What is Osteopath Medical Transcription?

There is a rising demand for preventive healthcare and a holistic approach to medicine in the world today. But, often we find that there is still confusion in understanding the difference between allopathic, osteopathic and chiropractic practices of medicine. Actually Osteopathic medicine is an American medical care system that was started in 1874 by Andrew Taylor Still, M.D., D.O. This form of healthcare has its emphasis on the role of musculoskeletal system in health and disease. Take a look at the website of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm

In the United States, an osteopath (or an osteopathic physician) must be a graduate of one of the nation's osteopathic medical schools. Each school is accredited by the AOA and has recognition by the U.S. Department of Education. Thus Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.s) are fully licensed medical physicians and surgeons and do practice all clinical specialties along with their M.D. colleagues. However, they are trained to be generalists first, and specialists second. Osteopaths being one of the fastest growing segments of healthcare professionals in the United States, it is estimated that, by 2020 at least 100,000 osteopathic physicians will be in active medical practice.No wonder more and more medical transcription professionals are specializing in the field of Osteopathy medical transcription.

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is practiced by osteopathic physicians and involves the use of hands to diagnose illness and injury and encourages the body's natural tendency toward good health. Along with all other available medical options, Osteopathy physicians are able to offer the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.

Here is a list of all the different osteopathic associations: http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=lcl_assoc

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

Medical Transcription Tools and Equipment

Medical transcription has evolved over the years and has always made use of the cutting edge technologies. Many different tools/equipment get used during the medical transcription process. Here is a list of the different tools/ software and equipment that are used either during home based medical transcription or at a bigger work unit that may consist of transcriptionists, editors, Quality Assurance, leaders etc. This list of equipment and tools is not exhaustive.

• MP3 playback software
• Document processor software (like LYX)
• Version Control software
• Time markers
• Bud microphone
• Digital voice recorder
• Headphone
• Computer with Internet/Printer
• Desk and comfortable chair
• AAMT Book of Style
• Encryption software
• File/Documents management software
• Blue Cross/ Shield Directory
• Electronic Medical Dictionary
• Fax machine
• Document shredder
• Word processing program
• Audio playback software
• Anti virus program/
• Thesaurus/dictionary for windows
• System recovery software
• Drug/pharmaceutical reference guide
• Foot pedal
• Ad blocker
• Medical specialty books
• Google toolbar
• Spyware removal Utility
• Monthly newsletter
• Telephone line
• Editing software
• Conference recorder
• Voice recognition software
• Dictation recording equipment
• Text counting software (for home based work)

Voice recognition is one technology area that is being actively researched upon and one can expect a near perfect voice recognition software in the future that will make the transcriptionist's job much easier.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding for clients in the US and outside.

Medical Transcription Book of Style 2008 Edition

The 3rd edition of "The Book of Style for Medical Transcription" will be released in March 2008 by AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity). It has been the standard manual for the medical transcription industry and maintains a superior data capture and documentation quality.

The AHDI site says that this third edition will deliver a streamlined and strategically reorganized flow of critical data, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings.

The book can be preordered at https://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/bos3epreorder.cfm

What is going to be new in this edition? Well here is the list:

• Reorganization of all content into topical sections and chapter
• A detailed content index at the beginning of each chapter
• A professionally drafted content index at the end of text
• Foreword written by John H. Dirckx, MD
• A "What's New in This Edition" preface that provides a detailed list of all changes in standards of style addressed in the text for ease of reference
• Completely redrafted content sections throughout the text, particularly in Section 2: General standards of Style
• More detailed, comprehensive content explanations and rationale for standards and style recommendations
• More and better style application examples taken from a clinical medicine context
• A complete chapter dedicated to medical record types and formats, including a new section addressing turn-around times (TATs)
• A complete chapter dedicated to medical record privacy, security, and integrity, including all standards and recommendations previously housed in AHDI's HIPAA for MTs paper
• A complete chapter dedicated to amending and modifying the patient record
• Trend Notes included throughout the text that alert the reader to the current and/or potential impact of emerging technologies (EHR/EMR, speech recognition, etc.) on a particular standard of style
• An entire section of chapters addressing trends and drivers in the industry, including:
• Chapter 25-ASTM Standards for Healthcare Document Formats
• Chapter 26-CDA for Common Document Types (CDA4CDT)
• Chapter 27-Standardized Nomenclature for Medicine (SNOMED)
• Chapter 28-Speech Recognition and SR Editing
• Medical specialty chapters with organized standards, including many new classification systems not included in the 2nd edition
• Cross-referencing throughout the text to redirect users to related information and standards Duplication of specific standards, where appropriate, in more than one chapter in anticipation of where users will most likely look for information

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company offering professional yet affordable medical billing, coding and medical transcription services world wide.

