Showing posts with label HITECH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HITECH. Show all posts

Friday, August 16, 2013

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps improve healthcare services

Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into a text format. Medical transcription plays an important role in providing support to the healthcare process. Outsourcing medical transcription provides the following benefits:

  • By reducing costs: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider helps the healthcare facility to restrict cost of transcription. Usually the medical transcription service provider would be quoting a rate that is based on a particular rate, per line of transcription. This limits the cost to just cost per line of transcription. Moreover the extra costs incurred for varying volumes of transcription, holiday and weekend transcriptions would be curbed. The medical transcription service provider could provide a complete solution for the complete medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility.

  • By providing timely and accurate information: Timely and accurate information is essential for the healthcare professional to make informed decisions. By providing medical transcription services that are accurate and timely, the service provider would be aiding the healthcare professional in the healthcare process. The healthcare professional can make informed decisions rather than depend on memory or guesswork. A well-transcribed report is especially useful, when it involves a long-term treatment plan or when the patient is not in a position to provide pertinent information or when further referrals/tests are required.

  • By conserving healthcare facility resources: By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility can conserve many of its precious resources like capital outlay, management staff, real estate, utilities, Information technology, advertising budgets and also time of the healthcare professionals.

  • By allowing healthcare professionals to optimize their limited time: Outsourced medical transcription services would allow the healthcare professional to utilize their time optimally. Many medical transcription service providers allow healthcare professionals to retain familiar modes of dictation this helps them save time. Moreover technology features like automatic uploads, downloads, powerful archiving, remote printing and faxing options help the healthcare professionals conserve their time, which would have otherwise been utilized for these functions.

  • By improving the receivables cycle: Medical transcription is the first step in the process of reimbursement, by providing accurate and timely information. When medical transcription is outsourced to a professional medical transcription service provider, information is available in a timely and accurate manner, thus quickening the receivables cycle.

  • By providing protection against litigation: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider ensures that the information from the patient-healthcare professional encounter is captured accurately, and the confidentiality of this data is protected during the process. This ensures that there is no breach of security ensuring zero legal hassles. The transcripts also provide valuable backup for the treatment plan administered including dosages, procedures etc, forming a valuable part of the evidence against malpractice.
Medical transcription is a valuable service that aids the process of healthcare Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can help improve the efficiency, decrease cost of transcription and quickens the process of reimbursement.

TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider that has been in the business of providing outsourced medical transcription services for over a decade.

TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use.

To benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Medical transcription: How does outsourcing help increase cash flow?

Outsourcing is the process of obtaining certain services through an outside service provider. Usually the services that are outsourced are essential services that form part of the costs. Outsourcing is a good method to cut down costs and sharpen focus on the core business.

Medical transcription is the process of creating medical records of the patient -healthcare professional encounter. Though medical transcription is an essential part of the healthcare process and plays an important role in the receivable cycle, it is not part of the core competence of the healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider is a cost effective method of record creation in a timely, accurate and secure way.

Apart from the obvious advantages of outsourcing medical transcription, there is the added advantage of increased cash flow.

How does outsourcing of medical transcription services improve cash flow?

  • By restricting cost of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription limits the cost of transcription to the cost per line of transcription. There is no wastage of idle production capacity during slack times and no extra expenses for medical transcription when the patient influx is high. A professional medical transcription service provider would provide a package deal including weekend and holiday transcription requirements.

  • By reducing investment in infrastructure: Outsourcing medical transcription eliminates the need for investment in capital investment like computers, furniture, and servers with regard to medical transcription. The healthcare facility can channel these funds for other purposes.

  • By reducing expenses in utilities: In-house transcription would incur a large expense in terms of utilities like power, Internet etc. by outsourcing medical transcription the cost of utilities would be dramatically reduced, thus improving the cash flow.

  • By shortening the receivables cycle: It is a known fact that the medical record of the patient is the basis for coding and billing and medical transcription is the process of creating these records. Timely medical transcription accelerates the process of reimbursement, thus improving cash flow.
TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider that has been providing outsourced medical transcription services for over a decade.  TransDyne provides medical transcription services, which are tailored to suit the specific needs of different healthcare facilities. Apart from increasing the cash flow of a healthcare facility, the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne are:

  • Accuracy of above 99%
  • Turnaround time of 24 hours with an option of 4-12 hours for STAT reports
  • Data transmission through secure channels
  • HIPAA compliance by use of secure technology, processes, people and infrastructure.
  • No dilution of quality and security by use of subcontractors
  • Reasonable and fair pricing ensuring enormous savings.
  • Flexible modes of dictation
  • Technology that not only enables automatic upload of files, download of files, powerful archiving, easy EMR integration, but also easy to use.
  • Remote printing and Fax solutions
  • 24/7 customer interaction to solve any issues that may arise
  • Free trial for a limited period without any obligatory signup.
To know more about the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne, please click here.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Medical transcription: Understanding cost

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. These records form a part of the permanent patient record and are used for various purposes, including coding and billing for the purpose of reimbursements. Medical records are a valuable resource to the healthcare professional for providing quality healthcare on a timely basis.

