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Working on my tax return and have a couple of questions, I'm hoping

Posted By: someone can answer! SM on 2009-02-19
In Reply to:

First, A company I worked for briefly at the beginning of 2008 sent me two different W2.  One lists all the pertinent boxes (wages, federal taxes paid, etc).  However, in box 15 where your state and local taxes are listed, they have the wrong state.  It is a state I used to live, but haven't lived there for the past three years.  I definitely did not live there at all in 2008.  The second W2 they sent list nothing in any of the boxes except box 15 where it lists the correct state, income, and taxes I paid.


So does this mean I paid taxes in a state that I didn't even live in?  And if that is the case, do I have to file a return in that state?  Or do I contact the company and ask they correct my W2? 


I am using TurboTax to prepare my return.  My second question is I have a 1099 from IC work I did in 2008 and after I enter the information, the software asks me for a business ID code on attachment form C for my "self-employment business."  I have no idea what to put on this line.  I looked at a list of the codes on the IRS website and there is nothing that is specific to medical transcription.  There is a code for Data entry and then under legal there is a code for document preparation and stenotype.  Those are the only two codes that even come close.


So which one do I use?


Oh, and have I mentioned, I HATE TAX SEASON! 




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A couple of ISP questions/Meditech.

Not sure which to go with.  Currently, due to location, have dial-up.  Considered netzero which I guess is still technically dial-up.  I would like to have something that I can travel with, which leaves netzero or satellite.


Will be beginning work with Meditech based program, working directly on company's website.  I'm concered about dail-up being slow with Meditech, but have heard that satellite does not work well with Meditech either.  Any opinions on what to go with or anyone working currently with Meditech on satellite basis?


   SO CONFUSED!           TIA


A couple questions to ones that have their own business…

First, do you carry error and omissions insurance or a clause in your contract?  Second, when you do your billing--do you find it easier to bill twice monthly (1st and 15th) or once monthly? 


 



A couple of Shorthand questions, please.

How do I quickly modify an entry?  (I've been pulling up shorthand, putting in the short form, clicking on Dictionary, then modify, then cut and paste....there has to be an easier way).


How do put yo (for year-old) directy behind the age without putting a space (i.e., 32yo instead of 32 yo). 


How do I stop SH from working when I'm in my e-mail or on the Internet for a brief time, but don't want to completely close out the program?


The ShortHand directions I have are very unclearly written, so I'm grateful for any help to these and upcoming Shorthand questions!


Couple questions for Frustrated
I was just wondering if you have had training or experience working as a medical Transcriptionist before this job. I know you said you had a degree in business, but you didn't say anything about working as a transcriptionist before. If this is the case (no experience), I would say the company you work for was having a hard time finding a qualified person to fill the position. Therefore, promises made that they couldn't or wouldn't keep.

Anyway, good luck in trying to get your hours rearranged. I know how difficult it is to work with children at home. Luckily mine are in school now.
I have a couple of questions about a resume.

I saw a resume where the MT put that she had experience with " ESL (English second language) " and one that was all fancy saying "uncommon ability to understand diverse accents and dialects "

and also - if you have done QA, what do you call it? -just QA or quality assurance.


can any answer a couple if Winscribe questions?(sm)

I'm a fairly new MT and have done all my MT-ing so far with C-phones.  I am being switched to a Winscribe system.  My question is this:  Will the MTSO be able to monitor how fast or slow I'm transcribing?  I'm not trying to get away with anything.  It's just that I've read horror stories from some MTs on certain platforms where the MTSO can see (and calls) whenever they're "off the system" (bathroom breaks, looking up a word, legitimate coffee-breaks) etc.  I work as an IC and have a window in which to get my work done rather than a set number of hours.  What I'm wondering is if the MTSO, with this new system, will now be able to "see" if I'm not typing every single minute.  TIA


I get it. But in return for supporting the small business the poor folk get nothing in return.
I understand why you don't shop at Walmart. You support those who support you but it doesn't work that way for me. I can go to an independent shop and by a dishwasher, pay lots more for it and get nothing in return to supplement my support of their small business. Same for all the poor folk who are shopping in Walmart trying to stretch a paycheck. I am glad Walmart exists for those folks.
Questions - Working with Mobile Broadband Access

Hi ..


I need to set up to work away from home and am considering mobile broadband wireless. 


