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MT India Newsletter
To subscribe, send an email to:
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11 Dec 2004
***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
Focus Infosys is opening a branch office in Chandigarh. We are a
5-1/2-year-old, 500-people company with headquarters in Woburn, USA,
executing 3.5 lakh lines/day and outsourcing work to 15 companies across the
nation.
Highest rates of Rs. 1.50 per line offered for home-based work. Option to
work both from home and office for the same company. Compare your present
salary with what we have got to offer.
We invite you to join our start-up team of general manager, production
manager, team manager, QC/QA, PRs, Executive MTs, and MTs for our upcoming
unit in Chandigarh.
Eligible candidates are requested to attend the walk-in interviews conducted
in Chandigarh on 18-Dec-04 (Saturday), 19-Dec-04 (Sunday), and 20-Dec-04
(Monday) between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the following venue:
President Hotel
#22, Madhya Marg,
Sector 26, Chandigarh 160 019,
Phone: 0172-279-1731/4
Mobile: 98450-99797 (T.N. Raju - In Charge Operations)
If you cannot attend the interview, please send your resume to
chandigarh@...
To work from home, you need NOT attend the interview but send e-mail to
home@... or visit www.focusmt.com
********************************************************
MTs sue MedQuist...
********************************************************
Dear Friends,
A fourth class action suit has been filed against MedQuist in less than
sixty days. Eleven days after the electronics giant Royal Philips
Electronics wrote down $753 million USD for MedQuist, MedQuist's own
transcriptionists, who number more than 10,000 across the nation and are
paid per line they transcribe, filed a class action suit in Atlanta against
the company asserting they were underpaid for their work.
According to the transcriptionists' suit "MedQuist did not pay Plaintiffs
and the Class on the same line counting basis that MedQuist billed
customers. In fact, for a transcribed report, MedQuist paid employees for
one line count and billed its customers for a higher line count."
The action, entitled Brigitte Hoffman, et al. v. MedQuist, Inc., et al.,
Case No. 1:04-CV-3452, was filed with the Court on November 29, 2004 against
the company and certain current and former company officials, purportedly on
behalf of an alleged class of current and former employees and statutory
workers of MedQuist, from January 1, 1998 to present "Class Period," who are
or were compensated on a "per line," basis for medical transcription
services "Class Members." The complaint specifically alleges that defendants
systematically and wrongfully underpaid the Class Members during the Class
Period. The complaint asserts the following causes of action: fraud, breach
of contract, demand for accounting, quantum meruit, unjust enrichment,
conversion, negligence, negligent supervision, and Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations "RICO" Act violations. Plaintiffs seek unspecified
compensatory damages, punitive damages, disgorgement and restitution.
"The transcriptionists' suit is a hugely significant development for the
hospitals' case," said Mark Hogge of Greenberg Traurig's D.C. office. "Their
suit along with ours alleges facts that at the same time that MedQuist was
fraudulently inflating invoices to hospital clients, it was also
fraudulently deflating the amount it was paying its own transcriptionists,
all to increase the bottom line profits."
Chronicle of MQ's troubles:
March 25 MedQuist announces it is investigating its own billing
practices and alerts the SEC that it will miss a
filing deadline for its annual report.
June 15 MedQuist delisted from NASDAQ.
Aug 7 Three top managers including the CEO are fired from
MedQuist. SEC announces an investigation of MedQuist's
billing practices.
Oct 4 Greenberg Traurig LLP files class action suit in
California on behalf of hospitals allegedly defrauded
by MedQuist.
Nov. 2 MedQuist tells SEC that its previous regulatory
filings regarding 2002 and 2003 earnings ''should no
longer be relied upon.''
Nov. 8 Class action suit filed on behalf of shareholders
(Goodkind Labaton, LLP, New York, NY)
Nov. 11 Class action suit filed on behalf of shareholders
(Charles J. Piven, P.A., Baltimore, MD).
Nov. 18 Royal Philips announces it will write off $753 million
for MedQuist. Spokesman indicates Royal Philips may
need to restate earnings.
Nov. 29 Three transcriptionists for MedQuist file a class
action suit in Atlanta against the company.
For a complete copy of the transcriptionists' complaint, please click here:
http://www.mtindia.org/medquist.pdf (2.13 mb)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To participate in the Coffee Break XVII, click here now:
http://www.mtindia.org/jobs/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ciao!
