Medical Transcriptionist needed in cincinnati Ohio area

You have to type your butt off just to make a decent wage. It is slave labor. You have to type about 1-2 thousand lines to make good money. I got out of this crap years ago for this reason. I know how to spell and punctuate like an Ace and I deserve to be paid well for it. But you know how it is in this country. Quality doesn't matter anymore. It is just how cheap it can be done for. We are just the serfs!! WHATEVER.

Go for computers, IT tech, LPN, RN, medical assisting, or something of that nature!! After I complete my healthcare administration courses, I am thinking of taking the remaining courses to either be a medical assistant or an LPN. What the heck? I have what it takes, so I am going full throttle.

I just want to give advice to as many people as I can because I have been through all of this racket before!! I am not trying to be a know-it-all either and just want people to take courses where they are going to find positions and not waste their money. That's what life is all about......trying to help and advise other people. We are all in this together, so we should try to look out for each other!! I want to see people do good and not waste their time and money on courses that are nothing but bullcrap and a waste of your time and big-time money. It is a rip-off out there. There are so many scams out their. We deserve honesty for what you pay these schools for an education these days, so why offer courses that are obsolete!!

Hi all. I'm in the UK. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way about MT. I'm an ex-nurse and medical secretary and find MT work very gruelling and too much of the same thing all day, hard on the eyes and monotonous becoming mental torture after a while. I'm paid by the line and have to bang away at it all day to produce only a very modest income. Maybe it's partly because I'm more of a practical, artistic, outdoor loving person, but I am struggling with spending my life in front of a screen, trying to decipher mostly inaudible dictation by various dicatators with more accents than you would find in an international airport!! Moan moan, sorry. Does anyone have any good other work at home experience that don't involve staring at a VDU all day?

StarSnip in United Kingdom said: Hi all. I'm in the UK. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way about MT. I'm an ex-nurse and medical secretary and find MT work very gruelling and too much of the same thing all day, hard on the eyes and monotonous becoming mental torture after a while. I'm paid by the line and have to bang away at it all day to produce only a very modest income. Maybe it's partly because I'm more of a practical, artistic, outdoor loving person, but I am struggling with spending my life in front of a screen, trying to decipher mostly inaudible dictation by various dicatators with more accents than you would find in an international airport!! Moan moan, sorry. Does anyone have any good work at home experience that doesn't involve staring at a VDU all day?

Corrected!!!!!

Transcription has not been good for the past 15 years. It ruined my eyesight. It drives you insane. It is very tedious. You should get paid by the hour for your hardwork. I am glad that I gave it up as it was a pain in the rear. It doesn't pay well anymore. I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes I would just take off my headphones and go for a walk to get away from the computer. I would only do transcription part-time and for an hourly rate if I ever did it again. And it wouldn't be hospital dictation either. Some of the op notes are horrible!

laura in Cincinnati, Ohio said: Well, good luck to everyone. I hope you all find something that will make you happy and is something you can use your education for!

I suggest that everyone log on to MTDaily.com and see how out of demand medical transcriptionists are, because they are not. I actually make close to $20 an hour at the present time, and that is on the not so good days; I average up to $25 an hour on a good day. If you want to become a transcriptionist, stick with it. The opportunities are there.

I was wondering since a few of you have taken Medical Transcription through Penn Foster I need some help with my final exam for some reason i'm not downloading the program right and the school isnt helping me. I think I'm not explain it right or they have idoits working at night by the time i get home. Any help would be appreciated at this point I'm so frustrated.

Why don't all of you stop complaining, and actually look for jobs. They ARE out there. Geez.

Jan Ruzowski in Amarillo, Texas said: Your post makes me real sad. I am in the middle of taking the medical transcription course and have been so excited about it. I am wanting to supplement my income so I would only be doing it part-time. After reading your post, I am very sad and discouraged. Does everyone else feel the same???

I am looking to change my career and doing research.. Thinking about medical billing and coding, or MT.. I was looking for something to do from home, so I was gearing more to MT.. I am glad that I have stumbled onto this page.. I still need to do more research, but this page is def. negative for MT. So sad.