In spite of being an important part of the healthcare process and an accelerant of the receivables cycle, medical transcription is one of the cost factors. To understand the cost of medical transcription it is important to evaluate all options available for availing medical transcription and evaluate the cost components of each method.  A healthcare facility can avail medical transcription services by the following means:

By having an in-house transcription team: To calculate the cost per line of transcription under this method, the healthcare facility needs to include indirect costs like cost of real estate, overheads, utilities, managerial/supervisory costs, cost of training, cost of repairs & maintenance, cost of weekend & holiday transcription, cost of IT along with the direct costs like Salaries and benefits paid to the medical transcriptionists. Factors like cost of overtime and loss of productivity during slack hours also need to be added to arrive at realistic costs.

By having independent contractors working for them: To calculate the costs under this method, apart from the cost per line of transcription, factors like cost of coordination of transcription activities, cost of in-house IT towards medical transcription, server costs for upload & download of files, cost of equipment & software provided to the Independent contractors, cost of security measures, needs to be added to arrive at the actual cost per line of transcription.

By outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider: Under this option the cost per line of medical transcription is clearly defined by the service provider. However the medical transcription service provider needs to evaluate on the accuracy, turnaround time, security, technology used and the billing method before arriving at the final costs.

By having a combination of the above methods: Using more than one source to meet medical transcription needs can lead to complexities like different methods of billing, different methods of calculating accuracy, different technology used by different providers, cost of coordination and the additional cost of ensuring security of data. This method could probably create confusion and additional work.

In conclusion, it can safely be said that outsourcing to a professionally managed medical transcription company can help the healthcare facility curb costs and limit it to the cost per line of transcription. However while doing so, care needs to be taken to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following:

·       Billing method
·       Security measures taken by the medical transcription service provider
·       Quality measures to obtain accuracy
·       Turnaround time
·       Technology

TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider.

Fair and transparent method of billing: TransDyne uses the character line method of billing. This method is measurable, verifiable, definable, consistent and fair & honest. TransDyne takes care to explain the billing method in detail at the very beginning so that both parties understand all the components of cost.

Secure medical transcription: TransDyne ensures security of confidential patient data by securing technology, infrastructure and people & processes. The methods used by TransDyne to ensure security of data not only meet HIPAA standards but also exceed them.
 
Accuracy of above 99%: TransDyne ensures accuracy levels by training their medical transcriptionists in one or two specialties making them domain experts enabling to transcribe at top quality. TransDyne further adopts a four level quality check method to attain maximum accuracy.

Turnaround time of 24 hours: TransDyne ensures turnaround time using the right technology, the right training method and the right people.

Technology that is advanced but easy to use: TransDyne believes in using the latest technology with features like automatic uploads & downloads, archiving and HL7 integration that is easy to use. 

To know more about low cost quality medical transcription services by TransDyne click here.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Medical transcription: Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatric assessment typically starts with a mental status examination and the compilation of a case history. Psychological tests and physical examination may be conducted and on occasion may require the use of neuroimaging or other neurophysiological techniques Psychiatric treatment applies a variety of modalities, including medication, psychotherapy and a wide range of other techniques such a transcranial magnetic stimulation. Treatment may be as inpatient or outpatient, according to severity of function impairment /the disorder in question.

Psychiatry is a vast field offering a vast array of treatments and therapies, using many techniques, therapies and medication. Psychiatry also involves research conducted on an interdisciplinary basis, sourcing an array of sub-specialties and theoretical approaches. Medical transcription services for healthcare facilities providing psychiatry services needs to be specialized to be efficient and effective.

Realizing that medical transcription for Psychiatry needs to be specialized, TransDyne has developed a team of medical transcriptionists who are handpicked based on their aptitude. This team is then given specialty training to make them experts in psychiatry medical transcription.

How does specialized training in psychiatry medical transcription affect accuracy?
The accuracy level of the final transcripts depends on the knowledge of the medical transcriptionists regarding the specialty and their familiarity with the techniques, therapies and the medication used for psychiatry. Accuracy levels can be maintained at high levels by training the medical transcriptionists on the “language” of psychiatry. TransDyne also takes care to keep their specialty team updated on the latest developments in the field of psychiatry to make sure that their team is familiar with the latest developments in the field.

How does specialized training in psychiatry medical transcription affect turnaround time?
Specialized training in psychiatry not only ensures accuracy, but also enables the medical transcriptionist to meet turnaround time commitments. They require less time to research and are familiar with formats required for various reports in this specialty thus reducing turnaround time.

How does specialized training in psychiatry medical transcription affect pricing?
By providing specialty training in psychiatry to their medical transcriptionists, TransDyne strives to maintain not only accuracy levels and turnaround time, but also increase the productivity of the medical transcriptionists. This in turn reduces the need for multilevel quality checks; all these factors help bring down the cost per line of transcription.

Psychiatry medical transcription from TransDyne not only has the benefits of accuracy above 99%, turnaround time of 24 hours and reasonable prices, it has other benefits like:

  • Security: One of the main concerns that healthcare facilities have is regarding the security of data. During the medical transcription process, data is transmitted back & forth; the protection of data during this process is vital. TransDyne ensures security of data by taking on a three pronged approach, which involves security measures with regard to technology, people and processes. This ensures the confidentiality of data is protected at all stages.

  • Flexible modes of dictation: Realizing that time is a precious commodity for healthcare professionals, TransDyne has made it possible for them to retain familiar modes of dictation enabling to manage their time for maximum productivity. 

  • Benefits of advanced technology: TransDyne offers healthcare facilities the benefit of advanced technological features like automatic uploads of dictation; automatic downloads of finished transcripts, remote printing & faxing, power archiving facilities and HL7 integration etc at no extra costs.
To avail superb psychiatry medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.