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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

It is irrelevant what percentage the service takes of 'your' earnings...sm

Posted By: MT Business Lady on 2006-05-13
In Reply to: IC status - Lisa

what matters is: is it worth it to you to work for that rate? On some accounts, my IC's might make only 50% of what I charge the client, on others they might be paid 80%. For one physician, I might charge 12 cents a line - if another calls, says they are in a jam and desperate to get their backlog done, I might bid it at 14.  But if you are satisifed with say 8.5 cents a line, it doesn't matter if your MTSO charges them 9.5 or 19.5.


As far as line rates to physicians, again, it depends on what the market will bear. You could call local physician offices and tell them you are an independent MT service and you are getting price ranges for the locality, and ask the OM what they are paying. That would give you an idea of what is competitive. In West  Virginia, they might be charging 18 cents per line, in Chicagoland they might be charging 11.


 


The line rate




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how is Advance irrelevant?
nm
The turth as you know it is irrelevant. The OP obviously has SM
some financial issues, and it was rude of you to not only a) not offer any advice (or keep your thoughts to yourself) and b) ramble on about how good you have it.

You had nothing relevant to say to help her. Save your self-promotion for another post, please. Someday the shoe might be on the other foot for you. Remember how you might feel when it happens.
Advance is irrelevant. Who cares what they say?
x
Her life in Mexico is irrelevant. She is still an
x
Personal preference is mostly irrelevant, IMO. SM
I single or double as requested or to conform to a standard mode, even if I do prefer double for readability. The VR accounts I work on are set to single space. FWIW, typing single spaces is faster.
irrelevant what MTSO charges the customer...
as long as you feel the price they pay you is sufficient for you. nuff said.
The actual amount paid is irrelevant

more, but the value of it is more to them than it is to us.  For example, if you make $50 for a week's worth of work, do you think that's a lot in America?  Probably not.  But ask someone in a third world country if $50 is a lot of money to them and ask what it will buy them.


By offshoring work, the MTSO's are saving big bucks by paying foreign MTs far less than they pay us.  Therefore, there are many American MTs willing to accept a lower payrate for their work.  Thus, lowering the American standard of pay for this industry.  Got it?


Of Course Endiqua read your post. It is irrelevant to her what you wrote and she is fully prepared
Hush and take notes. Endiqua is the authority on all things and doesn't need to read your post or even understand it. She's got an opinion and by gawd you will listen. QA is annointed boss of you.


dude, your educational level means nothing when you post irrelevant drivel and you don't follow
a logical train of thought. "ROCK ON"???? OMG!

BTW, YOU CALLED THE NAMES DEAR POSTER. READ YOUR OWN POST AND THEN READ MINE. See that's what I'm talking about. The masses aren't all that bright and knowing that does not "empower" me. And with you bragging about a "degree" and "education" is even more depressing. imagine an educated person bragging about it after screwing up on two posts and not understanding the concept of the original post STILL! Scary stuff.
Percentage?

Can anyone estimate a percentage of letters/words straight typed versus expander?  I am quite sure no one type 100% expansions, but I am hoping some of you can give a good estimate.


I make lots of them but am wondering what your ratios are.


Thanks for your feedback! 


You can only take a percentage of
things related around the home if you have an office. I take 7% off of anything around the house, but not 100%. I take 50% for the internet. I do take my office supplies off, but only a percentage, I do use my printer for things other than work. Having a home office and taking deductions is a red flag for the IRS.
Earnings
I might add that I make less than half what I did when I worked in the hospital laboratory (I was in management), but that's OK.  I'm much happier. 
Uh...30% IS near 40%. lol. And you need to put aside 50% of your earnings in CA.
.


Earnings
I work five hours a day and take home (after taxes, etc.) between $1500-1700 every pay period.
Earnings
In California. That's specific enough.
My earnings
For the last three years, I worked a 30-hour week and earned 44K with MQ each year. I expect to earn at least 60K now that I am fulltime.
How do you get your earnings up?

Hi there,


I have been working as an MT since January.  It was certainly slow at first as I was on a learning curve.  Now I am quite familiar with the work and have made all sorts of "shorthand" for myself with MS Word.  I also spend long hours, often more than 8 a day working at this, and I am still only earning under $600 per two weeks.  How do I get my earnings up?  I have heard one can make very good money doing this... but I am considering going back to work outside the home.  I need to earn at least $1000 per two weeks.  The company I am with pays 8 cpl for typing and 4 cpl for editing.


