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honey, it works like this: The MTSO(service) charges the doctor X amount per line or report, and

Posted By: anon on 2008-06-13
In Reply to: You are definitely wrong. Doctors' - offices send out work too to services.

takes part, gives you the rest. Therefore - the MSTO(or service) decides your pay.

If you are paid 8 cpl, surely you do not believe the service charges the doctor 8 cpl - do you?






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I charge the same amount for a "normal" report as for any other report.
You still have to listen to the dictation and change anything that's different.  I had one woman try to pull this on me.  She'd dictate, "Just pull up my normal, but change this, change that, switch that around, move that, add this, delete that, and change the other."  Then she'd only want to pay me what equated to $.03 per line.  She wanted 1:1 on her dictation to transcription ratios.  I told her to take her cheap account down the road because I'm worth more than that.
MTSO charges
I do not believe that no one on this board knows how much is charged - I believe no one wants to say - I think that MTs, either employees or ICs would leave under great numbers if all was known about any MTSO.  I knew of one company that charged the client $25 per hour during the week and $27.50 on the weekends - that was to work in-house - some of the MTs were making $17.50 straight - weekday or weekend while others were making $11.00 - so you see - it varies and the MTSO's main concern is how much they are making - not so much what the MT is making - which is why we no longer make the money we used to - plus the outsourcing - but I know that it takes a lot more time to make any money than it used to.
irrelevant what MTSO charges the customer...
as long as you feel the price they pay you is sufficient for you. nuff said.
Line charges
I had this done to me as well. From experience 1) be aware she will dump you. 2) Look for another account. 3) Be the dumper instead of the dumpee. Just go along to get along and get rid of them.
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.


 


 


OMG - this company only CHARGES 1/cent a line. WTF?


What is this???/!!!!!!!! 


 .....quick, shoot them before they multiply!


 


_______________


http://usatasp.com/


"At a cost of only 1 cent per line, USA Tasp offers a Secure Web Enabled environment, which allows Medical Transcription Service Owner the ability to manage their dictations, transcription, quality of the medical record, invoicing, and payroll.


So, whether you have 5,000 lines per month or 500,000 lines per month, be assured that your cost per line remains the same."


Best battery backup with a reasonable amount of time - just lost report when elec blinked Grrrr
nm
USATasp charges 10 cents per minute for voice & 1/2 cent per line
email to info@usatasp.com and we'll get back to you.
I could switch to DSL but the phone company charges 50 extra a month for being on line for more than
So either way I will have to pay more.  I guess no one else here is affected or concerned by this but the article said that other companies would follow suit if Time Warner has success.  The article said it would affect the teleworkers who are on line for long periods, not the people who just use cable for reading their email.  
So you are providing the service we need to cut out the middle man? From doctor to us? nm
:]
I do same. As for service, I have used it and it works
xxx
If the doctor says it, I transcribe it. It is his/her report, not mine.
x
That is okay. Yes I do work for a service. The doctor uploads directly to me and he is pretty reg
Thanks for your input.
..or when the doc dictates "prior report LOST by XXX Transcription Service...AGAIN." sm
I work for a national MT company, we do hospitals all over the country, I work from home. I have NO control over where the chart goes once I send it in, I'd bet the original chart was never dictated and hence never 'lost' by us....but in the case that it may have been, THEY HAVE THE PHONE NUMBER of the company to call them, they have specific contacts at the company for issues such as this...I CAN'T HELP YOU WITH THIS, especially when all they're doing is bitching at me on a voice file. Funny, it's always the same couple of docs complaining of lost dictations. Curious that it's JUST THEM. ;-)
MTSO-Medical Transcription Service Organization or Owner

I have to share this. Got a call from a doctor today inquiring about my service. See message.
He apparently has been working with a service that outsources to India and he is so fed up at the bad quality of the transcription in addition to the fact that he wants to work with someone who actually speaks English! How about that!! They will all learn the hard way, but they will learn. There may be hope for American MTs yet.
Gross line, also including blank lines because my line rate is so low. It all works out in the wash.
x
the service that works on our hospital account definitely pads
Many of us inhouse have tried to point it out to the supervisors, i.e. tons of spaces after a header, three or four spaces after a period, using spaces instead of tab button, for god sakes, spelling out milligrams and computerized axial tomography and every single abbreviated term that you can imagine and stuff like that. they even make their blanks verrrrryyyyy long!