I have been a MT for 9 years now and I have done well, but I just recently lost my account of 6 years to voice recognition : ( I do not understand why all of these schools are still offering MT programs??? I would not recommend becoming an MT. Go for medical billing girls!!!!

Carmen Story in Florence, Kentucky said: I am a grad of National College in cincinnati, Oh. in Medical Transcription and working as a scheduler for experience. I graduated 1 yr ago and have had no luck in finding a transcription position in or out of home.

You would be better off starting at a docs office to get a little experience behind you.

I really don't know who came up with the voice recognition thing, it had to be a doctor who did not want to pay their transcriptionsts anymore. You make crappy money that way and they all tell you you will make more. No you won't. Any transcriptionist worth their salt would much rather be a transcriptionist, the money is better.

Sharlene Joe said: I am a recent graduate of penn foster in medical transcriptionist and I am having trouble finding a job. Because they require experience. And I don't have any.

Try E-trans plus --- on the web. It is here in Nashville and they often hire new grads.

Tracy from Ft. Mitchell (Not newport!) in Newport, Kentucky said: Transcription has not been good for the past 15 years. It ruined my eyesight. It drives you insane. It is very tedious. You should get paid by the hour for your hardwork. I am glad that I gave it up as it was a pain in the rear. It doesn't pay well anymore. I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes I would just take off my headphones and go for a walk to get away from the computer. I would only do transcription part-time and for an hourly rate if I ever did it again. And it wouldn't be hospital dictation either. Some of the op notes are horrible!

Hi Tracy, Just wondered what you are doing now instead? Hope you have found something you like. I find transcription work so depressing, feel like I'm isolated in prison. I've come to the conclusion its not for me and I HAVE to get out of it. Good luck and best wishes to all of you who cope with it and make a good living, but I could never be happy doing this for the rest of my life!!

Lindsay in Danville, Kentucky said: Why don't all of you stop complaining, and actually look for jobs. They ARE out there. Geez.

The jobs are out there, but from my research they all want someone with two years experience.. How can you get experience if no one will hire you.. Does anyone know of any MT jobs that hire new grads??

Rose in Revere, Massachusetts said: The jobs are out there, but from my research they all want someone with two years experience.. How can you get experience if no one will hire you.. Does anyone know of any MT jobs that hire new grads??

If you go to MTDAILY.com you can find an occasional job that takes new grads. I have been doing transcription off and on since 1989 and it is a thankless, low paying job. My last stint in transcription was in 2004 when my husband died and I wanted to work at home. After 4 years of being destitutely poor I now work in a hospital for $12 an hour, which is also terrible.

Well I have got 6 years experience in Medical Transcription and have been successfully working as QA. I am looking for a part time job where I can work and get the work done with my trained assistants. Basically I need work and if I can get the work and if it can be for a long time I have no objection to resign for the Job and start my own company. I have already registerd it and just waiting for a rite time to start it. If anyone can help me in this regard that how I get the Medical Transcription work to be done I will appreciate it.

laura in Cincinnati, Ohio said: I agree. Do not waste your time or money on medical transcription classes. I took out about $10,000 in student loans and spent a year of my life taking classes for medical transcription and that was over a year ago and I never even had an interview for a medical transcription job. I wish someone told me that it would be a waste. I am now going to go back to school and get my masters in education. Teaching is something that is in demand and will be well worth the student loan money that I am going to take out and the year or two I am going to spend obtaining this degree.

Wow I am taking the career step program $2300.00 Glad I did not go to a college for this. I am going back to community college to get a second degree in computerized office technology and upgrade my skills. I did not even care if I worked from home when I started this. Now I am 1/2 way through the program. I got a laptop out of the deal at least. Anyway, I am going to finish and I hope it will mean something to me downstream. I don't expect to work in this field either. I am so disgusted already with what I read. I did not want to work in a call center anymore because I was so burned out but now this seems worse. I know I am wasting my time but I want to finish anyway. They advertise that you can make $100k doing this work. That is really false advertising. We will see what happens but I don't know if I will ever do this work. I'm certainly not going to volunteer my services just to get a foot in the door.

