Technology Progressing in Medical Transcription Industry

Laura Bryan, a contributor to the Health Data Matrix business and technology journal, recently wrote a piece describing the technological advancements in the works for medical transcription companies.  Documentation technologies will continue to advance with a heavy bias toward the end users.  As industry experts work toward standardized software, creative ideas are quickly developing.

At the 2008 Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI) Annual Convention and Expo, students, educators, and supervisors in the medical transcription industry gathered to discuss their experiences with different technologies and software.  The goal of these focus groups was to obtain an end user perspective for new innovations such as speech recognition technology (SRT), natural language processing, data tagging, and abstracting.  Below are some of the key points from Laura Bryan’s article that were gained from the discussions.

  • There is too much variation across the industry in regards to the sophistication of technology.
  • Not many medical transcriptionists were familiar with data tagging and natural language processing, while a majority either worked or had knowledge of SRT.
  • Transcription training programs currently do not have a curriculum for these new technologies and do not plan on integrating them.
  • Hence, new education programs must be developed to introduce the software to prospective transcriptionists
  • In this economy, transcriptionists worry about the information costs, such as training expenses, associated with transferring over to new technology systems. 
  • With regards to grammar, punctuation, and style, professionals who transcribe using traditional methods are held to higher standards than transcriptionists using SRT.
  • According to experienced SRT transcriptionists, the notion that transcribing with SRT is easier and does not require much knowledge or expertise is not true.
  • Transcriptionists who have used SRT before complain about the lack of quality, immense variability, and the tedious implementation process with SRT programs currently available on the market.

AHDI Prepares for Upcoming Website Re-launch

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) recently announced their new partnership with Personify association management software (AMS).  The AMS system allows companies to store data such as member names and addresses on their websites.  The upgrade will allow AHDI to better track its data and improve its online store. 

Along with a new homepage, there will be several exciting features to the website.  Innovations such as breadcrumbs, which allow users to easily navigate through a website, will be installed.  The online shopping cart will be easier to use and include the widely popular ‘wish list’ feature commonly seen on other retail stores’ websites. 

While excited for the upcoming switch, AHDI cautions its members that it will take time to get the site up and running.  Therefore, the site will not be available from July1-9.  The website will still be able to be viewed, but order requests and purchase processing will be disabled.  Members can feel free to call AHDI at 1-800-982-2182 if they are in need of these services between the blackout dates.

Click here on July 10 to view AHDI’s new website: Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI)

 

AHDI and MTIA Team Up

The recent partnership of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) has the medical transcription industry excited.  While the joint venture began two years ago, both organizations are now committed to solving some of the industry’s most grueling challenges.  The goals of the partnership are to create and implement industry standards and improve the quality of service across all companies.

MTSOs and documentation specialists are starting to work together to try to increase turnaround times and better manage data.  AHDI and MTIA want to compile research to establish uniform turnaround time guidelines.  With these guidelines in place, medical practices could pay premiums to medical transcription services that provide faster turnaround times.  The hope is that these new guidelines will increase the quality of the medical transcription industry.

A quality assurance (QA) program is also in the works, which would monitor documentation accuracy and vastly improve transcription performance.  The QA program, along with outlining document formatting standards across the industry, would also improve patient safety.

In addition, the two organizations want to continue educating medical transcription business owners on the privacy and security protections to prevent medical transcription service owners from having to pay fines for violating patients’ rights to privacy.

Lastly, the two partners intend to invest in speech recognition technology to bring the industry into the future of efficient transcription.  At the 2009 MTIA Annual Conference industry stakeholders got together to review data collected about the incorporation of a speech recognition system.

In just two short years, AHDI and MTIA have taken big steps toward innovation.  Instead of waiting for these advancements to happen naturally, the two organizations have taken on the challenges of improving transcription by themselves.  They are making drastic improvements and the medical transcription industry will soon see the impacts of their hard work.

Obama Talks Health Care on ABC

As President Obama advocates for a health care system overhaul, many Americans are questioning how it will function as well as how the country will pay for it.  The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog profiled Obama’s televised town hall meeting on ABC last week to try and explain his plans in more detail.

The President assured Americans that the government will not force them to switch doctors or health insurance plans.  Also, private companies will still be able to choose different plans for their employees on their own.  However, critics argue that given a cheaper government option, most businesses will jump ship from private insurance companies. 

Health insurance companies feel threatened by the proposal, stating that a government program would put them out of business.  Obama responded to these concerns by admitting he wasn’t sure a government plan would be included in his final proposal.

Additionally, Obama explained that the funding for his health care system would either come from lowering the amount that wealthy Americans can deduct on their taxes or from taxing health benefits. Regardless of how he accomplishes this, many wonder if Obama will be the first president to solve the problem of uninsured Americans.

Little is known right now about how President Obama’s healthcare reform will affect healthcare vendors like medical billing and coding companies and/or temporary nurse staffing agencies. They will have to wait patiently to see how the President’s changes will affect them.

