Medical Transcription Service Company

Medical transcription is one of the most popular tasks in business process outsourcing (BPO). Typically, healthcare practices have to process a large chunk of data each day. Medical transcription outsourcing helps physicians, other medical professionals and healthcare practices to focus on the core tasks at hand.          

How Medical Transcription Outsourcing Can Help

Medical transcription outsourcing to a reliable and efficient transcription firm can help physicians save costs and resources since they have more time and energy to offer the right care to their patients. A reliable service provider can transcribe all their dictated reports on history and physical reports, clinic notes, consultation reports, procedures, ER reports, follow up notes and health reports and send them back within the specified time period. So while physicians go about their regular business, their documentation can be safely, cost-effectively and efficiently handled by HIPAA-compliant medical transcription company.

Medical transcription companies can serve the needs of hospitals, nursing homes, multi-specialty healthcare and rehabilitation centers, outpatient clinics, physician practices, etc. The benefits they gain could just help them treat their patients better.

Transcription Companies Are Equipped with State-of-the-Art Technology

A competent medical transcription company is equipped with the infrastructure required for efficient and precise transcription. They feature telephonic as well as digital dictation options, dedicated servers, high speed Internet, sophisticated encryption technology for security of the transcribed information, and much more. The transcription process is systematic, beginning from the dictation of the file by the physician through the preferred option. The dictated file is then uploaded onto the company’s secure server.

The data is password-protected and allotted to professional transcribers. The transcribers have good language and listening skills, and are also trained in medical conditions and terminologies, and can handle any kind of data. The transcribed files are checked by experienced editors and proofreaders before being delivered to the client through the chosen digital file transfer format. An experienced transcription company will offer a choice of encrypted digital format for file transfer and ensure that the files reach them within customized turnaround time.   

Trained and Professional Staff

Thanks to a team of professional transcribers, choice of dictation options, efficient recording infrastructure and comprehensive quality checks by editors and proofreaders, reliable medical transcription services can ensure up to 99% accuracy in transcription. The transcribers and other staff also undergo periodic skill assessments and training programs to ensure that they can fulfill the needs of healthcare providers.
 
Transcription Services at Affordable Rates

In addition to accuracy levels as high as 99%, established medical transcription outsourcing companies offer their services at affordable rates. In fact, healthcare providers would hesitate to outsource their documentation if it did not help save on their operational costs. A professional medical transcription service provider can help its clients save as much as 30-40% on operational expenses.

Only reliable transcription companies offer HIPAA compliant medical transcription service. Hospitals or healthcare practices must ensure that they are handing over their transcription tasks to a medical transcription company that strictly adherers to HIPAA norms.

HIPAA was formulated to ensure protection of patient identity, health information and individual rights through security measures. HIPAA also ensures that the PHI (Protected Health Information) record is not disclosed. Any failure in maintaining HIPAA standards by the transcription company will have a major bearing on the healthcare practice or physician that has outsourced to that company.  HIPAA compliance is crucial for the following reasons:

• It ensures compliance with medical ethics
• It is a law requirement
• It prevents medical identity theft 
  

MEDICAL ETHICS

Medical ethics involves having respect for the privacy of a patient’s information. A doctor or a hospital or any kind of healthcare practice with a conscience and sense of morality needs to understand that the patient and his/her loved ones trust them with their information.   

STRINGENT LAW

Federal law is very strict with regard to HIPAA, a law that was enacted by the US Congress in 1996. Any violation in HIPAA can bring in serious legal penalties. Violators can be imposed criminal as well as civil charges. If the company you are outsourcing medical transcription to fails in ensuring patient privacy, you, as the doctor or healthcare practice that outsourced the task, will still have to share the responsibility.  

RISK OF IDENTITY THEFT

HIPAA compliance is also important to prevent theft of medical identity. Unless the medical transcription company has steps in place to protect the data they receive to transcribe, there could be a theft of medical identity. Medical documents containing diagnosis of the disease or disorder, details about the patient’s health condition, lifestyle habits that contributed to the disease, prescribed medication, treatment, reaction to the treatment, etc can be acquired and misused by third parties causing serious repercussions for the doctor, the healthcare practice or hospital, and the patient.

