The key here is 1 account for many, many years.
Posted By: mqperson2 on 2005-09-12
In Reply to: I should say.. - MQPerson
How many dictators? I made that good before DQS, and of course, MQ lost the accounts. Now on an account that you never get the same dictator twice in a shift. Makes it extremely difficult. Happy for you, hope it continues.
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I have had the same account for six years - sm
One of the doctors hates using tapes ... so he decided that he would dictate over the internet. Guess what? He hated it.
Then he decided that the whole office should use a transcription service. Guess what? He found out with each transcription service that if you wanted a stat letter done it cost him about $35!! $35 for a two page letter!! And he was angry because none of the companies would print the letters. They wanted to send them back by email and have his staff print them out! They also charged various line rates for various letters, which was totally ridiculous.
I charge $5.00/page to transcribe the doctors letters, they fed ex me my tapes no matter where I am (and they pay for the fed ex). Guess what? I'm still more cost effective than the transcription services. I manage a same day to 48 hour turnaround time. My bill averages around $600-800 month and I have never worked more than 20 hours a month for the group.
Don't fret it. I have found over the years that doctors will always try to find a cheaper alternative to getting things done, but I have never ever been let go because of bad transcription, and whenever this has happened, I can guarantee you this .... they will call you back!!! I can almost promise you that!
My doctors have come to rely on the fact that they have been able to call me on my cell phone and ask me if I could call them back before the end of the day because they have a stat letter that needs to be done. I tell them what time I will call, transcribe the letter, email it to them, or print it from where I am and mail it to where it needs to go. Now keep in mind that they don't do this all the time, but I would probably say on the average of about 4-5 times a day. They will never find that with a transcription service.
I have never raised my rates. I take my time off around the main doctor's schedule. I have even tried to find a replacement a couple of times for them for when I really needed the time off - and it all comes back to this - I am a perfect fit for my doctors, and they now know that.
So cheer up. You'll be surprised - they will call you back.
I had my own account years ago
transcribing for an office of 4 docs. They all admitted they were were terrible at grammar and such and it was my job to make them look good on paper, but they were paying me very well for this at $25 an hour. Just a few years ago another account I had with 2 docs it was the same thing at 15 cents per line. Unfortunately, all these accounts went to an MTSO at less than half of what they paid me.
Now I am with one of the major companies as employee and it is the same as you are saying, QA inconsistent and always getting dinged for fixing things and dinged if you don't, at slave wages compared to what it used to be.
Yeah, QT. Same account for 4 years. nm
nm
Been undercut, after 4 years, losing account, I am sure.
I am a small MTSO and have had this physician group for 4 years since I started my service. I have always charged them just a flat rate per 65 character line, which in the North East I feel is reasonable - 14 cents per line. Never charged them extra for reprinting reports they have lost (which have been many over the years) and I always did the printing and delivering daily for them. Now some other vendor comes in and says they only charge 11 cents per line. This group comes back to me and says that their "final offer is 12 cents per line".... I told them, no way....MY final offer is 13 cents and NO PRINTING! Did I do the right thing?
Same for me, I made more 10 years ago. It depends so much on account, SM
work type(for me), and expanders. I find it hard to stay motivated when report after report is ESL and a work type I can't make money on. The above poster likes radiology, I like OPs. It is easier to stay motivated when you have that.
I've had a Hotmail account for years
They are updating it to "Windows Live Hotmail" which is much more like Outlook Express. You have 2 gigs of free storage space if you need it. I only use a fraction of that - it is the address I use when I'm ordering something online so I won't get tons of spam in my "regular" email.
I've lost a local account today that I have had for five years......
I cannot believe that this happened to me today. I went into one of my doctor's offices this afternoon to pick up his tape for today. I was given a tape and told that his wife, who is the office manager, wanted to see me in her office. I thought nothing of it because she sometimes has extra things that she wants me to type up for her and we talk quite often also.
She tells me that she just has not gotten around to talking with me yet, but "tomorrow we will start dictating through a company over the internet". I was blown away! She said she wanted to give me a break and that if it does not work out she will let me know. The whole time she was tell me this she was writing me a check as I had just turned in an invoice.
My first inclination was to throw that #@%$ tape at her and say "do it yourself", but I knew that wasn't the "professional thing" to do. I was thinking how could she do this to me, not even a 24 hour notice. She handed the check to me, I snatched it and walked out.
I have had this account for five years exactly (began August 1, 2000). I have never took a day off, never raised my rates, never asked anything of them, and my work has always been the best possible quality. I have been the most dependable person they have could had. I have passed up other accounts because of them, and I always put them first. Thank goodness I have other accounts to fall back on. In our town, there is only one other transcriptionist besides myself, and we both have more work than we can handle most of the time.
Just thought I'd remind all those other MTs out there that no matter how good we are and no matter how much we try to please everyone we are still not appreciated. I will never be fooled again. No one will ever receive the attention from me that I gave them. 
