Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

oh geeze - 4-6% wage decrease, I/we should be so lucky!! My pay has dropped (sm)

Posted By: declining-wage MT on 2006-06-12
In Reply to:

30% - yes, that's right 30 PERCENT!! - in the last ten years.  This is all due to the new and improved (ahem!) creative ways of now counting the lines and what's included and what's not included.  You can't tell me doctors aren't making money these days.  If there were no money to be made, NOBODY would want to become one!!


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

lucky you have not been at min wage
Yes MT, you have been lucky, and I would say you probably are not working for Medquist. Lately, those of us who have been working there for many, many years have found our line rates being cut several times while we are being routed only the worst ESR jobs out there as well as always with a different account where we have to study the client profile (CP) before we can even begin to transcribe. Next job, yet another client, yet another profile with different rules to study. I regularly made $30 an hour before, but with the changes, I have now been relegated to min wage. I'm looking for something else, believe me, but after more than 12 years, it is hard to make a change, especially when you have been so demeaned by your company that has put you in this position in the first place.
Geeze.. .they sure werent at Intepro.
x
Geeze I thought this was a place to go and get help from coworkers.
Will anything else play, a CD or anything? That is 1 clue to make sure there is or is not a card, make sure everything is plugged up correctly.

Try this, In Windows Media Player, to go Tools, Options, Devices, Speakers, properties choose Default DirectSound Device click okay and close out and see if that works.

If not, you might go to Start, Settings, Control panel, Sound/speach/audiodevices and follow some of the trouble shooting techniques.

If all else failes use the Help on the start button and research or go to the knowledge center of Microsoft.com and search the error message.

Other than that, if one is not installed you should be able to go and pick one up at wal-mart, radioshack or some other local store rather reasonably, definitely cheaper than being out of work for the day.
geeze...you can tell I am up too early this morning...sorry for the typos
nm
Geeze, I remember the wax belts, and the red surgical book that was waxy, too! nm
x
MQ DQS pay decrease? not here

Never heard of that one.  Was told lines would increase but nothing about rate decrease and I've been on DQS since day one


May be your management padding their own, but mine did not and I would not have settled for it, period!


pay decrease
Going back to MT from ME will mean getting all the worst dictators who can't dictate on ASR. That will be the only reports you will see if you go back to MT, so I don't see how we can gain by that. Between a rock and a hard place.
pay decrease

The ME are their most knowledgeable employees because that is what it takes to be an editor. You need tons of experience and years of transcription to edit correctly from the gibberish that comes on the screen. Yet, they decrease your pay for ME by 20% and expect an increase in productivity by 25%. As all the worst dictators are not ASR but need to be transcribed, how do they expect the struggling MTs (newbies) and less experienced MTs to make a living. This sucks.


Decrease in pay.

I received my letter today, and I am very angry.  The price of gas is going up, which will cause everything else to go up, and we are getting a decrease in pay.  


Decrease in pay
Yes, I have received a letter.
more like decrease of 25%
it's the same scenario when we went on DEP -- when you inquired about how many were having a 20% increase they made you feel like you were doing something wrong or not trying enough because there were TONS AND TONS of MTs out there that were just having tremendous increases in their line rates. I really don't know how they sleep at night!!
Do they ever decrease your pay?
Can they?
Sorry, I did not have a substantial decrease in pay
So don’t think that would fly with the labor board. Very few posting about VR have anything positive to say; therefore the hater tag. I would say they either have not given it a try and slamming because they feel they CANNOT make a decent salary or they just are unable to do VR.
DQS LINE COUNT DECREASE
OKAY LADIES, SO WHAT DO WE DO? SEEMS WE HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED THEFT OF OUR LINE COUNTS - HOW ABOUT TEAMING UP AND FIGHTING THIS?
DECREASE IN PAY!! LETS REBEL

they want to decrease our ME pay by 20%. we need to all be asked to go back to MTs and earn what we are worth


I was told when I trained on DQS that there would be a decrease
in pay for lines done as ME.
decrease dictation speed
Gosh, thank you for writing.  I tried it, though (CTRL F2 and ALT F2), and nothing happened.  Am I missing a step? 
Emdat/Inscribe-Is there a way to decrease
the rewind setting? It rewinds too far every time I release the play button or if I push rewind button. I have looked at all the options and I can't find a place to set the rewind amount.
Can quit if "substantial decrease in pay" ..sm

or hours".  THIS is how it works, per Labor Board, clearly stated.  Or maybe you'd like to educate us on "how it works".  Who's talking about "hating", which you keep bring up?


