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

Nov 22, 2007
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Future of Medical Transcription - An Open Forum

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Dear Friends,

IAMR, organized a seminar on the Future of Medical Transcription at
Osmania University on Monday. The seminar was aimed at providing an
open forum to MT professionals to discuss issues of common concern
to the industry.

More than 190 MT professionals from seven of the leading companies
attended the seminar. The keynote presentation from Raghu Vasu, CEO
of Transdyne threw light on recent trends in the healthcare and
healthcare documentation industry, emerging technologies, best
practices, and highlighted the challenges facing both the business
and the professionals and outlined appropriate responses. This was
followed by an open forum where a panel of CEOs consisting of Mrs.
Vijay Kumar of Vision 2K, Pydah Venkateswar Rao of Vasavi Prosoft,
Raghu Vasu of Transdyne and Ramakrishna Tummala of Worldtech
answered questions from the participants on a wide range of topics,
such as the fluctuating dollar rate, new technologies, how to
assess an employer, lack of awareness among the common people
regarding MT as a serious career choice, etc.

At a time when downsizing and pink slips are the order of the day,
the MT industry is seeing a resurgence with the consolidation and
convergence of tried and tested business models resulting in
growing business volumes and demand. This increased demand often
also results in unwise responses at all levels. With this seminar,
CEOs of the leading companies came forward to share their
knowledge, expertise and perspectives in an open forum with MT
professionals to dispel myths and create a positive understanding.

More details regarding IAMR can be found at their website
iamr.org.in.

For more on the event see:
www.mtanywhere.com

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) Spheris names Daniel Kohl as new CEO

Daniel J. Kohl, most recently president and CEO of Pediatric
Services of America Inc., will take over as the top executive of
Spheris, a Franklin-based medical services provider. He replaces
Steven E. Simpson, who resigned as chief executive this week.

The change in leaders comes as Spheris is in the midst of a
transition toward developing and using more technology in its
business of taking dictation from doctors and converting it into
medical records. "The company needed a seasoned operator who will
come in and focus on effectively and efficiently running the new
business model," said Michele Peden, vice president of marketing
and communications with Spheris.

Under Simpson's leadership as CEO since 2002, Spheris saw its
annual revenues grow from about $20 million to about $200 million,
officials said. But in the past three years its revenues and
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization have
been relatively flat as the company began to invest in its own
dictation technology.

A month ago, ratings service Standard & Poor's revised downward its
outlook on Spheris from stable to negative. The change was related
to concerns that the company wasn't showing real growth in earnings
and revenues. S&P credit analyst Alain Pelanne also cited the
potential that Spheris could violate terms of its loan agreements
because of that and face a restriction on its access to cash.

Observers said the leadership switch could have come about because
Spheris' owners, including private equity firm Warburg Pincus,
wanted better performance.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081119/BUSINESS01/811190409/1003/RSS6004

2) FBI probes threat to expose patient records

Express Scripts Inc., the third- largest U.S. manager of drug
benefits, said it received a letter trying to extort money by
threatening to expose millions of patient records stored on the
company's computer system.

Express Scripts, based in St. Louis, said the letter received in
early October included Social Security numbers, birth dates and
prescriptions for some of the 75 patients it named, according to a
statement posted Friday on the company's Web site. The company
notified the patients and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
and began an investigation aided by "outside experts in data
security and computer forensics," Express Scripts said.

Express Scripts handles about 500 million prescriptions annually
and manages benefits for "tens of millions" of people, including
Anthem/Blue Cross members, said Steve Littlejohn, a company
spokesman. The extortion, denounced by Chief Executive Officer
George Paz as "outrageous," comes as drug benefits managers and
health insurers push doctors and consumers to move medical records
online to reduce waste and medical errors.

"We are cooperating with the FBI and are committed to doing what we
can to protect our members' personal information and to track down
the person or persons responsible for this criminal act," said Paz
in Friday's statement.

Extortionists have tried to use medical records at least once
before, said Joyce Pritts, director of the Center on Medical Record
Rights and Privacy at Georgetown University in Washington. In 2003,
an Ohio company that outsourced hospital patient records to India
for transcription was threatened by workers who said they would
post information online unless the company paid them.

