2009 MTIA Conference Recap

PRN Funding recently had the opportunity to connect with many MTSOs and medical transcriptionists when we exhibited at the 20th Annual MTIA Conference in Louisville, KY a couple of weeks ago.

Account Manager, Joanna Schafer, represented PRN Funding in booth #26, and she had the opportunity to speak with a number of MTSOs about the benefits of PRN Funding’s medical transcription funding program.

In a recap email, MTIA listed a slew of key issues and priorities discussed at this year’s conference as well, namely:

  1. The 2009 MTIA Conference had 80 first-time attendees.
  2. MTIA membership grew by 10%.
  3. Attendees wholeheartedly supported a uniform visibility campaign comprised of advocacy to key health policymakers and a public relations strategy focused on the sector’s contribution to quality patient care delivery.
  4. MTIA recognized that the recently enacted HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) and healthcare reform present tremendous opportunities for the clinical documentation sector, as long as the sector is organized and focused.
  5. “Discrete reportable transcription” can be integrated with EHR technology as a method of increasing EHR adoption.
  6. With the number of consumers who are documenting their personal health stories continues to increase and more outcomes driven data coming from the provider community, there are new dynamic business models being created for the clinical documentation sector.
  7. The Health Story Project promotes and enhances the value of narrative text in the age of EHRs by producing and encouraging the adoption of  standards for the flow of information between common types of healthcare documents and EHRs.
  8. The SRT Summit held an active dialogue concerning the impact of SRT on the clinical documentation sector with an ultimate goal of creating a white paper to assist MTSOs with the challenges of purchasing, adopting and implementing SRT.
  9. The QA Summit reviewed essential elements of a quality assessment process and outlined key components and metrics in order to begin producing a widely accepted quality standard protocol that will serve the healthcare community as prudent, efficient, cost-effective, valid, reliable and scalable to ensure quality of all health records.

Fewer Uninsured Patients Seek Hospital Care

Many healthcare industry analysts and investors expected hospital chains to see more uninsured patients in the first quarter as a result of the economic decline and rising unemployment. Surprisingly, however, many hospitals noted a decrease in uninsured patients coming through their doors in the first few months of 2009.

In fact, Franklin-based Community Health Systems, which is the largest publicly-traded hospital chain, posted a 3% drop in uninsured admissions in some of its hospitals. In addition, Tenet Healthcare of Dallas unofficially reported that charity and uninsured admissions fell by more than 4%.

Analysts say that fewer uninsured patients are putting off healthcare, and programs like COBRA and Medicaid are helping pick up the slack, however, they are weary about the after-affects of the uninsured putting off care. It could hypothetically backfire when these patients get sicker and then seek medical care.

Click here to read the entire article: Hospital see fewer uninsured patients.

Philippines Gaining Ground in Outsourced Transcription

According to an article in the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times, “The business of transcribing American medical files employed 34,000 Filipinos and generated $476 million in revenue last year,” and it’s been predicted that the number of medical transcriptionists will triple, and revenue will jump to more than $1.7 billion by the end of next year.

To date, India has held the largest share of outsourced U.S. medical transcription work, but it’s facing growing competition from Philippines, Pakistan and Caribbean countries.

Ernesto Herrara, a former senator who heads the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, mentioned in the article that Filipinos have an important advantage over Indians when it comes to outsourced medical transcription–Because the Philippines is a former American colony, its citizens are more familiar with American accents. He also explained that the country has a “vast pool of jobless medical workers who need little additional training to take dictation from American doctors.”

Not to mention that the fact still remains that it’s more pricey to have things transcribed in the States as opposed to overseas. American medical transcriptionists make $31,250 a year compared to a $6,000 annual salary for a Filipino medical transcriptionist.

Click here to read the entire article: American’ medical files go digital, by way of Asia.

Recession Hurts Health Care Job Growth

The health care sector added half a million new jobs added since December 2007, while the rest of the economy saw 5.1 million job losses. The pace of new health care jobs has drastically reduced since the beginning of 2009, adding a mere 17,000 jobs per month for the first quarter (less than half of last year’s pace).

The notion that the health care industry is recession-proof is no longer valid. Health care facilities across the nation are registering losses in investment portfolios, seeing an increasing number of uninsured patients, getting less takers for elective procedures, and watching as state programs continue to cut back on funds.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Health care usually weathers downturns better than many other industries because consumers tend to cut spending on cars or clothes before they forgo trips to the emergency room or pharmacy. But this recession is the deepest in a generation.”

