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Yes, you are paid for every line whether it has 1 word or 65 characters

Posted By: Moving on on 2008-05-08
In Reply to: Being paid gross line - Susan

I would think so anyway if it is straight gross, paying. Remember you physical sometims have short lines, family history, etc.


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Think about .07 a line ---IF a word is considered 5 characters - sm
So that would be 5000 characters/65 (if a 65-char. line), gets you ~77 lines. Divide 5.5/77 and get .07. Now are spaces included? If so how is that factored in? Presuming from the offer that spaces are not included, .07 is fine if just starting and probably the average if less than 2 years experience.
When is a word only 5 characters. I thought 7-10 was an average and 10 words a line? nm
s
usually one "word" equals 5 characters, so it's still being paid by characters. nm
d
Are you paid by the line, word, hour?

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

A standard 65-character line usually consists of 65 characters with spaces unless, of course, the employer does not pay for spaces and then it would be 65-characters without spaces.
A gross line is any line with typewritten characters on it - no matter how long or SM
how short.  So your gross lines may be longer than 65 characters, but you get credit even for a line as short as "Sincerely,".  If your gross lines are not being counted that way, then you are not being counted on gross lines and are probably getting screwed.  I'd look into that if I were you.
You are paid for all characters that appear on the "screen".

Line count includes all the characters that print out, not what you typed in to get that result. Keep using that expander; you've already seen how it has helped improve your productivity.


Boy, if it worked the other way, I'd never use an Expander again and would make even more money with the typos!



A gross line is any amount of characters on a line

for instance...


MEDICATIONS:


Effexor


Prevasid


 


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


 


 


How do they define a word? Is it characters? Is it the MS Word definition
of a word? You can fit approximately 500 words on one page of typing. It's about $.055 per line, or $2.75 per page. It's up to you. It's not great, but you are a newbie. If you don't have any other offers out there, try it for a while to gain some experience.
how many characters per line?
http://www.medicalese.org/line_count.html
90 characters per line SM

It's a long line.  However, when you are finished transcribing the 90 character lines you take a character count and divide by 65 and that's your line count.  It doesn't matter if there are 120 characters on a line, as long as you divide the character count by 65 and multiply by 9.5 cpl, that's how much you get paid. 


Clear as mud? 


90 characters per line
I just started working for a new company and was told I would be paid for 65 characters per line, including spaces, at 9 1/2 cents per line.  I noticed when I was transcribing that there were really 90 characters per line with spaces.  Has anyone ran into this problem at their jobs?  I'm not sure what to make of it. 
Characters per line - sm
With all the discussion going on about CPL, I wonder what character count ICs use, that is if you have a choice.
Without spaces, what line is that on? 65 characters?
t
Pay by line versus pay by characters; what is
nm
Depends. How many characters per line?
nm
Do both count the same # of characters per line?
If they're different (65 characters per line, 55 characters, etc.), then you need to let us know what they are before anyone can give an objective answer.
A 65 character line is 65 characters
on a line. If have 650 characters in a document, that is equal to 10 lines, then multiply that by whatever your cpl rate ie. If 0.10 cpl then that would be 650 x 0.10 which would equal $0.65, if 6500 characters, then that would be 650 lines x 0.10 which would equal $6.50. This is if it is a 65 character line including spaces.
A 65 character line is 65 characters
on a line. If have 650 characters in a document, that is equal to 10 lines (650 divided by 65), then multiply that by whatever your cpl rate ie. If 0.10 cpl then that would be 650 x 0.10 which would equal $0.65, if 6500 characters, then that would be 650 lines x 0.10 which would equal $6.50.
65 characters constitues a line, no matter where
they are arranged on the page. You'd count all the characters (and spaces, if they are included in the count) in the document and divide by 65...that's the number of lines.

Hope that helps!
Line padding is also adding little blank characters

like spaces throughout the report to get paid more.  I saw reports at MQ and Sp that had lines of spaces shown on reveal codes between paragraphs where someone either didn't know how to work their expander, was cutting and pasting, or was deliberately padding their lines.


As for typing out abbreviations, I work on an account that doesn't use abbreviations at all.  I use otcx for over-the-counter, etc.


Both 65 characters per line -- one counts spaces, one doesn't NM
X
You don't get paid an hourly rate you get paid by line - sm
so because of how you are paid (not an hourly rate) you don't get OT, especially if you are an IC.
9 cpl, 65 characters per line, spaces, headers, footers included. employee status. nm
 
Gross line = each line on page counts as a line, even if it's only 1 word. nm
x
That still is not a paid line rate. If your base is $0.10 per line, it will be $0.08 cpl.
Considering other companies pay 4 or 5 cents per line for VR - you are still making out.

