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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Take Further Action On Offshoring

Posted By: Searching for Nu Career on 2009-03-29
In Reply to:

Please, PLEASE people, especially all who left posts on the news story below, call the White House.  It is your right.  I do it all the time and I have not been abducted by the FBI yet.  They do not ask for your name or phone number or anything.  They usually are pretty decent to talk to. 


Tell them:  I AM CALLING CONCERNING THE OFFSHORING OF AMERICAN JOBS, ESPECIALLY OUR MEDICAL REPORTS LEAVING AMERICA WITH SENSITIVE INFORMATION ON THEM SUCH AS OUR NAMES AND SS# . Then take it from there.  Tell them that you MUST make your feelings be heard and you want the President to take action on this situation. 


As one person, I am only making a peep with my calls and emails, but if we all start calling and emailing in droves, we will make a roar.  Please, don't be afraid, we have to start taking action here folks.  Time will not wait.   


The White House Phone: 202-456-1111


ALSO: 


The Capitol Switchboard:  202-224-3121


Email:
Obama and Biden:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/


 
Middle Class Task Force Questions:  Tell them to save jobs and stop all offshoring:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/strongmiddleclass/
 
Your senator: Upper right hand corner, "find your senator"
http://www.senate.gov/
 
Your congressperson: 
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml


Let's do this together people




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Offshoring to India...Offshoring.
nm
The class action against MQ by MTs should be about

forget about Ricca laws and tying it to hospitals and line counts.


They have lied and done smoke and mirrors to the point that there


probably could be a case made for that alone. 


And why do we never hear anything more about the SEC case?


And the FBI case against MQ for sending military information over


unsecured lines?


What happened to all that?


 


Legal action
First of all, my condolences to you and your wife. I feel for you. I lost an adult child 14 years ago. Among the many aspects of grief, the realities of your deceased child's legal affairs can be a nightmare. I am not a legal expert and I don't know if any legal changes have been made in the past years. At the time our son died he left behind a student loan for $13,000.00 and a personal loan for about $5,000.00. He was over the age of 21 when he signed for these loans. It was a nightmare for me and my husband. These creditors hounded us and threatened to get the money from us even though our son was 23 at the time of his death. One creditor even tainted our credit report because my son and his father had the same name. It was a complete nightmare for a couple of years. We sought legal advice, send copies of the death certificate to the creditors several times, and eventually things got straightened out. In your case you have an individual who claims money is owed to him. Did you daughter have a will? I assume she was still legally married. I would definitely seek legal advice. I doubt this individual can force you to pay on her debt if there indeed was one. However, you can stop the harassment by legal means. Seek legal counsel. The last thing you need is this aggravation. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Class action...
I was involved in several of these suits - most of them with Medquist - and the biggest check I ever got was $3.61.
Miss all the action too. Not like it used to be.

Used to work for an old country GP. Had a guy stagger in with the tip of his finger hanging from a close encounter with a table saw. Blood everywhere. We gave him a roll of paper towels and went to fetch "the mop" out of the garage. It was 20 below out and the mop was frozen solid so we ran it under hot water in the kitchen sink and cleaned up the blood spills. No gloves. No worries.


Many stories from that place. My favorite was the patient in the waiting room with a paper bag full of baby chickens that he had to bring in because it was too hot in the car and he had to stop in on his way home for his weekly BP check.


Court action

I am not sure what your limit is for small claims court, it used to be $3500 here but know it has changed.   If it is more than one doctor in practice, you need to find out how they are listed through their business license, etc. through the state.  They helped me at the courthouse how to do this as it had to be listed exactly.  If you want to make a last ditch effort and make sure it isn't just the office manager that is not paying you, send a certified letter to each doctor that has to be signed by them and them only outlining what you will be doing and why.  You can act as your own collection agency instead of paying someone a commission to collect the money from you.   That is why I always keep on file a copy of their checking account number that they pay me on as I did sue once and we used it to collect the funds.  Also if the 7K is over the amount of small claims, then perhaps breaking out each individual doctor is under the amount.  But that is a pretty big amount and cannot believe that you let it go that high unless it is a large account and that is only one to two month's worth.  But again, try to get the correspondence directly to the docs as sometimes they do not know that the bill is going unpaid.   Good luck, let us know what happens.   Hopefully you are no longer providing service to this clinic.  Do some digging and get home address phone numbers if you are that gutsy and for that amount I would probably do it. 


Again, good luck.


