So how much can you expect to earn as a medical transcriptionist?
I know you’re going to hate this answer, but…it depends. Medical transcription is listed as one of the fastest growing careers and will be for the next several years. That’s good news!
Listen to this, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor‘s May, 2005 statistics regarding medical transcription, the hourly mean wage was $14.36 and the annual mean wage was $29,880. This is up from the previous year, which is good considering some job wages are going down.
The five top paying states in order were Alaska, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Now, if you don’t live in one of the top five states, don’t worry!
I live in Georgia and make a lot more than the “average” the DOL has listed and there’s a good chance you will too! The pay starting out at your first job (which may be in a doctor’s office, hospital, or online service) usually is pretty modest.
The good side of that is that many times you get benefits such as paid leave and insurance. If it’s the top salary you are going for, just be patient. Self-employed MTs can earn significantly more than MT employees.
Of course, they have to take out taxes and get their own insurance either privately or through their spouse’s company but the rewards are many!
Most MTs are paid by the line, for example if you earn $0.10 per line and you type 1000 lines, you earn $100.
You can either then let the word processing program (Word or Word Perfect) tell you how many lines there are or, in some older programs, you may need to get the word count, then divide by 11 to get the line count. Most line counts are made by dividing the number of words by 11 since a line has an average of 11 words in it). The going rate is anywhere from as low as $0.05 per line (for beginners) to $0.14 per line and even more. In my area the average is $0.08 to $0.12 per line.
Try not to take a job where you are paid by the hour.
You will make less money and you will be tempted to hurry and may make careless errors, thereby not delivering good quality.
Also, ONE WORD OF WARNING!!!!! OK, two words, Be Patient!
When you first start out, you will feel like you are making $2.00 per hour once you add your lines and multiply by your rate, then divide by how much time you spent typing.
I remember sitting at the computer one night in tears because I had just worked for 4 HOURS transcribing one tape and had earned a whopping $4.50 per hour! I thought, “I can’t do this! It’s not worth it!” It was sooooo frustrating!
But do you know what was causing me to be so “slow”? It wasn’t my typing speed (which by the way you can go to www.careerstep.com, click the top link for “free typing test” and it will time you for one minute and give you feedback regarding your accuracy and score)… it was having to stop and look up words every 30 seconds.
The faster you learn the medical terms, the faster you will do your work and the more you will get paid. At first it is hard because you aren’t sure what the doctor is saying and if it’s really unclear, you have to try looking up a word you can’t even begin to spell.
If you hear the word clearly but don’t know how to spell it, you may have to stop and pull out one of your reference books and look up the correct spelling, OR if you have someone else editing your work you may have to write this out for that person to look up. This all takes time. This is also where good reference books, good training (medical terminology course for sure!), and a GREAT medical spell checker (that can catch many of the misspelled words as you type) come in.
All of these resources will increase your speed and your quality, thereby increasing your pay considerably! Just don’t give up! You will want to at first, I did too!!! And so many other MTs I have talked to say the same thing.
You are in good company. But we are so glad we didn’t give up and you will be too!
By the way, that same 4 Hour tape today would take me about 45 minutes which comes to roughly $27.00 per hour.
Article Source: http://add-articles.com
Sherrie Patrick is a mom of three who enjoys working at home as a medical transcriptionist. She has provided a free report for those needing to know more about being a medical transcriptionist... without the bull... www.freeonlinemedicaltranscription.com
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Medical Transcription
Medical Transcription, or simply MT, is a process of transcribing the medical documents and records that are dictated by physicians, doctors and other health care professionals. This process is done in order to keep the physician's dictated data as reference for future and maintaining permanent record of a patient's care. There are different types of medical records which include the history of a particular disease, physical reports, operative reports, x-ray reports, laboratory reports, office notes, consultation notes, clinic notes, patient discharge summaries and more. The various methods of dictations involve digital system, voice file, dictation via tape, and use of word processing program.
To become a professional medical transcriptionist, one should have good listening and language skills as well as deep knowledge in medical terms in addition to the computer skills. Usually, MTs work in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices. There are many medical transcriptionists who provide transcription services from home itself. These transcriptionists will be having 2-3 years of experience in hospital or an office.
