OSI - Medical Transcription Company, Medical Transcription Services HIPAA Compliant

What is Osteopath Medical Transcription?

2008-02-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

There is a rising demand for preventive healthcare and a holistic approach to medicine in the world today. But, often we find that there is still confusion in understanding the difference between allopathic, osteopathic and chiropractic practices of medicine. Actually Osteopathic medicine is an American medical care system that was started in 1874 by Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O. This form of healthcare has its emphasis on the role of musculoskeletal system in health and disease. Take a look at the website of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm

In the United States, an osteopath (or an osteopathic physician) must be a graduate of one of the nation's osteopathic medical schools. Each school is accredited by the AOA and has recognition by the U.S. Department of Education. Thus Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.s) are fully licensed medical physicians and surgeons and do practice all clinical specialties along with their M.D. colleagues. However, they are trained to be generalists first, and specialists second. Osteopaths being one of the fastest growing segments of healthcare professionals in the United States, it is estimated that, by 2020 at least 100,000 osteopathic physicians will be in active medical practice.No wonder more and more medical transcription professionals are specializing in the field of Osteopathy medical transcription.

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is practiced by osteopathic physicians and involves the use of hands to diagnose illness and injury and encourages the body's natural tendency toward good health. Along with all other available medical options, Osteopathy physicians are able to offer the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.

Here is a list of all the different osteopathic associations: http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=lcl_assoc

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional services in medical coding, medical billing and osteopathy medical transcription services.

TASP and Medical Transcription

2008-02-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

TASP stands for Transcription Application Service Providers.

Medical Transcription is not a cottage industry anymore as it used to be a few years ago. Digitization in this sector has changed the scenario and work environment. Earlier, I remember the days when Medical Transcriptionists (MT) had to take trips every week to their client offices for audio tape pickups and delivery of their work. Today there are many web based application service provider platforms that caters to different types of large, medium, small and also individual home based MTSOs (Medical Transcription Service Organizations).

The TASP type of files routing system is very efficient. It manages the entire process or life cycle of the document, right from the time of dictation at the hospital / physician's location to sending it for transcription/editing to the MT and back to the medical professional. This type of system does save a lot of time and money when compared to the earlier transcription methods. There are dial in systems that take dictations. Playback happens when the residing codec (analog to digital converter) creates a digital sound file that the medical transcriptionist can playback and transcribe.

What are the benefits of going for such a digital technology for these transcription companies? Well it includes,

Encrypted document
No capital investment
Lower telephone costs
Better work distribution
Fully functional work pool module
Prompt feedback
Higher accuracy
Prompt feedback
Shorter turnaround time
High security of documents
Hassle-free document delivery

For professional outsourcing solutions in medical billing /coding and medical transcription please contact the Oklahoma based medical transcription company OSI (Outsource Strategies International).

The "Registered Medical Transcriptionist" Credential

2008-02-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

What is RMT? It is a voluntary lower/entry level "Registered Medical Transcriptionist" credential offered by AHDI. The advanced level credential is the CMT or the Certified Medical Transcriptionist. What was the purpose of having such an examination and credential? The RMT exam was developed to assure consumers and employers that successful candidates are qualified to practice medical transcription and based on the skills and knowledge described in the AHDI Model Job Description Level 1 MT and the competencies outlined in the AHDI Model Curriculum.

The RMT credential is maintained upon the successful completion of a required online course, including a final exam, and payment of a renewal fee. The AHDI also offers different training programs beside these credentials. Who is eligible for this exam?

Recent Graduates
MTs with less than 2 years experience
MTs practicing any single medical specialty

The testing process consists of testing of both medical transcription-related knowledge items and also transcription performance items. The exam is taken from any of the Thomson Prometric test centers that are located worldwide.

The RMT credential is given immediately after passing of the examination at the testing center. The credential is valid for three years only. Renewal is done after taking an exam and by paying a renewal fee. More details are available at, https://www.aamt.org/scriptcontent/rhub.cfm

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services for clients in the US States world wide.

Medical Transcription Tools and Equipment

2008-02-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

Medical transcription has evolved over the years and has always made use of the cutting edge technologies. Many different tools/equipment get used during the medical transcription process. Here is a list of the different tools/ software and equipment that are used either during home based medical transcription or at a bigger work unit that may consist of transcriptionists, editors, Quality Assurance, leaders etc. This list of equipment and tools is not exhaustive.