Dr Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
Worldtech, a major player in Medical Trancription in India is on the lookout
for people to strengthen their operations in Hyderabad, Cochin, Bangalore,
Guntur, Kolkata, Vizag and Coimbatore. We need quality MTs and QAs with
good background. Remuneration package linked to skill and productivity.
Initial interviews and screeening will be done in your city itself. Home
based option after initial onsite placement. Relocation assistance will be
provided.
Send your resume or speak to:
Venkat Nimmagadda, GM- HR
Worldtech MGR Estates
Saibaba Temple Road, Punjagutta
Hyderabad -500 082
Email: Contactus@...
Phones: 040-2335-2697/2698/2700
***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
*****************
1) Evil Dictators
Physicians with poor dictation habits make life miserable for MTs who endure
chewing sounds, manic mumblings, and odd diversions. It's not easy being a
medical transcriptionist (MT) - just ask one.
Most MTs know that whatever it is, it's their fault. This is especially true
when files seem to vanish into thin air.
Technology, however, has given them a slight advantage. "One big change that
came about with the advent of digital dictation systems is that now, when
doctors start screaming that the dictation department lost their dictation,
we can trace it down and find out that they never dictated it," says George
Heymont, managing partner of Alert & Oriented Medical Transcription Services
in San Francisco, who adds with a certain glee that "there's nothing like
proving to a doctor that he's wrong. They hate it."
Even when a computer fails at a distant location, the blame, curiously, is
often leveled at the MT. "The clients suggest that it's our fault that their
computers aren't working," says Heymont. "And when I asked one client, 'What
did you add to the computer?' he responded, 'I don't know. My wife was
working on it.'"
Another client got upset, he says, "because we couldn't tell him what his
password is. He made it up and didn't share it with us, but he wants us to
be responsible."
"One of the most frustrating aspects of our work," says David Iwinski,
president and CEO of Acusis, a national transcription firm headquartered in
Pittsburgh, "is that clients often become frustrated with quality issues yet
fail to provide feedback."
He recalls making an annual customer service visit at which a testy office
manager informed him that one of the doctors was very upset with his
company. "You keep making the same mistakes over and over," she told him. He
was alarmed, of course, and curious what could account for such a problem.
She brought out a stack of nine complaints from the physician in question
and said, "Now look, you made this mistake and then you made it again and
again and again." He replied, "We pride ourselves on being responsive, and I
'm shocked that we would make a repetitive error. It's a tough business-the
quality of sound recordings is challenging and mistakes happen, but it's
really inexcusible, so let's look at the details."
Iwinski read the first note, which he observed out loud wasn't really a
complaint but rather a request from the doctor for a change to his template.
"Just wait until you see the rest," the office manager warned. So he went
through the remaining eight, each of which complained that the template
still did not reflect the original request for a change.
Appalled, Iwinski asked the woman which of his company's client satisfaction
representatives she spoke with so he could discuss the problem and get to
the bottom of the matter. "I don't have a name for you," she said. "Why
not?" he asked. "I'm far too busy to convey all this information. I don't
have time to tell you about these problems," she replied. "She was
completely serious, and I was dumbfounded," Iwinski remembers. "How could we
have known to change a template if you didn't tell us?" he asked. "Well, you
know now, and I hope you get it fixed," she replied. He took his stack of
complaints back to the office and fixed the problem immediately, but now a
sales representative makes a biweekly visit to that client to make sure no
complaints fall through the cracks.
A critical issue for MTs is intelligibility of the dictated reports. More
often, the problem is simply making out what the doctor is saying. Iwinski
recalls a doctor who used to dictate on a handheld recorder while he was
having lunch in a convertible with the radio on. "If you've never tried to
discern the details of someone's cardiovascular therapy muffled by the wind
of the American Southwest roaring by, the Bee Gees on the radio, and a Big
Mac being consumed, you've missed an amazing adventure," Iwinski jokes.
Kim Buchanan, CMT, FAAMT, AAMT president-elect, was transcribing the report
of a doctor who at the time was driving her kids through the drive-thru lane
at a fast-food joint. The doctor handed her recorder to her kids in the
backseat while she ordered, and the children carried on with the dictation,
making things up as they went while shouting out their dinner orders to her
at the same time. "Unfortunately," recalls Buchanan, "I had to listen to the
entire conversation because I had no idea when the doctor would start
dictating again."
