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01 Nov 2003
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Medical transcribers need more protection?

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Dear Friends,

Many of you would have been following the SFC article on the
Pakistani MT's methodology of recovering her dues. What caught the
eye was the AAMT, Executive director's comments to the editor,
quoted below:
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Editor -- Dr. P.D. Allen's letter ("Transcription puts patients'
data at risk,'' Letters to Business, Oct. 28) misses the mark on
this issue. The only thing that keeps medical information private
is the integrity of the individual.

The American Association for Medical Transcription promotes a code
of ethics and protection of individuals' health information.
Enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
guidelines holds U.S. medical transcriptionists, whether home-based
or in a hospital or clinic, to the letter of the law -- unlike our
overseas counterparts.

What Allen fails to recognize is the integral role that the medical
transcriptionist plays in health information technology. Although
invisible to the public, medical transcriptionists produce, massage
and edit the lion's share of data in this $20 billion industry.

The health care industry must push for greater protections for the
transcriptionist, including greater accountability, recognition of
certification and support for improved education.

PETER PREZIOSI
Executive Director
American Association for Medical Transcription
ModestoCheers!
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To reiterate, this is of relevance:

"Enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
guidelines holds U.S. medical transcriptionists, whether home-based
or in a hospital or clinic, to the letter of the law -- unlike our
overseas counterparts."

It would be interesting to know how Peter arrived at the above
conclusion. It would be also interesting to know what he proposes
to do to correct the above perception.

"If you don't have a solution, you are part of the problem."

We invite our members to discuss these issues further at the forum
http://www.mtindia.org/Forum/default.cfm

Chio!

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

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Medical transcription cos begin to transcribe right prescription

In Hyderabad, the medical transcription community came together
over a year back to form an association to share resources and
information and to promote understanding of the business. The
Indian Association of Medical Records Services (IAMR) is an
alliance of several leading companies in the field of medical
records services, most of them from Hyderabad and other cities in
Andhra Pradesh.

According to Alok Singh of VasantScribes, twenty of the largest
businesses from Hyderabad and other cities came together to form
IAMR, while being actively supported by several other companies.

Ramakrishna Tummala, the president of IAMR and MD of Worldtech,
said: "Within a radius of 1 km, we estimate 1600 medical
transcriptionists are at work at this moment. Their earnings are in
the average range of 6000 to 10,000. There are hardly any entry
barriers for this profession... Another advantage in this field is
that it is a day time job, with most services offering flexible
timings, unlike other online BPOs like call centers."

IAMR members have also agreed to abide by a set of guidelines for
recruitment and to develop practices to discourage poaching and
indiscriminate job-hopping.

The members of IAMR meet regularly to share information, best
practices, hold workshops and seminars. Their latest meeting held
today had guest speaker M M Balasubrahmanium from Center for
Organizational and Professional Excellence, Chennai, who delivered
a lecture on 'Management of Quality Performance.' Venkata Reddy of
the Vemana Institute of Yoga, delivered a presentation on
CyberYoga, Yoga Remedies for the IT worker. Earlier, IAMR conducted
workshops on HIPAA, the recently enacted privacy and security
regulations in the US.

http://www.business-standard.com/today/story.asp?Menu=23&story=2603
9

2) Medical Transcription Cos Chart Code Of Conduct To Retain Staff

After the IT Enabled Services/ Business Process Outsourcing
(ITES/BPO) sector, it is now the turn of the medical transcription
(MT) industry to draw up a 'code of conduct' to control rampant
poaching by rival companies.

Some of the important guidelines drawn up by IAMR include:

* Employment should not be given to anyone who has not spent a
minimum of 12 months with the previous employer;

* An applicant who apply for his/her third job in two years should
be rejected;

* All recruitment of trained personnel among member companies will
be undertaken only after discussions and exchange of information
with previous employers;

* A standard template for relieving letter will be prepared and
circulated to members so that there is uniformity of available
data;

* Signatories will not encourage part-time opportunities,
especially where the candidate is spending the remaining time also
doing MT services;

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=45149

3) Bill to block California Hospitals from sending Medical Data
Overseas

Following news that a Pakistani medical transcriber threatened to
post UCSF Medical Center patient records online unless she received
more money, a state senator said she will introduce legislation
barring all California hospitals from allowing medical data to
leave the country.

Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said she will introduce the bill in
January when the state Senate returns for its next regular session.
What she and other framers of the state's medical-privacy laws,
which prohibit the sharing of medical information unless for clear
medical purposes, didn't see coming is the explosive growth of the
$20 billion medical- transcription industry.

Figueroa said her bill would prohibit anyone possessing information
involving California patients from sending that information abroad.
State hospitals would likely be barred from outsourcing
transcription work unless they could guarantee that all related
files remain within the country -- a move that would make hospitals
accountable for any subcontracting that ensues. "We're not banning
the practice of overseas workers doing transcription," Figueroa
said. "But we can regulate the practice of medicine within
California."

Figueroa expects the health care industry to fight the legislation,
just as the banking industry opposed state restrictions on the use
of customers' information. But she thinks that in light of the
public's increased sensitivity toward privacy matters, her bill
would eventually pass.

"The interesting thing will be to see where our new governor stands
on privacy issues," Figueroa said. "At this point, we don't know."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/26/BUGIN2J
2A01.DTL

4) Medical transcription in consolidation phase

THE medical transcription business which made waves a few years ago
has not grown as expected and the sector is passing through a phase
of consolidation, with issues relating to manpower constraints,
quality and attrition coming to the fore.

According to Mr Ramakrishna Tummala, Managing Director of
Worldtech, there is consolidation of best practices leading to
stable playing field and exit of short term profiteering. While
there is increased networking among big players, it is clear that
uniformity of prices and low rates cannot help in sustaining the
industry.

However, there are also concerns about counter measures being taken
against anti-offshoring lobby in the US and evolution of
organisations like MTIA and MTIndia has taken place to face
challenges.

Yet another trend shows that there is lateralisation, with
development of a bouquet of services like billing, coding and back
office operations.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2003/10/11/stories/200310
1101710700.htm

5) Transcription puts patients' data at risk

What Lazarus does not say is that all of our privileged information
that is transcribed outside of the institution where the care is
provided is at risk, should any transcriptionist wish to share it
with others for whatever reason. If files are transcribed outside
the institution, that institution will never be certain that those
files have been destroyed after they were transmitted to the
institution.

In my opinion, the real villain (s) here was not the poor Pakistani
physician who got stiffed by a dishonest person and wanted her
proper compensation; rather, it is the hospital and its primary
transcription company for participating in the bad business
practice of not making sure that such a twisted trail of
subcontractors could not exist.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2
003/10/28/BUGUP2KD3B1.DTL&type=business

6) Make a healthy choice when changing careers

Bonnie Bakal, the immediate past president of the American
Association for Medical Transcription, says medical
transcriptionists should be organized and detailed to succeed.

"The medical transcriptionist puts into a good and acceptable
format the dictation that they are transcribing, so that the
information is easy to find. That makes better health care more
efficient," Bakal says. "To do that you need to have a good, basic
knowledge of medical terminology and a real attention to detail."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of
medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the
average for all occupations through 2010.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/la-la_cbtms_2003110218644671
88nov02,1,3312237.story

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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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