Medical Transcription Security

Everyone realizes that medical transcription projects are being increasingly outsourced to low wage countries like India and the Philippines. This is mainly because these Asian countries are in a position to deliver the goods with good quality at a much lower rate than is made available within the US. But, what happens to the confidentiality of online personal / patient information? How safe is transmission over the Internet? What if someone with vested interests tries to access it? Without some assurance of the confidentiality of the data it would be futile to take the risk of outsourcing. Well HIPAA is here to take care.

So what is HIPAA? It stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. This act regulates the exchange of all patient information using electronic methods. Patients are protected from unlawful disclosure. Thus we see that companies must be HIPAA compliant. Only then will the doctors be sure that all their valuable patient data and dictations are safe and never get into wrong hands.

What are the different requirements of HIPAA compliance for any medical transcription company? Thes include,

• Maintain traceable trail of all personnel who handle specific data
• Password protection
• Encryption of data
• Compliance officers must be appointed

What is the purpose of encryption? Encryption and password protection is essential to protect patient data and one can be sure that no one will be able to access the sensitive information without an authorization. Data encryption makes sure that even if some one else happens to get access to the file he will no able to understand/ decipher whatever is written. Therefore, all digital voice recordings/dictations that are sent via the Internet for transcription must be encrypted. Thus the different requirements include,

• Secure FTP (file transfer)
• Physical protection /security
• Login codes for employees
• Filters
• Firewall
• Encrypted e-mail
• Monitor each desktop
• Backup of tapes
• Be prepared for natural disasters

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services for clients across the USA.

TROTTS and Medical Transcription Turnaround Time

It is indeed a small Global world today. The Internet and globalization has made it possible to get back office work done half way round the globe as if it were being done in the next room. Medical transcription is one BPO service that is greatly appreciated because it involves critical medical data and involves medical billing, insurance claim and reimbursement. Hence all vendors have known the importance for a minimal TAT (Turn Around Time). Offshoring of work to Asian locations with about 12 hour time difference is a very naturally convenient feather in the Asian service provider's cap, especially for bigger and regular hospital transcription projects.

Different Turnaround times from 72 hrs to 24hrs to 12 hrs to a few hours to almost realtime transcription have been provided by the domestically outsourced agents as well as from these offshore locations using the latest state of art web technologies. Today you also have voice recognition software being used that instantly displays the "text form on screen" though of course it has to be humanly edited by the transcription professional or physician. However, faster need not necessarily always be better. Everything needs a standard and so does the transcription outsourcing industry. That is why TROTTS is here!

What is TROTTS? Well it stands for Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS). Last September the The AHIMA-MTIA Task Force on Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS) invited all transcription managers to participate in an industry survey. The TROTTS task force was given the responsibility to jointly developing recommended standards for transcribed report turnaround times on selected report types.

So what are the new standards of MT TATs, I mean TROTTS? If anxious, be there for the 19th Annual Conference of the Medical Transcription Industry to be held at Long Beach CA from April 23-26, 2008. Here is a link to it. http://www.mtia.com/Conference.cfm "The New Standards: TROTTS" is a topic on the agenda and will be presented by the MT Industry leader Sean Carroll. Sean Carroll has got the Smithsonian Computer World Award for technology innovation in healthcare for automated speech recognition applications and has been the elected president of the medical transcription's international trade association many times.

Here is the schedule of events for the conference we have been waiting for. http://www.mtia.com/downloads/MTIA%202008%20Schedule%20at%20A%20Glance.pdf

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based BPO pioneer and medical transcription company that offers professional domestic and offshore medical coding and medical transcription services.