"The more medical records that they put in electronic format and
they put in a large database for hackers to go after, the more
likely this type of thing is to happen," Pritts said today in a
telephone interview.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_10928561

3) ePLDT revenues up 2% to P7.6 B in 9 mos on strong peso

ePLDT, the information and communications technology arm of
telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.
(PLDT) reported service revenues of P7.6 billion in the first nine
months of 2008, a two-percent increase from the P7.4-billion
recorded in the same period last year.

SPi Technologies (SPi), ePLDT’s knowledge processing arm (business
process outsourcing or BPO), generated revenues of P3.9 billion in
the first nine months of 2008.

Officials also revealed that revenues in the publishing and medical
billing verticals were broadly in line with expectations while the
medical transcription and legal businesses continue to
underperform.

“We continue to manage the challenges faced by some of our
verticals. We have a number new contracts in our pipeline which
should support an improvement in our margins in the coming
quarters,” ePLDT president and CEO Ray Espinosa said.

http://beta.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=413673

4) TransTech Services Partners Inc. Announces Election of Dr. Ranga
C. Krishna as a Director

TransTech Services Partners Inc. announced that its Board of
Directors elected Dr. Ranga C. Krishna as a director. Krishna is a
licensed neurologist and an experienced health care entrepreneur,
having started several companies. Among them is International
Pharma Trials, Inc., a company which assists U.S. pharmaceutical
companies perform Phase II clinical trials in India. He also
co-founded Fastscribe, Inc., an internet-based medical and legal
transcription company with operations in India.

TransTech Services Partners Inc., is a Business Combination
Company(TM) formed for the purpose of acquiring, through merger,
capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase or other
similar business combination, a business in the business service
industry. TransTech initially intends to focus on one or more
small- to mid-market U.S. and/or European based operating companies
engaged in the delivery of Information Technology and Information
Technology Enabled Services, Business Process Outsourcing and/or
Knowledge Process Outsourcing, whose operations are particularly
suitable for operational and productivity improvements, which would
include leveraging delivery centers located in offshore countries,
such as India.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/TransTech-Services-Partners-Inc-Announces/\
story.aspx?guid={7BEF2223-05D3-4CEC-9B6A-1493BA39E6A9}

5) Work-from-home moms in dilemma

‘Work- from-home and earn money’ option offered by employers gave a
‘Have one’s cake and eat it too’ situation for many women who
wanted to balance their family and career, especially after having
children. But the recent unregulated power cuts is throwing the
lives of these women out of gear. Viji (40), who lives near Porur
and works for a medical transcription company, said: “I start my
work after I pack off my husband and daughter to office and school.
My day’s work starts at 8 am and goes on till 4 pm. We have power
cuts between 12 am and 2 pm, which is prime time for me because the
work tempo I have built up since morning peaks at this time.With
the power gone, my work schedule is thrown out of gear. I am not
able to keep the deadline and finish the work allotted for the
day.” The women are paid only for the work they deliver.

The earlier ease with which I used to manage home and work is
completely gone.” Echoing her views, Viji said: “Four years ago,
when I started working from home, I was happy because the job gave
me financial independence and did wonders to my self-esteem. Today,
with these power cuts things look bleak to many of us who work from
home.” Bandi Srinivas, managing director of Bandi Informatics, a
city-based medical transcription company, which offers the
work-from-home option to its employees, said: “Work-from-home is a
great option for married women with children. But the recent
erratic power cuts in the city is definitely affecting the
individual output of the employees. If the situation is going to
continue, it will take a toll on the over all output of the
company.” Chennai has more than 200 medical transcription
companies, which provides this work-from-home option.

Women, who have opted for the option, form 90 per cent of the
workforce of the companies. Their future in the companies has now
become a question mark.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Work-from-home+moms+in+dilem\
ma&artid=0eY8jm/4sMc=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&SectionN\
ame=rSY|6QYp3kQ=&SEO=

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The MTIndia Team
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