Tracy Atkinson in Ft Mitchell, Kentucky said: Don't feel bad. I gave up on transcribing years ago when the transcription services started taking over and paying you by line. I could not find any accounts on my own, so I jumped ship and years later am going back to school for billing and coding. Good luck on finding a transcribing job because I gave up years and years ago which is a shame because I am very good at it.

I have been an at home medical transcriptionist for 8 years (now quality assurance teamlead) and I can assure you, there are a LOT of jobs out there. Some companies will even offer sign on bonuses. However, all good companies require at least 2 years of experience. Without experience, you MUST be sure to attend a school that integrates on site internships and job placement. Most "online" or "self-teaching at home" schools are bogus and not recognized by transcription companies, and as good as it may seem, no companies will hire you. Try looking up Spheris, Acusis, Medquist, OSI Transcriptions. Go to AAMT.com, ADHI.com and read up on good/bad companies and/or schools and training programs. I hope this is helpful.

Kate in Medina, Ohio said: I have been an at home medical transcriptionist for 8 years (now quality assurance teamlead) and I can assure you, there are a LOT of jobs out there. Some companies will even offer sign on bonuses. However, all good companies require at least 2 years of experience. Without experience, you MUST be sure to attend a school that integrates on site internships and job placement. Most "online" or "self-teaching at home" schools are bogus and not recognized by transcription companies, and as good as it may seem, no companies will hire you. Try looking up Spheris, Acusis, Medquist, OSI Transcriptions. Go to AAMT.com, ADHI.com and read up on good/bad companies and/or schools and training programs. I hope this is helpful.

Umm, not to rain on anyone's parade, but Spheris is history, and was bought out my MedQuist. Terrible company - we were bought out in April. At first things didn't seem so bad, and I was thankful to be able to keep my job and my account, but it has gone downhill rapidly. So far I have been lied to by this company, and am totally disillusioned.....they "hired" us at our same pay rate, which I breathed a sigh of relief. Now a little more than 90 days later they have come out with their "MT Rewards," more like MT Rip-Off. I have an awesome supervisor and they will probably take her away next. I'm already working a couple things that after 10 years in this field will take me as far and as fast as I can away from this career....SR has ruined it for a lot of us. Someone making the pay decisions should REALLY listen to/try to do this stuff.

This has me so aggravated I can't even catch the difference between my and by.... 'nuff said!!!

Ack! Yes, Medquist is aweful. That was the first place I worked, and I left when they changed their "reward" program. It's impossible to make a decent salary with them. After I left, they called me weekly asking why I left, which they always got the same brutal answer, and what they could do to get me back, which they also always got the same brutal answer. They got sued I believe for the way they pay their lines, which I didnt even know about until later when the big win got me a free CMT study book. I am glad to be where I am now, even though of course I believe I am underpaid. But I love my job and it allows me to travel and work wherever I want. There are okay companies out there, but I guess you are right. Great companies just arent there anymore, but I believe this includes most work areas out there nowadays.

Glad to hear from you. I wasn't asking for more $$$, just wanted to keep what I had. Sooner or later I hope this all comes back and bites them in the butt. There is such a thing as getting too big for one's britches. When/if I am able to leave and they ask me why, I'll tell them... Also I wouldn't even trust them if they did offer me more $$$ to stay/come back, which I doubt, because they have broken the trust. My prayer would be that if I can survive the next few months when I am hopefully "transitioning" as my potential new employer is calling it :-), that what I tell MedQuist may SOMEDAY help others. When the time comes for me to leave I will NOT be going back unless I am out scratching in the dirt or find myself in a position where a decent income is not needed, which I don't foresee ever happening. Like you, I felt I was underpaid to begin with after 10 years, but loved the work, and enjoyed working at Spheris, and at least I could make ends meet. Some folks had issues with Spheris, though I personally never had any REAL problem.

I have all but given up on the program I bought through Career Step. I decided to go back to college to get my teaching degree. I am working on my B.A. in Elementary Education now. I paid cash for my program and the only thing I really got out of it was this computer that I am typing on It is a Toshiba and might be worth $500 at best. I paid 2300 for my program such a waste. I cannot understand the transcription they give you at all and I figure I will never be able to do this and even if I can probably couldn't get a job so why waste my time on it. I have not actually told them I quit I just haven't been online for about 2 weeks. Don't think I am going back.