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 Transcription: How to Ensure Good Quality Recordings

If you are representing a hospital that produces voice/dictation recordings which are outsourced / offshored outside your premises for medical transcription and conversion into typed text, then you must be very wary of the quality of your audio material recordings because it can directly affects the costs.

The main fact to remember is that taking care of your audio quality will greatly enhance the cost affectivity of your outsourcing campaign. How? Let me explain. Did you know that all transcription material that comes in for transcription is first assessed? The time taken and charges for transcription will depend on the quality of the recordings. Obviously with bad recording, transcription takes more time and so more work hours and higher charges of transcription. Some of the factors that affects the time /cost of transcribing that are considered while assessing a transcription /dictation recording include,

• Background noise level
• Clarity of recording
• Speed of speech
• Clarity of voice
• Number of speakers
• Accents of speakers
• Technical language used
• Content
• Collect essential details of the material transcribed
• Get details of all participants/leaders

So how does one go about creating good quality audio recordings for your transcription outsourcing provider? Well, essentially one has to make sure that the recording is done as perfectly as possible by,

• Making a test recording
• Minimize tape "hiss"
• Use digital recording
• Minimize background noise
• Use more microphones if more than two people
• Plan all breaks beforehand
• Avoid speakers from speaking among themselves
• Get all details of the speaker/participant (Gender/ title/ representation etc)
• Note Words/minute

Outsource Strategies International (OSI ) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourced solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription service for clients globally.

Medical Transcription Rules for Preparing Reports

There are certain basic rules that must be followed by all the professionals in the medical transcription industry. The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) style guide is very popular and is in use around the globe. The style guide guides the medical transcription professional in all the different aspects of transcription that includes topics spacing during typing of text,numbering/ numerical typing, punctuation, hyphenation, drug terminology, capitalization rules, measurements, symbols to be used, classification rules, proofreading and more.

Let me now mention about some of the important rules that must be followed during the transcription/preparation of various medical reports.

• While writing the history of the present illness it is preferred to use the present tense or a mixed tense.
• Use past tense only while writing about a past medical history.
• Type all allergies in capital
• The Assessment/Diagnosis/Impression report must be entirely in capital letters without abbreviations for any medical terminology. However measurement units can be abbreviated.
• Use past tense in discharge summaries
• If no allergies found, type "No known drug allergies."
• All major physical examination reports to be in the present tense
• Use the correct verb tense to communicate the appropriate time of the action.(even if the dictation is wrongly tensed)
• The title "Doctor" is to be written in full
• Capitalize brand name medications. One must not capitalize generic medications.
• Use Latin drug abbreviations.
• Arabic numerals must be use when referring to strength, dosage and directions in medication.

Take a look at the basic style guide with the Courtesy of Global Medical Transcription and MT Daily at http://www.mtdaily.com/style.html

If you are looking for a professional medical transcription company that can offer outsourced medical transcription service along with medical coding/billing, just call the Oklahoma based OSI (Outsource Strategies International).

Tips for Medical Transcription Dictation

Years back when I was in India, I knew a pharmacist who was the only one who could decipher everything our hospital's only physician scribbled /prescribed on his pad. (Many rural Indian hospitals still follow the system). Believe it or not, whenever the pharmacist took a day off or was on leave, the pharmacy would give out wrong medications that turned up to be tragic. We later solved the problem by getting a mobile phone for our pharmacist friend whom we called up even on his "off days" and clarified what the physician prescribed. Surprisingly he could solve the problem even over the telephone.

Today it is not bad handwriting but bad dictation. It indeed makes the medical transcriptionist's job more difficult and highly prone to mistakes. Further it causes waste of valuable time. So what can be the solution to this problem? Is it possible to have an exclusive transcription professional for each doctor so that he gets know the physician like the back of his hand?

Well here is a guide with tips to proper dictation that will be very useful for the physician to give good dictations and get error free transcripts. I recently came across a group of medical transcription from different specialty groups who all had similar types of requests/appeal for the dictating physicians /doctors.