MP3 playback software
Document processor software (like LYX)
Version Control software
Time markers
Bud microphone
Digital voice recorder
Headphone
Computer with Internet/Printer
Desk and comfortable chair
AAMT Book of Style
Encryption software
File/Documents management software
Blue Cross/ Shield Directory
Electronic Medical Dictionary
Fax machine
Document shredder
Word processing program
Audio playback software
Anti virus program/
Thesaurus/dictionary for windows
System recovery software
Drug/pharmaceutical reference guide
Foot pedal
Ad blocker
Medical specialty books
Google toolbar
Spyware removal Utility
Monthly newsletter
Telephone line
Editing software
Conference recorder
Voice recognition software
Dictation recording equipment
Text counting software (for home based work)

Voice recognition is one technology area that is being actively researched upon and one can expect a near perfect voice recognition software in the future that will make the transcriptionist's job much easier.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding for clients in the US and outside.

The Medical Transcription Team

2008-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

In any average sized medical transcription unit one will come across a team of people executing the project. The common hierarchies of people who form the transcription team include,

The Transcriptionist
Quality Editors (QA)
Project Administrators

The medical transcriptionist is the front liner, working at the very first stage of making of the transcript. What does the medical transcriptionist do? Well it is his job to listen to the audio tapes and the physician's dictations, type them up, make a transcript and check out its contents. No wonder one of the most preferred skill a transcriptionist should have is the active listening skill besides the knowledge to understand all the technical details that is being talked about. All major flaws, if any, have to be identified at this stage itself. The quality of a professional medical transcriptionist is graded based on the on the quantity/quality of transcript produced by him.

The work is now passed on by the transcriptionist to the next level that consists of quality editors. What do the quality editors do? Well as the name suggests, the quality editors have to edit the transcript, which means, looking out for finer errors (such as spelling mistakes, incorrect words and proper formatting). The QA has to make sure that the transcript is ready for release to the client via the Project leaders/administrator.

Call OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the Oklahoma based medical transcription company for domestic and offshore solutions in medical coding and medical transcription outsourcing.

Medical Transcription Book of Style 2008 Edition

2008-02-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

The 3rd edition of "The Book of Style for Medical Transcription" will be released in March 2008 by AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity). It has been the standard manual for the medical transcription industry and maintains a superior data capture and documentation quality.

The AHDI site says that this third edition will deliver a streamlined and strategically reorganized flow of critical data, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings.

The book can be preordered at https://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/bos3epreorder.cfm

What is going to be new in this edition? Well here is the list:

Reorganization of all content into topical sections and chapter
A detailed content index at the beginning of each chapter
A professionally drafted content index at the end of text
Foreword written by John H. Dirckx, MD
A "What's New in This Edition" preface that provides a detailed list of all changes in standards of style addressed in the text for ease of reference
Completely redrafted content sections throughout the text, particularly in Section 2: General standards of Style
More detailed, comprehensive content explanations and rationale for standards and style recommendations
More and better style application examples taken from a clinical medicine context
A complete chapter dedicated to medical record types and formats, including a new section addressing turn-around times (TATs)
A complete chapter dedicated to medical record privacy, security, and integrity, including all standards and recommendations previously housed in AHDI's HIPAA for MTs paper
A complete chapter dedicated to amending and modifying the patient record
Trend Notes included throughout the text that alert the reader to the current and/or potential impact of emerging technologies (EHR/EMR, speech recognition, etc.) on a particular standard of style
An entire section of chapters addressing trends and drivers in the industry, including:
Chapter 25-ASTM Standards for Healthcare Document Formats
Chapter 26-CDA for Common Document Types (CDA4CDT)
Chapter 27-Standardized Nomenclature for Medicine (SNOMED)
Chapter 28-Speech Recognition and SR Editing
Medical specialty chapters with organized standards, including many new classification systems not included in the 2nd edition
Cross-referencing throughout the text to redirect users to related information and standards Duplication of specific standards, where appropriate, in more than one chapter in anticipation of where users will most likely look for information

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company offering professional yet affordable medical billing, coding and medical transcription services world wide.

Medical Transcription Security

2008-02-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

Everyone realizes that medical transcription projects are being increasingly outsourced to low wage countries like India and the Philippines. This is mainly because these Asian countries are in a position to deliver the goods with good quality at a much lower rate than is made available within the US. But, what happens to the confidentiality of online personal / patient information? How safe is transmission over the Internet? What if someone with vested interests tries to access it? Without some assurance of the confidentiality of the data it would be futile to take the risk of outsourcing. Well HIPAA is here to take care.

