Monday, June 2, 2008

MedQuist lawsuit settled

Finally it appears that MQ's lawsuit against them for overcharging clients has been settled. It makes me happy so that maybe people can now move on. In my view, the majority of large companies will be sued at some point in their operating life, but for some reason a lot of people hold this lawsuit against MQ as if they are some evil entity or something. Anyway, this article is from March 17, so how it's just now come to my attention is beyond me, but here it is anyway...

MedQuist has executed a settlement for approximately $7.5 million with the
plaintiffs and certain other punative class members represented by plaintiffs'
counsel in the South Broward customer class action.

On Sept. 9, 2004, a punative class action was filed against the Mount
Laurel, N.J.-based MedQuist, alleging that the company overcharged certain
non-federal governmental hospitals and medical centers for transcription
services. The plaintiffs twice amended the complaint adding and dropping named
plaintiffs, according to MedQuist. On March 30, 2005, the action was transferred
to the U.S. District Court District for the District of New Jersey, and the
plaintiffs filed a third amended complaint on Jan. 4, 2006.

Under the terms of the settlement, MedQuist said it will pay approximately
$7.5 million to resolve all claims by the individual named plaintiffs and
certain other putative class members represented by plaintiffs' counsel but not
named in the action. The settling parties will release the company and all
individual defendants from any and all claims and dismiss the action in its
entirety with prejudice, MedQuist said. However, the settlement is subject to
formal documentation by the parties.

{source}

7 comments:

ceci macdonald said...

How in the world can you act like what MQ was doing was NO BIG DEAL?! They owe me, alone, over $45,000!!!!!! They stole from me, a person who did their transcription. AT the time there were over 13,000 of us helping them rape and pillage our country. They got off cheap if you ask me. They have slithered away with hundreds of millions if not billions more than the piddly $7.5 million they pay out ...and $1.5 million to the MTs is disgraceful. They stole from us by "twisting the knob" and several other ways. You try being driven into bankrupcy and see if it's still NO BIG DEAL...when you have been an MT for 30 years and are trying to make this thing work but every day it gets more and more corrupt what they were doing -- and price fixing by BUYING UP ALL THE COMPETITOR transcription companies. ..there were few options to go to work anywhere else. They had sucked up all the hospitals into their game. They are crooks of the first order, and what makes it worse, they were an OFF SHORE COMPANY for all practical purposes. Go do your homework. The money pockets behind MQ were from Belgium and India.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why you would stick with a company and let them bleed you dry to the tune of $45,000. Personally if I was to have gotten screwed for $450 I would have left. There are far too many companies out there to stick with one you hate.

ceci macdonald said...

I guess you had to be there - and be in your 50s and 60s, ending your career - dumped by family and husbands as many of us were by then, and living on our imagination. No money to invest in yet another set up for another MT company and no hospitals hiring anymore because they had "bought into" MQ's mumbojumbo. There are thousands of us who went into bankrupcy because of MQ. The insidiousness of it is we kept asking governmental agencies to look into it and we were ignored, from the Fed Wage and Hour folks to SEC, to CIA. It was like we were boxed into a no-man's land. Noone wants to hire at 50-60 YO, and you are too young to retire. What good are all these governmental agencies? They are useless to people with real problems. Here was a company sending unsecured medical records of our military to a war zone. And nothing happened. They are breaking every law on wage and hour, and nothing happens. A law suit is put together by the MTs, and nothing happens. You just keep hoping things will get better and they don't. You have transcribed for 20-30 yrs and that's where your experience is - not in being a paralegal, not in being a medical assistant or nurse - you have transcribed. If I had been 30-40 I too would be saying what you are - wouldn't have stayed. But the age and the economy and what MQ had done at locking out MTs into going with transcription companies made it a no-win. It takes $$ and there is a learning time to build up speed to go to new accounts and use new equipment. By the time many of us said we can't take it anymore - the lies - we had used our savings and had not been able to find other work even when we tried.

Bloggin' Momma said...

Thank you for your point of view. I really think the most important part of your statement is "I guess you had to be there," which I wasn't. I have complete compassion for people who have been screwed over and left basically for dead by a huge corporation such as MedQuist, I really do. Most of the wage underpayment and the hospital over charging happened before my time with them and really didn't effect me. I had been contacted by the lawyers about two years after I started, but if I was ever underpaid I was never aware of it and so just ignored the emails and letters from them.

I can hear from the tone in your comment that this all broke you down, and I'm sorry for that, I really am and can understand how you can be so angry with MQ, I can understand everyone's point of views, but because I didn't live through all of the problems I can't be angry about them and I can't comment on them, all I can do is give my point of view and comment on my own personal experience.

I do have to say that not all of my experiences have been good with MedQuist, they irritate me sometimes, as would any job I suppose, and I almost quit over not getting a raise in nearly nine years, but for the most part I'm happy and I'm sorry if anyone thinks I'm an idiot for that. To me it doesn't really matter what company I choose to work for, they would irritate me at times, I think it's that way for everyone. Heck, I have a feeling if I worked for myself I'd have days where I hated my boss. :0)

I'm so glad that you've chosen to comment on here, it's always nice to have a debate going, I just want people to understand that I'm not 100% pro-MQ, they just haven't ever done me horribly wrong really, or maybe they have and I'm just too oblivious to pay attention, but the only thing I can really comment on is my own experience, it wouldn't be fair to try and comment on anyone else's.

I do have to say though, if anyone ever wants to write their story and put it here I'm all for having guest writers. If you had a bad experience with a company such as MQ then write your story down and I will publish it here. I think sometimes the best therapy is writing your thoughts down and letting the world know.

Lou Anna Claveau said...

Wow, I had a reliable source tell me they have had wonderful experiences with MQ so I am taking classes to work for them and other companies partnered with the school I am in. This is a second job for me. I would like to know how you discovered the underpayment? If we know how it's done we can certainly look at our pay and discover for ourselves if we are being cheated. Since I am new to medical transcription I would love to know what to expect. I was told in the first six months to expect somewhere up to 9$ hour, and then after that 20$ up to 9 months later and after a year up to 40$ an hour.

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