Damaged reputation is hard to rebuild. Medical transcription companies that do not ensure HIPAA compliance could cost the physician his reputation, leading to loss of patients and income, and the aforementioned legal penalties. In other words, it means big trouble.  

Potential HIPAA Violations Can Lead to Heavy Civil Money Penalties

In a recent case, a managed care company had to agree to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services $1.7 million to settle potential violations of 1966 HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. The company had failed to implement appropriate safety measures as required by HIPAA Security Rule for authorizing access to the on-line application database. It had not performed proper technical evaluation when the software of its information systems was upgraded, and did not have technical safeguards in place to ensure that only authorized personnel had access to electronic protected health information maintained in its application database.

Medical practices and healthcare centers have faced such penalties too for not ensuring HIPAA compliance. So take care to assign your transcription tasks only to a medical transcription company that sticks to HIPAA obligations. HIPAA compliant medical transcription service will ensure that such incidents do not happen.

How a Medical Transcription Outsourcing Company Ensures Safety of Patient Information

A reliable medical transcription company will ensure that it has measures in place for ensuring confidentiality and privacy of patient information which is demanded by the HIPAA Act. The measures taken to patient data and medical records by HIPAA compliant medical transcription companies would include:    

• Firewalls and filters for preventing unauthorized individuals from accessing the computers
• Password protection for all the data
• File transfer with high tech 256-bit encryption technology
• 24-hour security monitoring
• Random checks and audits
• Signing of non-disclosure agreement for all the staff dealing with patient information

Before you sign up for medical transcription outsourcing, ensure that the transcription company you outsource to have extensive measures for ensuring HIPAA compliance.

Medical transcription involves the creation of accurate transcripts from the recorded notes of physicians. The transcription process is critical to maintain clear records of a patient’s medical history. These reports help the doctor review the patient’s condition as well as prescribe further treatment.

Medical transcription may be done in-house or outsourced to a third party. Medical transcription outsourcing has a number of advantages which makes medical transcription companies very popular today. The doctor can record his dictation on a digital recorder or into a dedicated toll number provided by the medical transcription company. This recording is converted by the medical transcriptionist into text format, which is later maintained as a medical report of the patient.

Listed below are some of the advantages of hiring a medical transcriptionist:

• It is cheaper to outsource than to perform the task in-house
• The transcriptionists are experienced and skilled to perform the tasks
• The work is completed on time and there is no scope for backlog
• HIPAA compliant medical transcription to keep the patient records confidential

There are many companies and individuals that provide these transcription services. However, it is important to carefully choose a reliable provider. A wrong medical transcript may prove to be fatal for the patients. Hence it is critical that the reports are generated by a reliable transcriptionist.

Before finalizing on the transcriptionist, the doctor or hospital should ensure that the transcriptionist is capable of providing quality output. Consider the factors below when choosing a transcriptionist.

• The ability of the transcriptionist or the organization to meet deadlines
• The security measures adopted by them for security of data
• Transcriptionists should have basic knowledge of medical terminology, sign and symptoms, disease names, medication processes, laboratory and diagnostic processes etc.
• They should be fluent in English and well-versed in format styling and editing
• Ability to make use of selected professional reference materials
• Ability to work with word processing equipment, dictation equipment and transcription equipment

Many transcription companies provide free trials to prospective clients to enable them to evaluate their efficiency. During this free trial you should check the following:

• Infrastructure of the organization and the technology used by them
• Accuracy of final draft
• Turnaround time as well as the capacity to meet deadlines
• Promptness of the staff and their skill to provide technical assistance as well as their dedication to customer service
• The process of maintaining confidentiality and security.

