Outsourcing Medical Transcription can improve the receivables cycle of a healthcare facility.

At the end of the day it is the goal of every enterprise whether in the healthcare business or otherwise to shorten the flow of payments cycle and receive payments sooner. In the case of a healthcare facility this becomes imperative for survival.

Once the patient has visited, diagnosed and treated or further references/tests ordered, essentially the healthcare part of the visit ends and the business side starts. Records have to be created of the whole process so that it can be further processed for coding and billing and finally for insurance claims. The receivable cycle begins with the creation of timely and accurate records. This is where the outsourcing of Medical Transcription can really speed up the process. By handing over the Medical Transcription process to a company who is an expert in the process, more time and resources are freed up, which can be used to concentrate on the core business of healthcare.

Not only does medical transcription play an important role in the receivables cycle, it also plays an important role in other areas such as:

· Patient treatment: The information transcribed from the initial patient-healthcare professional encounter forms a foundation for future treatment, This forms the basis of any follow-up healthcare, has references to the drugs prescribed, allergies and other pertinent information.

· Statutory requirements: The information regarding a patient needs to be maintained for a period of 5 years.

· Evidence in litigation: In case of malpractice suits medical records form a part of the evidence.

· Referrals: In case further treatment is needed based on the present diagnosis these records form the basis of referrals to specialists for further treatment.

The Medical Transcription Company needs to be assessed on the basis of the following:

· Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

· Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A Turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

· Data security: The Company being outsourced to should be HIPAA compliant. The Medical Transcription Company has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

· Pricing: This is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

· Technology: The technology used by the Medical Transcription Company should not only secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

Once a Medical Transcription Company has been evaluated on all these characteristics, the healthcare facility can finalize on a company offering all the benefits and rest easy on the first stage of its’ receivables cycle.

TransDyne offers all the above benefits of outsourcing the Medical Transcription needs Taking advantage of a well-rounded outsourced Medical Transcription service provider like TransDyne and the positive impact it has on the receivable cycle can be felt immediately.

Medical transcription: Billing method and the bottom line

The method of billing adopted by the Medical Transcription Company could have a direct impact on the healthcare facility’s bottom-line!

After all any healthcare facility is going for specialist Medical Transcription services in anticipation of cost saving benefits. It is important to pick a company, which adopts a transparent and simple method of billing.  How complicated could this be? This is an area that is worth studying in detail. According to the principles of MTIA the billing method adopted by a Medical Transcription Company should be:

· Verifiable: The billing method used by a Medical Transcription Company should be easy to verify.

· Definable: The terms and parameters of the billing method used by the Medical Transcription Company should be defined in clear terms.

. Measurable: The formulas used by a Medical Transcription Company should allow for easy understanding.

· Consistent: The method of billing should be consistent for clear understanding and ease of operation. Any changes made in the method of billing should be communicated to the client to avoid inconsistencies

· Fair and honest: The billing method used by a Medical Transcription Company should be a fair and honest representation of charges for work executed

There are various methods, used for billing, which  have been summed up below:

Page: Each page of transcribed material constitutes a billable unit. The problem arises when there is a vast disparity in the content of pages. They could end up paying the same amount for a page consisting of 10 lines, as a page consisting of 45 lines. This would not be indicative of fair payment for services rendered.

Report: The total pages of finished transcription in a report constitute a billable unit. The problem arises when there is a vast disparity in the number of pages in a report. A report could consist of anything between 1 page to 10 pages, which again is not indicative of fair payment for services rendered.

Minute: This means every minute of dictation constitutes a billable unit. This method may seem like a fair one until the healthcare facility considers the different speeds of dictation, the interruptions and distractions faced by doctors during this process. They would be billed for those too!

Gross lines: Simply put, this method consists of visually counting the number of lines. The problem with this method is that it is dependent on the method of formatting used. The amount billed could be more when a Medical Transcriptionist uses tabs and indents excessively.

Character Lines: Character lines are usually defined counting the characters in the finished report and dividing it by a fixed number, say 65. Space and returns are also included. This method is simple, fair and consistent. It has the advantage of being easily verifiable.

TransDyne offers a fair and transparent billing process. TransDyne has adopted the “Character lines” method of billing. This method consists of counting all the characters in a finished report. The total is then divided by 65 to define a Character line. The billing is done on the total number of character lines transcribed.