It sounds so horrible beyond words out there. I wonder why anyone with this information would choose to go to school to do this.

Carol

Debbi in Anderson, Indiana said: I suggest that everyone log on to MTDaily.com and see how out of demand medical transcriptionists are, because they are not. I actually make close to $20 an hour at the present time, and that is on the not so good days; I average up to $25 an hour on a good day. If you want to become a transcriptionist, stick with it. The opportunities are there.

The opportunities use to be there. You are lucky you still make $20-$25/hour. I use to average anywhere from $20-$30 myself. I had worked on an account for 6+ years. Then disaster...switch to VR and cut pay in half! When one types 100+ wpm, there is no way that the VR rate can compare to the transcription rate. Not to mention the fact that they are sending the easy dictators to India and keeping the crappier dictators for USA.

I have been a transcriptionist for nearly 20 years...no raises, no bonuses, no medical insurance, no retirement. Oh how I wish I had taken the accounting/payroll job I was offered instead of going on with medical transcription 15+ years ago. I'd be so much further ahead...possibly looking at retirement! As it stands, I will be working till the day I die and making less than I did when I began!

I have been a medical transcription for 18 years and I only work 10 hours a week now. Hospitals and physicians are all changing over to electronic medical records. I really wish the schools that teach medical transcription would stop teaching it and be realistic with people...there are no jobs out there.

If you want to prove to yourself, type in medical transcriptionist on something like Craigslist or your local newspaper...there are no jobs.

I meant medical transcriptionist. And prove IT to yourself. I have a bad cold right now and am typing laying down. Sorry. I really am not a dummy that can't type English correctly.

So is everyone convinced that there is no use in attending medical transcription school?

Have anyone heard of or have a review on FutureMT school? Please help.

I am an acute care medical transcriptionist with 20+ years experience. This career path had been very good to me, until now. My advice to anyone considering this career path if it is to be your primary source of income and health insurance coverage: Go back to school, or at least do not waste your money on any of these transcription schools. Overseas outsourcing and speech recognition have turned medical transcription into sweat-shop labor for minimum wage and no benefits. The only decent positions are in hospitals, but the "outsourcers" are taking these jobs and sending them overseas at an alarming rate. There is NO job security. I am out here now after being laid off because my hospital transcription job was sent overseas three days before Thanksgiving 2010 with no health insurance, making 1/3 of the salary, and have no health insurance. This is the future of medical transcription.

Your posting is so sad, and I totally understand what you are feeling. I have 30+ years working in a wonderful institution, but I am just waiting for the time that the same thing will happen to me - it is inevitable and unfortunate, but I have to face the facts of what is happening in this industry. I just wish I had gone back to school when I was younger for nursing or another health career - but who would have known what technology was going to do to us, especially with the outsourcing overseas. I wish you luck - take care.

Well, this thread is far more honest and informative than the other threads on this medical transcription forum. I've been transcribing 35 years now, doing well enough at home full time as a second shifter with my midsized present company but am amazed like others here that people are still spending a lot of money to learn this profession at these schools. I was hoping to be able to do what I do until I can retire but am not optimistic that will happen. I feel for these uninformed newbies. I'm glad I was able to at least persuade my insurance lady not to waste too much money, time or energy at the local community college. She was believing she could switch from running her insurance agency to medical transcription at home full time to pay her bills, and she thanked me for the heads-up. Not sure what I will do between now and retirement. I'm 56 and have a mother who will certainly need more of my attention as time goes on as she has Alzheimer's. As far as college courses go, I'm not remotely interested in accounting or even nursing at this point in my life but know I need to be finding something to make my resume look more interesting. Anyway, I wish you all luck in your futures.

