I understand what you're going through. I work both myself. sm
Posted By: searching on 2006-12-01
In Reply to: Dear fellow MTs...sm - Need some opinions please
I have been IC for several years, and thought I might go back to employee for benefits. But I found the insurance was so high, and the pay was not as good, so I work both part time now. The bottom line is, I can't give up the freedom I've had in the last several years. I am given so much work in the morning, and have all day to finish it, and I love this system. I tried to set a schedule for my part-time employee job, thinking I would like to go to full time if it worked out. But I had too much trouble making myself fit a schedule (they have offered to let me work when I can, so I'm still keeping the job, but if I can't do it right, I will quit). Unfortunately, when you get used to IC, it is hard to fit back in a "box." Maybe you could look for a company that would allow you some flexibility in your schedule, say an 8-hour window to work 6 hours. If you have the experience, some companies will work with you that way. I don't think IC is a dead end, it is just a little harder to manage. But the benefits did not pan out. I can get the insurance cheaper individually, the pay was lower so I could actually put a little back as an IC every pay period and take time off "paid." The only thing I miss is what they pay for taxes (I think 7% or so), and having someone else do these things for me. If you like IC as I do, try setting up your own retirement plan, getting your own insurance, and put a little back each pay period for some time off. Good luck with your decision.
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- Dear fellow MTs...sm - Need some opinions please
- I understand what you're going through. I work both myself. sm - searching
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Or ask for samples of the doc's work if they're hard to understand. GI terms are
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I don't understand what you're saying?
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You're welcome. I don't understand why some
anyone who even slightly suggests that they aren't 400-line-per-hour 'super-typists'. We could toot our horns all we wanted (like they do) about how skilled and productive we are, and they'll say little or nothing. But suggest that you're having trouble paying bills on our peanut pay, and then they're all over ya, trying to convince you to quit.
I also dislike the way so many people here treat newbies. Yes, newbies are going to ask questions that sound silly. (They're NEWBIES! We all were newbies once, as well.) Instead of just giving them a straight answer, the 'wonder-transcriptionists' go for the jugular, and suggest that they should just quit because they can't cut it.
I also don't understand the devaluation of professional medical language specialists. Not just the medical word aspect of it, but our ability to read, write and spell in the English language. The average person can't spell worth a lick (just look at all the close-to-illiterate posts you see on the internet or in e-mails!) Most people can't even compose a simple business letter. My father was the owner of a business, and he had this incredible secretary that could do everything, and do it well. She got married and moved away, and he tried in vain to find a 'replacement'. He couldn't believe how many people walked in the door who couldn't write or speak properly, and spelling and typing skills were abysmal. He finally lucked out when she moved back into the area about a year later. Even though she was working at a different job, he hired her back at twice her former salary.
I'm appalled at some MTSOs' treatment of their workers. These are the people that produce the product they are selling - the written medical/legal record. And they sell not only their workers short by trying to underbid their competitors' prices in order to land an account, they sell themselves short, as well.
Totally understand what you're going through. Just
yesterday I got this email from a friend of mine who alternates jobs between lawn maintenance and roofing. Yep, that means he is qualified.
His email copy and pasted...lol..hey.....how hard is it to get into medical transcription?
cause I've got the computer for it.....just not the in on how to do it.
I completely understand what you're saying.
I totally agree that a child should be allowed to stay within the biological family if at all possible. I think it's very sad also when biological fathers might not even know of a child, find out after the birth, then have to jump through hoops to get his own child back after foster/adoptive parents become attached. I've heard of a couple of cases where that's happened. The men immediately went to bat for the children as soon as they found out the moms gave the children up. Yet, you always hear the public outcry for the foster/adoptive parents. Of course, I can empathize with their feelings, but ultimately, the father's rights were taken away. Also, you'd think the potential adoptive parents would want the child with his/her own father if possible.
Thank goodness for grandparents like you. You see so many grands picking up the kids at school, taking them shopping, etc. I often wonder if they're babysitting or actually have custody. It's so prevalent nowadays.
I understand why you're concerned. Its not
so much that you need to mind your own business in that you don't want to end up losing the account because some other dimwit MT is not following the rules. I don't know what I'd do either, but don't blame yourself and think its none of your business. It 100% is your business. Again, I have worked as an IC and lost accounts because of other MTs who just won't follow directions....so I wouldn't want to see that happen to you either. Sorry for your situation.