I would appreciate any information ya'll could give me - I know nothing about it, other than most service is 60.00/month ... specifically, what carriers and how much time does it get you? 


Thanks so much!  I have verified the major carriers provide coverage in the area I will need to be in. 


Merry Christmas!


I have 2 middle age couple friends. One couple became pregnant from condom failure.
This is not just "irresponsible" behavior! Both couples are "fixed" now, because for them, reliable birth control was NOT. But it's an error to assume this stuff happens to people who are unmarried or irresponsible. Both these couples are raising 2nd families, now, but it wasn't "irresponsibility" that did them in!
Meditech questions and Cerner questions. Any input is appreciated. SM

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

 


  1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?

  2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)

  3. How is a line defined in Cerner?

  4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?

  5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).

  6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.


    1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?

    2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?


Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 




I am hoping to do this ..... sm
I want to do 1 or 2 small accunts. Getting ready to "pound the pavement." For the first time in a long time, I'm feeling excited about this profession again.

I decided I wanted to take control of my career to the best of my ability. I didn't want to continue complaining about the sludge I was getting thrown my way to type, the office politics, the disorganization.

I decided, as John Lennon used to say, "No problems, only solutions."

We'll see how it goes. Thankfully, for the most part, my income is a cushion income, so that helps.

I think with the handheld digitals it will be easier to do this than it used to be years ago.

This site and "other" site are chock-full of great information.

Good luck (to all of us adventurous souls)!


I'm hoping many will see it and think
a *fare* opportunity? Kind of says it all, doesn't it? lol
I was hoping Roddick would win, but
he made WAY too many errors!  Fedderer was definite good but Roddick could have returned a lot more than he did.....guess he had a bad day...unfortunately that does happen!!  I'm glad that Wimbledon at LEAST makes the players hold to the "white" clothing rule.....truly believe someone needs to do something about the obnoxious noises that some players feel are necessary for each and every stroke!  Give us all a break, please!!!  Have a good 4th!! 
Thank you! That was what I was hoping to hear.
dd
was hoping it would be a start though :(
..
Thanks! I'm hoping to get the hang of it

nm


Well, maybe they are hoping beyond hope that your
position might be the kind that perhaps offers the equipment after all - if they like you on the interview. Or perhaps lease it.  That has happened to me on some jobs I have applied for. I am an awesome MT, though, with decades of experience, yet new to ICing, and not lots of $$ for equipment. I remember I didn't even know that a C-phone and a dictaphone were the same thing! Some jobs were kind and saw a good deal in me, so they helped out with the equipment. And they were more than rewarded by helping me out. Must be frustrating for you, but that's part of being your own business.
I like it. Depends on what you are hoping to get out of it.
bn
I agree, but I am hoping that it's...
Soul Patrol...yeah baby! Go TAYLOR!!!
Hoping for the best for you! I have a Smokey too!...nm
/
Hoping they see the light!
I agree with you 100%. I have been in this line of work for over 30 years. (I started off making $3.23 an hour in 1975 (had no experience) and worked with the large belts on a Selectric typewriter. I have always LOVED this profession; however, over the years the stress has increased for me especially in the last three years.

I would like to be able to retire from this job, yet I worry constantly about our profession and my job just going away and what will I do then? I still work in a hospital and the way we are treated even has changed. Pencils only provided, no Kleenex along with the attitude that if we are not typing, we are not working and virtually have problems just getting up to go potty or take a much needed break.

The out-sourcing has really shocked this old gal and I don't really know about the quality of the work returned to comment on it. Does anyone know? I would be curious.

However, I am hoping and praying that one day, our MDs will say "ENOUGH!" Maybe, they will decide that paying for quality work and providing benefits, etc., far outweighs the cost savings benefit of outsourcing to other countries and sadly in companies in the United States also. When I think about the knowledge and dedication we put forth every day to produce quality work, it just really hurts that the hospitals and doctors don't want to pay benefits and pay for the best transcriptionists they can find.

Signed, The Dreamer.