Carol Piper in South Burlington, Vermont said: Umm, not to rain on anyone's parade, but Spheris is history, and was bought out my MedQuist. Terrible company - we were bought out in April. At first things didn't seem so bad, and I was thankful to be able to keep my job and my account, but it has gone downhill rapidly. So far I have been lied to by this company, and am totally disillusioned.....they "hired" us at our same pay rate, which I breathed a sigh of relief. Now a little more than 90 days later they have come out with their "MT Rewards," more like MT Rip-Off. I have an awesome supervisor and they will probably take her away next. I'm already working a couple things that after 10 years in this field will take me as far and as fast as I can away from this career....SR has ruined it for a lot of us. Someone making the pay decisions should REALLY listen to/try to do this stuff.

I feel for you. I left Spheris about 2 years ago after 9 years with them. Had my pay not been cut in half, I may have stayed but really hated that Cornerstone VR program, never did get the hang of it, not to mention the awful almost totally ESL account they stuck me with just before I left (had a very nice bunch of Texas hospital accounts before that and loved my work). I got out before Spheris fell completely and have been with Diskriter for about 2 years now. I'm in a comfortable account and hope I'll be able to survive at this company but who knows these days?

It's not that I hate the VR work, it's the attitude that it's not worth as much pay, and just doesn't pay as well as straight transcription. I have been on my account so long I can actually type some reports faster than fix a bunch of errors made by VR. It also seems that upper management thinks there is not as much skill/knowledge needed to do VR. I think one actually needs more to pick up the subtle differences that can make a big difference in the quality/accuracy of the record. I have seen VR type beers for liters more than once, and peritoneal vs. perineal and other soundalikes mixed up. I probably am not as quality conscious as I was at one time, but my feeling is "ya get what ya pay for." I check vitals and other stats carefully, but as for absolute perfection.... guess they don't want to pay for it. Very sad. I will probably leave this field I so love within the next year as I am already working PT somewhere else, and had to go PT with Medquist to do it. For now, it's a matter of surviving. Very sad!

Black Beauty in Miami Gardens, Florida said: So is everyone convinced that there is no use in attending medical transcription school?

Yes! Don't go for Transcription. I'm telling you from experience there are no jobs and I put in a lot of effort to obtain a job. I lost my long time account to voice recognition. I gave up and now I am currently in a nursing program. Go for billing/coding. Medical billing courses usually have a lot of the same classes as Transcription classes, it pays better and you can usually complete the course in about 1 year.

Tina in Conway, Arkansas said: The opportunities use to be there. You are lucky you still make $20-$25/hour. I use to average anywhere from $20-$30 myself. I had worked on an account for 6+ years. Then disaster...switch to VR and cut pay in half! When one types 100+ wpm, there is no way that the VR rate can compare to the transcription rate. Not to mention the fact that they are sending the easy dictators to India and keeping the crappier dictators for USA.

I have been a transcriptionist for nearly 20 years...no raises, no bonuses, no medical insurance, no retirement. Oh how I wish I had taken the accounting/payroll job I was offered instead of going on with medical transcription 15+ years ago. I'd be so much further ahead...possibly looking at retirement! As it stands, I will be working till the day I die and making less than I did when I began!

I checked out MTdaily and every single listing was a dead end for me and I had a lot of experience and wonderful referrences. The reality is that... yes, there are still people that have good jobs (and I'm very happy for them), but for all of these poor girls who are being fed a bunch of bull from schools just wanting their money...don't fall for it!!! The Medical Transcription field is coming to an end! Very sad, but very TRUE!

Be thankful you have a job, its better than no income.

Caroline in Akron, Ohio said: If you go to MTDAILY.com you can find an occasional job that takes new grads. I have been doing transcription off and on since 1989 and it is a thankless, low paying job. My last stint in transcription was in 2004 when my husband died and I wanted to work at home. After 4 years of being destitutely poor I now work in a hospital for $12 an hour, which is also terrible.

I just got enrolled in MT program. The books don't look that bad. But after reading all this , I am disappointed. I have paid in full for the program. What should I do at this point?

