I'm sure I've spoken about this in past blogs but I've worked as a Medical Transcriptionist for over 20 years. For most of those years, I made a good living, from home. That was until the Medical Transcription Service Organizations, or MTSOs for short, really started popping up and taking over the work. At first, I looked at it as a good thing. You know, a way to work independently for several companies if I chose to, in which case, my earnings would be unlimited. Yeah, sounded good to me. What I didn't count on is the fact that the MTSOs weren't going to pay much, all while expecting you to do so much more. Medical Transcription used to be a good profession, one that I was proud to be a part of. For those of you who are not sure what I'm talking about, I basically listen to a recording of a patient's doctor visit or surgical procedure and type what the doctor is saying in regards to that visit or surgery. It's a quite solitary job but being an introvert, I enjoyed it.
Back to the MTSOs. I spent the last year working as a Medical Records Clerk, which I also enjoyed but with budget cuts at the hospital, my position was terminated so I figured, why not give transcription another try, especially with winter coming and my paranoia of being stuck on Atlanta highways. Well, let's just say that things have not changed. Some of these companies are paying even less. I don't see how this is even legal. I've seen positions that pay 3-4 cents per line for editing reports that have been generated by the voice recognition computer system. The companies feel like that's a reasonable amount of money because they claim that you can edit twice as much. I beg to differ. Even if you do edit twice as many lines, you are still only earning 6-8 cents per line. Typing 1000 lines per shift at 6 cents per line works out to $60 a day, from home, or $600 every 2 weeks before taxes. Sounds very doable but in the grand scheme of things, it's rare that you will even earn that without sitting at your computer for 12-15 hours a day waiting for work, so that same 1000 lines at 6 cpl per line over 12 hours works out to $5 an hour, less than minimum wage. You may also be struggling through horrible dictators or dealing with horrible computer programs that they claim are the best thing since sliced bread. Hmmmph, they are not. Let's not forget that so many of these companies are staffed by what I like to refer to as "mean girls," who micromanage by emails and instant messaging because you work from home. It can make for a very stressful working environment. The job itself is stressful enough without all of the added extra.
The sad thing is that people are still actively accepting those low wages and killing themselves in order to get their line counts up high enough to justify taking such a low line rate of pay, all while needing to maintain a 98-99% QA rate. I'm all for producing quality work because after all, this is someone's medical record we are talking about and correct information is important but these low line rates are quite sickening if you ask me. When I worked as a transcriptionist from home for another hospital, I made 15 cents per line, so at 1000 lines, I earned $150 a day but usually typed more than that, so yeah, these line rates are a slap in the face. Of course, the hospital I worked for now sends all of their work to services. I get it, it's business. Even with them paying a higher rate to the services, in the long run, they are winning because they don't have to offer health insurance, vacation time, or have office space for these employees and the work is still getting done.
But seriously, 3-4 cents per line is a damn insult! Even if I were just starting out, I would feel insulted by that line rate and be mad that I even trained in this profession. Call center reps make more than that from home. That's not my thing and I don't have a quiet enough space for that sort of work. Otherwise, I'd be doing that right now. Heck, even at $8-9/hr which is what I see most call centers paying, that works out to $64-72 a day from home, and you are only working the 8 hours. Granted you may have to deal with irate customers but still at least you know that going in. These MTSOs will paint this lovely picture of how easy it is to make so much money with them. Yeah right. Talk to a few MTs and they will tell you a quite different story. Many of us have chosen to get out of the profession because of MTSOs.
Let me get off my soap box and focus on what needs to be done. I signed up for an Interior Design course thanks to Groupon and it was only $39 so I need to work on that. If you haven't signed up for Groupon, what are you waiting for? Here's a link. They have a ton of killer deals. I was unaware of the classes until my girlfriend took a class. I'm currently stalking the real estate training. I missed the one for my state for $99! I will be taking that next because I'm pretty sure they will offer it again. Clearly, I need a new profession and really, I have no desire to sit through 4 years of college for a bachelor's degree. The more things I can learn in the shortest amount of time, the better my odds will be in this crazy, unstable economy.
Until next time,
~Pamela Denise~
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