The process of billing is explained at the very beginning so that what is being paid for is clearly understood. At every stage of the process TransDyne’s team offers further support to explain any clarifications that may be needed. With this billing system in place it ensures that the healthcare facility can rest assured that they are being billed exactly for the services rendered in a fair and verifiable manner.

Medical transcription: Who actually does the work?

Knowing who actually does the outsourced Medical Transcription work is very important because of the very sensitive and critical nature of the work. Making sure that the company chosen for outsourcing, executes the Medical Transcription work themselves, and not through subcontractors or home transcriptionists is very important. This has benefits like:

· Better control
Having to deal with one entity that does the work makes it easier to control all the processes. Otherwise it could result in dilution of control

· Data security
Data Security is one of the most important factors to be considered before engaging the services of an outsourced transcription vendor. Getting work done through a series of subcontractors and home-based transcriptionists would mean that patient data is exposed to various networks and computers.

The more number of people and networks handling this information the higher is the security risk. When outsourcing to a zero-subcontracting company like TransDyne, the data is handled professionally. TransDyne employs the best data security practices like high –end encryption, firewalls and foolproof access control measures

· Consistent Quality of work
When a company engages subcontractors, it has no control over who does the work and how. With a service provider like TransDyne there is more consistency in the quality of work as it is done by the same team of people who handle the same set of providers on a regular basis

· Personalized services
Any personalized needs of the healthcare facility like formats etc can be easily changed/added whenever required and the smallest preferences of each individual dictator are taken care of.

· Better understanding of special needs
When subcontractors work on dictations, they treat the work as a commodity, as a job that needs to be finished with the least amount of resources.

With a company like TransDyne any special needs of the healthcare facility are taken care of as TransDyne has complete control over the entire transcription process and their people are trained to take care of each client’s special needs.

· Better rates
By eliminating the need for the sub-contractor a company like TransDyne will be in a position to offer much better rates for superior service.

· Better customer service
One to one communication means less scope for misunderstanding and this translates into better customer service.

· Zero legal hassles
Due to the sensitivity of the data involved, it is important to keep it secure. Data access to more people can result in legal hassles due to misuse. Getting work done by a zero subcontracting company like TransDyne would mean zero legal hassles.

· Better turnaround time
When home transcriptionists or sub contractors are involved there are a lot of delays due to various factors like power outage, poor connectivity etc. These delays are avoided when the Medical Transcription Company does the transcription in-house.

At TransDyne they believe it is their privilege to be serving their customers’ needs in the best way possible. So any work outsourced to TransDyne, is executed by their own team of trained Medical Transcriptionists, than by the use of subcontractors or home transcriptionists.

The healthcare facility benefits by virtue of their vast experience, their training methods, best practices, and the comfort of absolute confidentiality & data security.

REDUCE UPFRONT CAPITAL INVESTMENT THROUGH OUTSOURCING MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION

Many healthcare facilities may not be aware that outsourcing their Medical Transcription needs can actually reduce their capital outlay in non-healthcare related areas. Healthcare business is ever changing and needs huge investments in the latest equipments to give the best possible care to patients. This means having to stretch limited money resources to cover all needs. Investing in capital equipment not related to the core business, like Medical Transcription can stretch the already over worked budgets to the limit.

What is the Capital investment required for medical transcription?
Capital investment for medical transcription could be in the following areas:

·   Computer systems for transcribing including monitors, headsets, footpedals,  keyboards etc.
·   Software for the transcription systems
·   Server for centrally uploading dictation files and downloading finished transcripts
·   Furniture used by in-house medical transcriptionists
·   Software for integration of the finished transcripts from various transcription sources into the healthcare facility’s central system.

Though not directly related to the core business, Transcription is vital to the smooth running of a healthcare facility and so cannot be ignored. In a situation where too many demands are made on limited resources, one easy fix is to outsource Medical Transcription needs. This then shifts the onus of major capital investment on to the Medical Transcription service provider.

But the decision to outsource Medical Transcription needs should not be taken lightly, and one needs to carefully evaluate the Medical Transcription service provider in terms of:

· Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy in the transcribed document with relation to the audio files. Minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

· Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to you. A Turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

· Data security: The Company being outsourced to should be HIPAA compliant. The Medical Transcription Company has to have adequate security measures so that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

· Fair pricing: Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that concerned parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

Above all the Medical Transcription Company should offer services to take care of all the Medical Transcription needs without involving any additional investments on the healthcare facility’s part.