There are a variety of training programs available for those who wish to work in medical transcription field. By searching the Internet, you will get a number of on-line and correspondence courses related to medical transcription. You have to get thorough with the medical terms by refering medical dictionaries, word books and CDs. You can start medical transcription works if you have an English dictionary, a grammar and style guide, a drug index, a complete medical dictionary, a laboratory and pathology word book, a medical word book containing each specialty, a surgery word book, a medical abbreviation word book, and a physician directory.
At present, almost all health care providers provide dictation materials to the medical transcription companies via digital or using analog dictating equipment. With the popularity of the Internet, the mode for transmitting dictated documents have become easier and quicker. Moreover, the employees of the medical transcription field are paid on hourly basis.
To know more about outsourcing of medical transcription as well as other medical billing and coding services as well as other transcription or BPO services, log on to www.outsourcestrategies.com.
About the Author
Anish represents Outsource Strategies International - a leading outsourcing company in Medical Transcription
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=331752
To become a professional medical transcriptionist, one should have good listening and language skills as well as deep knowledge in medical terms in addition to the computer skills. Usually, MTs work in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices. There are many medical transcriptionists who provide transcription services from home itself. These transcriptionists will be having 2-3 years of experience in hospital or an office.
There are a variety of training programs available for those who wish to work in medical transcription field. By searching the Internet, you will get a number of on-line and correspondence courses related to medical transcription. You have to get thorough with the medical terms by refering medical dictionaries, word books and CDs. You can start medical transcription works if you have an English dictionary, a grammar and style guide, a drug index, a complete medical dictionary, a laboratory and pathology word book, a medical word book containing each specialty, a surgery word book, a medical abbreviation word book, and a physician directory.
At present, almost all health care providers provide dictation materials to the medical transcription companies via digital or using analog dictating equipment. With the popularity of the Internet, the mode for transmitting dictated documents have become easier and quicker. Moreover, the employees of the medical transcription field are paid on hourly basis.
To know more about outsourcing of medical transcription as well as other medical billing and coding services as well as other transcription or BPO services, log on to www.outsourcestrategies.com.
About the Author
Anish represents Outsource Strategies International - a leading outsourcing company in Medical Transcription
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=331752
Medical Transcription - Tips On Finding The Best Training
If you're considering a career in medical transcription, you may be wondering where you can find training. The fact is that you'll find plenty of training options, from hands-on schools with required classes to attend to online or correspondence courses. The problem is not in finding training options, but in finding the best training.
Start by looking at the school's reputation with former students. Having one or two posted statements by former students probably isn't sufficient. After all, you can't even be certain those students actually graduated from that training or that their statements are accurate. Anyone can post a glowing review on a website. Ask to talk to some graduates of the program. Remember that the people you call will have been screened by the training program and will have pledged to give good reviews, but you can still ask some pertinent questions that will help you make your decisions.
You should also take a close look at the amount of automated material you'll be handling and whether any of your time will be spent with real people who can offer personal training, feedback and advice. Its fine to take some automated tests and there's no doubt that computerized activities are an excellent source of practice and training. But when you finish an automated test with a score of 70, you may be upset that you didn't do better. When you're talking to those real people, you may find that most people have trouble with that particular exercise or given some real advice that will help you do better on future exams. Computerized work has its place, but shouldn't be 100 percent of your training.
Help in finding work after you've completed the medical transcription course is also a big incentive to choose a particular training option. In some cases, the training may include access to a website, newsletter or job positing forum that unites medical transcriptionists with potential employers. Whether you're looking for a full-time job in a health care facility or planning to use your knowledge to start a home-based business, your training will be useless without clients or an employer. Look for training opportunities that can help you past handing you a certificate of completion.
Convenience may very well be the deciding factor for some people. If you're already working a full time (or even part time) job, juggling demands of family and still trying to make some time for yourself, you probably already know that having time for school is going to be difficult. If this is the case, consider online training. You can study at your own rate. Don't have time during the week? Spend some of your weekend hours on your training materials. Just remember that the training won't finish itself and you have to make the commitment to complete the work if you want to start this exciting new career.
There are plenty of options when it comes to training for a medical transcription career. All you need to do is find the one that's perfect for you.
About the Author
Visit Medical Transcriptionist | Transcriptionist or Transcription for more information on a career in Medical Transcription.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=338214
Start by looking at the school's reputation with former students. Having one or two posted statements by former students probably isn't sufficient. After all, you can't even be certain those students actually graduated from that training or that their statements are accurate. Anyone can post a glowing review on a website. Ask to talk to some graduates of the program. Remember that the people you call will have been screened by the training program and will have pledged to give good reviews, but you can still ask some pertinent questions that will help you make your decisions.
