Medical Transcription and HIM for Quality Healthcare

20-June-2012 Julie Clements Medical Transcription

Health Information Management (HIM) is a process of updating and safeguarding healthcare reports. In fact, people who are involved in this task provide an important service towards the delivery of medical care. A superior medical transcription service provider would contribute to proper HIM and thereby, quality healthcare in several ways.

How They Contribute – Some of the Ways

Accuracy – By developing 99 percent accurate transcripts, the service provider ensures continuity, provides valid proof should a malpractice suit arise, offers useful information for research and education and provides the foundation for scheduling future care.
Completeness – With complete information pertaining to a patient’s past health issues and records in the transcripts, healthcare professionals can devise a suitable treatment plan.
Relevance – The medical transcriptionists would incorporate only relevant information in the records therefore making it easier and more convenient for the healthcare provider to advise proper treatment.
Speed – Completed transcripts are usually delivered within 24 hours of receiving the physician dictations. This not only helps in timely healthcare but also in getting reimbursements faster.
Accessibility – An established medical transcription vendor has convenient archiving included as part of the transcription, which makes it easier to access files created up to a year before.

Offshore Medical Transcription – Benefits

16-June-2012 MTS TEAM Medical Transcription

When you make the decision to use outsourced medical transcription services, you can choose between US based and offshore transcriptionists. India is a commonly sought after offshore destination.

Advantages of Offshore Medical Transcription

Costs Less – There is a huge difference between the personnel expenses for Indian staff and those for developed countries. Offshoring to India costs less.

Advantageous Time Zone Difference – The time zone difference between India and the US is advantageous because it enables the client business to function on a 24 hour basis.

Talented and Skilled Manpower – The world’s largest democracy has an abundance of English speaking and experienced IT professionals.

No compromise in data security – Confidentiality and security of patient data is not compromised in any way.

Can Focus on Core Processes – With this back office task being handled by experts, you have more time for patient care and the other core tasks of your healthcare practice.

Quality Standards Recognized Worldwide – In fact, established medical transcription companies in India usually adopt a three-tiered approach of quality auditing to ensure 99 percent accuracy.

Impressive Government IT policies – The Indian government has designed policies that provide for maximum benefit when IT processes are outsourced to India.

Radiology Transcription Outsourcing – Some Benefits

09-June-2012 Rajeev Rajagopal Radiology Transcription

Radiology transcription is a task that greatly benefits hospitals, radiologists, and diagnostic imaging departments. Accuracy is something that cannot be compromised when performing this back office task. This is especially the case because they are handling essential and important data including that related to tests such as MRA with or without contrast, CT scan and MRI with or without contrast.

Advantages of Outsourcing

Given below are some of the advantages of outsourcing radiology transcription:

Reduced Costs – You can cut your operating costs by at least 30 percent.
Work Performed by Experts – Medical transcription experts who are otherwise difficult to locate and hire would be taking care of your transcription project.
99 Percent Accuracy – This is exactly what you want.
Flexibility – You can choose from different dictation options and different methods of file transfer.
HIPAA Compliance – This would ensure the security and privacy of your patient’s sensitive medical information.
Free Trial – With this, you would be able to assess the quality of solutions delivered to you by the service provider.
Impressive Turnaround – The completed transcripts would be delivered to you within 24 hours.
65 character per line billing
Custom Service – The work would be completed in the format you specify.

Digital Medical Transcription: Useful Aspect of Record Management

01-June-2012 Julie Clements Medical Transcription

Digital medical transcription is a useful aspect pertaining to the creation and management of healthcare records. Many a medical transcription service provider in the US provides the service and some of them, with exceptional accuracy (99 percent). This process of documentation helps to put together in a nutshell the symptoms, verdict, cycle of clinical care and patient’s progress. This is helpful to physicians and other healthcare professionals to give quality care to their patients as well as handle receivables management efficiently.