So what is HIPAA? It stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. This act regulates the exchange of all patient information using electronic methods. Patients are protected from unlawful disclosure. Thus we see that companies must be HIPAA compliant. Only then will the doctors be sure that all their valuable patient data and dictations are safe and never get into wrong hands.

What are the different requirements of HIPAA compliance for any medical transcription company? Thes include,

Maintain traceable trail of all personnel who handle specific data
Password protection
Encryption of data
Compliance officers must be appointed

What is the purpose of encryption? Encryption and password protection is essential to protect patient data and one can be sure that no one will be able to access the sensitive information without an authorization. Data encryption makes sure that even if some one else happens to get access to the file he will no able to understand/ decipher whatever is written. Therefore, all digital voice recordings/dictations that are sent via the Internet for transcription must be encrypted. Thus the different requirements include,

Secure FTP (file transfer)
Physical protection /security
Login codes for employees
Filters
Firewall
Encrypted e-mail
Monitor each desktop
Backup of tapes
Be prepared for natural disasters

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services for clients across the USA.

TROTTS and Medical Transcription Turnaround Time

2008-02-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

It is indeed a small Global world today. The Internet and globalization has made it possible to get back office work done half way round the globe as if it were being done in the next room. Medical transcription is one BPO service that is greatly appreciated because it involves critical medical data and involves medical billing, insurance claim and reimbursement. Hence all vendors have known the importance for a minimal TAT (Turn Around Time). Offshoring of work to Asian locations with about 12 hour time difference is a very naturally convenient feather in the Asian service provider's cap, especially for bigger and regular hospital transcription projects.

Different Turnaround times from 72 hrs to 24hrs to 12 hrs to a few hours to almost realtime transcription have been provided by the domestically outsourced agents as well as from these offshore locations using the latest state of art web technologies. Today you also have voice recognition software being used that instantly displays the "text form on screen" though of course it has to be humanly edited by the transcription professional or physician. However, faster need not necessarily always be better. Everything needs a standard and so does the transcription outsourcing industry. That is why TROTTS is here!

What is TROTTS? Well it stands for Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS). Last September the The AHIMA-MTIA Task Force on Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS) invited all transcription managers to participate in an industry survey. The TROTTS task force was given the responsibility to jointly developing recommended standards for transcribed report turnaround times on selected report types.

So what are the new standards of MT TATs, I mean TROTTS? If anxious, be there for the 19th Annual Conference of the Medical Transcription Industry to be held at Long Beach CA from April 23-26, 2008. Here is a link to it. http://www.mtia.com/Conference.cfm "The New Standards: TROTTS" is a topic on the agenda and will be presented by the MT Industry leader Sean Carroll. Sean Carroll has got the Smithsonian Computer World Award for technology innovation in healthcare for automated speech recognition applications and has been the elected president of the medical transcription's international trade association many times.

Here is the schedule of events for the conference we have been waiting for. http://www.mtia.com/downloads/MTIA%202008%20Schedule%20at%20A%20Glance.pdf

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based BPO pioneer and medical transcription company that offers professional domestic and offshore medical coding and medical transcription services.

Medical Transcription Program Approval

2008-02-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today medical transcription has become an established and essential process for the health care sector and a profession that is well accepted and respected with increasing demands. There are many colleges and universities that provide medical transcription education and training programs at various levels. When we refer to the medical transcription approval process we are mentioning about the approval of such MT educational programs by the concerned authorities.

It was the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) that instituted the medical transcription program approval process. The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) is the accreditation organization of AHIMA. The approval process was done to make sure that compliance with the AHDI Model Curriculum is maintained by different educational bodies so that it provides,

Produce competent entry-level transcription professionals
Good educational programming
Good quality assurance
Consistent education

Take a look at the Model Curriculum at,
http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/Downloads/ModelCurriculum.pdf

List of approved programs can be seen at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/mtapproved.cfm

The AHDI along with AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) has established a certifying committee for the approval of medical transcription programs called the ACCP (Approval Committee for Certificate Programs). The ACCP approval is an ongoing process and must not be confused with a guarantee as there is no formal accreditation process for medical transcription programs.

More details are available at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/eduprogramapproval.cfm

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourcing services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription to clients in the US and also globally.