 


 


Ask to see the software in action, if
possible. Ask if there is a spellchecker, and whether it checks medical terms. Oddly enough, the supervisor may be oblivious to the fact that the MT has to enter all the terms into just a standard English spellchecker, but at least ask the question. Ask if it is compatible with ShortHand or other program like that. Hopefully you will be allowed to talk to an MT who is using it. You want to see how efficient or backwards the software might be, and hear the sound quality. Do you get to make your own normals, or share them with another MT, so that you can't correct any errors you might find (but don't say that about errors out loud). Most radiologists are the opposite of psych dictators (from my experience). Radiology dictators tend to be fast and very efficient and need somebody who can give 100% accuracy. And if you can catch misspeaks and tactfully correct them or blank them, that will help. (But they are so smart that they are always shocked if they misspeak, so it has to be handled very carefully). Always think about where in the body you are and don't make anatomical errors for all of those sound-alike parts.
It is not a class action suit as of yet
It is not certified class action because MQ filed for the proceedings to be held in NJ with all the other law suits. Therefore, this is stalling the certification of the suit to class action. They have received numerous calls over the checks.

Of course they cannot offer legal advise as they are not representing all MQ MTs as of yet, it is still the original 3 that filed, but I don't think it would be wise to cash it. That is just me. I know there are those that will disagree and call me names, but thats my two cents.
Does the class action include the DEP
platform? Somewhere, don't remember where now, I thought I read the class action was about the old platform MedRite and was for a certain range of years. Is there info out there that the class action pertains to DEP also?
emails for action plan
and now they send out emails wanting to know our action plan for wkends, whether we are working, so they are cvd. no extra $$, just remind you to "get the lines while you can"
I was in a class action suit once & got $600
nm
Legal action when not getting paid. sm

Hello fellow MTs,


I knew this was bound to happen.  I was an IC for a company and left after giving contracted one-week notice. Now I'm not getting paid for the work I did.


What is the first step to take?  I am prepared to get an attorney if need be but would like to take other steps before this. 


Anybody else have experience in this?  There are state differences.  I'm not sure which court to start with to start any court proceedings.  I guess that's where the attorney will help.


Thank you all so much for any advice.


Do most of us work the day shift, M-F? Action
s
I received an opt-out of a class action

lawsuit involving a certain MTSO and the other party involved (think it was formerly AAMT).  Anyway, since I won't get a dime even after having been ripped off all those years, I just threw it in the garbage.  AAMT, or whatever they call themselves now, plans on keeping ALL settlement monies for their greedy little selves.


When I worked for the MTSO there were rumors flying around about the 90 character line count that was then converted to 55 characters before going to the client.  The MTSO pocketed the rest.  Guess it really wasn't a rumor after all.  How sad. 


I was involved in a class action suit
against PayPal, probably 2 years ago, haven't seen a penny.  I was in a class action suit another time, can't remember who, and I did get some $$, I think about $15.00.   I don't initiate anything, just get e-mails or letters about them. 
I am part of three class action lawsuits.
Franklin-Templeton mutual fund apparently committed fraud while I was invested with them, Fen-Phen (the doctor's office notified me; sheduled me for a carotid ultrasound and had me come to a Radisson Hotel to meet with the attorneys) and MQ which I never really heard from but read about and this fraud took place while I worked there...

Bottom line is people should really not be getting money out of other peoples' pockets by fraudulent means.
Also, any action you eventually may take will have to happen in her state - not yours. nm
x
Might need to mail her a letter from a lawyer that requires a signature and take some action. nm
,
Affect is an Action (or psych state)..Effect is a rEaction
nm
Sounds to me like a class action law suit just waiting to happen! nm
x
could it have to do with the class action law suit, my credit card company did that once...
they sent me a check of some money they supposedly owed me because someone filed a class action suit regarding their not posting monies received the same day and therefore charging people late fees, etc.  I got like $3.46 for something or other. 

perhaps it was a class action suit that was filed, and then of course MQ would have to go back and pay any monies due to everyone regarding the line-count discrepency issue.

maybe I am way-off, but if it is on the QT, that could be why.  once they pay you off, they are no longer liable, right?.

anyone else have any ideas?
Anyone ever tried Dual Action Cleanse or any other colon cleansing products? sm
The infomercial was not pretty, and this guy focused way too much on BMs and such, but said that John Wayne died with 42 pounds of undigested material in his colon ... yuck!  Supposedly, you use this product and feel tons of energy and all that ... wondered if it was just more hype or maybe someone had actually tried it.  ?
Happens all the time. Make phone calls for more definite action. nm
s
I have definitive proof from the MT that the money is owed. The MT is also taking action
on her part to get the unpaid wages compensated by the owner through the Labor Board.
Talk about blowing smoke! No one, not one MQ MT has "joined" the class action suit.
Its not even up to that point yet.  We will be notified and given the legal options via the legal system. So, if you claim you "joined it", you joined nothing - just gave your name to the laywers. Nothing more, so get over yourself.  If there is nothing more to pursue after discovery, you won't be joining anything!
Or even notifying an investigative reporter/call for action type of thing on tv - nm
x
Offshoring
Just remember YOUR elected representives allowed this offshoring to happen. Nothing illegal thanks to the politicians is happening when work is shipped offshore while allowing Americans to lose jobs while increasing taxes.