I also type ERs and understand what you're saying:-) nm
nm
You're the one who doesn't understand anything. (nm)
xx
Don't understand why you're confused
Unless you're confused about what thread you're in. You replied to my post that I don't believe it is possible to do this on 1 income. You proved my point.
You're likely to make more money on the lower rate because easier to understand and can probably
faster and need less time to look things up, etc. Just my 2 cents.
Well, you're all complaining that accounts are current and work is low, so, gee, maybe they're
focusing on WORK, as in CLIENT and transcribing, as maybe half of you should be focusing on!!
I understand, I work in a clinic and
the doctors will tell me, "send a copy to her gynecologist", or "send a copy to whoever the surgeon that an appointment was set up with".... well, heck, I don't have any of that information. I don't even have a chart, and I'm supposed to "find it"..so I do understand what you mean..I also work for a national at night (at home) and have had the doctors spell the name John Smith, but not some long foreign name that they can't even pronounce! I guess they ALL do that. Their time is more valuable than ours, is their thinking.
You're lucky they work for you. I've never gotten a refill to work right, ever.
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I think the amount of work sent to QA is is very bad idea to limit that. I can understand QA reviews
but to limit the amount of work to QA to get a bonus which is my understanding will cause people to not send things to QA when the dicator makes an obvious error and you dont want to chance correcting it. There are extremely bad dictators and depending on where they are dictating the noise can be horrendous on the phone lines or cells or whatever they are doing. My goodness, you have an attitude.
I don't understand; how does "speaking reports" work? Isn't that called dictating?
x
I understand... But I will not lose money by doing free work because she chooses to bill (sm)
will a method that requires me to give away free work. I will politely explain my position when we have our meeting. If push comes to shove, I will tell her that I will switch to her method of line counting, but I will need 9 cpl rather than 8 cpl. If she won't do it, I will give my notice.
Thanks for the input! I appreciate your time!
You're 100% right! And where we work - (sm)
(and what we wear!) should have NO bearing whatsoever on whether or not we're considered 'professionals'.
I think the reason the MT industry has gotten out of the hands of MTs and hospitals, and into the hands of plain old businessmen, is because, since we're a mostly 'invisible' workforce, they could see countless cracks and loopholes they could take advantage of when it came to cheating the workers (and the laws in this country) and making more profit for themselves.
I caught something on TV last night speaking about the "equal value" laws some states have, when it comes to the disparity between men's and women's pay. Certain jobs were awarded point systems to determine their worth to an employer. One example was secretaries (women) vs. the building's heating/AC/etc. maintenance workers (mostly men). They each were worth 100 points. Yet the men made twice what the women did, and worked fewer hours on average.
Considering what MTs are expected to know (especially according to AHDI/AAMT), I wonder what our point-value would be compared to, say - a paralegal, or a paramedic, or an executive secretary, etc. (Probably not the best comparisons, but all I can think of at the moment). The only difference between us and them is where we work. They're on-site & highly visible; we are off-site and totally invisible. (How many of us have ever even met our bosses or supervisors face-to-face? Very few, indeed). But does that make an MT worth less? NO. Only in the eyes of the tunnel-visioned doctors, dictating away and aware only of their own jobs, or the hospital CEOs trying to bolster their own worth to their institutions by cutting transcription costs (many of them don't even quite know what transcription even IS), and worst of all, the owners of large MTSO's, who in large part these days are simply businessmen or women who bought the company because they felt they could turn a huge profit with it by underpaying its workers, and most of whom have never been an MT a single day in their lives.
I think you're all wrong. It's all about getting the work done
for the hospital in the fastest time possible and my company doesn't care if I do it or if you do it (if you worked for us) or if someone else does it, just get it done for the client. So complain as you like, find somewhere else to work if you need, but get the work done. That's the bottom line.
Look at what you're using now as far as ports for work. sm
You'll need to get a laptop that has the same kinds of ports. If you're using all USB, you're in luck because most new computers only have USB. If you're using a serial foot pedal, consider buying an model just off lease that has that port. There has been such a problem where I work because they don't have USB capabilities in their software yet and so their serial foot pedal does not work with newer laptops even with adapters from serial to USB.
I just bought off lease a Dell and made sure it had all the ports I wanted, including a parallel port because that's the foot pedal I have. The laptop was built in 2002, has over 1 gig of RAM, all the updates for Windows XP and it works just fine for me.
