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What would be a late fee or percentage suggested?

Posted By: MoodyJen on 2007-09-18
In Reply to: Any IC charge late fees? Please advise. - tbpmt

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.


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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.
I suggested it before. There should be one
test through that testing site, then they could archive our results.  Companies could access the data as needed.  It takes quite a bit of time to do each test for each company. 
Not sure where this was, but someone suggested here
that you contact the drug reps and see if they will help you.  Most of them travel around to all of the clinics/doctors offices in the area and will know who is looking for workers...  Again, not my idea, just thought it was a great one and am sharing it. 
Ok, so have done what the first suggested but
how to clean the heads?
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This is a bit out of date:   http://www.bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos271.pdf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
ME TOO! ROFL That's why I suggested it!!
Mom's know best, huh?! :)


you are the one who suggested shooting herself --sm
which seems more nit witty to me than asking what kind of flowers you like, in response to that dumb of a question. I have had two relatives take their own lives in the past six months, and one was by shooting themselves. I dont't take those kinds of remarks flippantly. Perhaps a better choice of words on your part would have elicited more empathy and helpfulness. I know computer problems can be stressful, but gees, what a solution that is! and I didn't call YOU any names.
Here is one somebody suggested. I haven't used it yet. (sm)
http://www.eneel.com/


Two different doctors suggested it to me.
I tried it for a while but found myself slouching anyway. It is fun sometimes to sit and bounce or lean while typing. My office is just really small, so I had to put the ball in the living room when I wasn't using it. The kids would play with it. Really annoying because they're teenagers and their version of "playing" involves throwing the ball at each other across the room. I deflated the ball and it's in my closet.
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.
I agree with the other poster who suggested
finding an hourly MT at home job.  I worked at home for our local hospital during my first several years.  There are still MTSOs and hospitals that hire people at an hourly rate at home.  Good luck with it.
To those MTs who suggested the FTP (free) software SM
Thank you so much! DH downloaded it, installed it, and I am transferring files with no problems....something the IT department of this MTSO couldn't do in six weeks of haggling!!! So thanks to those of you who helped out - it was GREATLY appreciated!
I've suggested before that perhaps you all might come up with a day & time
that you could all meet up in chat every week. Why don't you all discuss it and let me know. I will make a post on what you decide.
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? 


This is quite morbid, but it was suggested by a poster in another forum that
perhaps knowing the great loss of life that will occur among those who were unable to leave the city, the govt believes this is the easiest way to contain the bodies.

It is obvious the local govt and the residents never believed this would happen. Did you see the reporter on Fox interviewing people on Bourbon Street having hurricane parties and joking about being drowned?
My husband is an attorney and suggested the same thing to me once.
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos152.htm

It definitely sounds more promising than MT but it does also sound like you'd be back to Square One with training/schooling.

It may be well worth it.

Best of luck whatever you decide!
Try bran flakes - vet suggested - worked for me (and my dog)

sorry. check out PTalk like the other poster suggested. nm
/
i'd check into the olympus as the other poster suggested. sm
it comes with the software to upload the dictation to office computer, most come with docking station, etc. then you'd need a program that would encrypt the files like hypersend or cryptext or something to that matter to return the work to them. you can also get efax for free and someone in the office can fax you the pt lists that comes into your email or fax, whichever you choose.
Thanks. I had to change the way I was viewing the site and then tried what you suggested -sm
and it seems to have worked.  Now I just need to see if I can get Express Scribe to work for me.  It has been a while since I have typed this way.  Thanks again for your help. 
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. 
Friend suggested I type while listening to the news.
x
A while back I suggested we all write a letter to the editor about this . sm
I did, and they declined to print it.  Evidently it's not a big issue in the minds of some.  Individually we can't do anything about it.  Perhaps collectively.  We need a petition to go to ALL senators and representatives from our respective states, and none of this "anonymous" stuff, either.
It is irrelevant what percentage the service takes of 'your' earnings...sm