To read the entire Wall Street Journal Blog article, click here: Separating Fact from Fiction on Health-Care Reform

To view a clip of the town hall meeting, click here: President Obama Defends Right to Choose Best Care

For a full transcript of the meeting, click here: Questions for the President: Prescription for America

PRN Funding Prepares to Meet MTSOs

Nashville, TN- For the fourth consecutive year, PRN Funding, LLC will be exhibiting at the annual Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) convention.  PRN Funding will be sharing information about factoring and how it can help medical transcription service owners maintain a positive cash flow in this uncertain economic time. 

From July 29-August 1, Nikki Flores and Stephanie Chmielecki will represent PRN Funding in booth #127.  Medical transcription service owners interested in a unique way of financing their business should stop by PRN Funding’s booth during exhibiting hours (10:00am-4:00pm) on July 30 as well as breakfast and lunch on July 31.

With years of experience in the medical transcription industry, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within the medical transcription industry. PRN Funding offers financial resources to these companies by purchasing their accounts receivable–a process known as ‘factoring’, which provides the cash needed to sustain and grow a healthcare business.

New Transcription Association Debuts

The American Transcription Association (ATA) is a new transcription organization based on two principles:

  1. Keep transcription work in the United States
  2. Foster a community among transcriptionists

Founded by Donna Littrell, the ATA’s main purpose is to promote transcription quality over quantity and keep transcription work from going overseas.

The association is just getting starter, but it already has 500 members and an advisory board. In addition, the ATA web site has an active online forum, where transcriptionists are invited to ask questions, give advice and chit-chat with friends and colleagues in the transcription industry.

Click here for more details on the new transcription association.

For Profit Hospitals Doing Better in Bad Economy

Some interesting statistics were announced at last week at the annual South Florida Summit. Caroline Rossi Steinber, a trends specialist with the American Hospital Association (AHA), shared the following information with attendees:

90% of surveyed hospitals have made cutbacks as a result of the tough economic times, with the biggest cuts in administrative expenses.

43% of surveyed hospitals had a negative net return for the first quarter, which was 17% higher than the same time last year

65% of hospitals reported that they witnessesed an increase in the number of physicians seeking employment

In addition, according to Darren P. Lehrich, Deutsche Bank’s managing director of healthcare providers research, for profit hospitals’ stocks have increased 70% in the past three months. Moreoever, the profit margins for publicly traded hospitals during the quarter were the highest they’ve been in a number of years.

A big concern for hospitals across the U.S. is how the concept of public health insurance will be interpreted and enforced in the future.

The AHA’s studies show that most hospitals are relying on current government payers like Medicare and Medicaid, whose combined brings in 56% of the revenue, while private insurance accounts for 43% of revenue.

Steinberg noted that providers depend heavily on private insurance providers to pay the bills because Medicaid only reimburses 90% of their costs and private insurance generally reimburses 130%. If the public health insurance is specified as a health insurance option for the uninsured, it would help hospitals immensely by reducing the uncompensated care. On the other hand, if public health insurance is used as a “cheap public plan open to everybody an reimbursed providers at low rates,” it would be devastating to the hospital industry.

Click here to read more details: Hospitals cutting back.

Entrepreneurs Notice Credit Lines Disappearing, Should Turn to Factoring

BusinessWeek.com recently published an article that put JPMorgan Chase bank in the spotlight, as the bank started reducing or eliminating credit lines  for a large number of small business owners to help even out its balance sheets.

According to the article, in most cases, “If business owners can’t convince Chase of their creditworthiness, they have three options: 1) pay off the balance in full; 2) agree to a conversion of the line of credit into a term loan; or 3) go into default.”

One business owner interviewed for the article described how his four lines of credit were reduced to two on the exact same day that he received a letter from Chase that the bank was blocking him from drawing on two lines of credit due to “an adverse change in his ‘financial condition and/or credit history.'” The entrepreneur had been drawing on all four of the lines to help meet his monthly payroll, and he’s not sure where the money will come from if he’s not able to reistate the two lines.

As banks continue to reduce and eliminate credit lines, there will continue to be an influx of established healthcare business owners who are in this same situation. Lucky for them, there is an immediate answer to their cash flow problems.

Home care agencies who need additional funding to pay their sitters and companions, medical transcription service owners who are waiting a long time for hospitals to pay, and medical coding companies who are looking to expand can and should take advantage of healthcare accounts receivable factoring programs to help them at a time when more traditional funding avenues are failing them.

Click here to read the entire article: Snipping Credit Lines for Small Businesses.

Small Business Owners Report Cash Flow Concerns

According to the Monthly Small Business Watch, a report that measures economic confidence by randomly selecting 750 small business owners and asking them to respond to six questions, 50% of small business owners have experienced temporary cash flow issues in the past 90 days. In addition, 53% of the surveyed business owners reported that they will decrease spending on business development in the next six months.

Now, more than ever, is a prime time for cash flow consultants and factoring brokers to reach out to those small business owners and pair them with the appropriate funding source. As many of The Factoring Blog’s readers know, PRN Funding is a great option for medical staffing factoring, medical transcription factoring, medical coding factoring and home care factoring.

Click here to read more current small business cash flow statistics.

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