…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.