Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription association, medical transcription industry association, MTIA

Should there be a Standard for all the finished medical transcription reports and documents? This was a question that did run into some controversies as some MT professionals felt they will lose valuable domain knowledge. The MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) was formed to give leadership to such transcription industry issues. MTIA along with AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) have recommended a standard unit of measure for medical transcription of patient medical records.

What was the need for such a standard? The goal of the project was to implement a standard for content measurement that health information management (HIM) practitioners can use to evaluate in-house transcription staff and external transcription service suppliers. The 65-character line standard (also called the AAMT line) had been a standard industry wide unit of measure for content measurement that includes space bar, shift key, bold, underscore, and other keystrokes. With this system the cost for the line/character goes beyond just labor as the cost of the technology is bundled along with domain knowledge and human resources. Thus it became mandatory to develop/choose the best possible Industry standard. What are the benefits of having a standard? They are,

• Better business relationships between healthcare organizations and medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs): Hospitals, physician practices, and clinics commonly outsource their transcription to MTSOs, which typically charge for services on a per-unit basis.
• Support of HIM departments in establishing and maintaining service level agreements; patient medical record transcription may be managed in-house by facility HIM staff or by an outside service supplier.
• Improved tools for evaluating and selecting transcription service providers: many suppliers have adopted unique line-counting or character counting definitions in order to differentiate them and stand out in a crowded field.

It has been recommended by the MTIA /AHIMA task force that among all the existing counting methods like ASCII line, the 65-character line, gross line, gross page, per minute pricing, and visible black character (VBC) measurement standards, VBC is the only counting method that can be easily understood, verified, and replicated by all parties in the medical transcription business processes.

Refer the MTIA whitepaper at http://www.mtia.com/downloads/StandardUnitOfMeasure.pdf

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional yet affordable outsourced services (both domestic and offshore) in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.

Labels: AHIMA, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, MTIA, standards