says she's f-ing pregnant again or is a retard or is an SOB (and I don't mean short of breath), IMO I am covering their butt by giving them a chance to rethink what they say before they put it in a legal document.


VR and making only 10.00 a day!
No work this entire week at Sten-Tel.  What is up?  A job here and there but that is VR and I am making like 10.00 a day...this is total bullcrap.  So glad I am training for a new company starting tomorrow. 
Well you could have put down what you are making???? - sm
But with that said I do $375 to $450 a week.
I will say what I'm making

I make close to 3,000 dollars a month typing....I'm not sure if anyone thinks that's a lot, but I feel very fortunate to be making this kind of money.  I have been doing this for a little over 20 years.


I hope this helps!


It is entirely possible to be making that
much money. I make close to 50K, but also work FT and as an IC at another facility, and luckily I work for 2 companies that actually appreciate their employees and pay a decent cpl.
I am currently making
about 52K, but I work 50+ hours a week.
I am definitely not one of those making...sm
the high annual income. My income is rather pitiful to be honest. But I don't have enough work and that is why. And due to not enough exp yet I am going to have to tough it out until I can obtain a better paying job or preferably where I am has more work for me or higher line rate. I love where I am.

Some people may make up income or cpl or they may not. Who knows? Who cares? What do they have to gain by doing that? I understand your selfish longing to have that. Who wouldn't but remember you are doing your best and that is all you can do.
Nothing like making up history
There are in fact many Hispanics who died and continue to die for this country. I am the daughter of a WWII veteran whose mail was confiscated because he wrote letters to his mother in Spanish. While my dad was literate in both English and Spanish, his mother could only read in Spanish, as was the primary language of New Mexico, Colorado, etc. 50+ years before the Mayflower landed. Also, my brother is a Sgt.Major who retired after 25 years in the army and 3 of his sons are also currently in the army (including Iraq). But as I said before, you can ignore all that 'cause you make up your own history....and telling Native Americans to get over it only displays your ignorance.