You should also take a close look at the amount of automated material you'll be handling and whether any of your time will be spent with real people who can offer personal training, feedback and advice. Its fine to take some automated tests and there's no doubt that computerized activities are an excellent source of practice and training. But when you finish an automated test with a score of 70, you may be upset that you didn't do better. When you're talking to those real people, you may find that most people have trouble with that particular exercise or given some real advice that will help you do better on future exams. Computerized work has its place, but shouldn't be 100 percent of your training.
Help in finding work after you've completed the medical transcription course is also a big incentive to choose a particular training option. In some cases, the training may include access to a website, newsletter or job positing forum that unites medical transcriptionists with potential employers. Whether you're looking for a full-time job in a health care facility or planning to use your knowledge to start a home-based business, your training will be useless without clients or an employer. Look for training opportunities that can help you past handing you a certificate of completion.
Convenience may very well be the deciding factor for some people. If you're already working a full time (or even part time) job, juggling demands of family and still trying to make some time for yourself, you probably already know that having time for school is going to be difficult. If this is the case, consider online training. You can study at your own rate. Don't have time during the week? Spend some of your weekend hours on your training materials. Just remember that the training won't finish itself and you have to make the commitment to complete the work if you want to start this exciting new career.
There are plenty of options when it comes to training for a medical transcription career. All you need to do is find the one that's perfect for you.
About the Author
Visit Medical Transcriptionist | Transcriptionist or Transcription for more information on a career in Medical Transcription.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=338214
Medical Transcription - Online Versus Classroom Training
If you've considered a career in medical transcription, you've probably already spent at least some time looking into the study options. And there are some serious decisions to be made when it comes to those training options. Should you study medical transcription in a classroom? Or would an online or correspondence course be better? It depends on your personality, your location and your needs.
Start by looking into schools in your area that offer medical transcription in a classroom setting. The sheer fact of your location in relation to any schools you'd be interested in attending may very well make the decision for you. While location is sometimes the deciding factor, don't let yourself be talked into taking what you consider to be second-rate medical transcription training just because it happens to be nearby. You can certainly get quality training from an online or correspondence school if there's nothing close to your location.
Your own personality - and limitations - should also play a role in your choice of training options. Do you work well without strict supervision and deadlines? Can you set goals for yourself and follow through? If your answer to those questions isn't a resounding "yes," you may not do well with online or correspondence training. There's a big difference between sitting in a classroom every day (or once a week) and being turned loose to do your own work. In a classroom, you're held responsible for keeping pace with the class. A correspondence class allows you to set your own pace. Some people simply need the structure of a classroom setting.
That's not to say that you have to attend classes in person to get that structure. Many distance learning programs allow students to "meet" with instructors and even classmates on a regular basis via computer. You simply set up a webcam at your location and you have the opportunity to interact with the teacher and even others taking the class. In some ways, this is the best of all possible worlds for the busy adult who still needs some structure to accomplish the goals of medical transcription training.
If you think the online "meeting" is a good idea for you, take a minute to look at your own computer and your connection. A dial-up connection with a slow computer may simply not be able to present the class in "real time." The lag can be annoying or even embarrassing, and you may find yourself losing out on some important points.
Regardless of what kind of training you choose, be wary of those offering claims that seem simply too good to be true. No one can guarantee that you'll find a job the week you complete your training and a school that offers those kinds of promises may very well be exaggerating other points of their training as well. Take time to be sure that any training facility you choose is reputable and that your hard work will end with training that will make you qualified to work in the medical transcription field.
About the Author
Visit medical transcription online courses | medical transcription course or medical transcription school for info on Transcription.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=343016
Start by looking into schools in your area that offer medical transcription in a classroom setting. The sheer fact of your location in relation to any schools you'd be interested in attending may very well make the decision for you. While location is sometimes the deciding factor, don't let yourself be talked into taking what you consider to be second-rate medical transcription training just because it happens to be nearby. You can certainly get quality training from an online or correspondence school if there's nothing close to your location.
Your own personality - and limitations - should also play a role in your choice of training options. Do you work well without strict supervision and deadlines? Can you set goals for yourself and follow through? If your answer to those questions isn't a resounding "yes," you may not do well with online or correspondence training. There's a big difference between sitting in a classroom every day (or once a week) and being turned loose to do your own work. In a classroom, you're held responsible for keeping pace with the class. A correspondence class allows you to set your own pace. Some people simply need the structure of a classroom setting.