MT Earnings

The MT Conundrum


Those in the medical transcription field flocked to our 2008 Salary Survey, eager to see how they measured up against their colleagues. We had 872 total respondents in the transcription field, and 516 full-time MTs/editors and 212 part-time MTs/editors took our annual survey. Average MT salaries did nudge up a bit--4 percent--from last year, with full- and part-time MTs/editors making an average of $28,900 in 2008, compared to $27,800 last year. Full-time MTs reported bringing in $33,500.


At the Association for Health Care Documentation Integrity (AHDI), Kim Buchanan, CMT, AHDI-F, director of education and credentialing, hears a lot of complaints from MTs in the industry reporting drops in pay. "You hear complaints that wages are going down, but overall the data shows otherwise," Buchanan said. "This stat is showing we're slowly increasing."


MTs who work for medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs) did see a dip in pay (see sidebar on the next page), but certified medical transcriptionists (CMTs) (21 percent of full-time MTs) saw average salaries poke up to $39,000. To compare with last year's results, CMTs across all HIM professions brought in $37,864, and this year, CMTs who were MTs and other HIM professionals combined made an average of $43,900. Buchanan was very encouraged by the numbers, as full-time MTs who have a CMT make nearly $7,000 more than their non-credentialed colleagues. "To me, that really shows the credential differentiates you in the marketplace," Buchanan noted. "It's really encouraging to me to see the credential is being valued, and it should be. The complexity of documentation we're starting to see is going to require a  knowledgeable worker, and to me, credentials show you made a commitment to lifelong learning and you are truly invested in your knowledge."


The registered medical Transcriptionist (RMT) credentialed folks didn't fare as well, making on average $6,000 less than full-time MTs with no credential. The credential is only 2 years old, Buchanan explained, and most RMTs are entry-level MTs/editors who just came out of school. Looking at the average salary of MTs/editors with 0 to 2 years' experience ($24,500), RMTs make more than that ($26,100), and the RMT might also just be the ticket that gets new MTs hired in the field. "In a way, it's really helping them leapfrog that beginning salary you show on 0 to 2 years," Buchanan said. "It's helping them, it's propelling them, and it's putting them ahead, which is great. That's exactly what we wanted it to do."


After examining all the numbers for MTs, Buchanan was happy the average salary for MTs/editors crept up, albeit slightly. "Overall, I'm encouraged to see we continue to increase, even if it's at what looks like a snail's pace," Buchanan said. "In an economy where people are losing jobs left and right, it's good to know transcription is remaining viable, and we're still seeing our wages creep back up."  


Lynn Jusinski is an associate Editor with ADVANCE.


MT earnings
What a load of crap
You can only write off the percentage actually used...
for work.  Who uses 40% of the space in their house???  I write off 10-15%.  You also must use that work area for work only.  Come audit time (and it eventually may happen), you will need to show a floorplan of your house and what area is for work exclusively.  If you're writing off 40% you will be in deep doo-doo. 
but what percentage of hospitals allow that?

From what I've been reading ... the home-based service MT is averaging 8 cpl, for those dictators which make you run screaming from the room. And, I don't forsee things improving. Then again, some are lucky enough to make a line rate worthy of their skills, without worry about the dictators from Hades.

This is a bit out of date:   http://www.bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos271.pdf


Percentage of ESL dictators
Have been lied to on 2 jobs now and it is about to give me a nervous breakdown wondering how in the heck I am going to pay my bills with so many ESLs.  They tell me 35% or 50%.....90% or more is about right.  I'm looking for a non-MT job after almost 10 years as an MT.
Percentage of loss.
Line pay it's about 15% if my calculations are correct and as far as vacation/holiday pay, it's about 27%. So sorry for you.
Some companies just take a percentage
of each report to compensate for headers and footers, not what those headers and footers actually are. The same thing happens to me at my company.
What percentage for state and fed? nm
x
We have decided to add this to our current service not have a new service. It will be easier to sm

keep track of and will just be a different department. 


It looks like we will work out details over the next 6 months, talking with community college program directors as well as a few of the distance-learning course leaders to work on the recruiting end.


We will train current staff to mentor if they would like to do so and want to work in the office.