I had transcribed for 11 years for a hospital and made excellent money, good benefits and really enjoyed transcribing. Than all of a sudden in December of 2010 the hospital pulled the rug out of our whole department and announced they were outsourcing to a service and that our jobs were no more. There were ladies there with 25 years service and more and we worked dilligently for this hospital doing whatever it was they asked us to do. They completely lied to us and promised we would have a job with this company they were outsourcing to. All but 4 girls took the job because of the state of the economy, and we needed our jobs. We were promised our same schedules that we worked at the hospital. Then lo and behold, when we started with this company, when we signed on for our shift, none of us would "ever" receive work. If we did, it was 3 or 4 jobs then there would be no more work. When we would ask what to do, all they would tell us was to check back. They required us to do a certain line count for straight typing and of course a certain line count for VR. But because we were not getting any work, it was impossible to meet those requirements. Yet they would E-mail us every week and want to know why our line count was down. Each time I received this E-mail I would E-mail them back and ask them "how can I produce a line count when you are not giving us any work to produce a line count from?" We never got an answer to that question. So then they started firing all of us. We found out they were sending the majority of the work overseas and leaving us with the crumbs. There are only 4 girls left from our initial 32 girls and 3 more were let go last week. It was and is very sad. All of us were exceptional transcriptionists. I use to type at least 2100 lines a day, only to end up like this. Some of us girls did have a consultation with an attorney when all of this started happening and he told us before the firing started that it sounded like collusion.

Excellent honest testimonial for everybody to read, Sylvia. This is where our professions have gone. I'm right now with Diskriter (a midsized company in PA that treats us pretty well) for the past 2 years. As I said elsewhere on this forum, I've been transcribing 35 years, the past 15 from home. Worked at SEMC in Dayton, OH for 18 years, then went to EDIX/Medquist before SEMC closed its doors, then on to Spheris (fine there for 8 years before they figured a way to cut our pay in half), then to Diskriter. Doesn't matter how good you are or how long you've been doing this job, these monster companies are taking over. I have another 9 years left to work before I can retire. I keep hoping things will make full circle and these hospitals will go back to hiring locally, as I live very close to Kettering Medical Center, but I'm not holding my breath. I love what I do but watch the hospital job openings, hoping maybe to get my foot in the door doing something different just for the hourly pay again. Makes me tired. I wish you and all your coworkers well and hope you all find employment. Do check out the midsized companies. I can't complain about Diskriter and can only hope they will continue to do right by us but who knows in these times.

Michelle Springer in Circleville, Ohio said: I have just completed a Medical Transcrption course through At Home Professions and I am looking for transcription work that I can do in the evenings at home. Any ideas? I have worked in the Workers Compensation field since 1992 and in the last 4 years, I have worked for an Independent Medical Examiantion company, reviewing reports on Workers Compensation claims on a daily basis, that included diagnostic tests, op reports, consultation reports, office notes, etc. I am very anxious to get started and hope to find something very soon.

I am considering going into medical Transcription with At Home Professions. How was your experience with them? Have you secured a job?

Jan Ruzowski in Amarillo, Texas said: Your post makes me real sad. I am in the middle of taking the medical transcription course and have been so excited about it. I am wanting to supplement my income so I would only be doing it part-time. After reading your post, I am very sad and discouraged. Does everyone else feel the same???

Me too! I am midway through the MT program and after hearing all of these posts I feel like a made a poor choice in two ways.. Waste of time and money.

This is kind of a followup to my statements above. What I didn't mention was the very likely takeover of my hospital account in Michigan by EPIC, an expensive EMR system that has eliminated transcription jobs. It truly does not matter how experienced you are, this is just a harsh reality and why some of you need to look into courses other than medical transcription.

If you guys will go read at the MT Stars website under company forum, you can see what I mean or please do google information about EPIC and systems like it. Many good transcribers have lost their in-hospital jobs almost overnight once a system like EPIC is fully rolled out. I guess I need now to seriously get back into job hunting yet again, and I was just beginning to feel okay about myself after nearly three years at Diskriter. I had the feeling my own supervisor did not have a clue about the EMR systems.

Anyway, good luck to all of you!

The money is gone is MT work. Working in Michigan, area Hospitals have closed because of population loss and lack of Medical Insurance.

Right now, Coding is the better choice, but it will probably be computerized away too! First we lost jobs overseas, then we lost jobs to computers.

You can find all the jobs you want for slave labor rates. What really is neeeded is protection against outsourcing our Medical Records information to Foreign countries. You can not guarantee Privacy outside our USA borders and even then, things get Hacked.