A reliable medical transcriptionist is indeed a great support for physicians and other healthcare professionals.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, medical transcription outsourcing has become popular among medical practices looking to improve their bottom line. Medical transcription is a specialized task that requires the services of a qualified transcriptionist capable of transcribing medical data in a clear and logical form. Primarily, outsourcing benefits healthcare providers by ensuring reduced workload and improved efficiency.

Why Utilize Medical Transcription Service?
 
Medical data essentially includes comprehensive details about patients, syndrome diagnosed; medical tests undertaken, test results and drugs recommended. Only a qualified professional can make sense of complex medical terminology associated with the same. When the complex task of transcription is outsourced, medical professionals can focus more on patient care and research activities. A reliable medical transcription company offering value-added medical transcription services has to be chosen as partner. As an initial step towards improving the bottom-line of a medical practice, it is essential to select a medical transcription firm that offers customized and HIPAA compliant medical transcription services for all medical specialties.

How Medical Transcription Services Can Improve the Bottom-line

Improving the bottom-line means providing the best outcome, and in the case of medical practices the end result is to be measured in terms of practice performance, productivity, revenue and patient satisfaction. Following are the advantages offered by a reliable transcription company that will help improve the bottom-line of a medical practice.

• Excellent quality output: Quality assurance (QA) is a factor which plays a prominent role in improving the bottom line of medical practice. A reputable medical transcription service provider will have in place 3 levels of quality checks offering up to 99% accuracy with good audio.

• Convenient dictation methods: Flexible dictation options such as digital dictation and toll-free telephone make the process of dictation easy and efficient.

• Reduce costs: Outsourcing medical transcription helps to reduce the expenditure in different ways. Usually, the pricing is competitive with up to 40% savings. The cost involved in recruiting transcription staff and installing the required equipment can be saved. The medical transcription company bears all the costs related to health insurance and sick leaves of employees. Infrastructure costs can also be saved as all the major costs are incurred by the service providers themselves. 
  

• 24/7 technical support: This means that you can receive the transcription assistance you want whenever you need it. It will surely improve your efficiency and help bring the transcription up-to-date.

• Improve patient satisfaction: Freed from transcription workload, medical professionals can provide more care to their patients and gain improved patient satisfaction.  

Medical transcription outsourcing definitely proves to be an advantage as it streamlines the entire work of medical documentation and delivers quality results within the time frame specified by the clients. Outsourcing this challenging task can enhance the bottom line of a medical practice provided the transcription firm maintains top quality standards and focuses clearly on its core business activities.

Medical transcription services are provided by a medical transcription company and involve the transcription of dictations recorded in the voice of a medical practitioner. Accurate transcripts of these dictations are necessary because the future care provided to the patient depends on the information provided in these documents. Accurate documentation is also important from the point of view of appropriate claim reimbursement.


Medical Transcription Services – Useful to Healthcare Service Providers

It is easier and faster for a medical practitioner to record the medical history of a patient by dictating the details rather than writing it by hand or typing it. This recorded audio clip is handed over to the medical transcriptionist to convert into text format. This service is indispensable to doctors, hospitals, medical care centers and other healthcare providers as the record made is used as reference for the review and continuation of treatment of a patient.

Apart from typing the document as per the audio clip received, it is the duty of the medical transcriptionist to correct spelling errors, diction errors etc. All reports prepared by them have to comply with the law and medico-legal concerns as well as the policies applicable to the healthcare entity.

With these services, doctors and the management staff of hospitals are relieved from the time-consuming work of transcription. When the medical transcription requirements are taken care of efficiently by an outside provider, healthcare entities can focus on care provision for their patients, which in turn enhances the reputation and growth of the hospital too.

Also, there is always a chance of the old staff resigning from the hospital. This would require training the new staff which is again resource-draining and time-consuming. Hence, it is a practical option to entrust transcription to a medical transcription company that will do its job irrespective of changes happening in your organization.

Should Medical Transcription be Outsourced?

