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I dropped my AAMT and CMT 15 years or so ago because

Posted By: dnr on 2009-03-08
In Reply to: Dropping AHDI and CMT - anyone else? - VA MT

they were not working for our benefit, CMT did not matter to employers and just seemed to be interested in puffing up their own chests and making up education/certification requirements to become an MT which no employer ever took seriously.

I have watched as they have aided the decline of our wages.

I have watched as they have condoned changing of counting methods to scam and deprive MTs of income. Now we don't even get paid for time checking and entering patient information. I have watched as they have aided those sending our work overseas.

Now, upon changing to AHDI, they have done away with chapters. They don't want us to meet and network. It was hard, but I recently reconnected with the chapter I used to be in. I had quit the chapter because, at that time, you had to be a member of AAMT, and I was not/am not willing to support AAMT and what they were doing/did to us. It was hard to find them, because there are no more chapters (except for the few who refuse to die).

Although I really like doing the MT work, hopefully I will be in a completely different profession next year. Although, it is hard to finance retraining in another profession with my wages in the dumps and not being able to cut back on work time because I would not be able to pay my bills.

Unfortunately, the small MT service I worked for was snuffed out by the Indian workers, and the MT job I have now pays a lot less, has done what they can to decimate my wages and is now shipping off as much work as fast as they can to India. I hope I will have been able to complete retraining and left before that time.




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I dropped my CMT about 5 years ago...
when I was actually told by an MTSO that they wouldn't hire me because of it - thought I would expect too much money and that they couldn't afford me. I haven't used CMT after my name or anywhere on my resume since.
I dropped my membership after 13 years.

AAMT has never helped the MT, ever. It took me a few years to figure...sm.
it out, but I did. Of course, that was after spending a lot of money on certification, membership, and meetings. I received nothing back for my involvement with AAMT. It is a total waste of money and time for the MT.
They (AAMT) made the rules for years until the internet
and those of us who had been isolated in the past got to know each other on line.  We started to discuss this and other issues, and figured out that AAMT is a bunch of bottom feeding scheisters ripping us off while enjoying themselves in Hawaii at their "convention" most likely being paid for at least in part by the dues, fees, and other drummed up charges for useless crap they've gotten out of us before we figured out what a huge money-grubbing hoax their "organization" is.
I failed to rejoin AAMT aka ADHI four years ago.
Anal retentive MTs are a nightmare. A new group should be comprised of the MTs who have a SENSE OF HUMOR and a SENSE OF THE RIDICULOUS.
2 years experience and you passed the CMT? That speaks volumes about the AAMT... SM

I've been saying it for a while now.  The CMT test is not an assessment of an MT's skills and knowledge medical terminology, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology knowledge you are, but how well you've memorized the BOS.


Well, congrats anyway I guess, for memorizing a bunch of useless rules and regulations that will undoubtedly change in the next five years when a new "updated" version of the BOS is published.


I think this subject needs to be dropped.
/
Yes. I know of 9 people who have dropped them
nm
LOL that's what I did when I dropped the lamp on my toe
and broke it.  However, Ms. Siren, if I were you I would not worry so much about the FMLA or the FMLA scammer gal you have working in your department and start worrying about the bigger picture when y'all are here in the jungle with the rest of us.  JMHO.
I think she dropped a period.
As in: I didn't. Thank you very much.
My insurance has nothing to do with it, I had just dropped my collision - sm
So I am going through the woman who hit me insurance. They are not going to give me a penny more if I don't fight. I have gotten her up a bit in the #s but it is still ridiculously low. They will cover my medical expenses though I have not signed the forms as yet to grant them access to them, just want to make sure I am not signing something I shouldn't. I mentioned I lost $350 in lost wages alone, plus I've had to take my truck back 3 x so far for their incompetant repair peoples mistakes and things they tried to pull over on me....but I have sharp eyes and caught all the obvious things anyway. I used their services to repair it so I did not pay a penny except I did have to take it to my dealer to have a rattle fixed, they did not tighten/attach my hood back on right. They reimbursed me for that bill, but granted not the 2 hours I was out. I have been saving all my receipts too. Which is why I feel it will be inevitable to get a lawyer involved, hate to do it but then again I did not ask to be hit either.
No. her siblings ran out of money and dropped it for now.
n
All child molesters should be dropped off .....
in the prison yard of a hard core maximum security prison, filled with lifers who have absolutely nothing to lose, with a sign tattooed on their forehead  that they are child molesters.  Nature would take care of itself.
MT on account has dropped production.

MT tells me they have decided to drop production on an account I share with them. 


 Between the three of us, we managed okay. Now with her drop in line count, the burden falls of the MT at the end of the shift.  I wanted to tell this MT that she set the pace and now, if they do not continue it, we will have backlog (and we do).  The other two of us are already typing at full throttle.  Our account is going out of TAT.


Has this even happened to any of you and how should I handle this?


But it's nobody's fault but the MTSO that the prices have dropped.
THEY were the ones who started the offshore outsourcing in an attempt to make a bigger profit and get more clients.  Figuring that they could pay Indian transcriptionists 3 or 4 cpl, they could offer the clients a cheaper rate. By doing this, the MTSO changed the field forever into the cut-throat market it is today. The MTSO virtually eliminated the independent transcriptionist from the market who was able to have a few accounts and making a lucrative living and the larger MTSOs are putting the smaller ones out of business.  The MTSOs brought it upon themselves and now everyone in the field is suffering because of it, including the patient.  I feel no pity for them whatsoever.
Transcription companies have already dropped out income into

McDonald's pays (starts!!!) at $9 in our town (in the South, mind you) plus benefits.


