MedQuist medical transcriptionists’ class action settlement
A couple of MTs have shared this with me. The class action suit brought by a group of medical transcriptionists against MedQuist.
…lawsuit that was brought as a class action on behalf of current and former medical transcriptionist employees of MedQuist Inc. and MedQuist Transcription Ltd. (”MedQuist”). The suite alleges that MedQuist manipulated its company systems to underpay medical transcriptionists for transcription work that was compensated on a per-line basis. Defendants deny that they did anything wrong. The parties have agreed to settle the lawsuit.
So that’s the basics of the lawsuit. The class includes medical transcriptionists who transcribed for MedQuist from November 29, 1998 to August 11, 2008 and were paid on a per-line basis.
That’s all I know about the class action that was brought, so don’t ask for details. I don’t know how long it’s been pending or who originally filed it. If you were an employee of MQ, you received one of these.
What you also know is that the $1.5 million settlement went to AHDI. If you weren’t part of the class action, this may come as a surprise.
…the settlement fund, less Court-approved expenses, shall be distributed to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (”AHDI”), an association of medical transcription professionals, to fund programs for the general benefit of medical transcriptionists and the medical transcription industry.
I guess nobody told them AHDI’s practitioner membership has shrunk to a mere couple thousand people.
…Qualifying class members will also be eligible to participate in certain AHDI programs free of charge. No payments will be made directly to any individuals.
I can hear all of you charging to send e-mail to AHDI and ask if you’re a qualifying member and what programs you qualify for. Can’t I?
OK, when you find out would you please come back here and say what it is? And while you have them on the line, ask them how they got their fingers in this particular pie.
Oy vey.
I just received “Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Class Action” filed with the United States District Court/District of New Jersey (Camden) reading: Dorothy D. Myers et al., Consolidated Plaintiffs -v- Medquist Inc. and Medquist Transcriptions, Ltd., Consolidated Defendents. This was yesterday 01/12/2009. Clearly, this states exactly what you have posted, i.e. that none of us who were taken advantage of by MedQuist will have any profit from said litigation. I am clearly a disgruntled previous employee, however, I am not willing to participate and am requesting my name be removed from said litigation. If it profits me none……..oh, well I have said my peace…….
I worked for MQ for nearly 2 years and found out, by “accident” that they had “underestimated” my line counts when I received a letter with my final paycheck (I quit after working 14- and 16-hour days for virtually NOTHING) stating that there had been an undercounting of my lines and enclosed was a small check for 100 bucks and change. I later found out that MQ wrote the software that counts the lines. That was the tip of the iceberg……I then discovered that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against MQ…..after 4 years of corresponding with one of the plaintiff attorneys in Atlanta, I stopped hearing from them and assumed that the lawsuit had just vanished. I found out yesterday that a settlement had been reached for $1.5M with $250K off the top to the attorneys. I don’t mind that; they deserve to be paid. What I DO mind is the fact that AHDI is involved in this at all! How did THEY get cheated? Getting a free membership to AHDI and some other “incentives” to join is simply NOT enough…….I firmly believe that EACH and every MT who was cheated on their line counts DESERVES to be compensated in FULL for their time and hard work. This is not an easy business to make a living in….God knows I never have and I have been struggling with this for 17 years to date….but, to know that we were cheated (stolen from, actually) and that AHDI is going to get the pittance of a settlement from MQ makes me LIVID! I am encouraging all the former MQ employees I know to write to the court and to the attorneys of their objections to the settlement and FORCE a trial. It is high time MQ is exposed and I suspect, other companies have been doing the same thing as well. One MT service in particular has instituted a tier program where if you don’t make your line count for even ONE pay period, they can jerk your benefits.
Interesting, isn’t it?
I agree that AHDI should not be getting the funds. First of all, we don’t need more training or whatever programs they have available. WE didn’t do anything that should require us to have more training. I would hope that the Execs at MedQuist could get some training in morals. But I guess that’s too much to hope for. I am still working for MedQuist, have done transcription now for the last 30 years. It used to be possible to make a living at it, but now I just want to hold on until I can retire. So I work part time, and thank my husband that I am able to do it that way, and am just treading water, so to speak. I objected to the law suit. I did not take myself out of it because I don’t think there will be another one, but I did object to the proposed outcome. This will be decided in March, and we have until February 19 to either opt out of the law suit or object to the proposed settlement. Anyway, don’t really expect much to come of it either way, except maybe now I will be on a MedQuist HIT LIST. Whatever.
