MT India Newsletter - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MTIndia

21 Dec 2002

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How to dodge a scam!!

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Dear Friends,

I am interrupting Suresh's article, to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Also a new policy - henceforth, in an attempt to keep the noise to
signal ratio low, routine job ads will not be carried in either the
MT India Newsletter or the MTID. We are creating a separate list
for job ads, and we will inform you about how to join this Job
Center list, after Christmas - I need a break, too:).

And now to the topic at hand:

It's a learning curve, right? You can manage hits from the economy,
the landlord, the computer system that crashes on a whim, the
customer whose check is always in the mail.

But do you know enough to dodge a scam?

The sad truth is, small-business owners are a primary target for
scams from shysters of all types. Although figures are impossible
to come by, estimates hold that one of every three scams is aimed
at a small-business owner.

The reasons vary. For one, as the number of small businesses
continues to grow, so do the tricks and lures used by con artists.
Another factor is that entrepreneurs can be . . . well, gullible.
Often inexperienced in dealing with a variety of people, likely
with some money in their pockets and looking for an investment with
a quick return, small-business owners are often ready, willing and
able to be duped.

Unfortunately, the Internet also has made it easier for illegal
companies - mostly the skilled perpetrators of pyramid schemes and
related scams - to get in the face of consumers as well. Many of
these scam artists portray themselves as honest network marketers.

Don't make getting scammed another growth experience. Here are some
scams, classic and new, and some tips for protecting your bank
account and your business.

The scam: Be your own boss (again). This setup may target you if
you're giving some thought to trying a different sort of small
business or are thinking of going out on your own for the first
time. While there are any number of legitimate franchise
opportunities and other operations designed to help you get started
in a new business, there are just as many shady dealers promising
the world - financially speaking - with little in the way of actual
delivery. These can range from offers to set you up as an Internet
service provider in your area to overseeing an "established and
profitable" route of vending machines. And all you have to do is
fork over some startup capital.

The solution: It's a good idea to stick to name brands when it
comes to franchising. Be particularly wary if the pitchman tries to
entice you with expected income levels that seem outlandish
(remember S.Kumars.con?). If an opportunity interests you, get the
names of the principals of the company and run them past a law
enforcement agency. All too often, seemingly upfront businesspeople
can turn out to have rap sheets longer than their own Pinocchio
noses.

The scam: The "blessed" angel. Shysters can pose as representatives
for "angels" - wealthy individuals looking for companies in which
to invest. These guys will tell you they're willing to fund your
business, if you pay money upfront to help make the arrangements.
So all you have to do is pony up a few thousand bucks.

The solution: Avoid these pitches like a Tonya Harding Christmas
special. If by wild chance the scheme seems legitimate, tell them
to go ahead without your funding and subtract the fee from the
profits they share with you.

The scam: My overseas friend. Absurd as it may seem, business
owners for years have received letters and e-mails from cons posing
as official representatives from Nigeria or other foreign
countries. With variations on the theme, the deal usually involves
a wealthy foreigner who's looking for a place to park millions of
dollars outside his country. If the business owner can just pass
along his bank account number, he'll get upwards of 30% of the cash
involved.

The solution: If by now you've guessed that funds exit the bank
account rather than going into it, you also know never to give
these stings the time of day, no matter how enticing or, in some
cases, heart-wrenching the pitch may be. I got one recently that
pleaded for help on behalf of a wealthy Nigerian widow whose
husband had just been assassinated.

The classic scam: Work-At-Home. Claims of making lots of extra
money at home in your spare time may actually drain your savings,
rather than increase them.

Two people I know, who lived 200 miles apart, each decided to try
to make some extra money. The offer promised up to
INR 10,000 per week, to run a home business stuffing envelopes.
Each woman paid close to INR 3,000 but quickly found that what they
got for their money wasn't what they were expecting. Instead of
envelopes, they received materials telling them to place their own
ads, to bring other people into the operation, a type of pyramid
scheme. Companies can stuff envelopes faster, better and cheaper
than hiring individuals to work from home. I don't know of any
legitimate companies that pay consumers to stuff envelopes for them
in their homes. In spite of what the ads claim, these work-at-home
schemes can not only cost you money, but they can get you into
trouble if you enlist others.

The solution: First, make sure that a solid product or service
figures prominently in the business. In many pyramid schemes, the
product or service is a mere "fig leaf" to an illegal source of
revenue - often the signup or membership fees required just to join
a network. (Most will never see their money again.) The key test of
a legitimate business is that even the last person recruited into
its networks can make money.

This sampling only skims the rather scummy surface of
small-business cons. I recommend networking groups as a great
resource for small business. Use them to disseminate information
about small business scams and to find out details that may prove
helpful to your own protection.

One such is our moderated discussion list:
www.mtindia.org/mtdigest/default.htm

Cheers, and Happy New Year !!!

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

"It takes years to become an overnight success."

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Heartland offers transcription services to Premier Members by
cutting rates and offering "discounts"

PSP and Heartland Information Services, a national medical
transcription services company, have signed a three-year agreement
to offer Premier members outsourced transcription services. The
agreement, will offer outsourced transcription services at reduced
rates and competitive terms and conditions.

