Medical Transcription Program Approval

Today medical transcription has become an established and essential process for the health care sector and a profession that is well accepted and respected with increasing demands. There are many colleges and universities that provide medical transcription education and training programs at various levels. When we refer to the medical transcription approval process we are mentioning about the approval of such MT educational programs by the concerned authorities.

It was the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) that instituted the medical transcription program approval process. The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) is the accreditation organization of AHIMA. The approval process was done to make sure that compliance with the AHDI Model Curriculum is maintained by different educational bodies so that it provides,

• Produce competent entry-level transcription professionals
• Good educational programming
• Good quality assurance
• Consistent education

Take a look at the Model Curriculum at,
http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/Downloads/ModelCurriculum.pdf

List of approved programs can be seen at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/mtapproved.cfm

The AHDI along with AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) has established a certifying committee for the approval of medical transcription programs called the ACCP (Approval Committee for Certificate Programs). The ACCP approval is an ongoing process and must not be confused with a guarantee as there is no formal accreditation process for medical transcription programs.

More details are available at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/eduprogramapproval.cfm

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourcing services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription to clients in the US and also globally.

Medical Coding AHIMA Seminar

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) will conduct a two day seminar called “Achieving Coding Excellence” at Colorado Springs, CO, on February 28-29, 2008.

The meeting is focused at Coding professionals, Managers of coding, Coding Consultants and others involved in the reporting or use of coded data in hospital settings including both long term care and acute care.

Here is the meet’s agenda http://www.ahima.org/coding/documents/Agendaforwebsite11.30.07.pdf

By attending the conference one can,

• Gain appreciation for how the consistency of coded data and the role of data quality in measuring compliance and quality of care reporting.
• Understand the impact of the new MCC/CC codes, documentation requirements, and query opportunities
• What’s new in the ICD-10-CM classification system
• Apply coding guidelines and expand clinical knowledge for coding specific challenges.
• Awareness of the coder’s role in emerging clinical terminologies and classification systems in electronic health record.

Registration details are available at http://www.ahima.org/coding/2008CCRegistration.asp

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.