Today more and more medical entities are opting for medical transcription outsourcing. Apart from the convenience offered, healthcare providers stand to benefit from the real professionalism and capability of the transcription staff. Usually, reputable outsourcing companies assign a dedicated team to each client to make sure that individual client requirements are met and the work is carried out to perfection. Accuracy and quality are ensured for the final transcripts. Such firms are HIPAA compliant and have excellent security measures to protect patient data. The best thing about associating with a reliable company is that they can meet any challenging turnaround time requirements. This means that you have the transcripts ready whenever you need them, so that your medical documentation stays up-to-date. Your patients have no cause to complain, and accurate documentation will also help you submit timely claims and get the proper reimbursement. Undoubtedly, medical transcription companies provide a great service to healthcare providers with personalized solutions catering to each client.

Tulsa, Oklahoma: With the increased demand for accurate and timely medical documentation, MTS Transcription Services (MTS) is offering result oriented, affordable psychiatry transcription services. The HIPAA compliant transcription services of this Oklahoma based outsourcing company are competitively priced, allowing psychiatry practices to save up to 30% to 40% on their operational costs.

With a comprehensive blend of web-based technology, digital dictation servers, EMR/EHR interfaces, VPN, and security measures, MTS provides reliable and uninterrupted medical transcription service to enhance the operational efficiency of psychiatric practices. HL-7 integration allows clients ease of access to their medical records.

Physicians can rely on this company’s excellent support service to discuss their formatting and turnaround time requirements. The flexible dictation options offered include toll free phone-in and digital recording. Files can be sent in as WMV, MPG, AVI, MOV, ASF, ASX, RM, SWF, DIC files, and extended audio formats such as WMA and MP3 using safe transfer modes.

The company’s qualified and experienced transcription team can handle documentation for all types of files such as psychiatric evaluations, consultation notes, x ray reports, medical reports, referral letters, discharge summaries, mental status evaluation reports, major depressive disorder reports and neurobehavioral assessment reports. All transcripts go through a stringent three-level quality check to ensure that the final output has an accuracy level as high as 99%.

 “Our psychiatry transcription services are professional, allowing you to spend more time on what you do best – taking care of your patients,” says the company’s solutions manager.

Right from dictation capture to final documentation, the company’s focus on quality and timeliness is clearly evident. MTS works as an extension of the client practice to streamline medical practice’s document management tasks, reduce overheads, and improve patient care, and overall revenue.

In addition to competitive pricing, MTS offers special rates as well as a digital recorder free of cost to practices with volume jobs. Electronic signature capability allows physicians improve productivity and reduce staffing hours spent on pulling and filing records. These psychiatry transcription services are also designed to seamlessly integrate with EHR (electronic health record) systems.

Opting for the free trial that MTS offers allows physicians can understand the extent to which the company can meet their needs so that a customized solution can be created.

A recent survey conducted by KLAS Research shows that despite adoption of new documentation technologies, most hospitals still outsource a part of their transcription, and plan to increase of continue the use of these services in the future.

MTS Transcription Services (MTS), an established outsourcing company in the U.S., has stood the test of time with its efficient transcription solutions for all kinds of for clinics, physicians practices and hospitals across the U.S. This company’s vast and expanding clientele are benefiting from its superior HIPAA-complaint medical transcription services which allow them to maintain accurate documentation for timely diagnostics and treatment.

It is the company’s advanced resource base and skills in project management that is attracting attention. All transcription is performed by trained and experienced medical transcriptionists. They can provide error-free transcripts in the required format for various medical records such as operative reports, progress notes, discharge summaries, narrative notes and much more. Stringent three-level quality checks ensure 99% accuracy in the final transcripts.

Each client’s documentation challenges are treated as unique, which is why the company’s management sees that a separate team is assigned to each transcription project. Clients can specify turnaround time – STAT to 24 hours and expect to get their documents delivered without any compromise on accuracy or on the deadline.

MTS can provide feeds to electronic medical records (EMR) or electronic health records (EHR). HIPAA compliance is ensured with various security measures to ensure the confidentiality of patient information.

