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Need Advice On Researching Possible Line

Posted By: Count Cheating... on 2009-02-04
In Reply to:

Okay. Not sure if this is correct forum, but I hope it is.  I have worked for a company for 3 months, just passed my probation with flying colors. Problem is that my line counts are terrible, to me. I am used to transcribing 200 to 250 lines an hour and have done so for 10 years until I started this new company.  I am just as fast, use the same Expander as my old job - both are Word platforms so  just copied my old Word expanders.  I am making half of what I used to make and what I need to make as I support my family.  My team lead keeps telling me its just me and not to worry, I'll get better. But I am going full speed and am fine.  Still, I thought it was me. Then I coincidentally started a part-time job to supplement the full-time one, as many of us are doing. I have been at this job only 2 days, and in 2 days I am back to typing 250 to 300 now per hour.  I am shocked and mad as a hornet, as now I think I see what may be going on with job #1. I know these are very serious allegations, but have no idea how to prove this, yet to me there is no other explanation. The old walks like a duck, smell like a duck, its a duck thing.  I basically type more lines on a brand-new job with new accounts and new doctors in 2 hours than I do in 5 hours on my other job.  Anybody have any suggestions?  Other than the obvious that job #2 should be my primary job, is there anything I can do to check line counts definitively? Both pay per 65 character lines, including spaces and headers.  Both do not pay for any demographics. 


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Need advice on yearly line count raises please. sm
Could anyone please give advice on how much a yearly raise for a line count should be?  What is good, what is bad, what is average?  Thank you in advance.
Researching....

Hey all....


I'm inquiring about a company called "Trans am Associates, Inc." based in Florida.  Does anyone have any information on this company?  Are they legit?  I'm being offered training and a 'guarenteed' job, but it has a price tag and I'd rather confirm prior to shelling money out.


Thanks!


Michele


I am also in the process of researching this. So far, (sm)
I have learned that the Core Duo is the best for running the new Vista. As far as brand names, I have never been happy with HP with their desktops, so I think I will just skip over their laptops. I love Dell products and have always had good luck with them and their customer service (I know some have not, but I have). However, both Toshiba and Sony Vaio have been recommended to me and I am looking into them right now.

Please post anything you might come across, as I am very interested in the responses to your question.

Have a great day!
Thanks, I've been researching it too,
it does seem like it is very treatable and is also very rare and slow-growing. It looks very promising. I have printed out a bunch of stuff for mom and she is feeling much, much better with just that. :)
While you're researching your options
it might be helpful to you to approach things from the other direction. Try to determine the outcome you hope to achieve and then work backwards to come up with different possibilities to achieve your goal. Maybe after your son has had his depression addressed with appropriate couseling or medication, you could involve him in the decision-making process. He sounds like a bright kid; he may come up with ideas you hadn't considered. In any event, I wish you the best. It's tough enough to be 15 without health issues. He's lucky to have such a caring mom.
Researching lap tops. Sorry about all the questions. sm

I keep looking at lap tops, but I don't understand a lot of the language.  Just computer challenged, I guess.


What is the difference between AMD Sempron, AMD Athlon and Intel Core processors?  These are the ones I find on Dell that still have Windows XP.  What is the difference between the SDRAM size at 533 MHz and 667 MHz. Hard drive speed 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM (I have a vague idea about that)?  What is considered acceptable for doing MT work?  How do you tell the speed of the processor, and does this mean the surfing speed and the speed work can be uploaded and downloaded?  I really feel lost here!!!  TIA.


So: it's ok for MTs to lose time/$ on researching,
Sounds akin to a DOUBLE STANDARD to me.

Even if we're both paid the same way, it seems that since you merely have to LISTEN, then fill in a few words, even if you have to look them up, you haven't spent NEARLY as much time per report as those of us who actually had to PRODUCE them. You're only researching the blanks that you're not sure of. We have usually researched several other terms in the report that we found the answer to, and are then correctly typed. You don't have to do a thing about those. So how can you be supposedly losing more than we do every time you have to take your foot off the pedal to fill in blank? We have to do the same thing, only more often.

The only way you could be losing more money than we are is that you probably make more to begin with.
Spent 20 min. researching with very little info, and at the end, Dr. said 'Just take that part ou

I hate it when I spend so much time looking up things I do not know (terms or medications, or even a referring or copied doctor's name and address) and then the doctor changes his/her mind and says to just take that back out.


