MT India Newsletter - http://www.MTIndia.info/

Mar 10, 2007
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Newsletter - A Standard Unit of Measure for Transcribed Reports...

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ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
Vasant Scribes is a well established ISO 27001 certified Medical
Transcription Company with a seven year track record located in
Hyderabad. We are now working with MedQuist, USA, the world's
largest medical transcription services company and consequently are
on a path of rapid expansion including setting up branches at new
locations.

Vasant takes pride in being an employee friendly organization with
attractive salary / incentives and benefits. To make the growth
happen and share the success we are looking for committed MT
professionals.

MTs : At least six months as Medical Transcriptionist.

PROOFERS : At least one year as proofer and overall four to five
years in MT Industry.

Email your CV to careers@... or post to
Vasant Scribes Limited, 1-11-251/1B, Vasant Towers, Begumpet,
Hyderabad-500 016
Contact Prathima / Shantanu at 040-27764215 or Hyma at 040-66511019
/ 020

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ADVERTISEMENT:
****************
A leading Training Unit also engaged in the field of Medical
Transcription requires Faculty in Medical Language who will impart
medicine and language training - Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology,
Diagnosis, treatment, Laboratory Tests, Diagnostic and Imaging
Procedures, Pharmacology, Medical terminology, and related topics
tailored to the needs of the Medical Transcription Industry.

Young and proactive medical language specialists with teaching
experience, preferably in Language of Medicine in the MT Industry
will be given preference. Compensation commensurate with profile.
All openings are at present in Hyderabad, Vijaywada and
Vishakhapatnam.

Contact 040-66787771/72 or email contactus@... (Subject:
Faculty)

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Dear Friends,

The American Health Information Management Association/Medical
Transcription Industry Association (AHIMA/MTIA) Joint Task Force on
Standards Development convened to recommend a standard unit of
measure for medical transcription of patient medical records. I
quote:

"A VBC is a character that can be seen with the naked eye. Under
this counting scheme, spaces, carriage returns, and hidden
formatting instructions such as bolding, underline, text boxes,
printer configurations, and spell checking are not counted in the
total character count.

The joint task force unanimously agreed that VBC is the only
counting method that can be easily understood, verified, and
replicated by all parties in the medical transcription business
processes. Accordingly, we propose the VBC as the standard unit of
measure for medical transcription.

The task force recommends that this definition be adopted by all
organizations producing medical transcription."

To read the entire recommendation, go to :

http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_033539.pdf
OR
http://www.mtia.com/associations/5147/files/AHIMA_MTIA4web%2020070206.pdf

Cheers!

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! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) DTS lets 13 employees go, down to 50...

DTS America, which began training its first class of Carlsbad
employees in January 2006, will now have a staff of about 50. Seven
other students are currently working through the organization's
training program, Carlsbad Department of Development Board
President Valerie Murrill said. The CDOD was involved with
recruiting DTS to Carlsbad.

"This was a business decision based on performance and industry
standards," Murrill said. DTS Executive Officer Doug Hardwick said
medical transcription is a challenging business. "We felt like, in
a business like this, we have to make some judgment calls about
whether or not you think people ultimately can make it," he said.

Classes are ongoing, Hardwick said, and the company is still
seeking more employees. "We just put on two new hospitals. We have
lots and lots of work," he said. "We're definitely not closing the
door. We have a lot of new business, and we need Carlsbad."

The company is also training its employees in speech recognition
courses, he said. "We need to develop a core group of successful
people that are making good money and are successful in this," he
said. "By doing this, those people will become a magnet to bring in
other people in the community. We're still committed to growing."

Hardwick said the company's strategy is to grow, but at a rate that
ultimately focuses on top employees. The career is a professional
job that requires a certain type of person, he said. "The bottom
line is we have to run the business to make it successful," he
said.

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_5336129

2) SPi sets aside P5 Billion for BPO expansion

SPi Technologies Inc., a unit of PLDT, said it was allocating P5
billion to expand its business process outsourcing (BPO)services
this year. In a statement, SPi said the expansion will cover its
healthcare services and new business line extensions for its
publishing and legal groups.

