Medical transcription outsourcing: Cost benefit analysis

Any business decision needs a good look at the options available and a detailed cost-benefit analysis to be successful and profitable. A healthcare facility faces numerous decisions to be made on a daily basis. Some of these are pertaining to the core business and some are towards services that support the core business. Generally these additional services do not directly contribute to the bottom line, but play an important role in the acceleration or slowing down of the revenue flow.

One such service is medical transcription, it does not directly contribute to the income stream of the healthcare facility, but efficient medical transcription can accelerate the receivables cycle and reduce costs. Therefore it is important to analyze the costs and benefits of in-house medical transcription versus the costs and benefits of outsourcing medical transcription.

Cost benefit analysis for in-house medical transcription:

Costs of in-house medical transcription	Benefits of in-house medical transcription
Salaries of medical transcriptionists Real estate costs Management expenses Cost of utilities Cost of in-house information technology (IT) Cost of overflow medical transcription Costs incurred due to delay in medical transcription. Cost of equipment Cost of training Consumables	Single level of communication Familiarity of the medical transcriptionists with the healthcare professionals. Security

  

It can be seen from the above table that in-house medical transcription has hidden costs that dilute focus from the core business. And being dependent on in-house transcriptionists can create additional hassles for weekend and holiday medical transcription requirements. Any delay in medical transcription can in turn can affect both the quality of care and the receivables cycle. 

Cost benefit analysis for outsourced medical transcription:

Cost of outsourced medical transcription

Benefits of outsourced medical transcription

Cost of sourcing the right service provider, like the evaluation process and travel Cost per line of transcription Minor expenses for upgrading the healthcare facility systems to work in tandem with the service provider’s systems

Cost of transcription is restricted to the cost per line of transcription Holiday and weekend requirements are covered automatically Guaranteed turnaround time Accuracy of above 99% Security measures as regards to technology, processes and manpower are taken care of by the service provider during the medical transcription process. There are added benefits like freeing up of resources like real estate, management and utilities Training of medical transcriptionists are undertaken to cover the specialties of the healthcare professionals. Automatic integration with the EMR/EHR systems is the possible. Flexible and familiar modes of dictation can be retained Information Technology needs is taken care of by the service provider.

Outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility in saving cost per line of transcription, quickening the receivables cycle, providing quality health care and freeing up of important resources, which can then be used of other purposes. However to avail all the benefits of outsourced medical transcription it is important to have a careful process of qualification and evaluation. The payoff from the lengthy selection process would have long-term benefits.

Outsourcing to a company like TransDyne, which is a leader in the medical transcription arena provides numerous benefits like medical transcription services with 99% accuracy, a guaranteed turnaround time of 24 hours with an option of 4-12 hours for STAT reports, technology that is advanced but easy to use and transcription through secure channels to ensure HIPAA compliance.

To know more about superb medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.