                              


Or, you spend all that time looking things up and researching, then at the end they say 'Oh, by the way, here's all the information you just wasted your time looking up.'


Ggggrrrrrrrrrrr. 


I'll be back to rant more later because this has REALLY been getting on my nerves lately, and seems to be happening a lot more often.


Search for EFT techniques for pain control. Haven't tried myself, just researching now. Might hav
s
My computer crashed and I lost ALL my bookmarks for researching, please share your favorites. Thx.
x
Stedman's Ortho and Rehab words. You'll keep researching screws & pins as long as you do
s
Advice to YOU..1st learn to spell before insulting poster and trying to give advice...sm

A gross line is anything on a line is a line. A line set at 65 characters means it sm
has 1-inch margins on each side. The maximum number of characters on that line would be 65 and that includes spaces. If there is 1 character on that line it is a line.

A standard 65-character line usually consists of 65 characters with spaces unless, of course, the employer does not pay for spaces and then it would be 65-characters without spaces.
Sound advice from a fellow MT if you want advice or support (sm)

I have been an MT for over 10 years.  I also am getting burnt out, tired of my job, day in day.  However, I do love transcription and make excellent money at it, have grossed over $50,000 per year the last 5 years.  I decided to go back to nursing school and am very happy with my choice.  However, over these 10 years of transcription I have had my ups and downs.  My biggest issue with being at home working is lack of socialization, being home day in and day out with just the kids and the animals really gets to a person, sure hubby is home at night and thinks working from home is the easy life, thus the return to school and boy has my overall enjoyment of life changed once I realized I was the problem, not everyone else and I needed to find myself again.


Anyway, my biggest advice to you three-fold:


1.  Get into counseling for yourself, find out who you are and what your needs are, whether or not you think you need to, I sense you are feeling overwhelmed and need someone other than your family to talk to that can be nonjudgmental to your feelings and needs.


2.  If you're only making $100 after you pay preschool you can either keep doing it and be miserable, or quit because you are lucky enough to have a husband who can support the family without your income. (See how fast his mind changes just by losing the income you do have as to whether your job means anything.)  Or look for a different company or office that you like more and are more productive if you really want to do transcription (lots of fish in the sea as far as companies).


3.  Find a local "mom's" group where you can get out and socialize.  MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) is an excellent one that is nationwide, they have a website.  Also Mom2Mom is in a lot of areas.  They provide a once a week time for moms with kids the same age to get together, socialize, (some offer spirtual guidance some don't) and each week a different mom takes a turn watching everyone else's children at the facility that hosts it so the other moms can talk about things they have in common.  Every stay-at-home and work-from-home mom needs to socialize with adults, without their kids, or they will have a nervous breakdown eventually no matter how much they love their kids.


Sorry so long but it does get better but you have to take the first step at making yourself happy.


Anything on the line makes up a line even if just one letter or number. Every line of print is a
s
Gross line = each line on page counts as a line, even if it's only 1 word. nm
x
Gross line means anything on a line is counted as a line.

You can get an idea in the difference using documents you have already created, assuming you're working in Word. Simply open a document and check the properties. Click on the statistics tab and you will see the number of lines as well as characters with and without spaces. If you're currently getting paid by the line and a line is 65-characters with spaces, do the math and see how that number of lines compares with the number of lines in your stats.


One thing to keep in mind: if you have a blank line between paragraphs, instead of hitting the enter key twice, format your document to give the appearance of blank lines between paragraphs.


Gross line, also including blank lines because my line rate is so low. It all works out in the wash.
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$.06 gross line / .70 = approximately $.0857 cents per 65 character line.

A gross line is anything on a line versus 65 gross characters per net line the other way.  You make more money working for the gross line than for the 65 gross character line, as long as the line rate's OK.


A gross line is any line with typewritten characters on it - no matter how long or SM
how short.  So your gross lines may be longer than 65 characters, but you get credit even for a line as short as "Sincerely,".  If your gross lines are not being counted that way, then you are not being counted on gross lines and are probably getting screwed.  I'd look into that if I were you.
Yes if gross line or 65 character line with spaces....Good Deal!!! nm
x
1) do you have a contract stating line counting and line rate,sm
if you look at the IRS website it's pretty clear what constitutes IC versus SE versus employee. You might want to photocopy that along with a copy of your contract with your next invoice and also put on the invoice any monies due from past invoices they "changed"...maybe catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Good luck!
New England, 16.50/hr, 8 cents a line after minimum line count..
full benefits available with general contribution by the hospital before you start paying for them, retirement, 403b, all benefits, and working at home as an employee, BUT, you have to live local to the hospital.
I changed my line to a business line, talked to a supervisor sm

at SBC, told him what I was using the service for, and got the okay to use it -- $49/month unlimited. 