The Medical Transcription Industry Association

2008-01-31T22:22:00.000-08:00

Way back in 1989, Health Professions Institute sponsored and started a forum that was needed for the medical transcription managers and owners to interact and discuss the medical transcription business, its technology etc. Even though the AAMT (American Association of Medical Transcription) was already a very good source of related industry information, there was an unfulfilled need for forming an association that solely represented the interests of the MT business people. Thus gradually in October 1993, MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) officially came into being. Its website is,http://www.mtia.com/index.cfm

MTIA is a not-for-profit trade association serving the needs of medical transcription companies, vendors, and health information management professionals. Its Mission is to create the environment in which the members can prosper, grow, and deliver the highest level of healthcare-documentation services.

Take a look at its board of directors at http://www.mtia.com/bod.cfm and MTIA Code of Ethics at http://www.mtia.com/CodeOfEthics.cfm

See details of the different types of memberships at https://www.mtia.com/MembershipCategories.cfm

MTIA membership application is available at https://www.mtia.com/MTIAMembershipApp.cfm

MTIA's Annual Conference for this year is scheduled for April 23-26, 2008 at Long Beach, California. Here is the schedule of events at the conference, https://www.mtia.com/downloads/MTIA%202008%20Schedule%20at%20A%20Glance.pdf

For outsourcing solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription services, do call the Oklahoma based medical transcription company OSI (Outsource Strategies International)

Medical Transcription: How to Ensure Good Quality Recordings

2008-01-30T22:07:00.000-08:00

If you are representing a hospital that produces voice/dictation recordings which are outsourced / offshored outside your premises for medical transcription and conversion into typed text, then you must be very wary of the quality of your audio material recordings because it can directly affects the costs.

The main fact to remember is that taking care of your audio quality will greatly enhance the cost affectivity of your outsourcing campaign. How? Let me explain. Did you know that all transcription material that comes in for transcription is first assessed? The time taken and charges for transcription will depend on the quality of the recordings. Obviously with bad recording, transcription takes more time and so more work hours and higher charges of transcription. Some of the factors that affects the time /cost of transcribing that are considered while assessing a transcription /dictation recording include,

Background noise level
Clarity of recording
Speed of speech
Clarity of voice
Number of speakers
Accents of speakers
Technical language used
Content
Collect essential details of the material transcribed
Get details of all participants/leaders

So how does one go about creating good quality audio recordings for your transcription outsourcing provider? Well, essentially one has to make sure that the recording is done as perfectly as possible by,

Making a test recording
Minimize tape "hiss"
Use digital recording
Minimize background noise
Use more microphones if more than two people
Plan all breaks beforehand
Avoid speakers from speaking among themselves
Get all details of the speaker/participant (Gender/ title/ representation etc)
Note Words/minute

Outsource Strategies International (OSI ) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourced solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription service for clients globally.

Medical Transcription Rules for Preparing Reports

2008-01-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

There are certain basic rules that must be followed by all the professionals in the medical transcription industry. The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) style guide is very popular and is in use around the globe. The style guide guides the medical transcription professional in all the different aspects of transcription that includes topics spacing during typing of text,numbering/ numerical typing, punctuation, hyphenation, drug terminology, capitalization rules, measurements, symbols to be used, classification rules, proofreading and more.

Let me now mention about some of the important rules that must be followed during the transcription/preparation of various medical reports.

While writing the history of the present illness it is preferred to use the present tense or a mixed tense.
Use past tense only while writing about a past medical history.
Type all allergies in capital
The Assessment/Diagnosis/Impression report must be entirely in capital letters without abbreviations for any medical terminology. However measurement units can be abbreviated.
Use past tense in discharge summaries
If no allergies found, type "No known drug allergies."
All major physical examination reports to be in the present tense
Use the correct verb tense to communicate the appropriate time of the action.(even if the dictation is wrongly tensed)
The title "Doctor" is to be written in full
Capitalize brand name medications. One must not capitalize generic medications.
Use Latin drug abbreviations.
Arabic numerals must be use when referring to strength, dosage and directions in medication.

Take a look at the basic style guide with the Courtesy of Global Medical Transcription and MT Daily at http://www.mtdaily.com/style.html

If you are looking for a professional medical transcription company that can offer outsourced medical transcription service along with medical coding/billing, just call the Oklahoma based OSI (Outsource Strategies International).

