MT India Newsletter - to subscribe, send an email to:
MTIndia-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Apr 16, 2005
***********************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Looking to acquire MT Unit at Chennai

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Looking to acquire a Medical Transcription, Billing and Coding
Company in Chennai, ideally around 100 employees; but any unit over
35 employees can send in their profile.

Apply in confidence to:

Maj (Dr) Amit Chatterjee, SM
amit@...

********************************************************

Health Information Privacy and Security Week

********************************************************
Dear Friends,

The 2005 Health Information Privacy and Security Week was held
April 10 through 16.

Privacy and Security Week is designed to raise awareness among
healthcare professionals, their employers, and the public of the
importance of protecting the privacy, confidentiality, and security
of personal health information.

During the week, AHIMA and its members worked to educate and inform
these groups of their rights and responsibilities related to the
use and disclosure of personal health information by:

* Further expanding awareness of the HIM profession and its unique
responsibilities through a public relations campaign
* Developing a toolkit of resources including a PowerPoint
presentation, sample articles and letters, and a Privacy and
Security Week poster
* Providing a list of existing AHIMA resources in the Body of
Knowledge and on the AHIMA Web site

Materials in the National Health Information Privacy and Security
Week Kit are designed for you to reprint and distribute to
patients, community members, and healthcare and HIM professionals.
Educational materials in this kit can be found online:

http://www.ahima.org/hipsweek/

Ciao!

Maj (Dr) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

********************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
*****************
1) MT sets sights on the blind

The IT-enabled services (ITES) sector has now set its sights on the
blind.

In a novel move, Transtek, a leading healthcare BPO organisation in
the eastern region, is starting a medical transcription training
programme for students of the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys'
Academy, Narendrapur.

To begin with, five students have been shortlisted for the
six-month programme. Starting April 18, the expertise for the
training will be provided by Transtek, while Ramakrishna Mission
will provide infrastructure support.

"We stumbled upon information on the Internet that blind people are
working as medical transcriptionists in the US. This inspired us to
take up the cause. Further research revealed that one Mohan Giri,
who is blind, is working as a medical transcriptionist for a firm
in Coimbatore. That was the clincher," says Sudarshan Bagri,
managing director, Transtek.

The Mission has welcomed the Transtek move. "Economic
rehabilitation for the blind remains a big problem even today. This
is a step in the right direction. Medical transcription will
probably open up a new avenue for the blind," says Sunil Baran
Pattanayak, principal of the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys'
Academy.

Medical transcription is an outsourced operation, whereby the
dictation given by doctors in the US on patient case history and
diagnosis is sent overseas in a digital recording format. This
information is then transcribed or typed by employees in India, a
skill that relies more on auditory than visual ability.

"We interviewed some of the students at the academy and found that
their mental focus is much better than ours. So, there is no reason
why they shouldn't fare well," feels Bagri.

Successful candidates will be absorbed by Transtek. If the
experiment clicks, the firm plans to expand on the idea and employ
500 blind people over the next three years.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050416/asp/calcutta/story_4616862.asp

2) Acusis Bolsters Executive Team with Director of Customer
Satisfaction

To help manage their rapid growth in the medical transcription
industry, Acusis named Anne Palmerine director of customer
satisfaction. Palmerine's position will support the Acusis mission
to deliver a higher standard of medical transcription services to
customers.

Palmerine's strong leadership portfolio reflects her ability to
influence strategic customer satisfaction initiatives. She will
direct the Acusis customer service department that currently
operates on a 24/7/365 basis. Palmerine and her team will ensure
the Acusis business process is backed with an end-result of
exemplary customer satisfaction. By communicating with customers,
Palmerine will introduce new technologies and processes that better
serve customers' needs.

Palmerine brings a strong healthcare background to Acusis. Prior to
joining Acusis, Palmerine worked as customer service manager at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Plan. During the
course of her career, she was active in the development of numerous
strategic customer service plans. She led a team of over 100 people
at International Masters Publishers, where she started incentive
programs and established large call centers that maximized
productivity and increased profitability.