Question about what is PAID for a line and what is BILLED for a line
Does the MTSO actually bill for headers, footers, and other things the transcriptionists are not paid for?  I worked for a company a while back and their copy of what each Transcriptionist typed the day before and our copy was a lot different, about 30% different.  Their copy was the billing copy. So, double their enhanced amount and subtract our 9 cents a line, it comes to a bigger profit than what I thought.   
My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
A gross line IS a gross line regardless if it's 90 characters long or 1 character long... SM

I'm very sorry that your lines are 90 characters line and you get paid by gross lines.  You are cheating yourself - that's not my fault.  You cannot change the definition of a gross line.  So I gues I'm not understanding what you are trying to say.  Now if you are trying to say that your line equals 90 characters and that's how you figure your lines, than you are not using gross lines.  You have defined a line to be 90 characters, whereas most MTSOs define a line as 65 characters.  If that is the case, then I must say again, you are cheating yourself.


So which is it, do you get paid by gross lines or by a 90 character line?


gross-anything on line counts as line,even one word
xx
Getting paid by the line
You would get more being paid by the line.
Where can you get paid .13/line?
I have worked for Medquist for 6 years and don't get paid anywhere near .13/line.
I get paid 0.15/line
.
I get paid by the line sm
You want to be careful if you accept a job paid by the page. The going rate by the page is around $1.25. This is fine if all you're typing is plain films, but $1.25 to type long reports is a rip off.
WHAT? I get paid by the line for VR.....sm

you don't necessarily know what you're talking about - I get cpl for VR and I'm 10 times faster doing VR than straight transcription!


Where are you getting your info from? 


If QA is paid by the line then I would
yes she is getting credit for the whole report.  But she is probably getting 3 cpl so not really that much.  You should get feedback from QA and company should contact doctor re dates but whose to say they have not and have been ignored?  Been there and see both sides.  Sorry!
QA IS PAID BY THE LINE ALSO
It's not just the MTs getting lousy pay and trying to make line counts for the day... as QA editor, I struggle for my lines and when someone doesn't care to proofread or take pride in their work, I pay the price. QA is difficult!
I am QA and paid by line also and...
I have an MT one in particular who always takes feedback as a personal attack. Why is that? I am just doing my job. She actually is a good MT. The bad ones just ignore it all.
Hello! Please SM, ? about how this line is paid. Thanks!

65 character B&W line + ICP


What does ICP stand for and can you explain "black and white line" to me?


THANKS!


Paid Gross Line
Paid 0.09 a gross line with Courier 10 and 1" margins. How do you figure this?
Paid Gross Line
I was trying to figure what it would came out to be based on a 65-character line rather than gross.
We're usually paid by the line SM
I think MTEC is worth it, at least from what I hear.
I was paid from 4 to 6 cents/line

I definitely wouldn't take less than 6 cents a line, and even that is pushing it to really make any money. Most of the reports I got for one company had to be pretty much re-typed, so it was kind of like getting paid only 6 cents to trascribe, which is horrible! However, a few of the docs reports were pretty good and one was even at 90% recognition, where I pretty much just had to fix the formatting. It may be better for radiology, as I didn't do any of those.


To make a long story short, I hated VR editing and didn't make any money at it, even at 6 cents/line.


I would much rather do ME, (that is, if it paid the same line rate) sm
Which it does not, so I guess I will be sticking with MT, at least until I don't have a choice.
Do employees not get paid by the line?
I know I do!
I am paid by the line in radiology and I
Tried being paid by the report but was given long report after long report and actually lost money. Being paid by the report, in my opinion, is good if you have a fairly large amount of x-ray reports which are short and sweet and you can move right through them and that makes up for the longer reports such as MRIs and CTs.
No, but I am a QA editor paid by the line
There are a few of us I guess.
Paid by line question
I have been a Rad MT for 7+ years and have always been paid by the hour.  I have been offered a job that is paid by the line (starting a .08 going up to .10 when they don't have to read your reports anymore).  They also don't offer any benefits so I'm guessing this is IC status?  I'm just wondering if you can make money being paid by production and how bad is it during the slow times of the year?  Any idea on what an average Rad transcriptionists lines per day would be?  I am a single and self supporting so money is a big deal (as it is with anyone) but I need to know if I'll be able to make my bills with no problem.  Thanks in advance for all your input, help, etc.
Do PA's get paid to dictate by the line? SM
I am doing a 25 minute preop of a patient admitted for removal of two lipomas.
paid by page or line
wondering how many people out there get paid by the page instead of by the line? I am getting paid by the page (varies from 1.50 to 1.80 a page, and half that for less than 15 lines on a second page). Welcoming any insights to what others are getting.....thanks!
Being paid gross line

I have been offered a job that pays 8 cpl per gross line.  Is that a good rate? Thanks for your input.