And, to kick off the agreement, Heartland Information Services is
offering an introductory promotion. Heartland Information Services
will reduce the negotiated transcription rate by an additional 10%
for the first three months of service for any Premier member who
signs a service agreement by December 31, 2002 and implements by
March 1, 2003.

http://www.premierinc.com/frames/index.jsp?pagelocation=http://it.p
remierinc.com/news_information/heartlandis.cfm

2) Philippines - An emerging champion as MTIA comes to town?

Every cause needs a champion, and when it comes to developing the
Philippines' e-services sectors, there are plenty of them. These
individuals are some of the people who are comfortable in the role
of chief booster and cheerleader, and not everyone is. They
tirelessly promote not just their own companies, but entire
e-services sectors and their country.

Among the e-services sectors that are growing rapidly is medical
transcription, and there are good reasons why this is so. According
to Jeff Garcia, president of Transkripsyo, and the local medical
transcription sector's champion, about 47 percent of U.S. hospitals
that have already switched to electronic record-keeping outsource
the work, principally to India where 254 companies have worked for
as long as 20 years metamorphing medical records into
near-permanent electronic format. But India's attractiveness as an
outsourcing center for medical transcription is suffering, and the
principal reason is the new attractiveness of the Philippines.

The acceptance of the Philippines as a transcription center is the
result of a determined campaign. Garcia has lobbied MTIA for
recognition for as long as the sector has had a presence in the
Philippines. Six years on, his efforts are being rewarded. As a
result of their good work and Garcia's efforts to evangelize the
sector to MTIA, the alliance has decided to setup an affiliate
organization in the Philippines that, like the US headquarters,
will supervise the sector by setting quality and business ethic
standards. It will also provide guidance for startups getting into
the business.

Garcia is proud that MTIA will be setting up shop in the
Philippines because it signals the coming of age of the industry.
But he also chuckles when he notes that despite repeated requests
from Indian firms - 16 over the years, in fact - MTIA still has no
presence in India, and isn't expected to for some time.

http://www.philippinenews.com/issues/oct02/oct23-29/business.asp

3) Every line is lucrative - has home transcription come of age?

The World Bank, relocating its back-office operations in Chennai,
is a good augury for the city. Medical transcription (MT) is among
the well-known IT-enabled services. And many a U.S. major practises
the virtue of outsourcing medical transcription work from India. It
is estimated that these companies cut down 40 to 50 per cent costs
using this strategy. And what's more, they get quality output at
half the expenditure. Jayashree has an M.Sc degree in plant
biology, and Saravanan, an M.Sc in information technology.
Adhiyaman has an M.A. in political science and Srinivas, a
post-graduate diploma in hotel management. All of them are taking
home similar pay packets and face the same challenges as medical
transcriptionists at Insignia Infotech Private Limited, one of the
many MT companies thriving in Chennai. Post-graduates are indeed a
far cry from high school dropouts. But that's the difference
between Indian and American transcriptionists, most of whom are
high school dropouts.

Acusis, provides its home-based transcriptionists the
infrastructure and proprietary software to set up shop at home. At
Acusis, the work done by the home-based transcriptionists is
monitored by a team of in-house transcriptionists, to weed out the
errors. Transcriptionists, who work from home, are paid on the
basis of speed and accuracy.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/08/27/stories/2002082700
030100.htm

4) Speech Recognition Technology Gives Voice to Clinical Data?

Lloyd Bradd, M.D., likes speech recognition technology. He uses it
to dictate and edit his own patient notes. However, the founder of
Skyline Family Practice, a three-physician group in Front Royal,
Va., has hopes for the technology far greater than saving money on
transcription costs.

Bradd envisions speech recognition so tightly integrated with other
software that a physician could verbally command the retrieval of
specific patient data on demand. Picking up a microphone attached
to the computer, Bradd wants the ability to say, "Run an inquiry on
all patients with a diagnosis of diabetes and hemoglobin A1C over
8." After the computer displays said list of patients, Bradd would
further narrow his search: "Now, computer, give me a list of these
patients with a systolic blood pressure over 140."

But it may take 10 years or more until speech recognition is widely
accepted in health care, experts say. "It will take five years for
computer-based patient records software vendors to adequately embed
this technology into their systems, and another five years to get
the price down into the range of the average physician," says Barry
Hieb, M.D., research director at Gartner Inc., a Stamford,
Conn.-based research firm.

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/html/current/CurrentIssueStory.
cfm?PostID=13547

5) Transcription firm bound for Wilton

Franklin Memorial Hospital has lured a Portland-based health care
organization away from southern Maine to open a medical
transcription service in Franklin County that could provide a few
dozen new jobs.

The service, which will offer rapid word processing of medical
record dictation by doctors, will start with seven employees and
expand to more than 30 in the next few years as business increases.
Employees will use a $100,000 voice recognition system that
converts words from an audio tape to type. A transcriptionist then
listens to the tape while reading the words on the screen and
corrects errors, which are then retained by the software along with
the voice pattern of the recording doctor. The technology is also
able to transfer the document to the hospital and place it in the
patient's medical record, Batt said.

http://www.centralmaine.com/news/stories/021219transcri.shtml

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The MTIndia Team
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