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May 14, 2005

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Quiz Contest 2005 - Final Round!

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Dear Friends,

A Happy MT Week and congratulations to those who have made it to
the Final Round of the Annual MT India Quiz Contest 2005.
Details at: http://www.mtindia.org/mtweek/. Thank you for your
enthusiastic participation!

For those who think that the primary purpose of a medical record is
billing and reimbursement - May God Bless You!

Ciao!

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

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Medical transcription is only the beginning

The frontier of medical outsourcing to India and other low-cost
economies is extending by the day. What started with medical
transcription has now come a long way. Today there are talks of
blood samples, radiology reports, etc. being sent to India for
analysis and reports.

Experts say this is just the beginning. Hospitals and labs in
Europe, US and West Asia find it cheaper to outsource laboratory
tests and other medical processes to India. It certainly makes
sense to do so. Cost of healthcare is spiralling in developed
countries. And outsourcing, according to estimates, could save
costs by 30% to 70%.

Indian offshore consultants have in fact been quick to cash in on
this business opportunity. With a huge pool of medical and
technology professionals and low cost of healthcare, reports
suggest, India is the best possible destination for this kind of
outsourcing. The country is already witnessing a surge in
outsourcing of pro-cesses like medical transcription, claims
processing, medical billing, data management for clinical trials
and radiology services.

Medical outsourcing is a big-buck opportunity. The global
healthcare outsourcing market, with all services put together, is
approximately $71 billion in 2005. Healthcare BPO is a $200-billion
business worldwide. India accounts for only $110 million of the
healthcare BPO business though the opportunity in the next three
years is for $5-$6 billion of this market.

Medical transcription (MT) which went through a lean period has
made a comeback. "Medical transcription is here to stay. With the
consolidation in the Indian industry and newer technologies adding
value, this business is on a sound footing," say industry experts.

According to Nasscom, medical transcription is projected to be
India's fourth largest foreign exchange earner in about five years.
"The employment potential of transcription services would be
1,60,000 by 2008," says Rajiv Shetye, vice-president, Spryance
India, a medical transcription company. At present, the sector has
generated over 5,000 jobs.

Medical transcription combined with medical coding and billing
offers an opportunity in excess of $25 billion. Healthcare
outsourcing is so lucrative that pure play software companies have
entered the business. Software companies like Cognizant, Hinduja
TMT and Ajuba Solutions have flagged off their own BPO outfit.
Wipro has also opened its healthcare division-Wipro Healthcare and
Life Science.

It is not yet time to celebrate though. Mr Chhatwal points out that
though there is a boom in the industry, there is an absolute lack
of trained manpower to counter the needs in the outsourcing
industry. Hippa (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act) compliance is another key issue for healthcare BPOs and only
firms that have defined an approach to dealing with Hippa will be
successful going forward, say experts.

"Medical transcription and healthcare BPOs need stringent data
protection laws to acquire more business and move up the BPO value
chain. Hippa is the first comprehensive federal protection for the
privacy of personal health information institutionalised by the US
government. Although Hippa has a profound impact on the healthcare
industry, there aren't many BPO companies that are Hippa-compliant.
It is critical for healthcare BPOs to understand that only by such
compliance can India be assured of business," says Mr Shetye.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=90068

2) Week-long training for medical transcriptionists

Healthscribe India Ltd will organise a one-week training programme
for the company's medical transcriptionists as part of the World
Medical Transcriptional Week in Bangalore. The programme will
feature entertainment programmes apart from hard-fought competitive
sessions. A toad catching event on Wednesday promises to be a
crowd-pleaser. The lecture sessions have been slotted for Thursday.

The programme will be concluded with a valedictory function on May
21, where an oath will be taken and prizes for various categories
will be distributed.

''In India, people are not aware of this field and hence, I think
the programme will create an awareness about Medical Transcription
as a career option for many,'' says Suresh Nair, managing director,
Healthscribe India Ltd.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20050513234408&Page=K&Title=South\
ern+News+-+Karnataka&Topic=0

3) HealthScribe to start Coimbatore operations in July

HealthScribe India Ltd, one of the largest medical transcription
companies, would start its Coimbatore operations from July. HSI has
signed an MoU to occupy an office space of 40,000 sq ft at
Kumaraguru College of Technology-STPI IT park here, a release said
Tuesday.

HSI, headquartered in Bangalore, for its Indian operations with a
workforce of 1,500, has also made a Letter of Indent to occupy an
additional space of 20,000 sq ft in the park.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1104896.cms

4) Different fringe benefit tax for software, BPO

Under the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT), software companies are treated
differently (read favourably) from BPO firms which contributed
about $3.6 billion worth of exports revenue in 2003-04 and was
estimated to bring in over $5 billion last financial year.

Under the FBT regime, while software divisions of companies like
Infosys, Wipro will pay a lower rate under some select heads, their
BPO outfits, Progeon and Wipro BPO, will pay higher taxes for
activities of the same nature. There are a slew of other companies
with software and BPO divisions, and the story will be same for
them.

The amendments to the Finance Bill which deals with FBT says: "In
case of an employer engaged in the business of manufacture or
production of software, the value of fringe benefits for
conveyance, tour and travel (including foreign travel), and use of
hotel, boarding and lodging facilities shall be 5% instead of 20%."

So while software companies will have to pay tax on just 5% of
total expenses for conveyance, travel by employees from software
division, they will have to pay 20% for the activities of similar
nature carried out by employees in BPO division.

http://www.nasscom.org/artDisplay.asp?art_id=4301

5) ScanSoft buys Chicago's MedRemote for $12M

Peabody-based ScanSoft bought the privately held company for 1.54
million shares of its common stock and $6.2 million in cash.

MedRemote, which employs 14 people, offers web-based software for
dictation, transcription, speech recognition, document management
and data mining. Fallon Clinic and Valley Baptist Health System use
MedRemote's software.

ScanSoft said it would offer Dragon MT Workflow System,
transcription-processing software for hospitals and medical
transcription services. It would also offer Dragon MT Remote, a
hosted subscription service based on the Dragon MT Workflow System.

This is the second deal in a week for ScanSoft, which employs 900
people.

http://www.masshightech.com/displayarticledetail.asp?Art_ID=68645
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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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