That's not to say that you have to attend classes in person to get that structure. Many distance learning programs allow students to "meet" with instructors and even classmates on a regular basis via computer. You simply set up a webcam at your location and you have the opportunity to interact with the teacher and even others taking the class. In some ways, this is the best of all possible worlds for the busy adult who still needs some structure to accomplish the goals of medical transcription training.
If you think the online "meeting" is a good idea for you, take a minute to look at your own computer and your connection. A dial-up connection with a slow computer may simply not be able to present the class in "real time." The lag can be annoying or even embarrassing, and you may find yourself losing out on some important points.
Regardless of what kind of training you choose, be wary of those offering claims that seem simply too good to be true. No one can guarantee that you'll find a job the week you complete your training and a school that offers those kinds of promises may very well be exaggerating other points of their training as well. Take time to be sure that any training facility you choose is reputable and that your hard work will end with training that will make you qualified to work in the medical transcription field.
About the Author
Visit medical transcription online courses | medical transcription course or medical transcription school for info on Transcription.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=343016
Home Business Idea: General Transcription
There are few home based businesses that you can get started with that will require less training and equipment than General Transcription. If you can type well with minimal errors, you can be on your way to earning an income from home.
You've probably heard of transcribing before. Medical transcription gets a lot of attention in the work at home community. It's a career that requires an expensive education and substantial experience in order to develop a full time income. By contrast, General transcription has no training requirements. This makes it very attractive to moms who want to make some extra money from home while caring for their children.
One of the most convenient aspects of a transcriber's business is that you can build a work schedule that suits your personal preferences and your families needs. Transcribing can be done anytime and as long as you're not on a hot deadline, it can easily wait for you if you're interrupted.
There is a large demand for transcribers in our high speed internet world. Internet marketers, podcasters and many others are producing internet audio at amazing rates and they want every hour of it transcribed. Transcribed audio is useful for developing information products, creating fresh original website content and many other uses.
Providing transcribing services is often a specialized service that a Virtual Assistant provides. Even though general transcription is a specialization, a transcriber can target an even tighter niche. Perhaps you will want to specialize in transcribing teleseminar audio. There is certainly a high demand for it.
Finding work at a transcriber means making connections with those who are hungry for your services. Making the business profitable requires that you educate yourself in the going rates and ways of billing for your time. Take the time to learn all that you can now and you will be better prepared when you open doors to clients
About Author
Learn more about starting a general transcription business and marketing that business by going to: http://www.mommysplace.net
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=355263
You've probably heard of transcribing before. Medical transcription gets a lot of attention in the work at home community. It's a career that requires an expensive education and substantial experience in order to develop a full time income. By contrast, General transcription has no training requirements. This makes it very attractive to moms who want to make some extra money from home while caring for their children.
One of the most convenient aspects of a transcriber's business is that you can build a work schedule that suits your personal preferences and your families needs. Transcribing can be done anytime and as long as you're not on a hot deadline, it can easily wait for you if you're interrupted.
There is a large demand for transcribers in our high speed internet world. Internet marketers, podcasters and many others are producing internet audio at amazing rates and they want every hour of it transcribed. Transcribed audio is useful for developing information products, creating fresh original website content and many other uses.
Providing transcribing services is often a specialized service that a Virtual Assistant provides. Even though general transcription is a specialization, a transcriber can target an even tighter niche. Perhaps you will want to specialize in transcribing teleseminar audio. There is certainly a high demand for it.
Finding work at a transcriber means making connections with those who are hungry for your services. Making the business profitable requires that you educate yourself in the going rates and ways of billing for your time. Take the time to learn all that you can now and you will be better prepared when you open doors to clients
About Author
Learn more about starting a general transcription business and marketing that business by going to: http://www.mommysplace.net
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=355263
Top Ten Reasons to Outsource Medical Transcription
What is Outsourcing?
Subcontracting. Support. Managed services. However you define it, outsourcing has become the hot, creative solution that is helping more and more hospital CFOs, Health Information Managers (HIMs), and owners of physician practices do more with less. Less money. Less time. Less resources.
In these challenging times of tight budgets, compressed deadlines, exploding amounts of information, and stringent compliance regulations, managing medical transcription yourself can cost you in more ways than one. That's why outsourcing medical tanscription has become such an attractive solution for so many.