It is not worth being somebody's slave anymore, and that's what these MT companies (MQ in particular with their new toy) want us to agree to.


Let them get up off some money and treat us like professionals and I may come back.  I like medicine and have many years of knowledge.


But doctors and nurses aren't working for pennies and I'm finished working for pennies for these companies.


and Bill Gates dropped out of college when he

became a millionaire!  and the Google owners are young too!  Just people with "visions."  Wish I had some visions, LOL. 


My levels dropped and then went back up. I did not miscarry. nm
/
Kaiser recently dropped transcription
Even their op reports.  I don't know how you can do touch-screen op reports.  I would like to know how this works if anybody does know out there
Oops......post dropped my same rules & regs. Sorry.
NM
I used filtered water with frozen fruit dropped in it
x
oh geeze - 4-6% wage decrease, I/we should be so lucky!! My pay has dropped (sm)
30% - yes, that's right 30 PERCENT!! - in the last ten years.  This is all due to the new and improved (ahem!) creative ways of now counting the lines and what's included and what's not included.  You can't tell me doctors aren't making money these days.  If there were no money to be made, NOBODY would want to become one!!
super told me to meet lines of 12000 or be dropped to SE
i thought there was only 2 types of employees; statutory or full time
I was thinking with ASR for MQ. They have dropped the line rate 2 cents as of October 1. Now, if
we get a lower line rate starting January 1 based on incentive then I expect the ASR 2 cent reduction will be based on that new line rate so it would actually be lower than it is now assuming they lower our new pay plan rates and I am sure they wont raise them. I wonder how this will play out.
Question re elderly patient being dropped by long-time PCP. sm
My SIL's mother was dropped as a patient by her long-time PCP (who also treats 4 other family members).  The reason was that the elderly woman (upper 80s, status post back surgery and recent hip surgery) had missed too many appointments.  Mind you my SIL always called when her mother could not make an appointment due to physically not being able to keep the appointment.  An office person told my SIL on the QT the real reason was because the doc couldn't get as much reimbursement from insurance on elderly people.  Mind you, this woman has her regular insurance plus Medicare.  What is up with this.  I never heard of such a thing.  Anyone? 
That is what I'm trying to do. I've picked up some smaller accounts, dropped the national, an
very hard to cut my hours. It takes time learning the new docs and systems, but I'm sure soon I'll be working less (I pray).

Thanks for your thoughts. I should have never gotten used to the bonus $$.
Oh, someone benefits from AAMT - AAMT DOES!
x
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?
AAMT BOS
Well hey, spelling a lot as one word is commonplace too; does that make it okay?? Do they really think MDs keep up with all the illogical changes they come up with? Do they realize that MDs actually take the time to edit stuff they don't recognize to be correct? What good is it if it actually causes MDs to stop and edit??

AAMT
It's just too bad that AAMT has not taken an assertive stand for the American MT and keeping confidential patient records in this country. For such a long time medical record administrators have fought the concerns of medical transcriptionists since the 60's. There was always a divisive agenda from medical record librarians (as they were called then) toward the transcriptionist. They didn't want to see the Transcriptionist come to the forefront of the medical records industry, nor did they like the income transcriptionists made(then) -WHAT? a transcriptionist make more money than a medical records librarian? I still see it now - you see AHIMA's hand down the back zipper of AAMT puppeting what direction they want AAMT to go - minimize the importance of the professional medical transcriptionist and rushing to automate the medical record with ASR and EMR. Ask youself this question - how many of you believe that many of the "QA" people at the nationals are discarded or displaced medical record technicians or the like? Many of the medical record administrators lost their jobs about 10 years ago during hefty layoffs when hospitals began a surge of outsourcing and many of these people had to seek jobs in the transcription industry for national companies as sales people, administrators, and QA people. I can't begin to tell you how many RHIT people haven't a clue about medical transcription. I've worked with so many who got a lot of things wrong legally but hey, because they were above the transcription department, they were right. Don't question them.
AAMT
Have to afford those trips to Hawaii somehow.
AAMT
I know.  It is so strange.  I was just on the AAMT forum.  I know if I start making "waves" I'll be considered a troublemaker.   It is really said what is happening in that organization when it could provide such a boost.
AAMT
That is how I have been feeling.  A friend of mine says I need to run, but I'm afraid of how it would be handled. -
AAMT
Thanks so much.  You are right.  I will contact this gentleman.
well, according to the AAMT BOS...sm
"Always place periods inside quotation marks."  <<< see, like I did!
Ah, yes. The AAMT.
Medware offshores. They don't pay well, either. I see by your other post that you won't work for acusisindia, what's the difference? Offshoring is offshoring.

AAMT = Against American Medical Transcriptionists
AAMT
I don't think you read my message clearly.  There are many options to AAMT, not just one.  AAMT is pushing for licensure as it is.  That will do just as much harm as anything else in the end.
AAMT
AAMT is nothing but a poor parody of a high school sorority. It touts itself as being a professional organization. It is neither professional nor organized and needs to go the way ot the dinosaur and die.
AAMT
What I blame AAMT for is for touting themselves as a "professional organization" when they are neither professional nor organized.