We are still working on production requirements, goals to set, pay, benefits and other fine details but we have 6 months to get it all in place with three months to pull it together after that with a tentative start date of 09/01/06.  We need to build the building as well, although that is already at the blueprint stage in a spot next to our current office. 


We did not want to cause flames and bashing by listing the company name as there are always so many negative people on this site, but we are national with over 200 transcriptionists, located outside of Chicago (40 miles west) and have the best team of transcriptionists around!


We will have an "official" announcement after the first of the new year. 


Thank you for all of your feedback and suggestions!


monthly earnings
I'm new to this board, just found it today, and have been *so* depressed with what I've been reading in regards to line counts and rates you all are being paid. I've been an IC for 15 plus years, transcribing for about 23 years now. I charge by gross lines, 12 cents a line, max 70 characters possible on a line. I make okay money, averaging between $3000 and $4000 a month, with three good dictators, and I live on the West Coast. I could easily make more if I turned off the TV when transcribing and didn't take time off to be at the kids' sporting events. Before I got married, I easily made $55-60K a year, before expenses, but taxes killed me  so I backed off a bit. (This was before the elaborate Expander programs.) Ladies, the money is out there. You just have to find the right accounts!!
What do you mean they "take" 25% of your earnings?
If you mean they pay you 75% of what they charge the client, then 25% is small potatoes in my opinion for all the headaches they have for marketing, keeping the client happy, being the responsible party for turn around, technical issues, etc.  It's not worth the other 25% to me to have to go out and find clients and keep them happy and covered.
Well, if you doubled your earnings, does it come up to that 60-75K
s
it does take a toll on earnings...
I agree about the rates for VR. It can take a while to fix a botched report and in some cases I have to fix them by typing in the corrections, but still only getting paid half the rate. I used the Edit Script platform, which is awesome, but the company I work for is heavily supported by ESL docs, so it is a challenge. I do, however, use the IT Expander and get free lines from templates.

My solution was to also work for a second company that uses the same platform, but is mostly American docs and has a higher percentage of typing rather than editing, about 60/40 (40 typing). My first company is around 80/20 (only 20% typing). I agree with another poster who said that you have to find the combination that will work for you and increase your pay. She is right because for me, the second company is a smaller company and I will make more money with them. I like the other company also because they will give me experience with ESLs, but I will earn less money. I do the smaller company full time so I can eventually get the benefits and the larger company with the ESLs part time. Now I am receiving 2 paychecks, but working extremely long hours. I feel it will balance out with time. I have flexible schedules with both and can usually take off anytime I choose,which I feel are the perks of being an MT. It is hard to have this situation with a traditional job, so I take the good with the bad. I am new to this field and want to stay optimistic about my future with MTing.
Weekly earnings

Am relatively new to at home transcription so I am not doing as well as most poster.


Instant Text is relativley new to me, but helping prodcution.


I am not familiar with MP Lite. I know someone will be kind enough to share.



Thanks!


 


Yes, renters can write off percentage (sm)

of apartment/house used for work.  In the area where it reads, "rents," you can write off percentage of house used.


Brother is a tax attorney and helped me out with this.  I used to pay a fortune, but no more!  On top of that, if you are claiming under $25,000.00 they don't even check for small businesses anymore.


Just trying to help.  You sound like a tax man!  A tax man will say the same thing, you can't write off this, you can't write off that, but if you read the IRS publications there are a lot of things you can write off.  They don't want to end up in tax court, want to run through your return and get it done.  They don't care if you pay a fortune.  If you have receipts for everything what are they going to do?  The IRS is not going to bother with our piddly incomes.


How is the error percentage calculated? nm
nm
I do all ER and only a small percentage are gruesome. sm
The bulk of them are minor car accidents, asthma attacks, chest pains, bug bites, high blood sugar, household injuries, rashes, babies with fevers....and on and on and on. I thought they were easy to learn and get used to because so much was so similar, docs use the same formats for dictating. The charts flow pretty quickly and I make good money on them.
What would be a late fee or percentage suggested?
I think your idea is excellent. Other companies do this. Why can't ICs? Of course we can. But how do you decide on the late fee amount? Certain percentage after a certain number of days. What is the usual company procedure on this? Does anyone know.
earnings - what can i expect from home?