While outsourcing medical transcription is not a new concept, it might be new to you. And when done correctly, it's a pain-free process that gives you the freedom to focus on more important things, like patient care. Please take a few minutes to read the Top 10 Reasons why it can help you now to outsource medical transcription -- and in the long run.
Reason 1: Eliminate Capital Investment with Medical Transcription Outsourcing
When you outsource your entire medical transcription process, you no longer have to own a dictation system or invest in a typing platform or worry about upgrading to the very latest equipment.
In fact, all your capital expenses for supporting dictation and transcription are greatly reduced because you no longer have to own or maintain them. And maintaining these systems and varying equipment can really cost you, with the average maintenance agreement costing upwards of 17% of equipment costs, annually. Even if you only partially outsource your medical transcription, you can still reduce your expenses and make your budget work harder for you.
Reason 2: With Medical Transcription Outsourcing, Manage Report Volume and Staffing Fluctuations
There are some things you just can't control, no matter how hard you try. Report volume and staffing are just two of them, as these variables fluctuate without warning. Having to react to these challenges at a moment's notice can bring your day, department, and transcription process to a screeching halt.
Not to mention how these gyrations can negatively affect your budget. By outsourcing all of your medical transcription -- or even just the overflow -- you can cost-effectively manage sharp increases in report volume or a shortage in staffing without having it impact your turnaround time, workflow, quality, or compliance.
Reason3: Outsource Medical Transcription and Reduce Management Expenses
Whether you're a CFO, Health Information Manager, or head your own physician practice, managing medical transcription in-house can be a costly proposition. With so many vast, overlapping layers to manage -- from dictation and routing to transcription and archiving -- there are variables at every turn, eager to steal your time, attention, and budget dollars. By outsourcing all or part of your transcription process, you are free to concentrate on more important priorities and leave all the headaches and stringent demands to your outsourcing partner. Outsourcing also reduces the need for robust in-house staffing which results in additional cost savings for you.
Reason 4: Reduce Direct Labor Costs
If you are managing your medical transcription process in-house, then most likely you are also carrying direct labor costs that are putting a strain on your already tight budget. As an integral part of document creation, transcriptionists and coding specialists are imperative to the success of your medical transcription process. Yet, hiring such staff as Full-Time Employees (FTEs) means not only having to pay their salaries, but also having to provide them with benefits. By outsourcing all or part of your medical transcription process, you can gain greater control, streamline your staff, and greatly reduce or eliminate these expenses.
Reason 5: Improve Report Accessibility and Distribution with Medical Transcription Outsourcing
A major benefit of outsourcing your medical transcription is finding a solution that's web-based. Through a secure, password-protected process, one can log-on to a user-friendly interface, search, view, edit, and print reports -- from any computer with Internet capabilities. You can also distribute documents to multiple destinations with the touch of a button. Older technologies, such as dictaphones and tape, do not give you that kind of easy, immediate accessibility. And because the solution is web-based, it comes with powerful keyword search capabilities so you can easily retrieve what you want, when you want it. You'll also have access to an entire year's worth of records, not just the last month or so by outsourcing your medical transcription.
Reason 6: Reduce IT Responsibility
When you manage medical transcription in-house, it greatly impacts your IT department. Not only are they expected to manage and troubleshoot the various medical transcription platforms and technologies you own, but they often inherit the maintenance of your onsite equipment. In addition, they're expected to keep up with the latest technology demands and updates to keep the system running to the best of its abilities. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you not only free up your IT team to work on more important things, but you also rescue a vast amount of space on the server that was once dedicated to supporting your dictation system. It all adds up to a more efficient, productive IT team and a faster, leaner server.
Reason 7: Eliminate HR Transcription Staff Recruitment
It's no secret there's a domestic shortage of qualified, certified medical transcriptionists. And maintaining a pool of dependable prospects you can call at a moment's notice puts a definite strain on any already burdened Human Resources (HR) department. With so few qualified medical transcriptionists to choose from and the constant need to fill the hospital's pipeline with new prospects, HR is caught in a losing proposition -- trying to fulfill constant requests from the HIMs and looking at a shallow prospect pool. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you eliminate the constant cycle of unsuccessful recruitment efforts and the inefficiencies and lost man-hours they incur.