Tips for Medical Transcription Dictation

2008-01-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

Years back when I was in India, I knew a pharmacist who was the only one who could decipher everything our hospital's only physician scribbled /prescribed on his pad. (Many rural Indian hospitals still follow the system). Believe it or not, whenever the pharmacist took a day off or was on leave, the pharmacy would give out wrong medications that turned up to be tragic. We later solved the problem by getting a mobile phone for our pharmacist friend whom we called up even on his "off days" and clarified what the physician prescribed. Surprisingly he could solve the problem even over the telephone.

Today it is not bad handwriting but bad dictation. It indeed makes the medical transcriptionist's job more difficult and highly prone to mistakes. Further it causes waste of valuable time. So what can be the solution to this problem? Is it possible to have an exclusive transcription professional for each doctor so that he gets know the physician like the back of his hand?

Well here is a guide with tips to proper dictation that will be very useful for the physician to give good dictations and get error free transcripts. I recently came across a group of medical transcription from different specialty groups who all had similar types of requests/appeal for the dictating physicians /doctors.

While dictating a difficult medical term it would be greatly appreciated if care is taken to see that the term gets well recorded via the microphone.
Please start the dictation mentioning about the type/title of document that is been dictated instead of keeping the transcriptionist guessing about it till the end.
Please avoid the tendency to summarize every thing/procedure and include everything in few long sentences. It would be ideal to present the facts in shorter and more communicative sentences if possible.
Would appreciate if uncommon abbreviations are expanded and dictated when possible.
Please move your face away for a moment from the microphone to sneeze/cough.
Please finish your snack before beginning the dictation or keep it for afterwards.
Never forget to mention the basic information like date/name/ summary etc
Try and avoid talking fast/ yawns /hiccups while dictating.

Physicians/surgeons should be aware of the background sounds/ noise and how it can become a hindrance to listening to the dictation. Just a pause at such occasions would be greatly appreciated and can save a lot of time.

Outsource Strategies International(OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription service for clients globally.

Surgery Medical Transcription

2008-01-27T23:13:00.000-08:00

In any allopathic medical practice, surgery is an important aspect. Surgery transcription involves converting all the surgeon's voice tapes about a surgical procedure into neatly typed documents. And thus surgery transcription is an important specialty in medical transcription. Surgery transcriptions are used for settlement of insurance claims and legal matters.

Some of the different types of surgery transcription areas include,

Dental surgery
General Surgery
Cardiovascular/thoracic surgery
Abdominal/ gastrointestinal surgery
Orthopedic surgery
Obstetric and Gynecology surgery
Neurosurgery
Plastic surgery

The surgery transcription process can be very demanding from the medical transcriptionists as it requires a deep knowledge of various surgical procedures, surgical techniques and familiarity with the different medical and surgical equipment that is used during surgery. A good transcription professional will have a good knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and the various types of diseases that affect the various parts of the body.

A good knowledge of the different procedures and surgery performed along with familiarity with all related terminology will go a long way in correctly transcribing the surgeon's voice tapes without making mistakes. However in case of pending doubts it is always better for the medical transcription professional to check out directly with the surgeon who actually did the job. A lot of medical equipments are used by the surgeons that the medical surgery transcriptionist has to be familiar with. These can include knowledge of,

Surgical instruments (Scissors / scalpels etc)
Surgical Diathermy
Endoscopic instruments
Suction apparatus
Anesthesia machine
Pulseoximeter
Plethysmographs
Multi parameter patient monitors
Defibrillators
Autoclaves
Infusion devices
Autoclaves

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers a wide range of medical transcription, medical billing and coding services to the clients across the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Medical Transcription Errors Can be Costly

2008-01-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

Errors in our medical records can become an expensive mistake. Experts warn that medical transcription errors along with outdated information and inadvertent omissions can put to risk our ability to secure individual health, life or disability insurance. Even if we do get insurance coverage, inaccurate data can also become the reason for us to pay much more than we should.

According to a very recent study conducted by the New York based health issues researching group Commonwealth Fund one-fifth of working-age adults who seek insurance coverage are turned down. They get charged higher because of pre-existing conditions or are offered plans that exclude some types of health issues.

What are the types/causes of errors during transcription? These include,

Difficult voice recordings
Lack of judgment of transcriptionist
Not clear audio
Speed of dictation
Dictation accent
Omission of process step
Knowledge errors

From where else do the insurance companies get their information? From credit rating companies like the MIB. MIB Group, Inc., also known as the Medical Information Bureau, is a membership corporation and credit rating agency that serves the North American insurance industry. It collects and furnishes information on for use in the insurance underwriting process. In addition to an individual's credit history it also collects data like medical conditions, driving records, criminal activity etc.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based company that offers professional services in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding.