3-1/2 years experience, type cardio only on clinic account, and make 9 cpl nm
nm
Lost account of 28 years to Dictaphone because hospital believes it will eliminate all transcription
Curious if any of you are working for Dictaphone or Infomatics and doing an account out of Miami with mainly ESL dictators? I was convinced I would not lose the account after a few days with VR. However Dictaphone is not using VR right away and will transcribe reports the regular way until they have a database. I am certain this hospital will never be done by VR. I posted a job on here about a year ago offering 18 cents per line to help with this account and not one person accepted after hearing the ESL doctors we have. They are that bad. Anyone else have this happen to them? Losing to Dictaphone And we have had to do most of the work for over a month since they supposedly took over because their system is not working.
What is the difference between an acute care account and a multispecialty account??..nm
nm
I've never had a problem switching from account to account.
The problem I had was being switched too soon. If I don't get one account spec solidly in my memory with QA feedback on mistakes before starting another, I get confused. The other problem I had with former jobs was inconsistent QA. One person tells you one thing, another person tells you another.
Lately, I don't have a problem with it. Right now, my binder has 8 account specs (some I've never had to use) and I'm picking up a new weekend job for a while. The terminology and report formats stay basically the same. It's just all those little preferences. LOL
what is your account and specialty on the account?
no one is watching. tell us all about osi.
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?
Look, if I were on an account that
kept me sending more blanks to QA than was allowed to qualify for an incentive program, I would ask for another account or get with a different company.
I've bid off accounts before; I've also changed employers because of this problem.
I've been there. It's not what I wanted so I fished until I got the catch I wanted.
As well, if your dictators are dictating on cell phones, that can be a real source of contention with HIPAA guidelines and they should be reported. I report that when I run across it; I also tell my supervisor I won't do that physician again if he is dictating on a cell phone. I've never been given a problem with that.
Second account........sm
Does your company base full-time status on line count or on hours? If line count, it doesn't matter if you do the work in less than 8 hours. You're still holding up your side of the bargain and you have every right to refuse to work on a crappy second account. Just tell them you've decided that your one account is enough and keep your second job. Same goes for the post below stating co-worker is avoiding taking on second account. Unfair? I give her credit. She's a survivor. We're not the ones who started the game. But many of us are quickly learning how to play.
If your account uses the BOS ...>>>
you use numerals for all numbers (and the old way is to spell out numbers UNDER 10). The BOS says to use numerals for ordinals; 10th, 2nd, etc. BUT, many accounts have their own preferences, so why don't you check to see what yours wants?
My own account
My own accounts been doing them for over 4 years, it is just one office person that says anything. I think that she was having a bad day last week and we about went on a minor screaming match with each other not only over this but some other things. So will let things calm down, check and double check to see if I can figure things out but without showing me, I am in the dark like I explained to her. When nothing comes back you think all is great.
I don't do any of that. I have each account in a SM
separate folder on Word and I just click on the appropriate folder. I do 4 hospitals in one state and two more, plus a local.
I never have gotten anything mixed up that I know of.
Take the account and run!
You really need to ask?
I don't know anything about the account
I am considering an IC position and want to know what is an average rate. I have 9 years experience as an MT and have only wored in a hospital.
Keep that account @ .12 cpl
Keep that account (tell them you will meet or beat the competition). Don't say another word, just keep sending out advertising brochures, etc., until another higher rate really needs you, then tell these cheapskates that your accountant has informed you that not only are you losing money but it isn't fair to those others who do not question your charges nor would they ask you to "cut your rate." I've been in this situation and it has made me very depressed but that's the way these others work, they will undercut you for 1/4 cent, done to me by "friends". Just go along to get along and then you have every right to be the "dumper" instead of the "dumpee." Treat them like a bad boyfriend, until a better one comes along. Had this done to me many times and my only regret is that I let it affect me financially, I used to take the "moral high road" and now I take the "me" high road. If they are thinking only of their wallet, then you should as well if you need the money. Hope this makes sense. Most likely it isn't the docs, just someone in the office trying to say, "See, I saved you some money, so how about a raise?" Don't let them spoil your business accounts receivable, just hang in there and smile a lot.
You must be the OM at this PIA account. (nt)
I am getting .08 on one account and ..sm
.085 for the other acount I work on.
One account, can get only...
250-300 because they are obnoxious. The other account, can get sometimes over 500 lph.
Usually, each account has a
prescribed method of formatting and if you work for a service you should get all of the specifications for formatting in a document when you start working a new account. Inhouse, asking the manager will get you the information you need. It is purely a subjective matter with each and every account; however, AAMT and ASTM are working on best practices in dictation and these of course would include a standardized formatting for all medical records .. making it eaiser for all of us to do our jobs and then ultimately find information in a chart.