Reason 8: Improve Report Accuracy and Turnaround Time
When you manage your own medical transcription process, you are ultimately responsible for the accuracy and turnaround time. Are you able to stringently measure performance and impose penalties if quality levels are not met? You can if you outsource your medical transcription process. Outsourcing medical transcription services regularly document their accuracy and turnaround time rate, making sure they have metrics that prove they're meeting Quality Assurance levels. Many outsourcing services also provide performance guarantees right in their contracts, which range from productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness to quality, turnaround time, and resource utilization.
Reason 9: Shorten Account Receivable Cycle
One of the easiest ways to shorten the accounts receivable cycle is to streamline your medical transcription process. If you manage your own medical transcription, you are managing people, records, medical coding, HIPAA compliance, technology, turnaround time, and all the possible variables that come with it. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you greatly simplify workflow. What was once ten steps can be reduced to five. This allows you to better meet 24-hour and even 12-hour turnaround time, but also realize soft cost savings that can be very meaningful. And ultimately, shorten your accounts receivable cycle.
Reason 10: Take Advantage of a Single-source Medical Transcription Solution
When you have to piece together your own medical transcription process, the entire weight of the solution is on your shoulders. Researching the right technology, platform, equipment, and recruits. Working closely with IT, accounts receivable, and HR. Squeezing every penny in your budget. Struggling with HIPAA compliance. And dealing with the day-to-day problems, cost surprises, and emergencies that constantly crop up. By outsourcing your medical transcription process to a single source, you free yourself of the burden, save substantial money by consolidating all your services with one provider, and still maintain complete control of the process -- while ensuring all necessary standards of quality, turnaround time, and HIPAA compliance are met.
About author
About CBaySystems:
CBaySystemsis a leading provider of healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Drawing upon extensive industry expertise, CBay provides innovative medical transcription and information management solutions to integrated health delivery networks, hospitals, academic institutions, clin
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=400407
Subcontracting. Support. Managed services. However you define it, outsourcing has become the hot, creative solution that is helping more and more hospital CFOs, Health Information Managers (HIMs), and owners of physician practices do more with less. Less money. Less time. Less resources.
In these challenging times of tight budgets, compressed deadlines, exploding amounts of information, and stringent compliance regulations, managing medical transcription yourself can cost you in more ways than one. That's why outsourcing medical tanscription has become such an attractive solution for so many.
While outsourcing medical transcription is not a new concept, it might be new to you. And when done correctly, it's a pain-free process that gives you the freedom to focus on more important things, like patient care. Please take a few minutes to read the Top 10 Reasons why it can help you now to outsource medical transcription -- and in the long run.
Reason 1: Eliminate Capital Investment with Medical Transcription Outsourcing
When you outsource your entire medical transcription process, you no longer have to own a dictation system or invest in a typing platform or worry about upgrading to the very latest equipment.
In fact, all your capital expenses for supporting dictation and transcription are greatly reduced because you no longer have to own or maintain them. And maintaining these systems and varying equipment can really cost you, with the average maintenance agreement costing upwards of 17% of equipment costs, annually. Even if you only partially outsource your medical transcription, you can still reduce your expenses and make your budget work harder for you.
Reason 2: With Medical Transcription Outsourcing, Manage Report Volume and Staffing Fluctuations
There are some things you just can't control, no matter how hard you try. Report volume and staffing are just two of them, as these variables fluctuate without warning. Having to react to these challenges at a moment's notice can bring your day, department, and transcription process to a screeching halt.
Not to mention how these gyrations can negatively affect your budget. By outsourcing all of your medical transcription -- or even just the overflow -- you can cost-effectively manage sharp increases in report volume or a shortage in staffing without having it impact your turnaround time, workflow, quality, or compliance.
Reason3: Outsource Medical Transcription and Reduce Management Expenses
Whether you're a CFO, Health Information Manager, or head your own physician practice, managing medical transcription in-house can be a costly proposition. With so many vast, overlapping layers to manage -- from dictation and routing to transcription and archiving -- there are variables at every turn, eager to steal your time, attention, and budget dollars. By outsourcing all or part of your transcription process, you are free to concentrate on more important priorities and leave all the headaches and stringent demands to your outsourcing partner. Outsourcing also reduces the need for robust in-house staffing which results in additional cost savings for you.
Reason 4: Reduce Direct Labor Costs
If you are managing your medical transcription process in-house, then most likely you are also carrying direct labor costs that are putting a strain on your already tight budget. As an integral part of document creation, transcriptionists and coding specialists are imperative to the success of your medical transcription process. Yet, hiring such staff as Full-Time Employees (FTEs) means not only having to pay their salaries, but also having to provide them with benefits. By outsourcing all or part of your medical transcription process, you can gain greater control, streamline your staff, and greatly reduce or eliminate these expenses.
