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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

You might want to look into another line of work.

Posted By: yikes on 2007-06-15
In Reply to: with what you are getting in terms of payment... - NeUroTiC

 


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Have a hospital I work for and they consistently change work types and do line counts. (sm)
Management just doesn't understand in order to crank out the work you need to be proficient by typing the same accounts. Go figure, they just don't get it ??
Usually work "live" on a Cphone, while connected. There are ways to record & work off line, bu
s
I don't make 0.08/line.. I work for no less than .13/line. nm
.
The bottom line is doesnt matter what they pay if there is no work you make no money. Bottom line.
:
I have NEVER seen another line of work like this!!! sm
I'm not a spring chicken, and I'm not naive, and I've been in this business for "only" a mere 12-13 years. I'm sure there are plenty of MTs out there who will tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, for this reason.

However, I've been in business for myself in other lines of work. I can honestly say I have never seen such a negative, oppressive, self-denigrating line of work as this.

I don't know a single other profession where it is NOT acceptable to find coverage for yourself (yes, at the risk of losing your client) so that you can get the rest that every human deserves.

Again, this individual TRIED TO GET COVERAGE and the client will not LET her. You are preaching to the choir!!!

Unreal. Just unreal.

As for rates, for most industries, if you know where to look, you can find them. The Internet is a big place.
I won't work per line. $15-19/hr

Are you going into another line of work?

DSL does work through the phone line
I have mine through SBC. They sent filters to put on each phone line. Does not interfere with phone usage.

Since the modem is plugged into an electrical outlet as well, you will lose your connectivity if the electricity goes out.

You seem overly worried about no electricity. lol ???
I don't work for Heartland, but the line
about the average age of a US transcriptionist being 59 years old is a BUNCH OF CRAP for having to send work overseas.  What a crock!!!
ICs - how much do you make per line and do you work for ...sm
a large company, small company or have your own contracts?
Wow! This must be the only line of work where the wages

I think you need to find a different line of work.

I think it's better to work by the hour than the line.
By-the-line SOUNDS good, but there's no control over what accounts you'll get, or how accurate the line-counting software they have is, etc. You may start out on an easy account, but as you pick up speed on it and start to make money, they'll switch you to a harder one. And when you pick up speed on that one, you'll get another harder one. And so on and so on. Benefits probably won't be as good at home, either. The only thing that's better about home is not having to deal face-to-face with management. But at least you have the security of knowing your paycheck is going to be the same each time, and won't dwindle down to less-than-nothing if you have a bad day, or a bunch of bad dictators, or no work. And you mentioned a RAISE. That's something most of at-home people will never see in our careers with any company. The only way we seem to be able increase the cpl is if we change companies. But then you still end up on that treadmill of being given work that you may do well, but you can't make money doing. They get ya coming and going.
I work for NTL and make .12 line
nm
I work two accounts. One is by the report and one is by the line.
Keystrokes has both, and it depends on the type of account. Some have a lot of normal exams and plain xray, the one by the line has mostly MRIs and CTs. I think it is fair and I make great money.
If they want to pay me 20 cents a line to work weekends.. I'm
and no I'm not making it up or exaggerating.. with 26 years experience you really CAN make excellent money in this business.
I would let her know she hired you for MT work at a certain line rate (sm)
and things have changed gradually and you need to discuss another rate for editing.... I would charge her either an hourly rate for editing - whatever you feel comfortable with - or a flat line rate - and I would not do anything else until you come to some kind of an agreement.... she definitely knows you know your stuff and is taking advantage of you.. good luck!!
I'd force her hand while you line up other work.
I would continue doing the work and returning it as soon as it's done. Once you've transribed/printed it's their responsbility from there. I've seen so many docs think they can't afford to pay a measley paycheck but can well afford big houses, cars, vacations. Let's face it, they really don't know what 'tight' is. She seems fishy, very odd. What doc wants you to postpone getting work done? That's just plain bad business. I'm very sorry for you. I think you should keep doing the work, line up something else, and let her squirm and have to face you. If she phases you out by trying to avoid you, nicely get in her face, and make her be accountable for how she's treating you. I'm also very sorry about your husband. You'll be in my prayers.
all clinic work companies pay 6.5-8/line.
NM
Good luck, what line are work are you in now? nm
x
MTSO I work for, get paid by the line.
x
I work for 3 docs and am paid by the line
One doc will do 30 lines in 1 1/2 mins. and another will do 30 lines in 7 mins. Quite frankly I hate working for that particular doc. He ummms and ahhhhs and shuffles papers constantly. I definitely feel cheated when I type his charts.
The bottom line is if the work runs dry, then

It's not rocket science.


$25.00 per hour is more like it. I work now at per report and 14.5 cents per line
and average $30-42.00 per hour
If you're so brilliant then, why aren't you in a better line of work?
1. Surgeon.

2. Attorney.

3. College professor.

oh, and yes, my brilliant one - what year exactly did you graduate with your Ph.D. from Harvard?