Hello all ... I've been an MT for 13+ years and my current hospital has OUTSOURCED  my position!  I'm in a crappy  job at the hospital currently, working 3-11, to keep my benefits until I decide what to do, and go on interviews.  I'm considering working for the company that took over the hospital account - but I'm not sure what to expect as far as pay per line.  


If its not too personal - how much do you guys earn at home per hour/week?


THanks so much!  Joanne 


I live on one job and save the earnings from the 2nd.
I am retiring at 55. Only 10 years left.

I've always worked 2 jobs and saved 100% of the 2nd one.

Have a list of places I want to go and things to do when I retire. Gotta get started early. :)

Poll: Earnings vs Expenses

1.  What are your monthly earnings -- just you (no spousal income) -- doesn't matter how many jobs....monthly earnings?


2.   Do you work more than one job?


3.  What is your base line rate?  If you have more than 1 job, list all base rates.


4.   Now what is the minimum bring-home pay you need to survive each month?  This is your housing, energy, transportation, insurances, food -- what you have to have to make it. 


5.   What's the difference?  Are you in the hole?  Got surplus?  Breaking even?


My answers:


1.   About $3100 each month.


2.   One job.


3.   $0.095 cpl plus some incentive bonus each month.


4.   $2287 gets everything paid.  Savings and pocket money not included in that figure.


5.   Surplus but not much.  Trying to save as much as possible and have a few greenbacks in my wallet each week. 


 


 


You pay your home state tax, whatever percentage that is. You can claim
deductions for anything associated to your job....i.e., a percentage of your utilities, expenses such as supplies needed to do your job, etc.  Save all receipts for any of those items that you purchase related to the job, and I think the 1099 would be sufficient. 
As far as I know you can earn up to a certain amount - you cannot exceed a certain percentage of the
salary you were making when you took your disability. I do not think it is uncommon to work as you could certainly not make it on disability alone.
What percentage productivity gain do you get with InstanText?

Am thinking of switching.  I currently get 400% productivity with SH8 (it types 3 characters for every 1 I type).  Can anyone out there get similar figures with InstanText? 


You only have to report earnings over $300 on a 1099 form.
Most people don't want to mess with it, so they don't report it. I don't think it's right. I know of people who are selling things on Ebay, parting out cars or doing construction for income, but they still collect unemployment, social security disability, foodstamps, utility payments, and welfare. It's not fair. Those of us who work hard and follow the law do with less while other people cheat the system and live high on the hog. Their kids have designer clothes, $50+ shoes and the latest electronics.

Yes, I've reported it for babysitters before.
So MQ explains how they arrived at the increased production percentage for ASR.
It appears to be a good study with what was excluded.  However, don't tell me about the opportunity for increased financial gain with this so called wonderful increased production of 30% when you decrease my pay by 20%.  The only financial gain I can see in all this is in the profit margin for the company. 
Own accounts, line charge, MTSO percentage
I think you might have posted this same question about a week ago.  I take anywhere from 20 to 30% on an account from my IC's that covers my being the QA, the accountant, the customer service rep, the go between and the relief transcriptionist.  I really think you MTSO is being more than fair.  Stop and think if and when you get your own accounts, would you only keep 25% if someone was typing for you?  Sometimes it is hardly worth my time to keep the accounts for the IC's as the time I spend on those accounts I accounts I could be typing and earning $30 to $40 instead of the $10 to $12 that I get when someone else types it.   Remember when you have your own accounts there is no one to cover for you when you are sick, your child is sick, you go on vacation, holidays, etc.  There is always a flip side to the coin.  I do wish you luck but there is more into doing your own accounts than you realize. 
With state and Federal, you 40% of your earnings GO, bottom line.
I don't know what's up for debate, it's fact.

Housing prices have gone up 40% in the past year alone in California.
That should be 15% social security of your gross quarterly earnings also. n,

:


My earnings are very similar to shipaddict. Really good week I can top $1000 but rarely. nm
;
My telephone service is VOIP, but it s through my cable service, along with my cable internet. .
We have had VOIP for about a year now and I love it. I really can't tell a difference in traditional service, except the price. One of the best calls of my life was to Bellsouth to cancel our service!
I am not asking for a service, I AM the service looking for recorders
nm
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.
Screen Resolution/Font/Screen Percentage
My eyes are tired all the time. I usually have my monitor set at 800 x 600 pixels and use Bookman at 10 font in Word at 111% in the normal layout. What might be a better viewing screen setting to use?