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


You might want to check out Consumer Reports 1/08 magazine, had article about ins and suggested visi
x
Your point was? You called me jealous and lazy, and suggested I work an 8 hour shift.
Now you're being "nice". I am NOT worried about others.  Why would I want to work an 8 hour shift and produce 1000 lines if I could be missing SOMETHING and increase my production?  How mean-spirited you are. I would LOVE to produce more and work less, so that I could spend more time with my loved ones. And to read on this forum the astonishing line counts most MTs are claiming to make regularly - well, I'm either doing some really, really wrong, which I would like to fix, or I'm not doing something that I need to be doing, which I would like to fix! Thus, my sincere question.  Truly I believe it is time to leave this board, though I used to LOVE it so much, cause you just can't get an honest thread running anymore about anything - even trivial threads turn ugly by 2 to 3 posts, let alone INFORMATIVE ones like how honestly asking my fellow MTs who are huge producers HOW they do it? As in straight typing or using normals and standards?  I try to hang on this board and stay "positive" despite the negatives, cause I really like it here and I really like the admin, etc, but I'm not a glutton for punishment.  I know a lot of the old regular MTs who actually carried on intelligent conversations have gone to the board where you have to pay $$$ to post.  Apparently, one can still have kind meaningful conversations over there - guess the $$ part weeds out the trolls?  Don't know, but its sure sad.  Please, don't misinterpret this as me thinking anyone would give a hoot if I left here - cause I know now there will be the normal "good - who gives a crap? good riddance" flames, but really, the MTs who are so trollish are just ruining it for themselves.  Thus is their lot in life, though.
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?
Too late now, but what you should have done...
You probably should have deprived yourself of sleep last night and slept today, or better yet a couple nights in a row, just cleaning house or something to keep you "awake" so you can get a jump start on training your sleep cycle.

It is SO hard to do this job sleep deprived because it is so sedentary. I can easily stay up 24 to 35 hours as long as I'm doing something physician and nonbrain-taxing.

If you find yourself nodding off, take a 45-minute nap. I'm sure your employer will understand this is something hard to go into "cold turkey."

Good luck!
Late fee

I do the opposite, I offer a small discount when they pay within five days and in the past five years I have had my checks well within that time frame (usually 2 days) and never have had to ask for my check.  


Patti


 


Late fee
I really don't think a late fee is going to make them pay you any earlier.  You really need to sit down with the office manager or whomever  processes your invoice and talk with them.  They probably won't pay the late fee and still take 3 weeks to pay you.  If you stay with the account and this has been a chronic problem you gotta budget to have money to tide you over for the 20 to 30 days or how ever long it takes them to process your check.   Talk to them see what they say and then decide if it is worth the frustration to continue with it.   If this has been going on for quite a while doesn't sound like it is going to change so you either have to live with it or find another account.    In 22 years of doing my own accounts I have never had anyone pay me any later than 10 days after recepit of invoice and that was just a couple of time.  I guess I am lucky but it is the truth. 
late pay
Well, I feel the same way, I don't want to mention the name of the company at this point. I do know however the company actually goes to pick up the checks from the hospitals and has to get them in the bank before she pays her ICs! I have been in this business over 20 years and it's the first time I have encountered something like this.
Late $
We sound like we are in a similar boat. Very nice people, very appreciative of good work, and it does get paid, just late, which most of us cannot handle because our bills need to be paid on time. How do you manage with your bills?
late pay
It isn't easy! When she does pay I try to get enough ahead to pay bills when she is late which is basically every pay period. And luckily, my husband has a good job, but it is one which slows down in the cold months. I Christmas shopped about 6 months ago! Plus, our work has not been slow and I have been able to make an extra $200 or so each week. How do you manage?
Late pay??
Ok, I've never had a problem getting paid before, so I'm not sure what to do. I worked for this small MT company and they still owe me a month's worth of pay. I've tried emailing the person, but she just keeps blowing me off. What should I do next?? (Of course, I quit.) Thanks.
You will get a 30-day late on your...

credit report.  You may also get an "Intention to Foreclose" letter, which will scare the heck out of you.  Those letters standardly go out the day after the 30 days passes.