LMBO
I get 12 cents line/pull work off their VPN, transcribe in --sm
Word and send back via their encrypted e-mail.
does anyone else work for a service where you have to get your line counts from a website?(sm)

I presently work for two services.  For service A our line counts post to the company password-protected website.  However, that isn't a problem as the program we use shows us our line counts as we go along.  Also, the line counts are available to us, from the program, within five minutes at the most after finishing the job.  It also posts to the website within that time frame.


However, for service B we have to completely RELY on the website for our line counts.  I'm not sure how the site works or how the jobs/counts get posted to that site but there are ALWAYS times where this site is down (usually around the end of the payperiod so we can't tell how much we've typed at any giving moment.)  Also, we cannot verify whether those counts are right because we do not have access to what is considered a line (other than the standard "65-character-including spaces").  Does anyone else work for a service where you have to get your line counts this way?  What do you all think. 


How many hours a day do you work? Are you still paid per gross line?

Not saying I don't believe you.  One has to consider too that you have 20 years of experience, that makes a BIG difference in production.  I'm about four times faster now than I was when I first started out.  Newbies need to consider this too when contemplating MT as a career.


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.
It means one MTSO offering to pay you 3, 4 or 5 cents/line less for the same work you do at another!
 
ExTest users - what about not being able to see line count except on website - does this work out ok
nm
Your company will dictate whether working off line via recorded work is even
s
It probably means you're not Indian and won't work for 2 cents a line.
``
what? I used to make .02/line off my subcontractors work and felt guilty.SM
The MTSO is making .07 line off your work? I know you did not say how much you make, but the MTSO must be charging the client a high rate. Like I said, I had several subcontractors helping me as an IC for local clients in the past, and made .02/line on their work (I am the one who printed and returned the work). You deserve better and are selling yourself much too short! P.S. - Unfortunately this is what is happening to this industry, and it's called greed.
Lets hope it is not geared line count per hour the way we run out of work and are in so many
other accounts all the time. Boy that would be bad.
An excellent platform and a good line rate with plenty of work -
Then leave me alone and let me do my thing! :-)
I used to work for a hospital that used Meditech and we found the line counts to be inconsistent. SM

I used to be a supervisor and was trying to find a way to monitor productivity on Meditech and found that line counts fluctuated greatly!  I did all kinds of comparisons - typed reports in word and counted the lines in word with MP Count and then compared it with Meditech and there was sometimes near a 200 line discrepancy at the end of the day.  Then we found that running a line count twice in Meditech on the same MT and same reports would get us two different numbers with about 20 lines difference.


Meditech is just not MT friendly, but unfortunately MTs are at the bottom of the list of considerations when choosing an EMR system.  I gave up and started keeping track of minutes of dictation.


I would charge more per line for working holidays or if asked to work scheduled days off. SM
But did you address that in your contract? 
Anything on the line makes up a line even if just one letter or number. Every line of print is a
s
Gross line = each line on page counts as a line, even if it's only 1 word. nm
x
Gross line means anything on a line is counted as a line.

You can get an idea in the difference using documents you have already created, assuming you're working in Word. Simply open a document and check the properties. Click on the statistics tab and you will see the number of lines as well as characters with and without spaces. If you're currently getting paid by the line and a line is 65-characters with spaces, do the math and see how that number of lines compares with the number of lines in your stats.


One thing to keep in mind: if you have a blank line between paragraphs, instead of hitting the enter key twice, format your document to give the appearance of blank lines between paragraphs.


Gross line, also including blank lines because my line rate is so low. It all works out in the wash.
x
$.06 gross line / .70 = approximately $.0857 cents per 65 character line.

A gross line is anything on a line versus 65 gross characters per net line the other way.  You make more money working for the gross line than for the 65 gross character line, as long as the line rate's OK.


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.
Yes if gross line or 65 character line with spaces....Good Deal!!! nm
x
1) do you have a contract stating line counting and line rate,sm
if you look at the IRS website it's pretty clear what constitutes IC versus SE versus employee. You might want to photocopy that along with a copy of your contract with your next invoice and also put on the invoice any monies due from past invoices they "changed"...maybe catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Good luck!
New England, 16.50/hr, 8 cents a line after minimum line count..
full benefits available with general contribution by the hospital before you start paying for them, retirement, 403b, all benefits, and working at home as an employee, BUT, you have to live local to the hospital.
I changed my line to a business line, talked to a supervisor sm

at SBC, told him what I was using the service for, and got the okay to use it -- $49/month unlimited. 


I have also used The Neighborhood, and their unlimited is truly unlimited.  I also explained to them when I signed up what I was using it for and their comment was "unlimited means just that -- unlimited, no matter what."  I cannot remember how much they were, but it might be worth checking into for you.  (www.theneighborhood.com)


 


Good luck!


What is the average line/hour for a 65 character line with spaces? NM
.
Curious, do most IC's usually charge by the gross line or 65 character line?
Thank you~
it certainly is not pay worthy at 4.5 line or 3 line. I know the companies cram it down our throats
nm