Then there was the time that a client's office manager came in as the doctor
was dictating. The doctor started regaling the office manager with tales of
a recent date. She confided the fact that the date had reminded her so much
of her ex-husband, right down to his uncircumcised private parts. She
continued, in graphic detail, until she realized that she had neglected to
hang up the phone she was using to dictate. "The doctor immediately called
me and apologized but, again, I had to listen through all of that to get to
the rest of her dictation," says Buchanan.
http://www.fortherecordmag.com/ftr_coverstory.shtml
2) Philippines' trade groups to form outsourcing marketing firm for US
SEVERAL trade organizations in different provinces are planning to establish
a holdings company that will market the outsourced IT services offerings of
small-to-medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines.
The holdings company, which has yet to be named, will focus on call centers,
medical transcription, animation and business process outsourcing services
by SMEs.
It will be composed of some members of the Philippine Small and Medium
Business Development (PHILSMED) group, a well as provincial-based business
and trade organizations.
Kintanar noted that the trade groups are planning to incorporate the
holdings company by the end of the year, and start operations early next
year.
He said the groups have started talking with members of the National
Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFA) that are interested in
investing in the holdings firm, as well as in partnering with Philippine
SMEs.
In addition, Kintanar said several local and business groups have also
expressed interest in investing in the holdings company, particularly one
"very large" Filipino investor whom he declined to identify.
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=7&story_id=18208
3) Med transcription industry set for comeback
The decade old Indian medical transcription industry is on the comeback
trail after witnessing years of flat growth. Most companies in the industry
have clocked head count growth of over 50% in the last one year and hope to
double headcount next year.
Suresh Nair, MD, HealthScribe Limited said, "The medical transcription
industry has been growing at flat levels since 2000-2002. This year there
has been a boom. All players are growing at more than 50%. We ourselves are
planning to grow at 75% in 2005."
Among the largest medical transcription companies in India, US headquartered
HealthScribe is not the only one looking at such aggressive growth. Other
US-based companies like iMedX are also ramping up their investments in
India.
The medical transcription market is worth about $30 billion. Of this barely,
100 million dollars is done by India. But then most of the work is done by
small outfits like these.
Barely half a dozen medical transcription outfits in India have staff
strength of more than five hundred people. Most of the companies have less
than 100 people. Despite that, companies are bullish about the future.
George Ollapally, DTS Information Systems said, "On one hand, we have the
shortage in the talent pool of medical transcriptionists in the US.
Simultaneously, the need for documentation in the US is growing. So both
together have an impact on the size of the market."
Even as the industry continues to grow, there is an attempt to push
international standards across the board, as there are worries that
unscrupulous small players may misuse medical records and tar the image of
the Indian industry.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/backends/News/frontend/news_detail.php?autono=156922
4) Offshoring transforms the global workplace
Anger over offshoring has skewed the debate over just how great a threat it
poses. It was one of many reasons why Americans lost jobs in the last
recession, and a new government study indicates that it is responsible for
only a small percentage of the workers laid off in the first quarter of this
year.
But in many ways, offshoring's impact already has been profound. Any
information that can be computerized - documents, photographs, drawings,
digital audiotapes - can be instantly zapped from one spot in the world to
another. As a result Doctors all over America send their dictated notes on
patients' aches and pains to overseas transcription services.
Many people are surprised to learn that the intimate details of their
medical visits are being transcribed from their doctor's dictation by
workers in India and other developing nations. They'd be even more surprised
to know that it's been happening for years.
Worldtech USA - an Indian company with its U.S. headquarters in, of all
places, Odessa - has been doing U.S. medical transcription work for six
years. Their largest competitors have been doing it for more than a decade.
In some hot offshoring areas like medical transcription, more countries are
joining the competition.As the price of technology has been dropping,
smaller companies have been able to start offshoring transcription work, and
more countries are joining in - Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri
Lanka and the nations of the West Indies.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/8966149.htm
5) Open courses for MT jobs in Philippines
The Department of Trade and Industry is pushing for the opening of advanced
communication subjects in colleges and universities in Central Mindanao to
help prepare students for possible jobs in the growing call or contact
center and medical transcription industries.
Ibrahim Guiamadel, DTI-Central Mindanao regional director, said they are now
tying up with several colleges and universities in the area for the
development of non-formal courses or elective subjects on advanced
communication, patterned after a similar program in the University of the
East (UE) in Manila.
"The availability of training programs for call centers and medical
transcription industries will further solidify the goal of the region to
emerge as alternate e-services location of choice," he said.
http://www.mindanews.com/2004/12/01nws-call.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends
or post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read
below:
All original content of this newsletter is © Copyright 1998-2004
Mediweb Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of
their authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to
share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site
as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this
notice.