Reason 5: Improve Report Accessibility and Distribution with Medical Transcription Outsourcing
A major benefit of outsourcing your medical transcription is finding a solution that's web-based. Through a secure, password-protected process, one can log-on to a user-friendly interface, search, view, edit, and print reports -- from any computer with Internet capabilities. You can also distribute documents to multiple destinations with the touch of a button. Older technologies, such as dictaphones and tape, do not give you that kind of easy, immediate accessibility. And because the solution is web-based, it comes with powerful keyword search capabilities so you can easily retrieve what you want, when you want it. You'll also have access to an entire year's worth of records, not just the last month or so by outsourcing your medical transcription.
Reason 6: Reduce IT Responsibility
When you manage medical transcription in-house, it greatly impacts your IT department. Not only are they expected to manage and troubleshoot the various medical transcription platforms and technologies you own, but they often inherit the maintenance of your onsite equipment. In addition, they're expected to keep up with the latest technology demands and updates to keep the system running to the best of its abilities. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you not only free up your IT team to work on more important things, but you also rescue a vast amount of space on the server that was once dedicated to supporting your dictation system. It all adds up to a more efficient, productive IT team and a faster, leaner server.
Reason 7: Eliminate HR Transcription Staff Recruitment
It's no secret there's a domestic shortage of qualified, certified medical transcriptionists. And maintaining a pool of dependable prospects you can call at a moment's notice puts a definite strain on any already burdened Human Resources (HR) department. With so few qualified medical transcriptionists to choose from and the constant need to fill the hospital's pipeline with new prospects, HR is caught in a losing proposition -- trying to fulfill constant requests from the HIMs and looking at a shallow prospect pool. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you eliminate the constant cycle of unsuccessful recruitment efforts and the inefficiencies and lost man-hours they incur.
Reason 8: Improve Report Accuracy and Turnaround Time
When you manage your own medical transcription process, you are ultimately responsible for the accuracy and turnaround time. Are you able to stringently measure performance and impose penalties if quality levels are not met? You can if you outsource your medical transcription process. Outsourcing medical transcription services regularly document their accuracy and turnaround time rate, making sure they have metrics that prove they're meeting Quality Assurance levels. Many outsourcing services also provide performance guarantees right in their contracts, which range from productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness to quality, turnaround time, and resource utilization.
Reason 9: Shorten Account Receivable Cycle
One of the easiest ways to shorten the accounts receivable cycle is to streamline your medical transcription process. If you manage your own medical transcription, you are managing people, records, medical coding, HIPAA compliance, technology, turnaround time, and all the possible variables that come with it. By outsourcing your medical transcription, you greatly simplify workflow. What was once ten steps can be reduced to five. This allows you to better meet 24-hour and even 12-hour turnaround time, but also realize soft cost savings that can be very meaningful. And ultimately, shorten your accounts receivable cycle.
Reason 10: Take Advantage of a Single-source Medical Transcription Solution
When you have to piece together your own medical transcription process, the entire weight of the solution is on your shoulders. Researching the right technology, platform, equipment, and recruits. Working closely with IT, accounts receivable, and HR. Squeezing every penny in your budget. Struggling with HIPAA compliance. And dealing with the day-to-day problems, cost surprises, and emergencies that constantly crop up. By outsourcing your medical transcription process to a single source, you free yourself of the burden, save substantial money by consolidating all your services with one provider, and still maintain complete control of the process -- while ensuring all necessary standards of quality, turnaround time, and HIPAA compliance are met.
About author
About CBaySystems:
CBaySystemsis a leading provider of healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Drawing upon extensive industry expertise, CBay provides innovative medical transcription and information management solutions to integrated health delivery networks, hospitals, academic institutions, clin
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=400407
Monday, February 12, 2007
Long-time Medical Transcriptionists Tell All
If you are evaluating medical transcription training options in order to start a career as a medical transcriptionist, you very well could benefit from hearing how my wife and I launched our business years ago. We struggled through some tough times together, and we are happy to share what we learned here with you. Hopefully you will be able to benefit from this information and not repeat the mistakes we made. I can say from personal experience that being able to work from home as a medical transcriptionist is one of the most liberating opportunities that you will find - anywhere.
