Transcription Battle over Spheris

In February, the nation’s second largest medical transcription provider, Spheris, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and filed documents  stating that it would sell its American and Canadian assets to MedQuist, Inc. If the sale were to go through, MedQuist would become the America’s largest medical transcription provider.

Since the announcement of the Spheris-MedQuist deal, there have been several complaints:

  • Nuance objected the deal because it would give MedQuist an unfair advantage over other potential bidders.
  • MutilModal Technologies, Inc., who provides SRT to Spheris, filed a complaint saying the sale would put the company’s intellectual property at risk because MedQuist is a competitor.
  • Oracle objected the deal because the sale would allow an unauthorized transfer of Oracle’s software that’s used in Spheris’ applications.

A bankruptcy judge was scheduled to hold an auction of Spheris’ assets on April 13.

Click here to read the entire article: Spheris auction set to shake up medical transcription industry.

More Docs Adopting Health Information Technology

For years, physicians have been resisting advanced technologies, but according to an article in For The Record magazine, times are a changing.

In the past, physicians have been reluctant to adopt new technologies is because it would mean doctors would have to devote more time towards patient documentation. Other reasons why physicians were not interested in adapting is because of the costs involved with adding infrastructure, training and learning new technologies and realigning the workflow process.

However, the onset of user-friendly mHealth (mobile health) applications coupled with recent medical school graduates entering the profession with mounds of technology experience from the classroom is changing the scene.

In addition, as speech recognition technology continues to improve, more physicians are sure to adopt it into their everyday lifestyle. Moreover, there is a movement toward more mobile offerings designed for physician interface and documentation are the trend among SRT vendors. In short, the iPhone is a popular gadget for doctors, so SRT vendors are trying to make their technology incorporate smoothly with the iPhone technology.

Ruthann Russo, PhD, JD, MPH, RHIT, a documentation specialist who was interviewed for the article said, “There is a clear need for an integrated IT platform that will do the following:

  • improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities;
  • engage patients and families
  • improve care coordination
  • improve population and public health; and
  • ensure adequate privacy security protections for PHRs(patient health records)”

Click here to read the entire article: Physician Documentation: Slow No More

21st Annual MTIA Conference Welcomes PRN Funding as Exhibitor

Daytona Beach, FL–PRN Funding, LLC will be exhibiting at the MTIA conference in the Hilton Ocean Walk Village hotel in Daytona Beach from April 28-May 1, and the medical transcription invoice funding company is eager to speak with MTSOs about the many benefits of accounts receivable factoring.

PRN Funding’s President, Phil Cohen, and Account Manager, Joanna Schafer, will be exhibiting in booth #23. Transcription service owners who are interested in learning more about PRN Funding’s medical transcription factoring program are encouraged to visit with both Phil and Joanna during open exhibit hall times.

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 medical transcription business.

New AHDI/MTIA Career Connection Launches

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) recently announced the launch of the new and improved Career Connection web site: www.careerconnection.ahdionline.org.

It’s designed to connect medical transcriptionist and healthcare documentation specialist employers with the largest, most qualified audience of medical transcription industry professionals.

Specifically, the online medical transcription job board offers the following:

  1. Easy online management of job postings, including job activity reports
  2. Access to search-able resume database
  3. Competitive pricing
  4. Automatic email notification when new resumes match your criteria
  5. Resume posting for MT job seekers

Prepping for National Medical Transcription Week 2010

National Medical Transcription Week is May 17-23, 2010, and MTIA has a message:

With our nation engaged in dialogue around healthcare reform, and healthcare delivery engaged in discussions around what “meaningful use” of EHRs will look like, there has never been a more important time for the healthcare documentation sector to stand up and demonstrate its contributory value to these critical issues.

Per the MTIA Blog, providers, medical transcriptionists and MTSOs are encouraged to print the MT Week poster and place it post it in your workplace, share it with your clients, and promote it to regulatory agencies and legislators.

In addition, if you are an MT or MT employer, consider an investment in this future value proposition by enrolling yourself or your employees in our Speech Recognition Editing Course and receive a special $100 discount off the cost of registration for May and June courses in celebration of MT Week.

Is Offshore Transcription a Good Idea?

The Volume 22, Number 5 issue of For The Record magazine had an interesting article entitled: Offshore Transcription: A Seaworthy Choice. For the benefit of our medical transcription blog readers,  the medical transcription funding specialists at PRN Funding took the liberty of summarizing the article’s key points below:

First and foremost, the offshore medical transcription industry is growing, with the Philippines and India leading the market share. One major reason for the increase in popularity is cost savings. In fact, Sharon Fremer (VP of transcription for Precyse Solutions) said that the average savings can amount to 15%-20%. In addition, the U.S. can benefit by utilizing offshore transcriptionists to make up for shortages in the profession in the states.

Still, there are some who continue to oppose sending transcription overseas. Chris Simons (RHIA, director of utilization management and HIM and the privacy officer at Spring Harbor Hospital) told the magazine that she believes the risks outweigh the benefits. Particularly, Simons doubts the security of sending files overseas, and she feels that keeping jobs in the U.S. will help raise salaries in an industry where employees are typically underpaid.

The article also included 10 Questions that providers should ask when considering an offshore medical transcription option:

  1. How can the offshore vendor ensure security, including both audio files and transcribed data?
  2. Do U.S. facilities have the ability to track and audit records in real-time?
  3. Do the foreign transcriptionists work in a secure environment? This is especially important, as the trend for American transcriptionists is to work from home.
  4. What is the disaster plan to weather-related or other type of operational disaster occurs?
  5. How often will the American facility  audit the offshore transcription service?
  6. What types of training do offshore MTs receive (including English language)?
  7. If there is a question regarding unclear dictation, how will the query be handled?
  8. What happens if an offshore medical transcription does not meet quality standards?
  9. What is the turnaround time?
  10. Does the offshore transcription service provide around-the-clock coverage?

For more information, check out the March 15th edition of For The Record.

Future Career Transitions for Medical Transcriptionists

Susan Lucci (AHDI’s President) recently appointed a National Board subcommittee to research future roles for MTs within the EHR. According to a Plexus article, entitled: MT Career Transitions, the goals of the committee were to “define roles, describe the necessary skills sets required for each role, define the educational requirements, visualize a career lattice for MTs, and publicize and market our findings.”

Here are some of the more common threads the committee has detected thus far:

  1. Becoming credentialed as a CMT is more critical than ever to demonstrate medical language knowledge.
  2. Coding knowledge is also expected to be much more critical to future roles in the EHR.
  3. MTs will need more education of SNOMED (Systematized Nomenclature for Medicine), ICD-10 and CPT (current procedural terminology) codes.
  4. Transcriptionists will need additional technical skills, including familiarity with database management, basic Health Level Seven interface language and how to maneuver within the EHR.
  5. Most new roles will require an associate’s degree, with many roles requiring a bachelor’s degree and beyond.
  6. The location of where MTs perform transcription is also expected to change, as many MTs will transition back into the hospital setting.
  7. Hospitals will need trainers to ensure quality control with medical documents, which opens up another job opportunity for MTs.
  8. Roles for credentialed CMTs will be needed to transcribe, edit and review documentation from a variety of resources utilizing front-end speech, back-end speech and traditional audio-to-text conversion.
  9. MTs could also have roles in an ambulatory setting, in which they will perform traditional audio-text narratives and may utilize speech recognition editing.

How Will Health Care Reform Affect Medical Staffing Agencies?

President Obama signed the landmark health care reform bill yesterday, which will require the majority of employers (including medical staffing agencies) to pay a penalty to the government if they do not provide health insurance to their employees.

Temporary staffing firms are invited to attend the second national American Staffing Association (ASA) staffing law conference to learn how today’s laws will affect their businesses.

In fact, from April 20-21 in Washington, DC, ASA will offer attendees a full 90-minute briefing on the final health care reform legislation, and go into detail about what medical staffing firms will have to do to comply.

Other topics on the agenda include the following:

  • Client indemnity clauses and other risks
  • Background checks and negligent hiring
  • Immigration developments
  • Restrictive covenants and trade secret protection
  • Union issues

A brochure, which includes full descriptions of all the conference sessions, is available online at http://www.americanstaffing.net/lawconference.

Ethical Best Practices Manual for Healthcare Documentation Sector Now Available

According to its web site, AHDI and MTIA recently announced that the first set of documents for its compliance and ethical best practices program is now available for sale. This  first set of documents includes  sample HIPAA policies and procedures and a sample business associate agreement,pursuant to the new HIPAA regulations, which will be customizable for your business.

The entire manual (with a list price of $4000) will include the following:

* Best Practices Checklist
* Statement of Ethical Best Practices
* AHDI Code of Ethics
* MTIA Code of Ethics
* Best Practices in Operations
* Best Practices in Billing
* Best Practices in Compensation
* Best Practices in Marketing and Solicitation
* Employee vs. Independent Contractor Guidelines
* Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Guidelines
* Production Location Transparency Guidelines
* Sample Non-Solicitation & Non-Compete Agreement
* Best Practices in Legal and Regulatory Compliance
* Sample HIPAA Policies and Procedures
* Sample Business Associate Agreement
* Guidelines for Establishing a HIPAA-Compliant Home-Based Office
* U.S. 50-State Data Privacy Survey

Click here to learn more about the Healthcare Documentation Ethical Best Practices Manual.

Uses for SRT Go Beyond Medical Transcription

Advance for Health Information Professionals recently published an online article entitled: Beyond Transcription – Speech Recognition Holds Promise for Patient Care that discussed other ways the medical industry can use SRT (Speech Recognition Technology).

Although most MTs fear SRT will put them out of a job,this article delved into the voice-to-text technology, and its uses for patient follow-up, medication adherence and health screenings.

Specifically, some physicians are using speech recognition to “schedule calls to patients with customized questions and let the system do the data gathering.” The web-based calling systems listen for a human response and then communicate those responses to the physicians involved as well as record it on an Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Of course, some problems can arise when collecting the automatized data. Namely, the patient has to cooperate. Many patients don’t answer the phone or can’t complete the analysis because they are using their cell phones and cannot hear or are distracted. Also, the entire system relies on patients to tell the truth.