Monday, November 24, 2008

When Is Outsourced Transcription A Good Choice?

Quality of patient information and records should be paramount and that is the reason why many hospitals, clinics and doctor offices are outsourcing medical transcription services. There are a number of benefits to outsourcing transcription work, whether you are looking for services full-time, part-time or just on an overflow or emergency basis.

Outsourced transcription services are quickly becoming the preferred method of workflow management and control of medical billing and coding needs, thanks to the advances in technology and improved communication and data transmission options available. More and more healthcare organizations are turning to medical transcription service providers offsite because they can provide a more reliable product, more accurate reporting, and offer a number of benefits for physicians and other medical professionals who need to access reports and other information easily.

Reducing your Costs

Cost minimization is by far the most logical and popular reason why many medical facilities outsource their transcription needs. First of all, the cost of hiring, training and managing employees in transcription is eliminated. You have no salaries to pay, benefits to offer or vacation or sick days to juggle to ensure that all the transcription duties are taken care of.

Because the need for transcription ebbs and flows, you are essentially losing money on an employee whose sole purpose is transcription if there is little work for them. In a similar vein, by outsourcing, you are freeing up some employees who have other duties that they should be concentrating on. Outsourcing medical transcription services makes sense for so many reasons.

Outsourcing Options

You can choose to hand off all of your transcription projects off to the outsourced company of your choice and free up your budget and allocate leftover resources to better serve your patients. Or, you could consider outsourcing on a part-time basis. This is advantageous for those medical offices which have employees allocated for transcription but also fulfill other duties as well. When overflow becomes a problem, you can then outsource the transcription to pick up the slack.

If you are pleased with your in-house transcription employees but feel that you need a contingency plan in the event that your computer networks break down or some other disaster, an outsourcing medical transcription company is a logical choice. Regardless of your needs, outsourcing medical transcription services makes sense both financially and security-wise.


If you’ve been considering outsourcing your medical billing and coding projects to another company, there are a few key questions to ask and consider:

Can I count on HIPAA compliance from my current administrative staff and workforce?

Reliable medical transcription service providers will provide a guarantee of HIPAA compliance, and this ensures all work received and submitted is checked for quality control and accuracy. Most medical transcription companies will run each report through a series of data control and management centers to ensure compliance every step of the way. This can save you time on insurance and legal costs, and ensure that all the information transmitted is secure.


Do I have a secure data management and storage system in process?

Secure data management and documentation are just a few benefits of working with an outsourced medical transcription company; this ensures HIPAA compliance, and also makes document management much more efficient. Medical professionals in your company will have secure access to a data-encrypted site to retrieve data, and this will be monitored by the transcription company to prevent a security breach.

These are just a few of the most important factors to consider when you are choosing to outsource your transcription services. From secure data management to quality reporting, it’s important to consider a variety of factors for managing your transcription projects. Outsourced transcription companies offer several benefits for healthcare organizations of all sizes and budgets, and you can count on reliable, professional transcriptionists to provide you with a quality product every step of the way.

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1 comment:

Sara Haley said...

I do a lot of transcription for other companies. It's pretty lucrative for stay-at-home moms like me who can take a workload when they can. It's a great way to make ends meet. And it's great for large companies--they can send their work to a transcription service and the transcription service has the job of spreading the work out amongst their workers. No worrying about if someone is sick and can't do the job or whatnot. Great business model, if you ask me. :)

Sara Haley
Transcriptionist
Amy Jamie Transcription