I have also used The Neighborhood, and their unlimited is truly unlimited.  I also explained to them when I signed up what I was using it for and their comment was "unlimited means just that -- unlimited, no matter what."  I cannot remember how much they were, but it might be worth checking into for you.  (www.theneighborhood.com)


 


Good luck!


What is the average line/hour for a 65 character line with spaces? NM
.
Curious, do most IC's usually charge by the gross line or 65 character line?
Thank you~
it certainly is not pay worthy at 4.5 line or 3 line. I know the companies cram it down our throats
nm
That still is not a paid line rate. If your base is $0.10 per line, it will be $0.08 cpl.
Considering other companies pay 4 or 5 cents per line for VR - you are still making out.

Question about what is PAID for a line and what is BILLED for a line
Does the MTSO actually bill for headers, footers, and other things the transcriptionists are not paid for?  I worked for a company a while back and their copy of what each Transcriptionist typed the day before and our copy was a lot different, about 30% different.  Their copy was the billing copy. So, double their enhanced amount and subtract our 9 cents a line, it comes to a bigger profit than what I thought.   
What's the diff between a gross line and a 65-char line?

Mebbe just got my first OWN ACCOUNT YAY!  He said to charge him the "going rate" since I pay him that.  This could be the start, baby!  (I hope)



A gross line is any amount of characters on a line

for instance...


MEDICATIONS:


Effexor


Prevasid


 


A 65 character line without spaces is black marks on the page only and 65 w/spaces is everything... tabs, spaces, numbers, letters, bold, etc.


 


 


that should be "up .02/line" NOT up "to" .02/line. geez. nm
x

Gross line versus character line....Sm please

I am thinking of taking a job that pays by the gross line and not a 65-character line.  I have never worked this way.  Does this literally mean if there is one little word on a line you get paid for it?  I have not pinned her down on a line rate but I am just thinking I am going to be comparing apples to oranges and am wondering how to accomplish that. 


Thanks for any help!


gross-anything on line counts as line,even one word
xx
gross line is anything on a line, even just your initials. sm

spaces really don't matter in a gross line count.


 


But that's a GROSS line, not a 65 character line.
So a newbie would have no problem at all hitting 150 lines per hour.  A gross line is any line with a printed character on it.
Which is better? Gross line or 65 character line? It's
nm
I don't make 0.08/line.. I work for no less than .13/line. nm
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IC, by line, 68-72 character spaces/line
@
I would go with the line rate. At less than 9.5 cents per line sm
I make $30 an hour.  I would never transcribe for $15 an hour, for anyone.
7.5/gross line or 10/65 char line?
Anyone have any idea which would come out to more?  TIA
A gross line may be close to 65 ch.pl but she said line
z
Anything on a line (even just initials) is considered a line.
I prefer to use the 65-character line count (including spaces).
gross line and character line
I am an IC currently doing one doctor who pays me by the hour but I will be starting another doctor soon and he will be dictating differently so I was going to charge him per line.  What is the difference of charging gross lines or per 65 character line?
Gross line is anything on a line is a line
so if there is just one character, it is a line. Font definitely makes a difference though particularly if there are true type fonts involved. That's one you have to be careful on and insist on fixed fonts.
Just do a gross line - anything on a line is a line. sm
I use Abacus - free line counting software.

The bottom line is doesnt matter what they pay if there is no work you make no money. Bottom line.
:
What is a 55 char gross line compared to a 65-char line including spaces?
t
You need to watch your line count. I was working for them and got reports that had line count of 0
You need to watch your line count. I was working for them and got reports that had line count of 0 in them. They did not pay for templates, they would deduct the template even if it was not used and deleted. I notified them and said they could not change it.

So I asked to be put on another account and they refused. I quit.

I was also promised they would have an incentive plan going into place if you type a certain # of lines. Two years went by and nothing.

I was really disappointed in OSI.

They also offered to pay half on joint AAMT, which they failed to do.

I am glad I am no longer there.
Quick question! Is 10 cpl with benefits at 74 character line better than 9 cpl at 65 character line?
Thanks
I appreciate your responses. I had an option of line vs hour ($14/hour) but if line pays more...nm
nm