Medical Transcription has become very personal to me. To help you understand, let me tell you a bit about my history with the industry. My spouse actually went through medical transcription training years ago by tutoring on the job with her mother, who was a long time medical transcriptionist and who owned a medical transcription company. Back then, there really weren't many other options to receive Medical Transcription Training. You could say that she went through the school of hard knocks. Actually, you could say we both did. It was a difficult and stressful time. And since medical transcriptionists are typically paid on production, it was a very lean time for us financially. Her line counts were extremely low during the first 6 or 8 months of apprenticeship... and so were her paychecks.
Over time, however, she improved her production and eventually I felt emboldened by her progress to the point that I went out and started selling our own accounts. I approached clinics, hospitals, physician offices -- pretty much anyone who would listen to my pitch and I would sell them on the idea of using our Medical Transcription services. We teamed up with my wife's parents and began to expand our presence in the marketplace. It was slow going at first, but eventually we built our little Medical Transcription company up to a level where we had dozens of medical transcriptionists working for us. It was an extremely exciting time!
This new career allowed my wife to work at home as a medical transcriptionist and be there for our young children. We were all happier with the flexibility that her Medical Transcription Training afforded us. I think our kids were the happiest of all. And the pay just kept getting better and better. For one thing her typing speed increased dramatically over time -- which meant more money in her pocket. More importantly, though, she got to the point where she didn' t have to stop and look up difficult medical terms so often. She actually got to where she had transcribed enough medical reports that she could generally anticipate what the doctor was going to say next. I was totally impressed as I watched her work! And I became even more impressed when I asked her to let me have a try at the keyboard. I put on the headset and pushed the play button on the footpedal all excited to type my first report... Guess what? She went upstairs for a snack and came back down to find me curled up on the floor in the fetal position out of sheer frustration. I could no more transcribe an operative report than I could fly to the moon! Her school of hard knocks medical transcription Training had definitely paid off -- in spades!
As technology advances came into the picture she was able to create macros on her computer that automatically inserted whole strings of common technical words and phrases with one or two keystrokes. You cannot believe the difference this made in her productivity. It was amazing! As her productivity went up, so did our income! We could finally do some of the things we had been putting off for so long for lack of money. Life was good!
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=355124
Medical Transcription has become very personal to me. To help you understand, let me tell you a bit about my history with the industry. My spouse actually went through medical transcription training years ago by tutoring on the job with her mother, who was a long time medical transcriptionist and who owned a medical transcription company. Back then, there really weren't many other options to receive Medical Transcription Training. You could say that she went through the school of hard knocks. Actually, you could say we both did. It was a difficult and stressful time. And since medical transcriptionists are typically paid on production, it was a very lean time for us financially. Her line counts were extremely low during the first 6 or 8 months of apprenticeship... and so were her paychecks.
Over time, however, she improved her production and eventually I felt emboldened by her progress to the point that I went out and started selling our own accounts. I approached clinics, hospitals, physician offices -- pretty much anyone who would listen to my pitch and I would sell them on the idea of using our Medical Transcription services. We teamed up with my wife's parents and began to expand our presence in the marketplace. It was slow going at first, but eventually we built our little Medical Transcription company up to a level where we had dozens of medical transcriptionists working for us. It was an extremely exciting time!
This new career allowed my wife to work at home as a medical transcriptionist and be there for our young children. We were all happier with the flexibility that her Medical Transcription Training afforded us. I think our kids were the happiest of all. And the pay just kept getting better and better. For one thing her typing speed increased dramatically over time -- which meant more money in her pocket. More importantly, though, she got to the point where she didn' t have to stop and look up difficult medical terms so often. She actually got to where she had transcribed enough medical reports that she could generally anticipate what the doctor was going to say next. I was totally impressed as I watched her work! And I became even more impressed when I asked her to let me have a try at the keyboard. I put on the headset and pushed the play button on the footpedal all excited to type my first report... Guess what? She went upstairs for a snack and came back down to find me curled up on the floor in the fetal position out of sheer frustration. I could no more transcribe an operative report than I could fly to the moon! Her school of hard knocks medical transcription Training had definitely paid off -- in spades!
As technology advances came into the picture she was able to create macros on her computer that automatically inserted whole strings of common technical words and phrases with one or two keystrokes. You cannot believe the difference this made in her productivity. It was amazing! As her productivity went up, so did our income! We could finally do some of the things we had been putting off for so long for lack of money. Life was good!
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=355124
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