Thank you for your interest in MT India!
The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe
To subscribe, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
11 Dec 2004
***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
Focus Infosys is opening a branch office in Chandigarh. We are a
5-1/2-year-old, 500-people company with headquarters in Woburn, USA,
executing 3.5 lakh lines/day and outsourcing work to 15 companies across the
nation.
Highest rates of Rs. 1.50 per line offered for home-based work. Option to
work both from home and office for the same company. Compare your present
salary with what we have got to offer.
We invite you to join our start-up team of general manager, production
manager, team manager, QC/QA, PRs, Executive MTs, and MTs for our upcoming
unit in Chandigarh.
Eligible candidates are requested to attend the walk-in interviews conducted
in Chandigarh on 18-Dec-04 (Saturday), 19-Dec-04 (Sunday), and 20-Dec-04
(Monday) between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the following venue:
President Hotel
#22, Madhya Marg,
Sector 26, Chandigarh 160 019,
Phone: 0172-279-1731/4
Mobile: 98450-99797 (T.N. Raju - In Charge Operations)
If you cannot attend the interview, please send your resume to
chandigarh@...
To work from home, you need NOT attend the interview but send e-mail to
home@... or visit www.focusmt.com
********************************************************
MTs sue MedQuist...
********************************************************
Dear Friends,
A fourth class action suit has been filed against MedQuist in less than
sixty days. Eleven days after the electronics giant Royal Philips
Electronics wrote down $753 million USD for MedQuist, MedQuist's own
transcriptionists, who number more than 10,000 across the nation and are
paid per line they transcribe, filed a class action suit in Atlanta against
the company asserting they were underpaid for their work.
According to the transcriptionists' suit "MedQuist did not pay Plaintiffs
and the Class on the same line counting basis that MedQuist billed
customers. In fact, for a transcribed report, MedQuist paid employees for
one line count and billed its customers for a higher line count."
The action, entitled Brigitte Hoffman, et al. v. MedQuist, Inc., et al.,
Case No. 1:04-CV-3452, was filed with the Court on November 29, 2004 against
the company and certain current and former company officials, purportedly on
behalf of an alleged class of current and former employees and statutory
workers of MedQuist, from January 1, 1998 to present "Class Period," who are
or were compensated on a "per line," basis for medical transcription
services "Class Members." The complaint specifically alleges that defendants
systematically and wrongfully underpaid the Class Members during the Class
Period. The complaint asserts the following causes of action: fraud, breach
of contract, demand for accounting, quantum meruit, unjust enrichment,
conversion, negligence, negligent supervision, and Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations "RICO" Act violations. Plaintiffs seek unspecified
compensatory damages, punitive damages, disgorgement and restitution.
"The transcriptionists' suit is a hugely significant development for the
hospitals' case," said Mark Hogge of Greenberg Traurig's D.C. office. "Their
suit along with ours alleges facts that at the same time that MedQuist was
fraudulently inflating invoices to hospital clients, it was also
fraudulently deflating the amount it was paying its own transcriptionists,
all to increase the bottom line profits."
Chronicle of MQ's troubles:
March 25 MedQuist announces it is investigating its own billing
practices and alerts the SEC that it will miss a
filing deadline for its annual report.
June 15 MedQuist delisted from NASDAQ.
Aug 7 Three top managers including the CEO are fired from
MedQuist. SEC announces an investigation of MedQuist's
billing practices.
Oct 4 Greenberg Traurig LLP files class action suit in
California on behalf of hospitals allegedly defrauded
by MedQuist.
Nov. 2 MedQuist tells SEC that its previous regulatory
filings regarding 2002 and 2003 earnings ''should no
longer be relied upon.''
Nov. 8 Class action suit filed on behalf of shareholders
(Goodkind Labaton, LLP, New York, NY)
Nov. 11 Class action suit filed on behalf of shareholders
(Charles J. Piven, P.A., Baltimore, MD).
Nov. 18 Royal Philips announces it will write off $753 million
for MedQuist. Spokesman indicates Royal Philips may
need to restate earnings.
Nov. 29 Three transcriptionists for MedQuist file a class
action suit in Atlanta against the company.
For a complete copy of the transcriptionists' complaint, please click here:
http://www.mtindia.org/medquist.pdf (2.13 mb)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To participate in the Coffee Break XVII, click here now:
http://www.mtindia.org/jobs/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ciao!