“Our medical transcription solution seamlessly integrates with your current medical setting and ensures efficient workflow right from dictation capture, transcription, to document delivery,” says the company spokesperson.

Allowing MTS to handle their transcription challenges is providing its clients with more time for patient care. Moreover, these comprehensive solutions are specifically designed to help healthcare providers save at least 30 to 40% on their costs. MTS does not insist on a long-term yearly contract and provides prospective clients with a free trial to help them understand how it can meet their documentation needs.

With a decade of experience under its belt, this established medical transcription company provides customized transcription services for all medical specialties, such as Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Geriatrics, Nephrology, Orthopedics, Pain Management, Pathology, Physical Therapy, Radiology, Urology, and more.

As physicians have a busy agenda, they may not have adequate time to invest for non-core activities. However, as timely and accurate medical documentation is essential, most healthcare facilities are outsourcing this task to a reliable medical transcription company. The demand for medical transcription services has increased tremendously in recent times as healthcare providers realize the advantages of outsourcing their documentation tasks.

Comprehensive Documentation Support

Medical transcription firms can transcribe a wide range of medical reports such as patient history, examination reports, progress notes, discharge summaries, laboratory reports, referral letters and more, making the task of maintaining records easier. The transcribers listen to these audio files containing the healthcare provider’s dictation and then convert them into the format that the client requires.

An experienced transcription company offer transcription services for all major specialties as Anesthesiology,   Cardiology, Chiropractic ,Dentistry ,Dermatology, Gastroenterology ,Geriatrics , Hematology , Internal Medicine , Neurology and more.

Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Transcription

By outsourcing their transcription to a reliable service provider, healthcare professionals can gain many comprehensive benefits:

• Convenient dictation modes: The proofreaders, editors, trancriptionists will ensure you to transcribe dictated reports with dictation methods of toll free number and digital dictation machine to provide error-free transcripts and deliver on time.
• Accurate documentation: Accuracy in documentation is crucial to proper patient treatment and care. A professional transcription company has expert medical trancriptionists on the job which ensures accuracy levels of up to 99 percent.
•  Quality check: A reliable service provider will deliver the transcripts to the clients only after performing multi-level quality assurance tests to assure the highest levels of accuracy.
•  Security: A reliable firm is one that provides services that are secure and confidential in accordance with HIPAA norms. It is important for the service providers to have measures to protect patient data such as transfer of files via a secure FTP server or 256-bit AES encryption for all transferred files.
• Customized turnaround time: A competent transcription service provider offer turnaround time options that include 24 hour TAT and STAT.
• More time for core-issues: An experienced service provider helps healthcare providers save time to focus on patient care without any interruption.
• Cost savings: Reliable providers offer affordable transcription solutions which ensure their clients cost savings of up to 30-40 percent.

A competent medical transcription outsourcing company will provide personalized and secured access to medical documents with real time services. Also, outsourcing these services is an ideal option compared to setting up an in-house infrastructure for transcription. All your needs for medical transcription services can be met easily and affordably by choosing the right firm.

Medical transcription companies help reduce the documentation workload of healthcare providers. Professional medical transcriptionists are trained to handle the transcription of the various types of reports generated in a healthcare facility. They produce accurate transcripts of history and physical reports, clinic notes, ER reports, consultation reports, procedures, follow-up notes, and health reports. Their timely and efficient assistance helps physicians save time and money and there is little wonder that medical transcriptionists play a significant role in the current healthcare arena.

Medical Transcription – the Process

Physicians can record their dictation on digital recorders for upload on secure FTP sites or transfer via encrypted browsers. They can also use a toll-free telephone number for dictation. Medical transcriptionists have to download these files, listen to the dictated recordings and transcribe them into precise and well-formatted medical reports.

The transcribed reports are checked by the transcriptionist to ensure quality. A professional medical transcription company would have a stringent quality control process where the transcripts are checked at three levels before delivery to the client. A reliable service provider can offer accuracy levels as high as 99% in the final transcript.

