The XY Files in an MT World
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I woke up this morning to find a Google Alert in my inbox regarding a most interesting post on Julie Weight’s MT Exchange blog. The blog post quoted a MedQuist memorandum to its transcriptionists announcing the settlement of a 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.”
I did a little digging and found the memo in its entirety. I must say it makes for interesting reading. The notice states that the lawsuit was settled for $1.5 million in cash, of which no less than $1 million is to be distributed to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) “to fund programs for the general benefit of medical transcriptionists and the medical transcription industry. 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.”
A subsequent portion of the notice states that “AHDI is offering certain of its programs free of charge to qualifying class members through December 31, 2009. Program options include a choice of one of the following: free one-year individual AHDI membership, or free one-year subscription to AHDI’s web-based knowledge base and information portal (i.e., Benchmark KB), or free registration for up to five (5) online AHDI educational webinars; or free registration for credentialing prep course; or free AHDI educational product bundle.” The notice instructs interested parties to visit the AHDI website for more information, but I was not able to find anything concerning this settlement or how to apply for the free programs on the site.
According to the notice, individuals who would otherwise be part of the class covered by this settlement do have the option of excluding themselves from the settlement, thus preserving their right to sue MedQuist individually. The settlement covers all MTs who worked for MedQuist from November 29, 1998 through August 11, 2008 who were paid on a line-based unit of measure. Interestingly, it appears from my reading of the settlement notice that the process had not actually reached the class certification stage before the settlement was reached.
I would love to know how MTs affected by this settlement feel about the money going to AHDI rather than being distributed amongst the individuals whose paychecks may have been directly affected by MedQuist’s allegedly improper line-counting methods (MedQuist admits no guilt in regards to any of the plaintiffs’ allegations as part of the settlement). In any case, this certainly is a windfall for AHDI, which has struggled with declining membership revenues for a number of years. Hopefully many of the MTs who are eligible will take advantage of the free programs AHDI will be required to offer as a result of this settlement. As someone who actually worked for MedQuist during the covered period, you can bet I will!
Hi…I got two notices in the mail regarding the lawsuit. I do not feel too good about the settlement. I worked for Medquist from about 2002 when Ominmed was purchased by them until June of 2007, at which time I was placed on disability at the age of 62. I had repeatedly asked for my lines to be recounted over the previous, at least, two years because my line count was increasingly going down, down, down… I was told my line count was being counted on the same central company system as all other transcriptionists, and that the count could not be wrong. Because of some health issues, my drop in line count was all attributed to them, but I worked 8 to 12 hour days and ended up with 800 to 1100 lines when I had previously had line counts in the 1500 to 2000 range per those same hours.
No, I do not feel good about the settlement at all. You and I, and all of the transcriptionists who were cheated out of a fairly low income anyway should be reimbursed for the pain and agony of day-in, day-out, time-consuming, tiring work that was so frustrating because at the end of that day, you did not make enough money in an industry that is touted as being one of the best paid for at-home workers.
I think Medquist should reimburse you and me…bottom line…that is what would be fair in a fair world.
For what? The plaintiff attorney couldn’t prove that MQ shorted the MTs at all. You weren’t cheated; you did what you said you’d do for the price they said they’d pay you.
I agree that MedQuist should reemberse we transcriptionists who lost money…..we worked for them, we should get paid. All the lawyers would have to do is look back at the records (if MedQuist kept them) and they would see…..when ever I asked the boss about it, she said, oh it will be taken care of…..that day never came! I want my name in the pot where we dont stand for it!!!
It isn’t MQ’s responsibility to prove your case. YOU must be able to prove your case. If you have proof that you were shorted lines on a consistent basis, then you have a case. If you’re relying on MQ to bring forth that information – dream on.
There are instructions in the documents on how to protest the settlement but that doesn’t guaranty you will get any money.
My question is, what was the discrepancy in line count & what would my pay have been using a correct line-counting method? Does anyone know how to find this out?
It’s incredibly rude that I’m going to get the consolation prize of a free AHDI membership or other noxious offerings by — you guessed it — your favorite organization and mine — AHDI, or as I like to call them, the Association for Healthcare Documentation in India.
This is something like getting run over by a truck, suing for damages, & having the brakes manufacturer supply you with a bullseye to wear on your chest in lieu of compensation.
I also worked for MQ during the years in question, and still do. It would be nice to have the dollar compensation but not nice enough to make me dig for what would probably not be much money. However, I have noticed in the last month my line counts going down drastically, working the same amount or more hours with lower and lower line counts. With this settlement so fresh in my mind, it makes me wonder if other MTs have also experienced this lately? Our healthcare benefits are linked to our 150 lines/hour line count. I am an over-50 female with some of the usual age-related medical issues which of course equal frequent pharmaceutical claims. Is it paranoia on my part to think that my line counts would be tinkered with in order for my benefits to be cancelled?
I find it ironic that MedQuist paid the money to AHDI, the corporate entity that creates BOS guidelines which actually cut line counts (i.e., type “1″ instead of “one”, and “2-5″ instead of two to five, etc.).
What’s eating our line counts now is the emerging AHDI standard for line counts as “Visible Black Character.” A VBC line essentially does what MedQuist was doing. It’s a 74-76 character line, not a 65-character line counting spaces. They do not want to pay us for hitting the space bar. BOS guidelines, however, say to use 2 spaces between sentences and after headers. Hilarious, isn’t it? They make it the guideline and advocate not paying the MT for typing spaces.
MedQuist was essentially double-dipping. They told their MTs they were paid based on a 65-character line counting spaces. They actually paid them based on a 74-76 character line. Then MedQuist billed the hospitals/clients for a 65-character line, counting spaces. MedQuist was particularly sleazy about it, because when you called them and talked to them, they treated you like you were pretty much crazy and it was YOUR problem and you couldn’t prove it anyway. They used proprietary platforms.
A VBC line count will cut an MT’s line count from 1500 to 1250. Too bad MTs don’t have a union. We could officially, as a group, protest this line count change by never hitting the space bar again. Bottom line is, they are paying us less for the same work and not telling us that line count methodology just cut our productivity and pay.
Let’s face it, MTs are at the bottom of the healthcare industry. Think of all the corporate entities such as insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies with expensive teams of lawyers squeezing profits out of the same. They have sent us home from hospitals, made us “independent contractors,” taken away our hourly wages, benefits, and made us buy our own equipment.
To marginalize MTs further, “voice recognition software” has been developed which we, as MTs, then get paid very little to correct. They have sent our jobs overseas in an attempt to cut us out. They just keep squeezing us dry and marginalizing our value in the work force. The VBC line count is merely the latest offensive against MTs, in the war to pay us less for the work we do, so their profit margins are better. It’s not surprising, really.