Medical Transcription Professional: See Where He Comes In!

2008-01-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

You are not well and have decided to see a specialist about that nagging pain. You go and start talking about the problem to the doctor. Now you may need to talk about the past history of the problem which you will have to remember and maybe rack your brains to remember everything just as it happened. (Ideally you must have some past papers and also made specific notes about the problem).

Anyway, after you have explained your problems and also answered all the queries of the doctor, he will physically examine you and also prescribed for various laboratory tests before he is able to make a diagnosis/differential diagnosis. Only after diagnosis does the doctor comes up with the plan of treatment which he explains and gives you / your family members the required instructions/prescriptions that must be followed. Finally as you come out of the doctor's office, you see the other people waiting for their turn to get in and talk to the doctor. But before someone else walks into the doctor's cabin there is something the doctor does after you have left. Well it's just that the entire encounter he had with you is quickly recorded into a voice recording device (either a cassette recorder, telephone or some other device).

In a few minutes the doctor is on to another patient, another issue and thus the voice recordings continue. By the end of the day/session the doctor has seen many patients requiring various types of treatments. Now where is all that critical patients' data? Can we expect the doctor to remember some of the details? Certainly not! Well as of now, most of the information is on tape and tomorrow the doctor or someone else (like say the insurance people) may need to know exactly what happened with say, patient number 6 who came in last Monday?. Should they be given access to those voice recordings? Can they follow the doctor's rumblings? No indeed, everything has to be neat, and in paper. But then the doctor can't type nor does he have the time for paper work. So who does all that work of converting that technical "doctor talk" into a typed document? You guessed it!

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is an Oklahoma based domestic and offshore outsourcing solutions provider, for medical transcription, medical billing and coding.

HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription

2008-01-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

What is HIPAA? It stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. It is the standard for electronic exchange of sensitive patient data and protects patients from disclosure of their medical data without authorization. HIPAA has many regulations for electronic transmission of sensitive patient data that define internal procedures that have to be followed for privacy and security. It has become mandatory for all medical transcription service providers to comply with all HIPAA requirements.

Thus HIPAA compliant medical transcription service providers must,

Ensure security of PHI (Patient Health Information)
Maintain record of all those who access patient information
Implement new technology/processes
Provide physical security requiring password protection.

Today most Medical transcription companies get their transcription done from transcriptionists who may be located elsewhere often outside the US. Transmission is done using the Internet. How safe is the Internet? HIPAA requires all online transmission of voicemails and e-mails be done only after encryption. Or one must use a secure FTP site to send documents. Whenever documents are faxed, a disclaimer statement explaining the confidential nature of the information has to be attached. Telephone dictations are however exempted from the need for encryption during transmission of patient data.

Take a look at the full text of HIPAA at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/Downloads/HIPAALaw.pdf

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers professional yet affordable services in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding.

MTIAPI and Medical Transcription in The Philippines

2008-01-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

The Philippines is the preferred offshore location after India when it comes to outsourcing medical transcription work to Asia. MTIAPI or The Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, Inc. is a non-stock, non-profit industry organization recognized by the Philippines government and its BPO industry, with the following objectives.

Promote the outsourcing of medical transcription services.
Promote the development and education of individuals and corporations with respect to healthcare information and management.
Organize any lawful activities within the purposes for which a corporation may be organized under the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Here is a list of the MTIAPI members, http://www.mtiapi.com/memlist.html

Take a look at the new set of the MTIAPI board of trustees for 2008 at http://www.mtiapi.com/trustees.html and its new contact /address at http://www.mtiapi.com/Announcement/Announcement.html

The Philippines has the distinct advantage of having a vast pool of English speaking people. It is actually the third largest English speaking country in the world and also the second largest American English speaking country in the world with a literacy rate of almost 94%. It also has the advantage of having the much preferred 12 hour time difference with the United States. The Philippine government had recently announced that Philippines medical transcription companies have won medical transcription and medical coding contracts worth $1.4 million with American clients.

The Philippines also has registered medical transcription training program institutes like The MTC Academy (MTCA) that provides the latest medical transcription training software and reference materials that are currently being used as industry standards within the United States.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO service provider offering professional solutions in domestic as well as offshore medical transcription (from both India and The Philippines), medical coding and medical billing.