SPi offers various services including support coding, medical
transcription and a wide range of call center and knowledge-based
outsourcing solutions. SPi is set to open two new facilities, the
300-seat facility in Chennai and 450-seat in Hannoi, Vietnam, which
are expected to be operational by mid-year. The Chennai center will
house both healthcare and publishing operations while the Hanoi
center will initially cater to publishing operations.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=67432

3) Offshoring of healthcare revenue cycle management services to
gain traction

Healthcare BPO services provider Zavata India's $80 million
contract from four major hospitals in the US in November 2006 is
likely to set a strong precedent for more contracts involving
turnkey end-to-end Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Services

A range of services beginning from the admission to post-discharge
of a patient including medical coding, billing, medical
transcription, claims generation, patient follow-up, etc. are
referred to as revenue cycle management. Although more than half of
the hospitals in the US are directly or indirectly offshoring
various components of healthcare services, offshore vendors can now
expect more end-to-end work. Rising cost pressures, coupled with
increasing workload are forcing healthcare institutions to explore
the outsourcing / offshoring option.

Currently most of the offshore vendors focus on either the large
hospitals or the physician market space. But in future, Indian
vendors offering RCM services can look to tap a huge opportunity
from the relatively un-addressed and large segment consisting of
mid-size hospitals (<500 beds) in the US. So far, this segment had
been beyond the radar of most vendors, but the Zavata deal, which
demonstrates the rising comfort level with offshoring by mid-sized
hospitals, is likely to spark off a new wave of deals and
contracts. Arun Jethmalani, CEO of ValueNotes says, "a key trend we
are seeing is the increasing ability of Indian vendors to provide
end-to-end services for healthcare revenue cycle management.
Related to this is the likely increase in penetration of offshore
vendors into the hospital segment."

India-based vendors in this segment range from large, healthcare
focused players such as Apollo Health Street, Ajuba, Zavata and
Perot Systems to small, home run outfits, including freelancers.
With larger buyers looking for service providers to provide the
entire range of services, vendors will gear up to add or extend
their service offerings. Investment capability - for capacity
addition, expansion in services and greater automation - will be
the critical factor for smaller companies to survive and grow in
the long run.

"US Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management - Offshoring of Medical
Coding & Billing Services", a recently released report by
Pune-based ValueNotes, leading provider of outsourcing research and
information shows that the share of work from hospitals forms 20%
of the total medical billing and coding work offshored to Indian
vendors. Although the market is currently small - total revenue
earned by players in 2006 was $125 million - this is expected to
more than triple by 2011, while the number of employees engaged in
billing and coding will increase to 17,500 (revenue and manpower
estimates exclude medical transcription.) Analyst Neeraja Kandala
says that with increasing vendor capability, offshoring is expected
to grow by at least 25% CAGR for the next three years.

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/pressrelease.cfm?PRID=5931

4) InterMed Associates Goes Paperless Using Mednet System's
EMR/E-Prescribing Application

Thanks to EMR InterMed's physicians have completely eliminated
their transcription costs. Progress notes are created using
pre-defined templates and Dragon Dictation System. A patient's
entire progress note is created, completed, signed and
electronically Filed by the time the patient checks out of the
office. "I can't believe how expensive it is to work with paper
charts as opposed to electronic medical records. It is so much
easier to keep track of vital information with this system. No more
worrying about important documents getting lost in the shuffle,"
says Dr. Ishwara Sharma, cardiologist.

http://prweb.com/releases/2007/3/prweb509791.htm

5) Data Protection Law in Philippines' Business Process Outsourcing
Industry

In 2006, the Government of Philippines recognized the significance
of data protection laws in their profitable and growing BPO
industry and issued 'Administrative Order 8' that contains the
Guidelines for the Protection of Personal Data in Information and
Telecommunication System in the Private Sector ("Guideline 8").

Section 7 Guideline 8 establishes the confidentiality principle.
Under this principle, any person who gets access to personal data
in an information or communication system, pursuant to powers
conferred under E-commerce law, 'shall not convey or share the same
with any other person.' This confidentiality rule will have an
important impact in the Philippines' Medical Transcription BPO
market. Philippines is a major player in offshore Medical
Transcription services and confidentiality is paramount in the
medical field.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1696
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The MTIndia Team
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