• While dictating a difficult medical term it would be greatly appreciated if care is taken to see that the term gets well recorded via the microphone.
• Please start the dictation mentioning about the type/title of document that is been dictated instead of keeping the transcriptionist guessing about it till the end.
• Please avoid the tendency to summarize every thing/procedure and include everything in few long sentences. It would be ideal to present the facts in shorter and more communicative sentences if possible.
• Would appreciate if uncommon abbreviations are expanded and dictated when possible.
• Please move your face away for a moment from the microphone to sneeze/cough.
• Please finish your snack before beginning the dictation or keep it for afterwards.
• Never forget to mention the basic information like date/name/ summary etc
• Try and avoid talking fast/ yawns /hiccups while dictating.

Physicians/surgeons should be aware of the background sounds/ noise and how it can become a hindrance to listening to the dictation. Just a pause at such occasions would be greatly appreciated and can save a lot of time.

Outsource Strategies International(OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription service for clients globally.

Surgery Medical Transcription

In any allopathic medical practice, surgery is an important aspect. Surgery transcription involves converting all the surgeon's voice tapes about a surgical procedure into neatly typed documents. And thus surgery transcription is an important specialty in medical transcription. Surgery transcriptions are used for settlement of insurance claims and legal matters.

Some of the different types of surgery transcription areas include,

• Dental surgery
• General Surgery
• Cardiovascular/thoracic surgery
• Abdominal/ gastrointestinal surgery
• Orthopedic surgery
• Obstetric and Gynecology surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Plastic surgery

The surgery transcription process can be very demanding from the medical transcriptionists as it requires a deep knowledge of various surgical procedures, surgical techniques and familiarity with the different medical and surgical equipment that is used during surgery. A good transcription professional will have a good knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and the various types of diseases that affect the various parts of the body.

A good knowledge of the different procedures and surgery performed along with familiarity with all related terminology will go a long way in correctly transcribing the surgeon's voice tapes without making mistakes. However in case of pending doubts it is always better for the medical transcription professional to check out directly with the surgeon who actually did the job. A lot of medical equipments are used by the surgeons that the medical surgery transcriptionist has to be familiar with. These can include knowledge of,

• Surgical instruments (Scissors / scalpels etc)
• Surgical Diathermy
• Endoscopic instruments
• Suction apparatus
• Anesthesia machine
• Pulseoximeter
• Plethysmographs
• Multi parameter patient monitors
• Defibrillators
• Autoclaves
• Infusion devices
• Autoclaves

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers a wide range of medical transcription, medical billing and coding services to the clients across the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Medical Transcription Professional: See Where He Comes In!

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.

HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription

What is HIPAA? It stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. It is the standard for electronic exchange of sensitive patient data and protects patients from disclosure of their medical data without authorization. HIPAA has many regulations for electronic transmission of sensitive patient data that define internal procedures that have to be followed for privacy and security. It has become mandatory for all medical transcription service providers to comply with all HIPAA requirements.

Thus HIPAA compliant medical transcription service providers must,

• Ensure security of PHI (Patient Health Information)
• Maintain record of all those who access patient information
• Implement new technology/processes
• Provide physical security requiring password protection.

Today most Medical transcription companies get their transcription done from transcriptionists who may be located elsewhere often outside the US. Transmission is done using the Internet. How safe is the Internet? HIPAA requires all online transmission of voicemails and e-mails be done only after encryption. Or one must use a secure FTP site to send documents. Whenever documents are faxed, a disclaimer statement explaining the confidential nature of the information has to be attached. Telephone dictations are however exempted from the need for encryption during transmission of patient data.

Take a look at the full text of HIPAA at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/Downloads/HIPAALaw.pdf

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

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.

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.

Medical Transcription Equipment and Technologies

As in many other fields, digital equipment technology forms the backbone of the modern medical transcription industry. The keyword here is "digital". Over the years most transcription equipment have evolved and digital technology has made it possible for finished medical transcripts to be delivered across the globe in minimal turnaround time. It has also enabled effective outsourcing /offshoring of medical transcription and enabled transcription professionals from other developing countries like India/Philippines to offer their services at competitive rates. Good transcription professionals around the globe can now work even from the comfort of their homes.