Medical Billing Claim Forms

2008-01-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

The medical billing and insurance process is always done using specific forms. Whenever a claim is issued to the insurance company during the medical billing process it is obvious that the insurance company must have all the related details about the patient's diagnosis, treatment and the different services that were provided by the health care people. All these details are entered by a professional medical /coder /into the claim forms.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was previously known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). What is the CMS-1500? The CMS-1500 is the basic form prescribed by CMS for the Medicare program for claims from physicians and suppliers. Where do you get these forms? For a look at the source of these forms look at http://www.empiremedicare.com/partbny/1500/source.htm

Here is the CMS homepage http://www.cms.hhs.gov/

UB92 Hospital claim form is the American Medical Association approved format for filing claims. It is printed to government printing office standards with OCR ink for scanning.

A certificate of medical necessity (CMN) is required for Medicare reimbursement for different types of DME and supplies. CMN is also required for Medicare payments for home health services. For affordable and professional services in medical transcription, medical billing and coding contact OSI (Outsource Strategies International) the US based BPO pioneer.

The Evolving Medical Transcription

2008-01-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

Medical Transcription is a fast growing and evolving sector that has been influenced by many factors over the years. As preferences and standards have changed, one of the significant aspects of medical transcription has been the shift to electronic patient record. What are the basic factors for this evolution? They include,

Advancement in technology
Practice workflow
Regulations

There has been a lot of demand to enhance patient safety, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. However, even though it has become mandatory for service providers and healthcare practices to migrate to a HIPAA compliant environment there are many companies who still have not yet adhere to this requirement.

In the distant future one can be sure that the voice recognition software will greatly improve and may slowly even replace manual transcription. Adopted technologies such as speech recognition software and application service providers (ASPs) can keep up with the demands of regulations, standards, and cutting-edge demands in this sector. One can also expect that unlike today, medical coding may become embedded within documentation thereby not requiring a separate process and reduce the overall cost of medical transcription.

There is also the growing need for medical transcription to comply with basic Principles of documentation that has been developed by the Consensus Workgroup on Healthcare Documentation & Report Generation. It will look into the following aspects of transcription.

Patient details
Accuracy of document
Completeness
Timeliness
Interoperability
Retrievability
Authentication
Accountability
Auditability
Confidentiality
Security

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.

Medical Billing for the Urgent Care

2008-01-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

Medical billing for the urgent care is a different and unique way of medical billing. Let me explain. First what is urgent care? By definition urgent care is the delivery of ambulatory medical care outside of a hospital emergency department on a walk-in basis without a scheduled appointment. In the US, there are more than 9000 urgent care centers and these mainly function after the regular office hours when patients need immediate attention without the need to go to the emergency department of a hospital.

The Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) represents these many urgent care centers that provide appropriate and timely alternatives to the more costly and inconvenient hospital emergency departments. Take a look at the accredited urgent care centers http://www.ucaoa.org/accreditation/sites.html

Medical billing is the process of submitting and following up on claims to insurance companies in order to receive payment for services rendered. Medical billers working in the urgent care sector must have specialized knowledge in urgent care billing and also in the specific area medical coding. It is essential for medical billing services to do highly accurate billing at the same time keep the client's outstanding accounts receivable as low as possible. What are these urgent care situations for medical billing? These include,

Services in the evening/weekend/ holidays
Compensation for workers
Services requiring urgent care/emergency services
Removing foreign body from eyes
Drug screening
Breath testing for alcohol
Injury in workplace/factories etc

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers outsourced services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services for clients in all the US States.

Medical Transcription Equipment and Technologies

2007-12-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

As in many other fields, digital equipment technology forms the backbone of the modern medical transcription industry. The keyword here is "digital". Over the years most transcription equipment have evolved and digital technology has made it possible for finished medical transcripts to be delivered across the globe in minimal turnaround time. It has also enabled effective outsourcing /offshoring of medical transcription and enabled transcription professionals from other developing countries like India/Philippines to offer their services at competitive rates. Good transcription professionals around the globe can now work even from the comfort of their homes.