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Akron General Health System in Ohio have all had to make hard decisions as part of the economic decline.

Click here to read the entire story: Recession Now Hits in Health Care.

Cloud Lifted on MedQuist Lawsuit

In January, we gave our medical transcription blog readers an update on the MedQuist Class Action Settlement. Four months later, we have a new update… In short, the litigation cloud that had been looming over MedQuist has finally been lifted because the Company recently announced entry of final judgment approving settlement and started dismissing the consolidated medical transcriptionist class action lawsuit.

As a refresher, Medquist originally reported in 2004 that certain individual medical transcriptionists began class action litigation against MedQuist, alleging that the medical transcription service systematically and wrongfully underpaid medical transcriptionists.

As part of the settlement, MedQuist agreed to implement certain measures to ensure transparency in medical transcription pay. In addition, MedQuist agreed to pay $1.5 million (approximately $1.1 million will be given to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity). The funds are to be used to develop programming for the general benefit of medical transcriptionists and the medical transcription industry. AHDI also agreed to offer certain programs for free to class members outlined in the settlement documentation.

Click here for additional information on the MedQuist Lawsuit.

Some Nurses Struggle to Find Jobs

The current shape of the economy has led some nurses to push off retirement and led others to resume their full-time careers for financial reasons. In the short run, it looks as though the nursing shortage has been haulted. Take a deeper look into the situation, and you’ll find that the opposite is actually occurring…What an article in The Washington Post calls it a “Band-Aid” solution.

“After more than a decada when hospitals struggled to maintain sufficient staffing and when nurses could have their pick of jobs, the want ads have virtually disappeared, and only acute-care and emergency-room nurses remain in great demand,” according to The Washington Post.

Click here to read the entire article: Jobs Scarce, Even for Nurses.

Speech Recognition to Meet During MTIA Conference

The Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) has brought together a group of  experts within the medical transcription workplace and technical experience to form guidelines for the MT community to employ when utilizing speech recognition platforms.

The most recent MTIA Association Update reports:

The Workgroup decided to hold a summit during the annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, April 24, 2009, to seek input related to a broad range of issues that arose during an initial draft of a white paper on SRT adoption. The summit objective is to finalize and publish the white paper and issue a “Speech Recognition Adoption Guide” for members of the industry to use when considering the incorporation of SRT into their operations. The purpose of the Adoption Guide is not to debate the technology, but to provide guidance on the operational impact and requirements that may be encountered during implementation.

Click here to read the initial scope and objectives document for the Speech Recognition Adoption Guide.

More Men Turning to Nursing Careers

It’s no secret that the poor economy has led to a number job layoffs. However,  the nursing industry is experiencing a reverse effect. More part-time female nurses are going back to work full-time because their husbands are being laid off from their jobs.

Now there’s a new growing trend…More men are entering the nursing profession. Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, MI said that 18% of the 2009 class of nursing students are men, a number that has doubled since 2003.

Check out the video below for more information.

Online Medical Coding Encyclopedia to Launch

Described as the largest collaborative online medical coding encyclopedia, Codapedia is set to launch in April.

Similar to Wikipedia, Codapedia will provide free, user-generated content related to medical billing, medical coding, collections, and compliance for medical practices.  Expert articles, interactive forums and links to definitive citations are among the many features this new web site has to offer the medical coding industry.

The online community is actively seeking “codapedists” to help ensure the growth and accuracy of medical coding information.

Click here to read the official press release: Codapedia Announced, Wiki for Coding and Medical Reimbursement.

NYC Council Speaker Aims to Improve Nurse Shortage

Although she alluded to it about a month ago during her State of the City Address, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn formally announced a five-year partnership with CUNY to increase the university’s teaching capacity to train an additional 100 nursing students a year.

New York is hit just as hard with the national nurse shortage, turning down 575 nurse applicants last year due to a lack of nursing teachers.

Quinn’s initiative would permit CUNY to pull five to ten seasoned nurses from New York City’s hospitals and have them teach as guest faculty members. Quinn’s solution would result in the training of 100 new nurses a year.

Click here to read more about Quinn’s nurse shortage plans.