You're RIGHT, & many of us *need* to work at home
:(
How does income tax work when you're IC?
I was offered a position from a company as an IC, and the contract had a clause about being responsible for your own tax deductions, etc. As I have only ever been an employee, I am not entirely sure how this works. If you are IC how do you pay taxes? Thanks!
You're lucky. I get lots of work but have
You're right! I wouldn't work for a company that SM
expected me to surf all over the world just because some prima donna didn't want to be bothered with proper dictation.
I work for a national, and we're allowed
.
Any program will work if you stick with it and it's NOT what you're doing right now. nm
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Depends on where you work and how you're paid
kj
It depends on what kind of work you're doing..sm...
If you're doing clinic work, you would need the book that pertains to your clinic. I'd also recommend a Stedman's Abbreviations, acronyms & symbols. I'd also recommend Sander's Pharmaceutical Book. Other than that, I'd use Google and trustworthy websites.
You're right. Unfortunately, in some areas inhouse work is
I keep hoping some sort of changes in U.S. laws may come to the rescue before it's too late, and the whole industry becomes offshore and automated. Because if that happens, there will be less and less reason to want to entrust one's care to an HMO.
True. So then don't work. We're talking CHOICES here. nm
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No! And boy do I know where you're coming from! I tried to get the Olympus pedal to work, but..
wound up pulling my hair out instead. They don't make it easy on us, do they?!?!? 
If you're so brilliant then, why aren't you in a better line of work?
1. Surgeon.
2. Attorney.
3. College professor.
oh, and yes, my brilliant one - what year exactly did you graduate with your Ph.D. from Harvard?
LMBO
So you use MCI for unlimited LD for work and they're fine with it? About how many minutes do you
use per month, do you think?
You're right about the "prehistoric" part! The place I used to work (sm)
uses Lanier, and it's a mess. It's WORSE than prehistoric. It was down more than it was up. It was also not at all friendly for at-home MTs, either.
They're not thrown to the dogs when they had no work to begin with!
nm
For Pete's sake, if you're too sick to work,
call in sick!!
This past week I've had chronic sinus drainage and a nagging,constant cough that has kept me up most of the night. Felt okay during the day,(although typing speed decreased significantly).Was able to take cat naps off and on during the day to make up for lack of sleep, otherwise,I wouldn't have hesitated to take a day or two off.
If I'm "really" sick,I call in for a sick day without hesitation!!
You're rude. That being said... Some people just work alone for a couple doctors and don't
s
It probably means you're not Indian and won't work for 2 cents a line.
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When work gets slow and you're switched to unfamiliar dictators does anyone besides me find it ha
nm
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Wear scrubs, they're comfortable and you fell like you getting dressed for work See message.
Go to a local scrub shop, you can get a big bag full for about 100 bucks
For Pete's sake, you're not terminating a pregnancy, you're just typing a report after the
It's already been done before you even hear about it, and NOTHING changes regardless of whether you or someone else types it. Sheesh.
It's not funny when you're on a board where language is one skill you're selling.
.
Hope you're gonna have a glass of wine while you're relaxing
in your spa goodies. Congrats!
If you're experienced, try for 9cpl or higher, and you're lucky to get that! nm
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Skip it. No one cares. Either you're good on the test or you're not.
x
You're probably right. Plus we're losing our percentage of good people by .... (sm)
allowing every loser from every 3rd world country on the planet to just stroll on into our country, some legally, most illegally, and take advantage of the social services all us hard working little gerbils pay for by having money taken out of our pay every month. But I don't think we're all lazy. Just the ones on permanent welfare driving around town in brand-new Cadillac Escalades. Saw one just today on the Bayshore Fwy. Brand-new black Escalade with expensive spinner wheels, with 5 or 6 Mexicans in it. Well, who knows - maybe they stole it and it was on its way to a chop-shop. Smart-and-hungry people aren't always hard-working and honest.
You're not going to find a word expander for free. You're going to have to pay
g
You're forgetting all the stuff you can't buy when you're UNEMPLOYED!
Unemployed people have a hard time buying anything, including cheaply made offshore products. How many will have to end up depending on public assistance? That means more tax dollars being eaten up - besides the taxes NOT being collected from the overseas workers. In the long run, are you really enjoying a lower price?
If you're on the job, ask for samples to do it how they want it. If you're testing, separate o
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