This is all the fault of the greed and power of the politicians and the corporations. It's not about an Indian worker who has been offered a job and can't lose their accent to please the consumer.

As far as contacting you in a few years when our jobs are overseas, they are shipping them out daily. Where have you been? Check OSI, Precyse, etc. They all offshore some outright and some undercover.

I don't have problems with the workers. I have problems with the government allowing this to happen and the corporations who cut costs while cutting quality by shipping work out of our country.

Keep you eye on your enemy and it is some Indian who is trying to keep a job to make a living.
To those against offshoring...
Have you noticed that anywhere you call, whether it be the phone company, the gas company, the insurance company, you get someone foreign on the phone.  Oh yes and do not forget Microsoft and other computer related companies.  I realize this cuz i get so damn mad because i can't understand what they are saying to me and they don't understand what i am saying to them.  Now I noticed the post below about Earthlink and I am wondering...all of you who are against this..what are you going to do about the fact that the computer company that creates most of the software you use has places in other countries..your gas company..you insurance company, etc. etc. etc.?  I, too, do not agree with offshoring, but I do not think there is REALLY anything we can do about it.  Not working for companies that do it, yes thats a start, but what are you going to do about the rest of reality and everyday living?  Just curious to opinions on this.  I am not flaming..just concerned.
Offshoring - don't be too sure.
Look at history....work will be outsourced whether we like it or not. What happened to the steel, printing, shipping, automotive, and many other manufacturing efforts is happening to transcription. While we may produce a better product, if it can be produced cheaper somewhere else it will be. Sometimes MTSO's are forced to look at other avenues because they can't hire and maintain TATs. Clients want their costs reduced when it is already at rock bottom. Transcriptionists want higher pay and the profit margin isn't there to allow this. The transcription business has changed and will continue to change. After all....the only constant in life is change. The offshore MT is hungry and willing to give up just about anything to put food on the table. They probably don't argue, call in sick, complain or quit without notice. They don't bad mouth their employer. They just want to work...much like American workers decades ago. Take heed. I'm in the same boat and don't want to see it happen, but there are many factors that result in change. Transcriptionists are by nature not an organized group. We are mostly solitary and therefore have no voice or at least not one loud enough to be heard. We're all on production. We don't have time for such things. There is no large group lobbying for us. There isn't enough money in transcription anymore to have lobbyists and that is how...regardless of our protests...change happens...silently. People in India and other countries will learn to transcribe. It's only a matter of time. For myself, I am just going to try to do the very best job I can every single day and hope it is appreciated and know that I am not adding to the problem. Actually....I need to get back to work.
A - As soon as I tell them my pay has gone down about 40% since the offshoring (sm)

they are no longer interested in entering this field.  In fact, their mouths about drop to the floor.


Having another American MT is not going to save another American job.  They will send their work offshore if you are living next door and can do a 4-hour turnaround, just because the price is lower.


I'm getting out also, only doing part-time now and probably won't be doing part-time much longer.


offshoring
Don't know about this company, but there are companies that offshore and lie about it.  Know this for a fact.  I work for one.
OSi Offshoring - sm
If you are an employee of OSI, you should be able to access that article from the employee web page, try going back to about April or so...it should still be there, where it was originally posted. Read it for yourself and maybe then you'll believe it.
Offshoring

Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me. All this happened before I started. New employees are probably not aware of it, like me.


I probably got myself on the $hit-li$t now, but that's okay for something I did today to see any reaction.  It wouldn't be the first time I've been on the list and probably won't be the last.


I will stay, though, as I really do like working for them...and I like the work..


OSi Offshoring

Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me. All this happened before I started. New employees are probably not aware of it, like me. This breaks my heart.


I probably got myself on the $hit-li$t now, for something I did today to see if there was any reaction, but that's okay. It wouldn't be the first time I've been on a list and probably won't be the last.


I will stay, though, as I really do like working for them. I like the work, and really don't have much of a choice anymore.