You should definitely Object to the settlement & be heard by the judge at the “fairness hearing”
I too received the notice and I wholeheartedy disagree with their settlement proposal. But that is all it is, a proposal. If enough of us write in and do not accept the proposal they will have to come up with something else. MQ knew how much of a hassle and how expensive it would be to accurately determine how much was owed to each employee. They hopped on the settlement bandwagon in a hurry and are hoping we are all dumb enough to think it was a good deal. I looked on the AHDI site and the cost for a year’s membership was $135. I think we are owed a whole lot more than that. I’ve never been involved with AHDI and don’t care to be. We made this money, it belongs to us. I won’t opt out but I will write the letters required to make sure my voice is heard and that I totally disagree with their proposal. I’m hoping enough people do and make them accountable for their deception.
I would encourage all MTs who are “settlement members” to send in their objections to this settlement. To have AHDI benefit from our work is offensive. With 10 years of experience at an MT I feel I have adequate knowledge to perform my job well and am not interested in giving any compensation due me to an organization that will “improve” my skills. Come on! Do they think we’re idiots?
I just got my letter regarding the lawsuit as well. How the heck is this lawsuit on behalf of the transcriptionists, if we will not be receiving any money from this? I want any money due to me, to be sent to me. I never heard of this AHDI place. I have been doing medical transcription since 1993 and I do not need any improvement. I need my money. I worked for Medquist for like 12 years, and I am sure they owe me a lot. They know how much they were skimming off of everyone’s paychecks and should be made to pay it out to the people they stole it from in the first place. If there is a cost to Medquist for figuring out how much they owe each of us, then that should be their penalty for their skimming in the first place. I don’t want to take any courses from AHDI. I am close to retirement age. I will definitely be talking to my lawyer about this. Medquist, it’s time for you to do the right thing and pay the transcriptionists fairly. It’s because of corruption like this that the whole country is going down the drain. Medquist and other companies need to straighten out and fly right.
Just a quick update.
AHDI has posted a FAQ on the settlement here:
http://www.transcriptionistsettlement.com/
Jay Vance has blogged at the Advance Insider Blogs here:
http://tinkylink.com/MoreMQDetails
And there is a web site here:
http://www.transcriptionistsettlement.com/index.htm
I’m not sure who put that one up but the domain name owner is a consulting company.
I am angry…..we should be compensated for the work we did. I know for just me, I lost at least 300 lines a day for ove four months. I WANT MY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I left Medquist in July 2007 - wasn’t there long. I’m working for a hospital and like it a lot. Just got notified that there’s a mandatory meeting - I think the hospital may be selling out to Medquist - I don’t want to work for them - they’re liars and cheats - I’ll have to get my fellow transcriptionistst to read these blogs.
I am new to reading MT news blogs and am not sure of the format of posting a reply; however, I would like to submit a late response to the hallaballoo of the Medquist saga. Having worked there for several years during the dates described in the lawsuit, I know I have been cheated out of a couple hundred lines a day for probably a several-year period. (I left Medquist upon the advice of a fellow employee who witnessed unscrupulous practices occurring in the office involving a paper shredder. Upon receiving the settlement document in the mail, I did some research on line and discovered that the judge presiding over the case had filed a letter to both the defendant and plaintiffs’ counsel asking why the AHDI proposed settlement was fair. He actually described many of the same points of unfairness that are posted in this blog by fellow MTs. It was quite interesting and fueled my motivation to write to the judge and express my disappointment in the proposed settlement. Of course, the date of the fairness hearing has come and gone and I don’t expect anything to come of my letter, but after reading these posts it is comforting to know that I was not the only MT who wrote to the courts complaining about the proposal! It can be a lonely world as an at-home MT and I look forward to keeping up with fellow MTs via cyberspace.
I am worried MedQuist is taking over at our hospital too. They are supposed to only be doing our “backlog” but yet the hospital is downloading the MedQuist program on our computers and we have had an online training session how to use “DocQscribe” and now they say we all need new foot pedals as our foot pedals now won’t work??? Please, has anyone had this happen?
Fellow MTs: Don’t you think its time we exercise our rights to union representation for fair compensation? Hopefully, this would be a way to be paid for our services performed for Medquist retroactively. Medquist is changing the entire scope of our profession. We are paid as writers are paid. Writers earn a median of $50,000/yr, editors more (not 2/3 salary as Medquist has granted). Do some research. Find the facts. I urge you to contact your local office of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) today - Medquist west coast region employees contact Y4union@AOL.com. The longer this goes on, the harder it will be to receive any justification.