Thanks D!! I was hoping that was the case! nm
x
True, which is why I was hoping she could
x
And I am hoping just the opposite of
VR being done away with. I love it, mine is an excellent platform and with all the ESLs we have now, I don't have to rack my brain to find out what they are trying to say. Thank goodness for VR and I hope the hospital I work for keeps it.
Also, hoping there is more work.... but guess what!
Just got up to start my shift 1 a.m.- and there is no work in the system?
Hoping doctors would read this, how to get thru to them?
IMO, they just don't really give a crap!  As for respect, that has to be earned.  I'm sorry but just because you are a doctor doesn't make you God and doesn't make you better than that poor Transcriptionist behind a keyboard!  I've been doing this stuff for 10 years and am at the end of my rope with these so-called professionals.  By the way, IMO, seems to me they're getting worse at dictation.  These whippersnappers getting their degrees now can't even make a decent sentence; singulars for pleurals as in "there is no murmurs, gallops or rubs," or "conjunctiva is clear" emphasizing the word "is" when the patient obviously has both eyes, but I'm told to transcribe verbatim, and that's what I have to type, makes no sense to me, but they got it.  Docs who couldn't or won't pronounce a drug correctly if it killed them and don't even care to, English a second language whether foreign or not.  If docs really cared at all, just a little bit, they would slow down enough,  not slur, not eat, stop it with the sucking in ________ (enter your own word for it) cause it makes me absolutely ill the sickening sounds they make with their sinuses, or burp, just talk to me as if I was the patient sitting there, so that I can understand them without making me sick, a nervous wreck, a detective, a pharmacist, a mindreader, or drive me crazy for my few cents a line.  Then you got QA who is on another high and mighty jaunt.  That's another story.  Just sick of the whole job.  Can't wait to retire!  Just my two cents worth...
Thanks for that great info. This is what I was hoping
from my current MTSO. I was looking at another company that requires their ICs to have this insurance. I guess the grass isn't always greener.........
Hoping companies will get their VPN, etc. compatible soon.
Vista is so smart and fast -- at least my computer is !
Hoping, that sounds like a strange way to SM
get fast. Where did you read it? I have to say it sounds like a big waste of time.

Back in the old Selectric typewriter days my friend typed an amazing 140 WPM with very few mistakes, but no amount of watching her sped my clumsy, badly coordinated fingers up. After years of experience I probably eventually did about 75 with lots of mistakes.

With intensive use of an expander, tho, which I recommend over any other method to get fast, I now easily beat that old seemingly-forever-unreachable 140wpm standard (but I prefer not to think what her count must be with one.)

Also, when I'm working "in the groove," I know I'm as fast as I can be, so I'd also suggest researching methods for reducing distractions and whatever else it takes to settle down and concentrate.

And something I've never done--learn to the get most from your programs.

Boring, "same old" type of advice, I know.
also Hoping...speed comes with experience...
nobody starts off fast because we do have to learn new dictators, research, et cetera...but once you are a bit more experienced I bet the speed part will follow right along...don't give up!!!
To Hoping: Pretty sad state of sm
affairs isn't it? Posts made my eyes kind of burn too!
Nope, I was hoping to clear $20K this year, - sm
but won't, I should hit $19K though or just under for my MT work. I do have another PT job though and that will be about $2500....so I will reach $21K but it just won't all be MT work. Now need to set a fire under my butt and shoot for $25K next year.
I was hoping to get this info on here from someone from that office that can give me a person to
speak with that would be willing to discuss issues I would want to know before I would decide to transfer. People that work there would know the best person for this that would be the most likely to be honest about everything.
I'm an on-site, hoping to work at home soon. I originally (s/m)
got into MT for the flexibility, but over the years on-site MT where I work has no flexibility at ALL. They stand there all day looking over our shoulders, monitor our bathroom breaks, and even go into apoplexy if there is a gap of more than 30 seconds or so between finishing one report and starting another. Who needs THAT? And the OFFICE POLITICS.... OMG... I'm so sick to death of office politics, power struggles and back-stabbing. I would rather do ESL doctors all day long, by MYSELF, in the peace and quiet of my own home, on a flexible schedule so I can go outdoors in the daytime once in a while, and maybe get enough exercise that I won't become fat like all the rest of them in my office. After being an MT for more years than I care to admit, I know that money isn't EVERYTHING. It's not always how much you have, but how well you MANAGE what you do have. So at this point in my life, I'm ready to have fewer dollars in my wallet, and more peace in my life.
I have a 1997 Tahoe that we bought with 55K on it - now has 160K and hoping to get to 180 K (sm)
we've had very few problems but just had to put in a new fuel pump.  Love the way the Tahoe rides - doesn't ride like a truck like some SUV's.  Good luck and have fun shopping!
OMGosh. You too??!! I'm hoping to get back into transcription here in the next week or so (sm)

and I am dreading it big-time.... I know when I had to retype a report while QA I was not only S L O W - but WOW (!!) what a humbling experience..... Much easier to verify what is in front of you than to dream it up yourself!!