I think this subject needs to be dropped.
/
Yes. I know of 9 people who have dropped them
nm
LOL that's what I did when I dropped the lamp on my toe
and broke it.  However, Ms. Siren, if I were you I would not worry so much about the FMLA or the FMLA scammer gal you have working in your department and start worrying about the bigger picture when y'all are here in the jungle with the rest of us.  JMHO.
I think she dropped a period.
As in: I didn't. Thank you very much.
I dropped my CMT about 5 years ago...
when I was actually told by an MTSO that they wouldn't hire me because of it - thought I would expect too much money and that they couldn't afford me. I haven't used CMT after my name or anywhere on my resume since.
Way to increase/decrease voice file.
x
decrease Dictaphone dictation speed
In ExText, by using the Transnet box, there's an option to decrease the speed of dictation. Well, I have mine all the way to the left, as slow as it will go, but there are some dictators who talk so fast, I can't keep up. Does anyone know of any method to decrease the speed even further than what the Transnet box shows?
Sorry - do not know what happened to my above post. I press 2 for decrease, 3 for increase. nm
x
My insurance has nothing to do with it, I had just dropped my collision - sm
So I am going through the woman who hit me insurance. They are not going to give me a penny more if I don't fight. I have gotten her up a bit in the #s but it is still ridiculously low. They will cover my medical expenses though I have not signed the forms as yet to grant them access to them, just want to make sure I am not signing something I shouldn't. I mentioned I lost $350 in lost wages alone, plus I've had to take my truck back 3 x so far for their incompetant repair peoples mistakes and things they tried to pull over on me....but I have sharp eyes and caught all the obvious things anyway. I used their services to repair it so I did not pay a penny except I did have to take it to my dealer to have a rattle fixed, they did not tighten/attach my hood back on right. They reimbursed me for that bill, but granted not the 2 hours I was out. I have been saving all my receipts too. Which is why I feel it will be inevitable to get a lawyer involved, hate to do it but then again I did not ask to be hit either.
No. her siblings ran out of money and dropped it for now.
n
All child molesters should be dropped off .....
in the prison yard of a hard core maximum security prison, filled with lifers who have absolutely nothing to lose, with a sign tattooed on their forehead  that they are child molesters.  Nature would take care of itself.
MT on account has dropped production.

MT tells me they have decided to drop production on an account I share with them. 


 Between the three of us, we managed okay. Now with her drop in line count, the burden falls of the MT at the end of the shift.  I wanted to tell this MT that she set the pace and now, if they do not continue it, we will have backlog (and we do).  The other two of us are already typing at full throttle.  Our account is going out of TAT.


Has this even happened to any of you and how should I handle this?


I dropped my membership after 13 years.

I dropped my AAMT and CMT 15 years or so ago because
they were not working for our benefit, CMT did not matter to employers and just seemed to be interested in puffing up their own chests and making up education/certification requirements to become an MT which no employer ever took seriously.

I have watched as they have aided the decline of our wages.

I have watched as they have condoned changing of counting methods to scam and deprive MTs of income. Now we don't even get paid for time checking and entering patient information. I have watched as they have aided those sending our work overseas.

Now, upon changing to AHDI, they have done away with chapters. They don't want us to meet and network. It was hard, but I recently reconnected with the chapter I used to be in. I had quit the chapter because, at that time, you had to be a member of AAMT, and I was not/am not willing to support AAMT and what they were doing/did to us. It was hard to find them, because there are no more chapters (except for the few who refuse to die).

Although I really like doing the MT work, hopefully I will be in a completely different profession next year. Although, it is hard to finance retraining in another profession with my wages in the dumps and not being able to cut back on work time because I would not be able to pay my bills.

Unfortunately, the small MT service I worked for was snuffed out by the Indian workers, and the MT job I have now pays a lot less, has done what they can to decimate my wages and is now shipping off as much work as fast as they can to India. I hope I will have been able to complete retraining and left before that time.


But it's nobody's fault but the MTSO that the prices have dropped.
THEY were the ones who started the offshore outsourcing in an attempt to make a bigger profit and get more clients.  Figuring that they could pay Indian transcriptionists 3 or 4 cpl, they could offer the clients a cheaper rate. By doing this, the MTSO changed the field forever into the cut-throat market it is today. The MTSO virtually eliminated the independent transcriptionist from the market who was able to have a few accounts and making a lucrative living and the larger MTSOs are putting the smaller ones out of business.  The MTSOs brought it upon themselves and now everyone in the field is suffering because of it, including the patient.  I feel no pity for them whatsoever.
Transcription companies have already dropped out income into

McDonald's pays (starts!!!) at $9 in our town (in the South, mind you) plus benefits.


It is not worth being somebody's slave anymore, and that's what these MT companies (MQ in particular with their new toy) want us to agree to.


Let them get up off some money and treat us like professionals and I may come back.  I like medicine and have many years of knowledge.


But doctors and nurses aren't working for pennies and I'm finished working for pennies for these companies.


and Bill Gates dropped out of college when he

became a millionaire!  and the Google owners are young too!  Just people with "visions."  Wish I had some visions, LOL. 