TransDyne not only offers Medical Transcription with accuracy of above 99%, with a 24-hour turnaround time, at fair prices and with Data security that will match and exceed industry standards, but also offers advantages like:

· Reduced work on filing documents and tracking dictations.
· Eliminating scope for missing documents.
· No additional investment in Hardware or software.
· Configuration for multi provider, multi user and multi location setting.
· Upgrades without any change to the client’s computer

Outsourcing Medical Transcription to TransDyne not only reduces capital investment budget and eliminates the cost of repairs, maintenance and up gradation of equipments but would also help the healthcare facility improve patient care.

MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION: MANAGING ERRATICTRANSCRIPTION VOLUMES

Problems managing the fluctuations in the volume of transcription due to unpredictability of patient inflow and staffing fluctuations?

Managing the transcription volume for a healthcare organization would mean facing two main challenges:

· The unpredictable volume of transcription needs
In the business of healthcare it is nearly impossible to predict the patient inflow to the healthcare facility. Thereby the volume of transcription to be handled can wildly fluctuate according to the volume of patients coming to the healthcare facility.

· Managing in-house transcription staff schedules.
The in-house staff in a healthcare facility is prepared to handle a certain amount of transcription volume. Any excess volume of transcribed reports can create a serious lag in the processing of reports. Moreover issues like vacations, sick leaves etc can create a serious lag in generation of Transcribed reports.

These two issues can leave the healthcare facility with serious lags in generation of transcription reports that can in turn affect patient care and the receivables cycle.

What are the issues that arise due to lag in medical transcription?
Delay in medical transcription can have a spiraling effect in the following areas:

· Increase in the cost per line of transcription: To keep up with varying volumes, the existing staff may either be underutilized or paid extra  to work  overtime increasing the cost per line of transcription.

· Wastage of resources: Resources like management staff, utilities and real estate would have to be allocated to manage overflow of transcription needs, which results in loss of opportunity costs.

· Security issues: To meet urgent transcription needs, the excess work may be outsourced to independent contractors without ascertaining the security measures used by them, and this could result in security breaches.

· Increase in the cost of information technology: Coordinating reports from various resources into the healthcare facility could mean additional IT costs.

Outsourcing Medical Transcription needs to a Medical Transcription Company can solve both problems of fluctuating Medical Transcription needs and issues with staffing in one shot. The Medical Transcription Company would have a huge pool of well-trained Medical Transcriptionists who can expertly transcribe reports on a timely basis, no matter what the volumes are. It would also ensure that the other issues arising out of delayed transcription would be solved at a stroke.

Hiring a professionally managed Medical Transcription Company like TransDyne to take care of the healthcare facility’s Medical Transcription needs will solve both the problems of planning for volume as well as staff requirements. Not just that, TransDyne will also partner with the healthcare facility to try and bring down transcription costs by almost 40% and take care of any volume needs or any holiday staffing needs that may arise, leaving the management of the healthcare facility free to focus on other areas.

TransDyne offers quality Medical Transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

A Guide to medical transcription outsourcing

What are the factors that should guide an outsourcing decision?

There are many factors that guide the outsourcing decision, profits being one of the main factors. That apart there are a few other factors that make the outsourcing decision making process easier and faster. Listed here are few of the important factors:

· Skill level of the medical transcriptionists: Quality of medical transcription is a function that totally depends on the skill set of the medical transcriptionists. While outsourcing it is important to assess the medical transcription service provider on the training methods used to train their workforce. Well-trained medical transcriptionists would mean that the accuracy of the transcripts would be very high.

TransDyne recruits the best candidates through a detailed screening process to ensure that the best talent is recruited. They are then provided with extensive training on all the skills required. The training process is taken further as TransDyne believes that it takes a specialist to take care of special needs. That is why their Medical Transcriptionists are trained in one or two areas of medicine so that they become Domain specialists in that area of medicine. Specialty training assures that accuracy levels are high from the very beginning.

· Ensure that security measures taken by the medical transcription service provider are adequate: While outsourcing medical transcription it is imperative to choose a service provider, who understands the significance of maintaining confidentiality of patient data by taking appropriated security measures.

TransDyne ensures Data security by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts. TransDyne further ensures data security by ensuring that data doesn’t leave it’s premises physically. To ensure secure Medical Transcription all the transcription is done in TransDyne’s premises and the premises are secured through appropriate