I think if these companies are going to offshore, they should send the work from the ESL's that can't speak English correctly. That work should be easy for the offshore companies for them to do.


Offshoring
I just wonder who these big businesses think is going to buy their products/services when all the jobs are in foreign countries.  Not only that, when there are no jobs, or only minimum wage jobs, who's going to pay the big fat salaries of our idiot politicians?  Heard on Lou Dobbs the other night that while the minimum wage remains stagnant, the senate voted themselves a hefty $30,000 raise!!!!  Doncha wish we MTs could "vote" ourselves that kind of raise?  Or maybe we're not so greedy and we'd settle for a fraction of that.
Offshoring
Is there any way you can share as there are others of us who suspect this also and maybe it's the same company. If not, that's understandable too.
Offshoring
Keystrokes does not!
MQ OFFSHORING

 


I need some Positive Proof that offshoring is occurring.. .will help in our hospital's fight against outsourcing all of us..  thanks


 


Offshoring
There was an article on the internet quite some time ago where a MQ bigwig admitted to MQ offshoring. I have posted on here before regarding offshoring, tell all your family and friends that when they go to the doctor, they need to tell him/her they do not want ANY part of the their medical record being offshored, including transcription. You have that right as a patient. My family and friends know. Unfortunately, none of us have been to the doc lately.
offshoring

I agree.  I am also wondering where they are making out on this deal.  I have lost 5 Docs due to outsourcing to India.  They are not making out in the end.  They just think they are.  It is such a shame that the US Transcriptionist is the one that are suffering because they do not know what they are doing.  Maybe they should have asked one of us to do the math and we could have showed them that they are not making out.  Also, you have to take in consideration that all these people's(patient) records are going over to another country.  I bet they would have something to say about that.  It is such a shame that someone thought they were going to save a buck and did not do the math, and now we are the ones that are being hurt.


 




 


Offshoring
I too have been affected by offshoring, and whether we see some advantage or not, it is here to stay, and will eventuallly grasp more than half our work in this country. In my experience, I too am amazed at how much doctors will put up with this poor quality work. I personally know of, and have seen large medical offices, radiologists, large clinics, send their work to India, and put up with their error rate as if it were an acceptable part of the equation. BUT, if an American Transcriptionist put out an inferior report, we would most certainly get that pointed out immediately. I watch with amazement at how much those clients are willing to put up with all because they are paying 6 to 8 cents a line. AMAZING. I know of one radiologist who sent his work to India three years ago, kept one transcriptionist in his office to edit. Three years later, she is still marking all the reports in red ink. She has confronted him with the red-marked reports under his nose, and told him how much he is really paying for the reports as she spends her whole day editing. He won't look at her in the eyes, ignores her comments as if she were not in the room, and goes about his business - three years later! I have been told by CFO's that this is only a transition period, that eventually, the Indians will get it right, and it will be worth the hassles, as this makes "good business sense." We all need to realize that right now is the time to be smart and start training in some other field because even if it takes the Indians 10 years to "get it right," this offshoring has dropped the American wage to a paltry low.
No Offshoring
This may have been asked in the past, but I am pretty new to the board.  What nationals do not offshore their transcription?  I am currently an in-house transcriptionists, but I am looking to do some at-home transcription on the side.  I do not want to support any nationals that offshore.  We need to keep our jobs in the US!!!!!
Offshoring
Yes post a list, and I for one will write..as that will be so helpful.. can you post addresses also?
because that is offshoring
and nobody wants that.
Say something against offshoring and see how
x
offshoring
Excellent letter. You've inspired to start writing my senator too.
Offshoring going away too?
Hi all;

Offshoring may not be the problem. All of the local med facilities here are moving to EMR (Electronic Medical Records) and releasing ALL of the transcriptionists, both in-house and contracted. Truth be told, we are more than a little worried over this. Has anyone else seen this move in their area? Is there a way to 'cash in' on this move to EMR? Thanks.

so does offshoring. nm
xx
Aside from offshoring
Regarding a post down the list a ways ... what about the EMR software that the president might be pushing for? - I think that is probably a bigger threat. Shouldn't we write about that as well?

From below: "Basically just wondering if we should write to Obama regarding keeping the same systems in place and just putting the electronic files now dictated together (rather than specific software for the docs to do their own).

We could mention that we don't want to lose our jobs."

again, offshoring.
nm
Offshoring and tax time. sm
Don't forget, a lot of these big box tax preparers and even some local accountants send the work to India to be done.  Ask ahead of time.  I did, so I went back to doing them myself.