This profession is over, done, wrapped and thrown out to the heavens. Yes, we still need transcriptionists but who is willing to work as slave labor to the transcription companies who makes $10+ on each and every report while you are absolutely killing yourself for your $0.45 per line pay. This is dispicable. And unfortunately the Department of Labor is only interested if you are earning less than minimum wage. The lines are not verifiable. It is not less than slave labor. I would venture to say that most of us came from a time when you could earn a decent living, i.e. $30,000 at least a year and now we are killing ourselves, for a grand totall of approximtely $24,000. It is not an enjoyable job any longer, it is a blood sport just trying to earn enough for the basics! Do not go into medical transcription ever! and for that matter, it is not transcription any longer, it is medical editing!!!

whistlingdixie in Fort Lauderdale, Florida said: This profession is over, done, wrapped and thrown out to the heavens. Yes, we still need transcriptionists but who is willing to work as slave labor to the transcription companies who makes $10+ on each and every report while you are absolutely killing yourself for your $0.45 per line pay. This is dispicable. And unfortunately the Department of Labor is only interested if you are earning less than minimum wage. The lines are not verifiable. It is not less than slave labor. I would venture to say that most of us came from a time when you could earn a decent living, i.e. $30,000 at least a year and now we are killing ourselves, for a grand totall of approximtely $24,000. It is not an enjoyable job any longer, it is a blood sport just trying to earn enough for the basics! Do not go into medical transcription ever! and for that matter, it is not transcription any longer, it is medical editing!!!

Surely you meant $0.045 per line, not $0.45 (45 cents) per line. If I were getting 45 cents per line, I could dump my day job and survive on my part-time MT job.

Amen, sister! Somewhere along the line, these profiteering raiders called MTSOs, sold the idea that editing should be paid at less than the transcribed line rate - that, somehow, it requires less skill to edit a report than to transcribe it??? If this is so, they why are editors and proofreaders in the publishing industry still in the $40,000 and up pay range? And they don't even know a second language? What has been done is no less than CRIMINAL - the problem is that the MTSOs have been very clever in covering their backsides, so how do you prosecute it? I hope someone figures it out and buries these MTSOs in lawsuits.

Wow. I'm so glad I found this page. Even if it's true that the end's not here for some MT, the outsourcing and voice recording technology argument is compelling. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope things turn out well for everyone. With the advent of all of these new schools it seems like it will just get worse. Experienced MTs are getting laid off and new fresh from school MTs coming in as the job market for this is shrinking. I know this is happening with other professions as well (can you say liberal arts major?).

I remember reading about a new type of guaranteed 6 figure double-major financial analyst type job. And there were 3 colleges offering this program. Word spread and next year every college in the country had this program. And then started to produce much much more grads than there were jobs. It just makes me think that schools at all levels don't care. They are a business and their number one priority is to make money. They don't care what happens after you graduate. Student beware.

Sorry if I made any errors! I've been up all night and my eyes are like blah after reading so much all night. But I'm so glad I did because I eventually stumbled on pages like this. Good luck to everyone and please think twice before going into this field.

Bonus: Btw, I did do as was suggested earlier and did a craigslist search of MT jobs in my city (Phoenix). There were none. But, I have found 3 pedals for sale... And another pedal for sale bundled with, yep, medical transcription books! Pretty scary to say the least.

John in Arizona, good for you for reading all the comments. I think forums like this can be great for practical advice. I don't know how old you are but I wish you well in finding a profession/career you can make a decent living with. At my age of 58, I'm not keen on going back to school so will hang in there as long as I can as a transcriber, but I've sure been reading other forums for the practical help. I'm thinking I'd do just as well at my age with a few part-time jobs locally that don't involve transcription. I just want to pay the mortgage off, ha-ha. Again, good luck to you.

ColleenCollect in Somerville, Massachusetts said: go to www.mtjobs.com they have many jobs listed. rather than focusing on the fact u have no experience, take the test. you might do better than u think.

Thanks Colleen for mentioning that site :), I also like www.medicaltranscriptionjobs.org for finding jobs. Best of Luck to You! ;)