Other Benefits of this Type of Transcription

It is easy to receive dictations and to transfer the prepared transcripts to the clients
Secure file transfer
The quality of dictations can be improved using advanced media and sound players
Electronic signature capabilities
A physician can retrieve a record that she has not accessed in a while
A physician can access transcripts while they are being prepared and edit them if she likes by logging in with the personal code and password given to her
The transcripts can be converted to whatever format the client prefers
Adoption of EHR or EMR systems becomes convenient

With the right choice of service provider, you can save 30 to 40 percent on digital medical transcription costs.

Basic Terms Relating to Medical Transcription Pricing

25-May-2012 MTS TEAM Medical Transcription

There is no standard definition for a medical transcription line owing to the money required for it and the fact that everyone wouldn’t equally gain from such standardization. However, one of the common methods of pricing adopted by medical transcription outsourcing companies in the US is based on the 65 character per line AAMT guideline. So as a client of one of such companies, you can check the correctness of your invoice by using “Word Count” to find the number of characters and spaces and then dividing that number by 65.

Some Basic Terms with Meanings

You may find knowledge of the following basic terms useful in your dealings with your healthcare transcription provider or even just for informational purposes:

Gross Medical Transcription Character – It is a term used when counting the number of lines (65 characters) and refers to any number, letter, function key or symbol essential for the ultimate content and look of a medical transcription document including carriage return, bold, underscore, space bar and any character enclosed within a header, footer or macro.

Net Medical Transcription Character – Refers to only printed characters. In order to convert these characters to gross characters, they should be multiplied by 1.2.

Net Medical Transcription Line – It is a definite line length that incorporates a predetermined quantity of gross characters.

Gross Medical Transcription Line – Refers to a printed line with one or more than one character with no differentiation made between complete and partial lines.

The pricing offered by an established healthcare transcription service provider would be competitive and save you between 30 and 40 percent on transcription costs.

ACE 2012 to Kick off on August 8th

18-May-2012 Rajeev Rajagopal Healthcare News

There are approximately 80 days left for the next AHDI Annual Convention and Expo

The countdown has started for the next AHDI Annual Convention & Expo (ACE 2012). The function of 4 days is something that no healthcare documentation expert would usually want to miss. It is to be held from August 8th to 11th at Indianapolis, IN. This year’s convention and expo, AHDI claims, is “packed with changes.” What’s more, the complete conference registration charges have been lowered and free internet access would be provided in the hotel room. This is very tempting no doubt to professionals who haven’t attended any of the previous ACE functions.

The Attractions

ACE 2012 is a must place-to-be in to know about significant industry changes, exchange the greatest practices and tips with industry insiders from different parts of the US and experience the most modern technology and tools. Some of the topics that would be covered at this year’s program are:

Medical transcription, and medical coding for MTs
Credentialing
Huntington disease
Electronic Health Records
ICD-10
Bariatric Surgery
Plastic surgery for diabetes associated foot wounds
Robotic therapy for children
Mercenary marketing

If you register for all four days by June 13, 2012, you would get the benefits of admission to a free webinar scheduled for fall 2012 with Phyllis Garrison, JD. The webinar would be based on The HIPAA Privacy Rule worth 1 Medicolegal CEC. Apart from this, AHDI members are eligible for discounted charges.

Concerted Efforts Should be made towards Patient Safety

10-May-2012 Julie Clements Medical Transcription

This is what the poster for the upcoming National Medical Transcriptionist Week conveys

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI’s) National MT week is a celebration of the contribution of medical transcriptionists to healthcare. This year’s National MT week is from May 20th to 26th, 2012. A poster for the important week conveys the message that concerted efforts among healthcare providers and healthcare documentation experts are essential to ensure patient safety.

Alarming Statistics

The statistics of a decade ago paint an alarming picture. As per an assessment of 37 million patient medical records, an average of close to 200,000 people expired each in 2001, 2002 and 2003 due to possibly avoidable in-hospital medical inaccuracies. These statistics are enough to prove that accuracy in medical records cannot be compromised at any cost. The National MT week would give MTs an opportunity to discuss issues such as these as well as develop professional partnerships.

Outsourcing Would be Helpful

In conclusion it may be mentioned that outsourcing to a reliable and established medical transcription service provider would bring you into contact with such healthcare documentation experts as would be able to achieve high levels of accuracy in patient records. Trying to achieve high transcription accuracy in-house, that too without backlog, can be challenging, time-consuming and costly.