"Acusis will benefit greatly from the addition of Palmerine to our
leadership team," said David Iwinski, chief executive officer of
Acusis. "Palmerine has the vision and expertise to further solidify
the relationship between the customer and Acusis, which we view as
the foundation of our organization. As we continue to grow as a
company, this role is a necessity in order to enhance the
world-class standard of satisfaction that we strive to provide our
customers."

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne\
wsId=20050411005539&newsLang=en

3) Staten Island University Hospital Selects MedQuist's SpeechQ for
Radiology(TM) Speech Recognition Software

Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), New York, recently
purchased and installed MedQuist's SpeechQ for Radiology (TM)
speech recognition software, as part of a two-year plan to upgrade
their radiology information systems to provide superior service to
their patients and referring physicians.

According to Dr. David Hirschorn, the hospital's director of
radiology informatics and a practicing radiologist, "Our goal was
to improve the radiology department's efficiency and quality.
SpeechQ for Radiology(TM) has drastically cut our report turnaround
time so patients and their physicians have much faster access to
their radiology procedure results, often within minutes after the
exam is complete.

"Since most reports are created, reviewed and electronically signed
in a single step, without the need for a transcriptionist, the
radiologist can even authenticate - or electronically sign -- the
report while the image is still displayed on their PACS (Picture
Archiving and Communication System) monitor," Hirschorn adds. "The
system gives radiologists more confidence in the accuracy of their
reports."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050414/phth032.html?.v=7

4) American Association for Medical Transcription and Safety Send
Form HIPAA Business Partnership as Deadline Nears

AAMT and Safety Send have formed a Business Partnership to meet the
demands of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
of 1996 (HIPAA).

Until now, typical Covered Entities and professional business
associates in transcription and others have been forced to employ
expensive and convoluted methods to comply with the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

In an interview with HIPAA News, Safety Send Inc. Chief Executive
Officer, Michael Sharp, said, "Not a single solution has addressed
the needs of the typical health care professional as SafetySend has
done. Our practice level solution SafetySend(TM) system does
exactly what it is designed to do. Protect our clients."

Safety Send Inc. Chief Information Officer, Shawn Fry, said, "Our
clients don't have a dedicated IT department and don't need one.
Our real time compliance technology responds immediately and gets
the job done."

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw226601.htm

5) Indian police make arrests in outsourcing fraud

Police have arrested former employees of an Indian call center that
handles U.S. customer accounts for allegedly stealing consumers'
funds. The suspected gang members arrested by police in Pune
included three ex-workers of Mphasis BPO.

Police said the employees allegedly stole customers' personal
account information and transferred around US$350,000 to fake
accounts in Pune. Sanjay Jadhav, the assistant commissioner of
police, said about US$23,000 (1 million Indian rupees) of the fraud
money has already been recovered. The call center workers left
their jobs last December.

Security issues have been a growing concern for companies that
outsource work overseas. In particular, companies have become
concerned about the leakage and misuse of consumers' personal
financial information in offshore call centers. The National
Association of Software and Service Companies, an Indian trade
group, has set up an Indo-U.S. security forum to make its members
aware of security and privacy issues when they handle sensitive
information from foreign companies.

"India is fast becoming the outsourcing capital of the world, and
this kind of incident, while unfortunate in itself, when
successfully dealt with highlights and reaffirms the existence of
an effective framework of laws and a commitment to enforcing them
in India," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said in a statement.

"Distressing as this incident has been, it is a sad but realistic
fact that no system can be 100 percent foolproof. The deterrence of
prompt action is, therefore, critical," Karnik noted. "In this
context, the proactive efficiency and the prompt success of the
police reinforces the reputation of India as a country with a
strong legal and enforcement framework."

http://asia.cnet.com/news/industry/0,39037106,39225444,00.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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 1998-2005
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