I agree that your best bet would be to ask for one deferred payment.  Some lenders will do that, but some are very hard-nosed and NEVER do it. 


Will you be able to make your March payment before the end of March?  If so, you should try to schedule both February's and March's payment to come out of your account on specific days . . . say, on March 2 (as you mentioned) and even March 31.  That will keep you from getting another 30-day late.


Once you start to lag behind, it is soooo hard to catch up again.  I'm hoping they let you defer a payment. 


153 in my late 20s...however I do believe it is going down.
as I once was, that's for sure.
don't know if too late, but....sm
doesn't your insurance cover such things...mine would have replaced the whole thing.
Definitely late 40s for me
Here I sit, having worked six days in a row with one day off and starting new week facing more OT due to computer down with one MT and death in family with another.

Did it in my 20s and 30s with no problem.

Now, however, I have eye strain and sore hips from sitting so long and really am rum-drummy if that is a good description. Fear making an error.

And, I do not make much more money as I have to proof everything and think before I type which slows me down in long run.

Yes, give me 40 hour week over the age of 40. Long complicated reports is where my expertise is these days.

Late Pay

I recently had to leave a wonderful lady and I mean absolutely wonderful due to late payments.  She had paid late several times over the last year.  I had even changed my bill dates so that I could accomodate the usually no more than 5 days late that she consistently was with pay.  Last month she was 6 days late, which would have been okay with me, except that I had an automatic payment come out the day before the pay was due to be DD (which I signed up for due to promise that pay would be on time this way).  Fortunately I was paranoid and called my bank and was made aware of the problem, but I had to borrow from my niece, my 21-year-old niece!!  HOW HUMILIATING!!!  I told my very extremely wonderful MTSO that I could not work for her if she was late again.  I also had it set up that all I needed was my August pay checks on time (meaning within the 5 day "grace period" I gave her) and the September 1st paycheck, then I was set to just put her checks into savings. 


Well, that never happened.  It did not occur to me that she would dare be late, but come August 21 I went to deposit a refund check from a Church camp as it was canceled due to fires, and the bank tells me that after depositing $220 that I was still short in my account!  To make things worse, it was not my money that paid for the camp.  I was depositing the refund check and then writing a check to my mom's Church as she had used her tithe money to pay for my girls to go to camp!  I still was trying to be calm at this point and asked the MTSO what was going on, well supposedly she had sent me a check on the 7th of August.  Funny thing is I did not even bill her until the 9th.  First it was a certified check, then it was a money order, then it was sent on a different date.......... I could go on and on, but needless to say I had to quit.  I cannot afford to work for free.  I cannot afford to be late on my bills. 


I stayed with this MTSO for so long despite late payments because I thought I new I would always get paid.  We had a GREAT working relationship, except the pay, and I really wanted the long time IC, great reference that this provided me...... you know a real "feather in my cap" for my resume.  I plan on going after my own accounts next year after saving a couple of months worth of bills.  BUT, in the end I had to threaten legal action to even get what I was owed, and I was sick for several days because of how ......... well sick this made me to have to "burn" that bridge, and how sick it made me because I ended up having to get very, very ugly (which made me even more sick) in order to get more than "I will check into that and get back to you" on when I was going to get paid. 


This is a touch situation that you are in and only you can make the final decision.  I personally LOVE being an MT.  I just have learned to not "put all my eggs into one basket."  I work for a couple of companies, one a national and one an MTSO.  I can get extra lines at both if desired.  It can take a long time to find the right fit, so hang in there if you like being an MT.  Of course, teaching is a very honorable and rewarding career choice too. 


Please excuse any typos, tired, but felt it very important to respond to this one to let OP know she is not alone and there is hope.