My levels dropped and then went back up. I did not miscarry. nm
/
Kaiser recently dropped transcription
Even their op reports.  I don't know how you can do touch-screen op reports.  I would like to know how this works if anybody does know out there
Oops......post dropped my same rules & regs. Sorry.
NM
I used filtered water with frozen fruit dropped in it
x
super told me to meet lines of 12000 or be dropped to SE
i thought there was only 2 types of employees; statutory or full time
I was thinking with ASR for MQ. They have dropped the line rate 2 cents as of October 1. Now, if
we get a lower line rate starting January 1 based on incentive then I expect the ASR 2 cent reduction will be based on that new line rate so it would actually be lower than it is now assuming they lower our new pay plan rates and I am sure they wont raise them. I wonder how this will play out.
Question re elderly patient being dropped by long-time PCP. sm
My SIL's mother was dropped as a patient by her long-time PCP (who also treats 4 other family members).  The reason was that the elderly woman (upper 80s, status post back surgery and recent hip surgery) had missed too many appointments.  Mind you my SIL always called when her mother could not make an appointment due to physically not being able to keep the appointment.  An office person told my SIL on the QT the real reason was because the doc couldn't get as much reimbursement from insurance on elderly people.  Mind you, this woman has her regular insurance plus Medicare.  What is up with this.  I never heard of such a thing.  Anyone? 
That is what I'm trying to do. I've picked up some smaller accounts, dropped the national, an
very hard to cut my hours. It takes time learning the new docs and systems, but I'm sure soon I'll be working less (I pray).

Thanks for your thoughts. I should have never gotten used to the bonus $$.
Low wage
that seems awfully low. For instance if you were making even 9 cpl you would be working for 11.25/hr. Who can exist on this? My current supervisor tells me it takes about 30 or more charts to equal 1000 lines. That would take an entire 8 hours and then some maybe. This is very discouraging. I don't like this platform so far.
WAGE
Of course it is lousy. Illegal aliens in my city make more than that flipping burgers. What an insult to us that someone would offer that amount.
Wage vs Need/Wants
At first glance, yes, $12.00 seems low. However, I live in the northeast and I know I cannot survive on that rate of pay. Maybe in other parts of the country $12.00/hr is very survivable. It all depends on your needs/wants.

At $12/hr you are grossing $480/week, $960 bimonthly. Around here, health insurance coverage for one ROUGHLY averages $50/week. Now you are netting $430/week before taxes. Dental plan? Deduct another $10 or so per week. Down to $420/week before taxes. Figure out your monthly expenses and don't forget that ever present anvil-over-your-head factor for unexpected bills. Also, don't forget you need to save some $$ too - after you buy food and pay the monthly bills! Hmmmm...I am getting this image of a rat on a treadmill.

The question you ask is not simple. You have to figure out if $12/hour is good for YOU. It is just not a survivable wage in this part of the country, especially if you have dependents that eat like horses, go to colleges far away, and you live in a state that taxes you up the wazoopie and only has two seasons: winter and 4th of July.
wage
Oh yeah and the wages being offered are even insulting for a newbie. Can I say how disgraceful this is for "trained professionals" to be offered this. The newbie wages run around 8 cpl...but why at 5, 10 or 15+ years is it fair to still be offered that?? Employers please show us some respect and pay us what we are worth. Remember everything in life is "you get what you pay for." These companies wonder why they have such a HIGH turnover rate, HELLO pay us decent wages!!!! Just think if you broke a typist wage, proofreader wage, English major wage, and everything else we are considered and added it all up it is WAY MORE than we get!
min. wage
Oh yeah it is possible to make minimum wage on some accounts especially when you are a newbie. Start out as a newbie and have one of those hard learning hospitals with a lot of ESLs who you hardly ever type the same one twice and add in many residents. Also add in more than just the basic 4 work types on that account such as psych. discharge summ., echo labs, holter monitor reports, treadmills, etc. that you only do every once in a while and aren't familiar with. With all those factors which I have on one of my accounts it is possible to make min. wage. But I have gotten better it seems. I know some people will say why do an account that is so difficult for you? If I can conquer this I can say I have done something I think. It is just a job and as a newbie I can't pick and choose without much exp. so I put on my big girl pants and do it. Just explaining how you could make min. wage with the right factors.
minimum wage is Fed
I know some cities/counties and I guess states have their minimum wage requirement to allow a business to operate. I know some cities in NJ (where I live now) won't allow a business to operate unless they pay minimum around $9/hour. But minimum wage is a Federal standard and is set at $6.XX an hour - that is for all 52 states.

And it is illegal for anyone to pay less. Actually, I found out that if you are working for someone on a production basis and it comes out to less than Fed. min. wage, you can actually file a complaint and recoup wages.
Minimum wage in NY now $6.75 hr - sm
Working at Burger King is looking better all the time!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/nyregion/01minimum.html