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Medical Transcription Errors Can be Costly
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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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 Experts warn that medical transcription errors along with outdated information and inadvertent omissions can put to risk our ability to secure individual health, life or disability insurance.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.
Labels: HIPAA medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription errors, Medical Transcriptionist, transcription and insurance
posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:34 PM
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Origins of Medical Transcription
Medical transcription has become a common term today. Technological advances have slowly changed and always defined the medical transcription industry and it still continues to be so. The latest development of voice recognition software and its evolution may some day totally automate and even remove the human element in the medical transcription process. As of now, the traditional medical transcriptionist (MT) is happy to become an editor who has to just edit the documents produced by the VRS (Voice Recording Software) as its technology is still crude and has a long way to go.
Looking back into the past, all hand written medical records were highly abbreviated and written by the physician who actually treated the patient. Files kept in filing cabinets, that consisted of collections of handwritten notes/scribbles along with typed documents had to be physically retrieved from shelves every time the physician wanted to have a look at them. Further development just involved the duplication of medical records /documents using carbon paper. (I remember doing it myself)
While talking about the history of Medical transcription systems one remembers that various systems had started evolving right from the year 1960. The second generation computers evolved at this time replacing vacuum tubes with transistors. However, all the systems of that period were primarily designed to help the manufacturing process. The very first transcription that was developed happens to be MRP (Medical Resource Planning) in the year 1975 closely followed by MRP2 and referred to the Manufacturing Resource Planning. These systems were yet not useful enough to be used in transcribing records in the medical / health sector. It is only much later in the early 90s that the actual medical transcription, as we know it today, came into existence.
Today when we talk of medical transcription it automatically encompasses the speedy desktop, the Internet, digital transmission, information systems, PDAs, dictation systems, foot pedals, headphones and more. The evolution toward the electronic patient record and HIPAA compliance is forcing everyone to catch up with technology and there is no looking back. Globalization has enabled the medical transcription professional to even sit at home and work for clients who may be located anywhere else on the globe or beyond. As cutting edge technology evolves it would not be wrong for us to say that one can only wait and see how the distant future of this industry is going to be. One can however expect transcription to become a much easier process.
For highly professional and affordable medical transcription, medical billing and coding services call OSI (Outsource Strategies International).
Labels: evolution of medical transcription, medical billing, medical transcription history, origin of medical transcription, origins, transcription company
posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:01 PM
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Medical Transcription Quality Assurance
Sunday, January 20, 2008
It is true that to err is human but all medical transcription must have minimum error and a good level of quality assurance is mandatory. Transposition errors are different from transcription errors. As the name suggest, transposition errors occur when characters have "transposed" (switched places). The most common errors in transcription include omission of a dictated word, using of the wrong word, misspelling of words, typographical errors and grammatical errors.
This is what The American Association of Transcription has stated on the principles of quality in Medical transcription.
Principles of Quality
When a document is reviewed (i.e., audited) for quality, key principles in establishing quality assurance criteria for that document are:
- The transcribed report should be reviewed against the actual dictation. Reading the report without listening to the dictation does not provide an accurate comparison of the transcription to the dictation.
- The review should apply industry-specific standards as provided by current resources and references. When evaluating style, punctuation, or grammar, The AAMT Book of Style is the industry standard.
- The review should encompass attention to risk management issues and the documentation standards of accreditation and healthcare compliance agencies.
- Accuracy scores (ratings) should be quantified with the use of a numeric calculation that weights varying degrees of error against the length of the report. AAMT recommends the following quality goals: 100% accuracy with respect to critical errors; 98% accuracy with respect to major errors; and 98% accuracy with respect to all errors in the report, including minor errors (see below for definitions of "critical," "major," and "minor" errors).
- The reviewer (or the review process) should provide timely and consistent feedback to the medical transcriptionist in order to eliminate repetition of errors.
- All measurements, standards, and benchmarks should be disclosed to the medical transcriptionist and should be set forth in written guidelines by the healthcare provider or transcription service.
Take a look at the AAMT statement at http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/qualityassurance.cfm
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in medical transcription, medical coding, and medical billing to clients globally.
Labels: AAMT, medical billing, medical transcription, medical transcription errors, transcription quality assurance
posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:44 PM
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