Dr Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
Worldtech, a major player in Medical Trancription in India is on the lookout
for people to strengthen their operations in Hyderabad, Cochin, Bangalore,
Guntur, Kolkata, Vizag and Coimbatore. We need quality MTs and QAs with
good background. Remuneration package linked to skill and productivity.
Initial interviews and screeening will be done in your city itself. Home
based option after initial onsite placement. Relocation assistance will be
provided.
Send your resume or speak to:
Venkat Nimmagadda, GM- HR
Worldtech MGR Estates
Saibaba Temple Road, Punjagutta
Hyderabad -500 082
Email: Contactus@...
Phones: 040-2335-2697/2698/2700
***********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
*****************
1) Evil Dictators
Physicians with poor dictation habits make life miserable for MTs who endure
chewing sounds, manic mumblings, and odd diversions. It's not easy being a
medical transcriptionist (MT) - just ask one.
Most MTs know that whatever it is, it's their fault. This is especially true
when files seem to vanish into thin air.
Technology, however, has given them a slight advantage. "One big change that
came about with the advent of digital dictation systems is that now, when
doctors start screaming that the dictation department lost their dictation,
we can trace it down and find out that they never dictated it," says George
Heymont, managing partner of Alert & Oriented Medical Transcription Services
in San Francisco, who adds with a certain glee that "there's nothing like
proving to a doctor that he's wrong. They hate it."
Even when a computer fails at a distant location, the blame, curiously, is
often leveled at the MT. "The clients suggest that it's our fault that their
computers aren't working," says Heymont. "And when I asked one client, 'What
did you add to the computer?' he responded, 'I don't know. My wife was
working on it.'"
Another client got upset, he says, "because we couldn't tell him what his
password is. He made it up and didn't share it with us, but he wants us to
be responsible."
"One of the most frustrating aspects of our work," says David Iwinski,
president and CEO of Acusis, a national transcription firm headquartered in
Pittsburgh, "is that clients often become frustrated with quality issues yet
fail to provide feedback."
He recalls making an annual customer service visit at which a testy office
manager informed him that one of the doctors was very upset with his
company. "You keep making the same mistakes over and over," she told him. He
was alarmed, of course, and curious what could account for such a problem.
She brought out a stack of nine complaints from the physician in question
and said, "Now look, you made this mistake and then you made it again and
again and again." He replied, "We pride ourselves on being responsive, and I
'm shocked that we would make a repetitive error. It's a tough business-the
quality of sound recordings is challenging and mistakes happen, but it's
really inexcusible, so let's look at the details."
Iwinski read the first note, which he observed out loud wasn't really a
complaint but rather a request from the doctor for a change to his template.
"Just wait until you see the rest," the office manager warned. So he went
through the remaining eight, each of which complained that the template
still did not reflect the original request for a change.
Appalled, Iwinski asked the woman which of his company's client satisfaction
representatives she spoke with so he could discuss the problem and get to
the bottom of the matter. "I don't have a name for you," she said. "Why
not?" he asked. "I'm far too busy to convey all this information. I don't
have time to tell you about these problems," she replied. "She was
completely serious, and I was dumbfounded," Iwinski remembers. "How could we
have known to change a template if you didn't tell us?" he asked. "Well, you
know now, and I hope you get it fixed," she replied. He took his stack of
complaints back to the office and fixed the problem immediately, but now a
sales representative makes a biweekly visit to that client to make sure no
complaints fall through the cracks.
A critical issue for MTs is intelligibility of the dictated reports. More
often, the problem is simply making out what the doctor is saying. Iwinski
recalls a doctor who used to dictate on a handheld recorder while he was
having lunch in a convertible with the radio on. "If you've never tried to
discern the details of someone's cardiovascular therapy muffled by the wind
of the American Southwest roaring by, the Bee Gees on the radio, and a Big
Mac being consumed, you've missed an amazing adventure," Iwinski jokes.
Kim Buchanan, CMT, FAAMT, AAMT president-elect, was transcribing the report
of a doctor who at the time was driving her kids through the drive-thru lane
at a fast-food joint. The doctor handed her recorder to her kids in the
backseat while she ordered, and the children carried on with the dictation,
making things up as they went while shouting out their dinner orders to her
at the same time. "Unfortunately," recalls Buchanan, "I had to listen to the
entire conversation because I had no idea when the doctor would start
dictating again."