I have been on my account
with 15 doctors for the past two years, but I am sure someone else had it before I did. We are about to get a new one in August, as well. I am sure you have just about everyone else beat though.
Pay Pal Account
I have a dumb question regarding my pay pal account. My new employer pays through Pay Pal. I do have an account that I've used only for ebay transactions. She's asking for my account number. I can't find any information in my account as to what my account number is? Does anyone know what that would be? Does she want my bank account number associated with my Pay Pal account? Sorry, I told you this was a dumb question. TIA.
I have a second account sm
You should never work for only 1 company. I learned this the hard way. It's always good to have a backup.
Come take my account
First I get "Mrs. Ed" who talks just like Mister Ed and now I've got a dictator that sounds just like Granny from Looney Tunes. Gives me a little laugh now and then, guess you gotta look at the little things in life, or you'll become a looney tune! :) I pray next week is better for you.
If you want an account,
go out and honestly bid for it.....don't "steal" it from your MTSO!!!!! That is just wrong. Bidding on accounts that you don't know the MTSO is a different story. When you take an account from the MTSO you are an IC for, that is "stealing" and you'll get yours when you get to the pearly gates...if you get there!
Nothing really if you want to keep your account. sm
sometimes as an IC and in business, you must compromise. Looks like they are dictating the way they pay. Hey, it would be worse, you could invoice and not be paid for 60 days or longer. So, you will just have to adjust.
own account
I took a small account a few months ago. 3 docs, I do 2 and 1 has his own MT. She is an employee but we cover for each other for vacations. It is lucky they have that other person and they are flexible when I go away (rarely). Some accounts might expect you to find your own coverage. I have had problems with them not paying on time. It's not their fault, they have a large institutional accounting office over them. But MT is my only income so it has been a problem. Make sure you have a cushion in your checking account or whatever that you can live off of if you don't get paid for a while.
Another option might be an IC position if you can find the right one. I also have an outside contractor position with a local hospital that has employees, but I charge them like a service and they make no demands on my time.
Something to consider is how much time you will spend doing administrative things like billing, recordkeeping, marketing, answering emails, picking up tapes if applicable, traveling for interviews or training if you will be working on their system. I find that stuff eats up a lot of my time.
You might want to consider a 30-day trial period in case you dont like them. My account turned out to have a crappy dial-in system, they expected me to fax every report 1-4 times, and they eat up my time with emails and phone calls - each doc has his own secretary and they have another MT and they all tend to call me for things they don't need to bother me with like I'm an employee. Instead of telling them to find one person to deal with me we agreed I would charge by the hour instead. I have no problem telling a secretary who calls me at 7p I will take down the info and call her back during business hours unless it is an emergency. It is hard to anticipate those things hence the trial period.
New account
Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to convince a doctor's office that they need transcription done when they haven't had it done in the past. This is my first big meeting on my own and I am nervous about what to say. I have other accounts, but I never had to convince them because they were already using transcription. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Looking for your own account?
It has come to my attention that Travelers Insurance worker comp claims in some states are off shoring their transcription.
Contact your local offices and offer your services. I also know the pay is comparable to ours - (I have been contacted by an off shore agent to handle this for them ) - imagine work off shored only to be sent back to us to handle.
I will be starting with Charlotte NC. - Who is with me?
If you have an account
where you get the same doctors who repeat the same things you can make a template and not have to type anything or just edit a little. Around 15 years ago, I had a great job with a chiropractor who would do a 5-page report and all we had to do was change right/left and some range of motion measurements. Easily made $45-$50 an hour with him as part-time employees. Some people are also really good with Expanders like Instant Text. It really depends on your account. I have a huge hospital, too many dictators, too many bad dictators.
I would do what the account wants, sm
they are the ones signing my paycheck.
Do you really think every health care provider or facility is compliant?
Using it currently on one account.....
don't know what version it is, but it does not use Word. It offers a spell check at the end of the report when you come to send it. It does not highlight misspelled words while you are typing. There is no word expander/macro program with it, but I use SpeedType with no problem.
All in all it is simple, I have no footers/headers to worry about. I navigate through the demographic screen using ENTER/TAB/arrow keys. With the help of SpeedType I have to enter the dictator's name (4-letter code), MR #, date, pick the exam from a drop-down list and then type the report. F12 brings up Spell Check only if there is an error, sends the report, and files it. After a few reports you can get the rhythm down and move right along.
I have more than one account.
By more than one account, I mean I work for more than one person or company. I learned my lesson years ago when I got a $35 check at Christmas.
my account
I don't think my account now is any better or any worse than any others. I have been doing this for over 15 years and basically 2000 lines a day has been my average for the last 9 years and during that time, I have worked in house for 1 hospital and for 4 different agencies.
I just make good use of a lot of word Expanders and sit down and work and not answer the phones and talk to people and watch TV, etc.
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