Medical Transcription Services, Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Outsourcing Medical Transcription Services

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.

Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription professional, transcription company

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:15 PM
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MTIAPI and Medical Transcription in The Philippines

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.

Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, MTIAPI, outsourcing transcription, Philippines

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:40 PM
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Medical Coding Classifications

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Medical Coding classifications are useful for many different applications in the medical and medical informatics field. ISO 17115 defines a classification as 'an exhaustive set of mutually exclusive categories to aggregate data at a pre-prescribed level of specialization for a specific purpose'. Thus the different medical diagnosis and procedures are given universal code numbers. This makes it easy to track diseases. Medical codes are particularly very useful during the insurance claim process. These are the different types of medical codes.

The diagnostic codes group the different types of diseases/ symptoms/ disorders /signs /
The procedural codes are numbers or alphanumeric codes used to identify specific health interventions taken by medical professionals.
Pharmaceutical codes are used in medical classification to uniquely identify medication.
Topography codes indicate a specific location in the body.

The World Health Organization (WHO) constitution makes international classifications mandatory so that there is a consensual, meaningful and useful framework which all the different governments, providers and consumers can use in common. For more details on WHO FIC see http://www.who.int/classifications/en/FamilyDocument2007.pdf

The different types of WHO FIC classifications are

Reference Classification

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI)

Derived Classification (based on the reference classifications (i.e. ICD and ICF)

International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Third Edition (ICD-O-3)
ICD-10 for Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Application of the International Classification of Diseases to Dentistry and Stomatology, 3rd edition (ICD-DA)
Application of the International Classification of Diseases to Neurology (ICD-10-NA)
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY)

Related Classification (those that partially refer to reference classifications)

International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2)
International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI)
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (ATC/DDD)
Technical aids for persons with disabilities: Classification and terminology (ISO9999)

Do contact Outsource Strategies International (OSI) the US based BPO leader for outsourcing solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription.

Labels: ICD, ICF, medical coding, mediical classification, reference classification, WHO FIC

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:10 PM
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Evolving Medical Transcription

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.

Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical technology, medical transcription

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:15 PM
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Medical Billing for the Urgent Care

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.

Labels: medical billing, medical coding, urgent care, urgent care billing, urgent medical care

posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 8:57 PM
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The Medical Transcription Profession

A Medical transcription professional is often referred to as a medical transcriber or just as an MT. Earlier in the late 1990s, medical transcription professionals were also called as Medical language specialists or Health Information Management professionals.

What is the work done by an MT? Well it is an MT's responsibility to convert the medical records of patients into type written formats. An MT professional has to do the transcription with the help of transcription equipment that may include tape recorders PCs foot pedals etc. They use the tape to playback the recording for listening in and transcribing the dictations that have been recorded by the doctors.

A good medical transcription should ideally have skills in the following areas.

Good knowledge of medical terms
Superior typing skills
Communication skills
Office automation skills
Accuracy in sorting/counting and number verification
Knowledge of Grammar/punctuation
Experience with multiple medical specialties

Transcriptionists have to accurately transcribe information like the patient's name and the medical records have to be perfectly transcribed. It is the responsibility of the MT professional to correct any inconsistencies, edit, punctuate and give a perfect finish to these medical documents. He also has to maintain a back up and log of all the transcription work done. If in any doubt about details in ther transcript he may be required to even follow up with the concerned physicians and seek clarifications.

Medical transcription professionals can gain the title of a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) by passing a certification examination that is conducted only by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). The AHDI was formerly in the name of American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).

For outsourced solutions in medical transcription, medical coding and medical billing please do contact OSI (Outsourced Strategies International) the Oklahoma based BPO pioneer.