Thank goodness the contract with them is going to be coming to an end by March. It just burns us that we get monitored for it, and the outside service does not. They also do not get penalized for mistakes either.
Proof that it takes only 1 made doctor to gripe about 1 report and out the door you go! nmx
x
I assume she works for a small MTSO or something, not MQ
x
Read the report backwards from end to finish. Works great for me.

work out an indexing system that works for you and copy (almost) every report into it.

while Ops offer lot of challenges -- that's a good thing, imho, REALLY ...


I keep my op stored in WORD sorted by


(1) client


(2) specialty (general surgeon, ortho, plastic, podiatrics, ENT, GYN, GI , urology, neurosurgery etc) .... and then in word folders


(3) within speciality, within client I name individual reports like this:


470 hernia vental simple


470 hernia umbilical


470 small bowel resection 


=========================================================


470 would be that doctor's id number -- the file holding 470's reports would be named with doctor's last name 


=========================================================


works for me, although I do usually do big time "indexing" until I've gota bunch of copied reports.


=========================================================


It's really important to NOT consider these NORMALS until you are more familiar with the dictator ... however... this is worthwhile ANYWAY because the joy of OPs is that most doctors say pretty much the same thing in 80% of their reports ... sometimes more. Gastroenterology and GYN  are excellent "easy money" most of the time but you MUST pay attention and change every difference ...


 


All these saved reports need to be updated when you review your QA ... those phrases that doctor mumbled yesterday are probably mumbled 24/7/365 ... follow up and record this information.


=========================================================


I use Emedicine for my go-to for a lot of things... while they don't have op reports they are stellar at terminology and spelling, hyphens, and capitalization as far as I can tell.


One of the fabulous things about op reports is usually NO MEDICATION LOOKUPS!!!! (although you will spend time finding out the latest heart stents, hip replacemetn component marketing  names, etc. ) Most medical device manufacturers have "pretty good" web sites -- use them, rather than relative Google popularity wrt spelling, caps, etc.


Good luck -- there is a learning curve but imho it is more than worth it -- Surgeons understand that their dictation is in essence their "BILL" when it comes to Medicare and insurance -- they have a vested interest in it being intelligible and complete ... they may talk really fast but most of the time, if you have samples, you will find they are saying variations of the "same thing" using the same words/terminology. 


Oh, and OP pay better.


Sincerely, good luck.!


When I have had a problem I use the on-line service, don't have to
worry about not understanding them. All done on real-time chat.
I think the on-line signature service
was something like 90 for me last year, can't remember exact amount, and he really helped me a lot.  The first couple of years, I went to an actual office too and got charged an arm and a leg and thought what's the deal, charged for every page and form they did and thought I can just plug the numbers that I gave her into those screens as well as she can.  They were charging more than my ex got charged at an accounting firm when we were married, and his business was WAY more complicated.  That's when I started doing my taxes myself using some system on-line.
pay by report/line
The companies pay by line or report according to the account. After evaluating the account, if the rad. reports tend to be short or use a lot of normals, they pay by the report. But the same company will pay by the line if docs on another account dictate long, wordy reports. If account is evaluated honestly, it is SUPPOSED to be beneficial to transcriptionist.
report vs line
It really does depend on the acct -have been doing rad for years and work for several different accts right now - I get 9 on one, 9.5 on another and 1.50 per report on yet another. The platforms you are typing in makes a huge difference too. So, I think it is hard to say which is better.
Internet service without land-line phone

I recently looked into this subject myself.  If you have Verizon available in your area, you can purchase a plan at about $55.00 per month with a two-year contract.  You will receive a card that you can insert into your laptop, which will provide you with unlimited Internet access at the speed of DSL.  As far as I know, there are no other cell service providers that have come up with this type of card yet, but I'm sure it's bound to happen in the future.  Another option is to purchase a satellite telephone and phone cards as you go along, but the cards are really outrageous in price.  One last thing that I would suggest is that you phone cell providers in your area to see if they have any technical gadgets you could attach to the cell phone for Internet access.  Many of the satellite phone companies have separate packages you can buy, which can be attached to laptops or PDAs.  I also have a TracPhone, so I know it does not come with hardware that will do the trick.