Medical Transcriptionists in Professional Medical Transcription Outsourcing Companies

A professional medical transcription company would have a trained and qualified workforce. These skilled medical transcriptionists would have specific skills which allow them to offer quality output.

• Transcription involves multi-tasking as the transcriptionist has to listen to the physician’s dictation and type simultaneously. Hence the ability to multi-task is an important skill for a medical transcriptionist. Good listening skills are a must. They use a headset to listen to the dictation and foot pedals to pause the recordings whenever clarification is needed. Using word processing software and electronic medical dictionaries to edit grammar and medical terms, they produce accurate reports.

• To produce error-free transcripts, the medical transcriptionist must have an in-depth knowledge of medical terminology in various specialties including Cardiology, Physical Therapy, Gastroenterology, and more. They must also be familiar with laboratory and diagnostic tests, anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, and more. This knowledge enables them to produce accurate transcripts from physician dictation.

• A medical transcriptionist should be well-versed in English language especially in grammar, punctuation and other usages. They must also be able to understand different accents.

• Medical transcription work is computerized, right from the downloading of dictated data, creation of reports, uploading of completed files to using the internet for looking up difficult terms, and more. So the medical transcriptionist has to be computer and internet savvy to succeed. Medical transcriptionists should have excellent typing skills to produce error-free reports within the specified turnaround time. 

Finally, it is of utmost importance that the medical transcriptionist is well-versed in the security guidelines pertaining to patient information. They should strictly adhere to these guidelines when handle all the work they are entrusted with. HIPAA compliant medical transcription services will ensure this.   

 

As the need for medical transcription is increasing, there are lots of companies in the U.S. engaged in the business of medical transcription. Ensuring the confidentiality and security of patient information is of utmost importance while outsourcing. The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 to protect patient identities and their health information. However, it cannot be said that all medical transcription companies in US are HIPAA- compliant. So healthcare facilities and physician practices need to be wary of such companies and outsource their transcription to only a reliable and experienced HIPAA-compliant service provider. HIPAA medical transcription helps healthcare professionals to safeguard all patient health records and information in accordance with law and avoid the legal issues and litigation associated with disclosure.

Steps Taken to Ensure HIPAA Compliance

A professional medical transcription company would have several measures in place to protect the confidentiality of the patient health information (PHI) that it handles and ensure compliance with HIPAA norms. These measures include the following:  

• All staff in the transcription firm are trained and monitored on adherence to HIPAA rules to prevent possibility of violation

• Safe file transfer is ensured between client and service provider with measures such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), browser-based secure 256 bit AES encryption and secure uploading and downloading

• Regular software updates and use of quality antivirus software

• Firewall-protected networks and password protected computers

• No home-based medical transcription

• Once the transcription is over, hard copies of documents containing sensitive patient information are shredded on site.

• Measures are taken to see that no information leaves the transcription department

• Continuing technical evaluation of safety measures and requirements

Benefits of HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription Outsourcing

• Assures security in medical information outflow: Outsourcing to a HIPAA-compliant firm in the U.S. assures that healthcare entities do not have to worry about the insecure outflow of patient information to a third party. These transcription firms ensure that no data will be accessed or misused by an unauthorized person.

• Protects from safeguard issues: Strict compliance with HIPAA guidelines helps healthcare organizations and physicians protect their reputation and safeguard against issues such as loss of credibility and litigation.

• Minimizes chances of data manipulation: A reliable HIPAA-compliant rules reduces the odds of data manipulation and the misuse of crucial medical reports.

Find a HIPAA Complaint US Medical Transcription Company

It is important to contract with a reliable HIPAA medical transcription firm in US. Browse the web, list HIPAA-complaint medical transcription companies, and choose one that can provide accurate documentation in customized turnaround time. A professional firm can provide medical transcription services for the documentation of patient history and physical examination reports, consultation notes, procedure notes, progress notes, operative notes, laboratory and scan reports, and discharge summaries for all specialties