Line rates

[rezwriter]

I have been doing MT for 20+ years as independent contractor. I now charge $24/hr for digital and tape transcription and printing on plain paper (when required). I find this easier to bill and my accounts all seem happy.

[marthah31]

I have been in business for over 35 years and do not charge by the line . I charge by the word which is basically the same thing. I find it is fairest for everyone. As counted by Word. And the rate depends on the requirements, the amount of contracted work, the turnaround time, etc.

[justmeMT]

I am an Independent Contractor and charge 0.13/line (65 CPL). Work is done digitally with a 24-36 hr TAT. I have 5 subs that work for me and I pay them anywhere from 0.06/line to 0.085 CPL depending on their experience and QA status.

[skanary]

I'm an employee and work on an account with over 1800 doctors of all nationalities and accents. I do acute care, clinic care, ESL, you name it.

What I'd like to know is, where can I get a job that pays decently for VR editing? I know that the pay will be a little less, since most of the text is already there, but it seems that many MTSOs cut the cpl way back to super-low wages like 3 cents per line. Even with VR, that kind of cpl rate makes it nearly impossible to make decent money, especially with ESL, poor audio quality, etc., and the host of other impediments to smooth transcriptions that come up in the real world of MT.

I can see cutting it down to, say 7 cpl if straight text MTs are getting 10 cpl, but 3 cpl seems way low...or is there something I'm missing?

[Jolene]

I have 15+ years MT experience and am currently self employed. I charge .12/line with a 12-24 hour TAT. I use the Word count and then divide that count by 10 words per line to get the line rate (which is almost exactly the same as doing it using 65 characters per line).

The hospital clinic here pays their off-site transcriptionists .14/line on a 65 character count line.

I have 5 of my 7 doctors digital now so no printing, delivering, or picking up. It took some talking but eventually they all purchased their own TranscriptionGear and they LOVE IT.

I still have one on sticky-back paper (which I charge .25 per sheet of paper in addition to the transcription cost) and then I have to pick up and deliver (which I charge $2.50/day) to cover my gas - time is a freebie I guess.

[syrago]

I worked my own transcription business for 13 years from 1994 to 2007 and charged .10 per line. I did all the picking up of tapes and delivery back, paid for my own paper, ink, etc. None of the clinics over those years would even think about reimbursement for any of the supplies. It was 0.10 per line and that was it.

I now work for a company that pays .10 per line and it all digital and any hours that I want to work, acute care in many different hospitals. this is much, much better. I feel more appreciated and don't have to driver three hours each day picking up and delivering tapes, etc.

[Pat]

Are you talking about transcription rates or dictator rates? For my company, we charge more for legal transcription at .16 per line and 0.14 for MD transcription for a 65 character line. I will supply 90 while paper but if special paper is required, i.e. the sticky paper or colored or logo that is not easily copies, the MD is to supply it.

[bonnie77]

Which are company that pays such a handsome rate?

[arrietty7]

I am charging .09 per line and wondered how I compared and now I see that I am fine, especially since I do not work for a company and bear all the expenses and responsibility, and I do extras that I don't charge for such as 24-hour turnaround, formatting documents to keep patient letters to one page if possible, etc. I have a couple of clients whom I charge $5 a page for legal cases. I do both medical and legal and it is fun. Most of the time!