As much as things enhancements are made in the medical transcription business, one thing seems to remain similar. Discussions, and confusion, covering the definition of a “line” involving transcription. For those of you who are pretty recent to the industry, perhaps a little history will help.
At a time, most MTs worked on location in a hospital or dermatologist’s office and were paid out hourly. Then the move arrived at work from home. At the same time, as we expanded as an industry, production shell out became a part of our world. Health care transcription is quite measurable; many ways have been done since the beginning. Sometimes it was a sickening line (anything on a range is a line), sometimes it ended up being total characters divided by way of a number to calculate some sort of line (and that ranged anywhere from 45 to 80), and sometimes computer “byte” number was used. Sometimes MTs were even paid with the page of transcription or perhaps the minute of dictation. ?t had been quite confusing, and there were no natural ways to make a detailed comparison for customers or the MT.
In the early nineteen nineties, three organizations (what is AHDI, MTIA, and AHIMA) came together to come up with standard definitions of things. Individual discussions were quite exciting as it became hard for the group to decide what a “minute” of dictation was. This meeting resulted in a document with a list of definitions for stuff like a line and character, along with a minute of dictation. AAMT (now AHDI) was the initial organization to publish this restrictive definition of a line from the document “The AAMT Line. ” ?t had never been intended to be a “standard” as non-e of the companies involved are standards growth organizations. What WAS is designed to provide a common
understanding of the metrics within our industry. By around 97, AAMT was hearing from the actual membership that this definition had been causing problems for them. MTs who had previously been compensated on a gross line were told they needed to be paid on a 65-character collection because “AAMT says that is what we have to do, ” however, there was no change in the actual compensation rates offered. The actual decrease in pay had been, of course, not something anybody was pleased about. The truth is there never was such a thing as an “AAMT collection, “which is what they used. Even with that description, its use was altered. Do those 65
Do figures include spaces? What about format codes? What about things like bolds and underlines? Even though the description addressed those things, each consumer manipulated it to fit their demands. That’s not uncommon when you have the “definition” list and when experts an industry with no real described true standards. In 1998, the entire year I was AAMT President, the actual association formally removed the support for the document associated with definitions due to the misuse in the market. And yet still today, you will hear people reference “The AAMT line. ”
A couple of years ago, MTIA brought up the idea of the VBC as the answer to our industry problems. The VBC, or verifiable black character, simply intended that you only count all those characters you can see, which means areas were not counted. Once again, this particular certainly caused some upheaval in the industry. The idea of a VBC is that you can measure this more accurately; there is no question about spaces. To their credit history, the organization argued that the old billing and compensation techniques would have to be addressed to be the cause of the differences. And yet, even with this kind of, I have already seen manipulations.
The real question for health care transcriptionists must be, in my opinion, precisely how is your line defined? What on earth is included in that line which is it verifiable for the MT? I do not believe any individual should work in a situation where it is unclear how they are generally compensated. Yet, today, My spouse and I still meet MTs who aren’t sure precisely how their compensation is worked out. Who is responsible for that?
Need to say that I believe the only way we live truly empowered is by having control of ourselves. In task interviews, I believe that’s a 2-way process, and each person carries a choice to make. The workplace or client gets an MT, and the MT usually chooses the employer or buyer. The billing method or maybe compensation should be absolutely obvious and transparent. Find out if spots are counted. Ask about headers and footers. And what with regards to things like bolds and underlines? Are they counted, and if, therefore, does that mean each bolded character counts as a pair of characters? Can you verify individuals counts on whatever technique you are using?
I want you to be sure that you have as much information as possible so you can make an informed choice. It’s easy to say, “this location pays xxx cents for each line, and this one will pay 2 cents more. Therefore I will take position B. inch. Yet, you cannot make an informed evaluation and decision if you don’t have a fundamental knowledge of the definitions utilized. Don’t let this happen to you!
Now towards the age-old question. What if an organization doesn’t pay for spaces? I have heard some MTs say they simply won’t work for the company. In the end, that’s an individual choice. I’ve heard a few MTs say if areas aren’t paid for, then a few notgivethemspacesanymore. In the end, of course, we can’t do that because, eventually, it is the patience we provide. For me, frankly, it in no way mattered.
I don’t treat if you pay for spaces, not really. I DO care about understanding how things are calculated to ensure that I can consider that in asking for an appropriate pace of compensation. If I am aware that spaces take up 20-30% of any document and I’m not paid for spaces, then I can expect that my range rate will be 20-30% above average to account for which. It’s that simple, and it is an exciting feature of transparency. How about you? I’m going to look forward to this discussion, plus your input!
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