Oh, who’m I kidding? I’ll watch. It’s just an open question whether I’ll actually tune in and watch it right away, or wait to catch it on the ‘net when I’m bored and have nothing better to do. Probably the latter.

I worked for MQ as a statutory employee from 10/99-12/01 (during the time frame of 11/29/98-8/11/08 mentioned in the suit).  Apparently they are being sued for "breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and seeking an accounting, on behalf of MTs (medical transcriptionists) who were compensated on a ‘per line’ basis.  The case asserts that the defendants (MQ)  manipulated MQ’s computer systems to underpay their MTs for their per-line work while in MQ’s employ."  MQ, of course, denies doing anything wrong. 

I don’t know if they did or not, and I really don’t care at this point.  I had other problems with them, like having 4 accounts and, still, no work available, so I wouldn’t have been missing "that" much money anyway.  I quit but on good terms.  They would be my last resort out of pure desperation to work for again, but, hey, you never know.

What I do find interesting is that from what I understand the settlement of $1.5 million (minus fees, etc) will NOT be paid to any of the previously uncompensated MTs but will be given to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly known as the American Association of Medical Transcriptionists (AAMT).   Then, "qualifying class members will be eligible to participate in certain AHDI programs free of charge."  This will include a free 1-year membership and journal subscription, ending 12/09.  There are other things MQ must do according to the suit, but those entail current practices. 

This has caused an uproar to say the least among those involved in the suit–100s if not 1000s of MTs across the country, not because "we" aren’t getting the money necessarily, but because AHDI is.  AHDI/AAMT at one time, about 20 years ago, was actually "for" the American MT.  I used to be a member for a 3-year cycle.  One had to join the association ($200/yr) in order to keep the credentials of CMT (certified medical transcriptionist) after one’s name for 3 years, after passing the test.  AAMT was also the association that did the testing for those credentials.  They were hard tests, and I passed, but several MTs I knew didn’t.  

Having CMT after my name didn’t do anything for me job-wise.  Most healthcare providers at the time (and now) didn’t know what it meant…or even care.  I let my continuing education credits and membership go, as did many others, since any benefit I received was not worth $200/year.  I could go on and on about how AAMT/AHDI has messed around with MTs’ salaries over the decades such that we’re still making the same as we were 10-15 years ago, or how they have turned their focus more globally and have encompassed offshoring work to India and Pakistan.  These are your medical records, people.  Between them and VR, they’re killing us. 

I am not the only MT who thinks this way.  Suffice it to say, there are many very angry transcriptionists nationwide.  Those of us involved in the case have the choice to either let things go as planned, or individually exclude ourselves, or object to the settlement (any part).  Most I know are objecting, i.e., writing letters to the court.   I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. 

This rant might be good enough….

On one hand, there are certain known limits, such as the surface area of the Earth, the mass of the Solar System, the speed of light, and finally the mass of the universe.  Except for the last two, we can actually see our way past the limits.

In my musings, I caught a brief flash of the physics that would allow the deliberate, controlled increase of both the mass and effective volume of the universe.

… and too many questions spin off from this for me to bring any more clarity.

The 3rd Edition of Methuselah’s Daughter is available free at Filed Away. It’s in 6 PDF files that can be viewed online or saved to any reading device that will handle pdf’s (all of them, I’d think).

Thank you for the animated graphic of the earthquakes.  That was pretty interesting and illustrated them quite well.

Angela from Aberdeen

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I’m sure all of you are aware of the 500+ earthquakes Yellowstone had between Dec 27 and Jan 2 (more since but fewer per swarm and less frequent). Several small ones are better than one big one, I would think. I found this animated graphic that "visualizes" them.  It’s at the bottom of the page, and before the graphic, the guy who made it explains how he did it, the programs and sources used.  He doesn’t really give a time frame (mentions one date, 12/31, and posted on 1/1), and although they are in chronological order, there’s no referenced time elaspe–happen one right after the other.  But, still…I thought this was pretty cool. I half expected it to say "How about a nice game of chess?" afterwards.

A friend was crying over the fact that Craig Ferguson just got married, and me being completely out of step with pop culture had to google him.  Found this video on why he won’t make fun of Brittney Spears that’s very serious and yet still very funny.

Evernote looks pretty cool, like google notebook on steroids.  Now, if they could just hook such a thing directly into my brain, I’d be all set…

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