Then there was the time that a client's office manager came in as the doctor
was dictating. The doctor started regaling the office manager with tales of
a recent date. She confided the fact that the date had reminded her so much
of her ex-husband, right down to his uncircumcised private parts. She
continued, in graphic detail, until she realized that she had neglected to
hang up the phone she was using to dictate. "The doctor immediately called
me and apologized but, again, I had to listen through all of that to get to
the rest of her dictation," says Buchanan.
http://www.fortherecordmag.com/ftr_coverstory.shtml
2) Philippines' trade groups to form outsourcing marketing firm for US
SEVERAL trade organizations in different provinces are planning to establish
a holdings company that will market the outsourced IT services offerings of
small-to-medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines.
The holdings company, which has yet to be named, will focus on call centers,
medical transcription, animation and business process outsourcing services
by SMEs.
It will be composed of some members of the Philippine Small and Medium
Business Development (PHILSMED) group, a well as provincial-based business
and trade organizations.
Kintanar noted that the trade groups are planning to incorporate the
holdings company by the end of the year, and start operations early next
year.
He said the groups have started talking with members of the National
Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFA) that are interested in
investing in the holdings firm, as well as in partnering with Philippine
SMEs.
In addition, Kintanar said several local and business groups have also
expressed interest in investing in the holdings company, particularly one
"very large" Filipino investor whom he declined to identify.
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=7&story_id=18208
3) Med transcription industry set for comeback
The decade old Indian medical transcription industry is on the comeback
trail after witnessing years of flat growth. Most companies in the industry
have clocked head count growth of over 50% in the last one year and hope to
double headcount next year.
Suresh Nair, MD, HealthScribe Limited said, "The medical transcription
industry has been growing at flat levels since 2000-2002. This year there
has been a boom. All players are growing at more than 50%. We ourselves are
planning to grow at 75% in 2005."
Among the largest medical transcription companies in India, US headquartered
HealthScribe is not the only one looking at such aggressive growth. Other
US-based companies like iMedX are also ramping up their investments in
India.
The medical transcription market is worth about $30 billion. Of this barely,
100 million dollars is done by India. But then most of the work is done by
small outfits like these.
Barely half a dozen medical transcription outfits in India have staff
strength of more than five hundred people. Most of the companies have less
than 100 people. Despite that, companies are bullish about the future.
George Ollapally, DTS Information Systems said, "On one hand, we have the
shortage in the talent pool of medical transcriptionists in the US.
Simultaneously, the need for documentation in the US is growing. So both
together have an impact on the size of the market."
Even as the industry continues to grow, there is an attempt to push
international standards across the board, as there are worries that
unscrupulous small players may misuse medical records and tar the image of
the Indian industry.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/backends/News/frontend/news_detail.php?autono=156922
4) Offshoring transforms the global workplace
Anger over offshoring has skewed the debate over just how great a threat it
poses. It was one of many reasons why Americans lost jobs in the last
recession, and a new government study indicates that it is responsible for
only a small percentage of the workers laid off in the first quarter of this
year.
But in many ways, offshoring's impact already has been profound. Any
information that can be computerized - documents, photographs, drawings,
digital audiotapes - can be instantly zapped from one spot in the world to
another. As a result Doctors all over America send their dictated notes on
patients' aches and pains to overseas transcription services.
Many people are surprised to learn that the intimate details of their
medical visits are being transcribed from their doctor's dictation by
workers in India and other developing nations. They'd be even more surprised
to know that it's been happening for years.
Worldtech USA - an Indian company with its U.S. headquarters in, of all
places, Odessa - has been doing U.S. medical transcription work for six
years. Their largest competitors have been doing it for more than a decade.
In some hot offshoring areas like medical transcription, more countries are
joining the competition.As the price of technology has been dropping,
smaller companies have been able to start offshoring transcription work, and
more countries are joining in - Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri
Lanka and the nations of the West Indies.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/8966149.htm
5) Open courses for MT jobs in Philippines
The Department of Trade and Industry is pushing for the opening of advanced
communication subjects in colleges and universities in Central Mindanao to
help prepare students for possible jobs in the growing call or contact
center and medical transcription industries.
Ibrahim Guiamadel, DTI-Central Mindanao regional director, said they are now
tying up with several colleges and universities in the area for the
development of non-formal courses or elective subjects on advanced
communication, patterned after a similar program in the University of the
East (UE) in Manila.
"The availability of training programs for call centers and medical
transcription industries will further solidify the goal of the region to
emerge as alternate e-services location of choice," he said.
http://www.mindanews.com/2004/12/01nws-call.html
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Thank you for your interest in MT India!
The MTIndia Team
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