 


Good luck to you in setting everything up.  With the way that technology is moving, I'm sure there must be a way to accomplish what you want. 


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. 


Radiology - per report or by line?
I'm switching from a company that pays radiology reports by the report, not line, to a company that pays radiology report by line, not report. Which is better? I've had so many looooong and foul reports, yet we get the same buck per report no matter how long it is. It would seem as tho getting paid per line is better - any thots?
line versus report sm
There is just no way of knowing until you're there.  It's crazy.  I used to work for a company that paid by report, but they were all MRIs and specials.  Then I worked at Spheris for a few months being paid by the line and could never get my line count because #1 the platform sucked (copy and paste.. it took longer to save a report than to type it) and #2 I was getting a lot of short reports.  A lot of companies pay by the line on certain accounts and by the report for others. So you just have to try it.  If it's not working out for you after a month or so, it's time to look elsewhere.
Radiology pay report vs line?
Any opinions on which pays better, 9 Cents a line or $1.10 a report.  I have always been paid by the hours, and unsure of which way is better.  I am a fairly fast producer.
Pay per report/cpl/gross line
Feel free to email me with any questions on this subject. I have been a radiology Transcriptionist exclusively for 15 years. But I did medical records for the 15 years prior to that. radioloy is where the money is.

Tina
Made 11-12 cents a line working for a service in 1989
sucks
Just read whole thread. Yes. Working for a service is okay because line rates
actually have gone down. Just make sure they pay for spaces, headers, footers.
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.
line counts are counted within the report
and depend on how it is set up. They can vary the line lengths and also whether or not it counts blank lines. There is no spellchecker. I think the most important thing to learn is whether or not you sign on through a Citrix server. In that case, you will more than likely get lag, which will kill your radiology line count.
11 cpl 55 character line, MTSO in California

MTSO I work for, get paid by the line.
x
Take concern/questions to MTSO. Ask how line

you are being paid correctly at a certain line rate but if she cannot SHOW you how those figures are arrived at, I would be very leery that she is being less than honest with me.  If she knows exactly how she is figuring lines to pay you, she should be able to demonstrate to you how figures are arrived at. 


It is not MT versus MTSO we have a bottom line too, & right now it is -
NM
Is there anyway to tell if a report is skipped by the status line on a Lanier? TIA nm
x
Cut and paste a report into Word and run a line count there.
nm
$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
Per report if they're short, per line if take too much time. nm
:)
The ones that I hate are where the doctor dictates a full line or paragraph,
and says, "No, wait, go back, change that."  Then you have to delete everything you already typed and retype the new dictation.  Some of these newer doctors do that to nearly every sentence.  By the time you finish the report, you've typed and erased half the report.  Do we get paid for that?  NO.  I don't get it.  We still have to pay for doctor visits if they misdiagnose us, then we have to pay for the subsequent visit to fix what they didn't diagnose the first time.  We should get paid by them for typing what they said, erasing it and retyping what they meant to say.  They're getting our wallets coming and going.
For california MTSO's. Are you charging 65 cpl or gross line?
Trying not to price myself out of the market.  Thanks for the help.
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. 
national/small MTSO are both on-line companies
there is PT and orthopedic work.
Great platform, but curious about being paid by line vs. report as well, which is best?

how about looking for a company that pays radiology reports by report and not line? nm
x
It means one MTSO offering to pay you 3, 4 or 5 cents/line less for the same work you do at another!