Some of the technology/software and gears commonly used in the medical transcription business include,

Digital microphones
PC based transcriber software
Digital transcriber stations
Speed typing software
Telephone dictation equipment
Dictation management software
Transcription desk reference
Medical spelling checker
Micro-cassette voice recorder
Transcription wrist gloves (fingerless)
FTP software
Audio file encryption software
Conference recorders
Universal foot pedals
Stedman's electronic medical dictionary
Phone-in dictation system
Transcriber headset
Speech mikes
Storage memory stick
Document counting/ invoicing software
Voice recognition software

While a dictation system is the primary requirement from where the physician actually starts the audio recording process, a transcription tracking system can track transcription jobs from the time they are received until they are delivered back to the customer. The system keeps track of all details like the time/date the job was received, transcription date assigned to a transcriptionist, actual date the transcription, date printed, delivery date/time of the transcript, and the delivery mode. A very convenient statistical report lets us to track the propagation time, balance workloads, manage delivery commitments, and provide a multitude of detailed information to the customer - in both paper and electronic form. The most common form of dictation format used today is the .DSS File Extension.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable outsourcing of medical transcription, medical coding and medical billing to clients globally and in all the US States and cities.

Medical Billing Rules

2007-12-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

Medical billing procedures are governed by certain laws. Those who work in this field and are directly involved in collecting the medical fees have especially to be aware of these basic rules and regulations. What is the main purpose of medical billing? Well it is just to make sure that the service provider receives fair payment for services provided and also that payment is received in time. What are main laws that govern medical billing? They include,

Fair debt Collection Act
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
The Privacy Rule

The Fair debt collection Act is a federal law that dictates how and when should a debt is to be collected. This act is for protection of the patients and consumers from unlawful threats.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 which is better known as the HIPAA was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. HIPAA has two titles.

Title I of HIPAA regulates the availability and breadth of group and individual health insurance plans. It amends both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Public Health Service Act. This act also prohibits any group health plan from creating eligibility rules or deciding of insurance premiums for individuals in the plan based on health status, medical history, genetic information, or disability.

The second title of HIPAA contains a portion that increases the efficiency of data exchange for healthcare financial transactions and protects the privacy of electronic data transmission and the confidentiality of patient records. If the HIPPA rules are violated, penalties can be imposed. Title II of HIPAA defines numerous offenses relating to health care and sets civil and criminal penalties for them. It also creates several programs to control fraud and abuse within the health care system.

The privacy rule regulates the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI is any information about health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care that can be linked to an individual. Any person who believes that the Privacy Rule is not being upheld can file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers highly professional outsourced services in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription.

Medical Transcription: Faster Than Average Growth Predicted for Coming Decade

2007-12-21T21:26:00.001-08:00

The U.S. Department of Labor has projected that jobs in the medical transcription field will increase faster than average in the coming decade as the health care industry will continue to grow. See details at, http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm#projections_data

What are the main reasons for this expected growth?

Aging population is on the rise
More medical tests /treatment
More medical procedures

Many people within the US are expected to get trained and certified to join the medical transcription industry. Also an increase in domestic as well as offshore outsourcing of the medical transcription projects can be predicted. Getting good quality transcription work done at highly competitive rates from Asian countries like India and the Philippines has been a good method to reduce the overall health care expenses. To ensure good quality services from Asian countries International certifications are being made available to the medical transcription, coding and billing professionals in India. So that medical outsourcing can get better. For more details, go here.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers highly cost effective and professional services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.

Medical Coding: The ICD-10-PCS (Procedure Coding System)

2007-12-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Procedure codes are numbers or alphanumeric codes used to identify specific health interventions taken by medical professionals. The ICD-10-PCS is a system of medical coding used for procedure codes.

The coding professional world is getting trained and waiting for the implementation of the ICD-10-PCS (Procedure Coding System). Developed by The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) this new procedure coding system will be a successor to Volume 3 of ICD-9-CM and a modified version of the original ICD-10. Who is responsible for the implementation of the new coding system? Well it is the World Health Organization (WHO) that gave permission to the NCHS to develop the ICD-10-PCS and only the WHO has to decide on the date when the new system will replace the ICD-9-CM. The ICD-10-CM is the proposed replacement for ICD-9-CM, Volumes 1 & 2. Has the rest of the world also been implementing similar processes? Here is a document on the assessment of the ICD-10 in the South East Asia region from the WHO website http://whqlibdoc.who.int/searo/2002/SEA_HS_220.pdf

Take a look at the NCHS Homepage at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/Default.htm

Every medical code has seven characters that can be alphanumeric (either alphabets or numbers) These are the characters.

Section
Body System
Root Operation
Body Part
Approach
Device
Qualifier

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourcing solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription.