New transcribing options available for medical transcriptionists

With all of the changes going on in the medical transcription industry, medical transcription service owners (MTSOs) and medical transcriptionists have a lot on their plate. Still there are a lot of transcriptionists who remain optimistic and have good reasons to back up their viewpoints. In her blog, thrivingandtranscribing.com, Diane Fusco (an 18-year medical transcriptionist veteran) often talks about triumphs in the medical transcription industry. Below is a passage from her blog, which talks about a new transcribing outlet that has recently become available to medical transcriptionists out of necessity:

“I am saving the best news for last: with the popularity of teleseminars, Webinars and podcasts, it seems like just about everyone has some audio that needs to be transcribed. In the last six months I’ve had more requests to type general than medical audio. These clients just find me. But do you want to know where to get clients who are in a field that uses a lot of transcription? Coaching! That’s right—personal and business coaches do their fair share of teleseminars and each of these needs a transcript. And with coaching deemed one of the hottest professions of the next ten years, that’s indeed good news for transcriptionists.”

To read more of Fusco’s blog, visit thrivingandtranscribing.com.

AAPC Announces first ever Chapter Association Board of Directors

Earlier this month, the Board of Directors for the first ever American Academy of Professional Coders Chapter Association (AAPCCA) was named. Independent of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), the AAPCCA Board of Directors was established to work in tandem with AAPC local chapter leaders to support strategic initiatives and programs. The AAPCCA and the local chapters form the non-profit arm of the AAPC.

Led by Chair Georgette Gutsin, CPC, CCS-P, CHC, the board is made up of 16 AAPC members from across the nation and one AAPC national office representative. The board members will serve for two years.

Click here to learn more about the 2007-2009 AAPCCA Board of Directors.

MT Recognized as Apprenticeable Occupation

As of March 2007, graduates of selected medical transcription training programs now have access to registered apprenticeship programs, as the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has now declared medical transcription to be an apprenticeable profession – the first step in establishing a national apprenticeship program. The Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services approved the application for apprenticeability determination submitted by the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) along with the Association of Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).

The Registered Apprenticeship Program, sponsored by the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), will offer structured on-the-job learning and related technical instruction for qualified medical transcriptionists entering the profession. The two associations, along with the Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services, are finalizing program details.

Click here to read the entire press release Medical Transcription Recognized as an apprenticeable occupation by the U.S. Department of Labor or visit MTIA’s workforce development page for more information.

Healthcare Staffing Firms Needed to fill Gaps from Dissatisfied Workers

One in five health care workers will leave their job this year, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey. Some other interesting statistics from the survey are as follows:

 

In regards to health care workers in 2006,

 

17% were dissatisfied with their jobs

 

57% said better pay and/or career advancement are the main reasons for leaving

 

36% were dissatisfied with their pay

 

26% did not receive a raise

 

71% did not earn a bonus

 

23% felt they deserved a promotion and did not receive one

             

29% are not satisfied with the training and development options of their current employer

 

This situation presents a huge opportunity for temporary health care staffing agencies to step up and offer appropriate incentives for workers to join ranks and help fill vacancies.

ASA offers new certification program to health staffing members

We saw this in the American Staffing Association’s (ASA) Staffing Week members e-newsletter, and thought we should share the information:

 

Learn the Laws That Affect Your Business

To help medical staffing professionals understand the complexities, ASA recently released a new state component to its certification programs, enabling staffing professionals and others to study the laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

 

ASA offers two certification programs for individuals, both of which include the new state employment law component. The Certified Staffing Professional™ program reviews the myriad employment laws and rules that affect the staffing industry. The Technical Services Certified™ program reviews the many employment laws specifically relevant to technical, information technology, and scientific staffing.

 

Getting certified is easy.

1. Prepare for the exam by purchasing the study materials:

* Employment Law for Staffing Professionals

* Co-Employment: Employer Liability Issues in Third-Party Staffing Arrangements

* Federal employment law workbook

* State employment law workbook

 

2. Study at your own pace, and when you’re ready, take and pass the online exam.

 

3. After you have passed the exam, display your credentials on your business cards and stationery, and maintain your designation through continuing education. For more information, visit the ASA Web site.

 

Locum tenens professionals bring healthcare behind bars

Associate editor of LocumLife, Karen Tull, wrote an interesting article about a unique working environment that is gaining popularity among locum tenens–working in correctional institutions.

In her article, Correctional Medicine: Locum tenens professionals bring healthcare behind bars, Tull tells the story of two doctors who have been working in the field of correctional medicine, highlighting the career’s requirements and lifestyles. Among the perks of correctional medicine contracts are the potential for faster credentialing, the ability to use any state license to practice in a federal facility, competitive pay rates and quick turnaround on receivables.

With competition starting to heat up in the locum tenens marketplace, contracting with jails and prisons seems to be a niche worth pursuing, especially because these facilities tend to be great payers.

ASA annouced health care track at annual conference

The American Staffing Association (ASA) boasts eight different learning tracks for this year’s conference in San Antonio, TX, and health care is one of them.  To date, there are three specific health care staffing learning workshops available:

 

Recruiting That Works: Aggressive and Out-of-the-Box
Tom Zinda, director of recruitment and employment branding, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare
Wednesday, October 10 3–5 p.m.
Tom Zinda, director of recruitment for one of the Midwest’s largest health care providers, will share case studies demonstrating how he has successfully recruited market-sensitive candidates, sped up the hiring process, and improved the quality of employees for his company. And he’ll help health care staffing company owners set up similar strategies for your company.

 

Proper Credentialing in the Health Care Industry: Implementation to Impact
Panel moderated by David Savitsky, chief executive officer, ATC Healthcare Services Inc.
Thursday, October 11 1:45–3:00 p.m.
Join David Savitsky and a panel of health care and staffing professionals as they explore the best practices you should put in place to ensure your records and your employees’ credentials are kept in order.  Seasoned professionals and those seeking to start a niche business will learn efficient and effective ways to keep records, track employee recertification requirements and renewal dates, and follow technical practices such as drug testing and background checks.

 

Immigration Changes: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Helen Konrad, Esq., partner, McCandlish Holton PC
Friday, October 12 10:30–11:45 a.m.
Also in technical, IT, and scientific and industrial learning tracks
Helen Konrad, Esq., will lead temporary medical staffing participants in discussions of common immigration documents, questions you can and cannot ask at the recruitment and job offer stages, storing I-9 forms, what to do when you are faced with improper documents, a sensible line-by-line analysis of the I-9 form, and what-if scenarios that could occur during the I-9 process. Learn about the potential changes to the employer verification process pending in Congress and what they could mean to your medical staffing company.

 

How immigration reform will affect the nursing shortage

Each year there are about 12,000 to15,000 foreign nurses accepted into the USA through the current immigration system, and if the new proposal is approved, hospital recruiters worry that it will become even more difficult to fill the 118,000 nurse deficit.

 

Under the new bill, hospitals would no longer be able to seek out nurses with specific expertise, and American-bound nurses would no longer have to be screened by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS).

 

Click here to read the article: Hospitals fear the loss of control finding nurses.

MTSOs & Platform Providers Battle for Clients

For years now, small and mid-sized medical transcription services owners (MTSOs) have worried about how new speech recognition technology and off-shoring will or won’t affect the MT marketplace. Now a new issue has arisen, and it has the potential to be the most threatening to the current livelihood of small and mid-sized MTSOs who are already battling for business in a competitive industry.

In an article that appeared in May’s edition of For the Record Magazine, writer Elizabeth S. Roop describes a “high-priced tug-of-war” match with MTSOs pulling on one side of the rope and larger technology companies yanking on the other. Click here to read the article: MTSOs & Platform Providers Battle for Clients, Control.

Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) to stop using preset rates

In a settlement announced last month, the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) agreed to stop using preset rates for determining what its member hospitals will pay nurse staffing firms. The U.S. Department of Justice said the practice unlawfully prevented the firms from offering their services to higher-bidding hospitals.

 

A statement from the Justice Department’s antitrust division said that the hospitals’ rate-setting practice was illegally and unfairly depressing the wages paid to registry nurses, saving the hospitals up to $12.7 million a year at the nurses’ expense. The antitrust division statement asserted that the settlement would restore competition in the market for temporary nursing services in Arizona.

 

According to the lawsuit, AzHHA used advertising materials that estimated that the bill rates its members paid to nurse staffing companies were as much as 12% lower than they would have been if hospitals contracted directly with the staffing firms. Consequently, nurses working for the staffing firms that contracted with the hospital association made less money than nurses not hired through the AzHHA Registry, a group purchasing organization for temporary nursing services.

 

The proposed settlement deal would prohibit AzHHA member hospitals from exchanging information with other members about what each pays. As long as each hospital gets to directly negotiate rates with nurse staffing companies, the settlement allows the association to maintain its central registry for hiring nurses and to set standards for training, background checks, and insurance. The settlement must be approved by a federal judge.

-Anne Duffy


Q: If this settlement goes through, how do you think it will affect other group purchasing initiatives?

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