CMS EHR Incentives Exceed 5 Billion Dollars

05-May-2012 MTS TEAM EHR Transcription

CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services) Medicaid and Medicare EHR payments to 93, 650 hospitals and physicians in complete program approximations through April have exceeded 5 billion dollars. According to a CMS official, the closing figures would become available later in May. Robert Anthony, an expert in CMS’ Office of eHealth Standards and Services revealed that the agency provided $568 million total to both Medicaid and Medicare providers in April alone, as per initial estimates.

Encouraging Figures

Pleased by the numbers, The National Health IT co-ordinator Mr. Farzad Mostashari said “It’s hard in a nation as large and complex as ours not to look at these strong numbers and not feel encouraged that the combination of policies, programs and, importantly, the effects of the really hard work at the state level and by hospitals and by eligible professionals have translated into a tremendous effort, will and execution on the part of the country.”

Combine EHR with Suitable Medical Transcription

Implementing EHR doesn’t mean that you need to do away with transcription. Physicians can utilize dictation-transcription as a means of maintaining narrative reports, tagging it with the EHR system. Using the services of one of the many capable medical transcription outsourcing companies will save physicians the time and effort required to document those details. As a physician or owner of a healthcare practice, your objective should be to combine electronic health records with a dictation-transcription solution that provides a more affordable and practical means of documenting a patient’s full story.

Registration for the Chicago Edition of the 2012 AHIMA Convention & Exhibit to Start in May

27-April-2012 Julie Clements Healthcare News

For healthcare practices and providers of medical transcription services and other healthcare BPO solutions, here’s some good news. You can register for the next AHIMA Convention & Exhibit this May (the registration details are available on their website). The conference and exhibit is an opportunity for you to promote your innovative and competitive customer solutions and also learn about new transcription developments and technologies. It is to be conducted in Chicago, at the McCormick Place Lakeside Building on these dates: Sept 30th and 31st and October 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Increase Your Customer Exposure

Participation at the program as an exhibitor would give medical transcription companies more exposure and invite more customers to buy from you. You can promote your expertise in the following and other areas:

Clinical information systems
Transcription solutions
Dictation services
Outsourcing
Software engineering
EHR
Data management
Web-oriented applications
Privacy solutions
ICD-10
Clinical vocabularies

Your participation would also help you exchange ideas with highly capable Health Information Management (HIM) experts and gain knowledge in the above areas as well as in certification or accreditation, filing systems and more. What’s more, you would be contributing to the shaping of the Health Information Management of the future. So why miss out on this great opportunity?

Outsource MT Like FRASER Health and Partners Are Planning to, & Save!

17-April-2012 MTS TEAM Medical Transcription Outsourcing

Medical Transcription Outsourcing Last week, there was news of a plan by FRASER Health, Canada and three partner health authorities namely Vancouver Coastal Health, Provincial Health Services Authority and Providence Health Care to contract their medical transcription services out to a single service provider. The goal behind this plan is to save money (it is expected to bring their costs down by $3 million per year) and also be able to access the most superior technology. These health establishments would be able to use the saved money for more health care.

Cut Costs and Benefit from the Best Technology

The above development is just one example out of multiple medical transcription outsourcing instances. If you haven’t already outsourced, you should. The combination of reduced operating costs and the best in technology is really too hard to resist. It is true that you would be risking the privacy and security of sensitive PHI (patient health information) when you outsource. However, that would become a total non-issue if you outsource to a recognized HIPAA compliant medical transcription company. This service provider should have industry experience of many years and some good references and testimonials that you could verify. Make sure the company you are considering offers a free trial. The trial would help you judge whether the service provider is right for your requirements or not.

An Opportunity Not Worth Missing

You have nothing to lose by outsourcing medical transcription. Why miss out on the opportunity to benefit in these ways?

30 to 40 percent reduction in operating expenses
Volume discounts
No fees charged for set up
Quality transcription completed within a favorable turnaround