I'm hoping to go part-time January 1, at least for several months.
I am just so burned out I'm not getting the lines I need, my house isn't getting cleaned, I don't seem to have any leisure time, etc.   I'm hoping that going part-time will be enough of a break that when I am working I'll be better focused and can actually produce the minimum lines that I need.  
I was thinking the same - hoping for a "been there, done that" post to enlighten
x
I've been doing the same thing with my Smartype LOL was hoping there was a program
xx
I will quit also...I'm hoping to get into doing something else, such as medical billing/.coding
n
Return it
Return the thing before your thumbs fall off.

You could try prying off the space bar and cleaning underneath it - maybe something is stuck under there. I have found four-course meals under mine. Otherwise, an exchange or return is probably your best bet.

See Main Board for a discussion on keyboards if you are interested.
I would definitely return it and have them
x
as an IC how do you get ANY RETURN?
ive been an IC for 10 years and only ONE TIME got a return, which was the bush tax cut of $600.00

I never used to pay quarterleys and would get hit with a huge amount in April... and then two years ago owed like 10K in back taxes, (apparently hadn't paid enough) putting me into credit card debt, which i never had before, so disappointing.

I'd be careful if i were you!

Now I take 30% of EVERY paycheck and pay quarterleys, just not online. i need to figure that one out
LOA with return to job
Your job should be safe. You would be eligible for FMLA at the very least, I think. Nothing works better for what you are describing than time off. I had to take 4 weeks off earlier this year due to an injury, and my mind needed the rest. It is so much better now that I'm back. A mental break never hurt anyone.
Would you return to MT if.....

Here is the gist of my question.  I stopped working as a MT to homeschool my children and be a stay-at-home mom.  Hubby said I had enough to do just by schooling them so I quit my career.  My youngest will be done in three years.  I will be around 50 years old at that time....Would you go back to school or would you come back to MT?  Is it worth it?  I know it has started paying less, but honestly, it was paying less back then...can we say MQ and manipulated line counts here.....


I am kicking around the idea of going after a degree in something ?  Honestly, I never knew who or what I wanted to be in this life.  I just kind of fell into transcription.  But I am also looking at I know transcription very well....it really doesn't sound like it has changed a whole lot since the time I left, and do I really want to be going to 'school' at 50 years of age??? 


I would appreciate your advice, insight, wisdom of life learning experiences, etc. 


 


Thank you.


on return to MT
If you don't need to work, stay home. Travel. Do your family tree. I would give anything right now if I could stay home and not work. I would love to be able to just putter around my house, fixing things and repairing things, working in the yard. I hate being an MT and only do it to pay my mortgage and provide food. I hate transcribing so many doctors who don't really even know what they are talking about half the time and all the unnecessary tests they run when if they would use clinical judgement, they would not waste so much money and running up patient's bills. But of course that is the objective, running all the tests and as many tests as possible to keep the hospital in business. But if you should not have insurance, no matter how long you have been going to a doctor, they drop you like a hot potato. The whole health care business makes me sick.
I guess they're hoping enoug people will quit
that it won't be a problem anymore!! Sigh.
I have the 2007 Saunders CD and I think it's kind of slow. Hoping the QL is better this year tha
nm
Carriage return

Thanks, Dixie.  I couldn't even remember what the "thingy" was called. LOL  Talk about rhythm...click, click, click, fling the thingy, click, click, click...never missing a beat.  And you're right, that purple stuff would gag a magot!   How the HECK did we do it.  This has been a fun thread.  One can only wonder what stories the younger generation will have to tell when they're the "seniors."  One thing I can't figure....I used to work 6 days a week, carried cloth diapers to the washateria, didn't have a dishwasher, no a/c, etc. etc and STILL seems like I  had more hours in my 24 hour day than I have now.  What gives?


I think you have a return programmed
after the last word in shorthand. Always make sure your cursor is at the end of the last character in your expanded term and it will not do that.
I did MT before becoming a nurse, return afterwards. sm
Hated nursing. It wasn't all that I thought it would be. I found I could make more being an MT and with a heckuva lot less stress and backbreaking labor.