Some of the technology/software and gears commonly used in the medical transcription business include,

• Digital microphones
• PC based transcriber software
• Digital transcriber stations
• Speed typing software
• Telephone dictation equipment
• Dictation management software
• Transcription desk reference
• Medical spelling checker
• Micro-cassette voice recorder
• Transcription wrist gloves (fingerless)
• FTP software
• Audio file encryption software
• Conference recorders
• Universal foot pedals
• Stedman's electronic medical dictionary
• Phone-in dictation system
• Transcriber headset
• Speech mikes
• Storage memory stick
• Document counting/ invoicing software
• Voice recognition software

While a dictation system is the primary requirement from where the physician actually starts the audio recording process, a transcription tracking system can track transcription jobs from the time they are received until they are delivered back to the customer. The system keeps track of all details like the time/date the job was received, transcription date assigned to a transcriptionist, actual date the transcription, date printed, delivery date/time of the transcript, and the delivery mode. A very convenient statistical report lets us to track the propagation time, balance workloads, manage delivery commitments, and provide a multitude of detailed information to the customer - in both paper and electronic form. The most common form of dictation format used today is the .DSS File Extension.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable outsourcing of medical transcription, medical coding and medical billing to clients globally and in all the US States and cities.

Medical Transcription Software

As of today, medical transcription is still preferred to be done manually but a lot of effort and research is going on to develop a software program and make transcription a totally automatic process. With our present day technology medical transcription software and other tools can be of great help to the professional medical transcriptionists. It can greatly reduce the work time and also increase the work productivity and efficiency. But the actual transcription and voice recognition has not been perfected, and thus cannot be totally depended upon.. One cannot yet expect the software to recognize words and use logic like a human being to perfectly come up with the right word all the time. However this is a dynamically evolving area and over the years perfection in automated transcription could become a reality.

So how is it that the present day medical transcriptionists use these software products? When audio dictations from doctors and healthcare professionals are recorded and sent to the transcriber the software is used to create a first draft which is then quickly reviewed by the transcriptionist and edited.

Some of the features / functions of MT software include,

• Capture of the voice
• Speech processing
• Speech recognition
• Document formatting
• Support wide range of audio/video formats
• Remote control /keyboard short cuts
• Quick editing
• Electronic signature
• Document distribution
• Support /manage different time frame rates
• Create time codes and navigate to any specific timeline
• Customize media appearance
• Audio playback possible
• Import data with different settings in text or XML
• Integrates with other healthcare systems
• Easy printing
• Exports / insertions made possible

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

Medical Coding / Billing and H.C.P.C.S

Medical coding/ billing is today one of the 10 fastest-growing allied health occupations. Medical coding and billing professionals are responsible for submitting the proper documents to the various insurance companies and federal agencies for reimbursement of the medical expenses. Medical coders use special codes to specifically identify outpatient and also inpatient procedures / services and this is very useful for billing of both private as well as public insurance companies.

HCPCS stands for Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System. It is a set of health care procedure codes based on the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT). See the official website of HCPCS at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedHCPCSGenInfo

Established in the year 1978, HCPCS provides a standardized coding system for describing the specific items and services provided in the delivery of health care. This type of coding ensures that insurance claims are processed properly and is needed by Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance programs.

HCPCS codes exist in two levels.

• Level I is numerical and consists of the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
• Level II codes are alphanumeric and meant for non-physician health services.

It is very essential for medical coders to keep in touch with the latest codes and changes. This is possible by the use of HCPCS books that contain the complete lists of HCPCS Level II codes with descriptions and guide the medical coder through current modifiers, code changes, additions and deletions.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourced services in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription for clients in the US and worldwide.

Medical Coding: Live Audio Conference on 2008 Updates

The American Academy of Professional Coders (AACP) is now offering audio conferences with various topics throughout the year. Professional coders can get coding education from a qualified presenter while obtaining CEUs (continuing education units) online. Each session is for 90 minutes and one can listen and interact with the presenters. Each session is worth 1.5 CEUs.

Details of Upcoming schedules:

• December 18th 2007 (Radiology Coding)
• December 19th 2007 (Opthalmology Coding)Update

December 18, 2007 (2008 Update Radiology Specialty)

What will the update cover?

• Can get the skinny on new codes and the latest on the federal government's OIG work plan, fee schedule issues, and instructions on new modifiers for 2008 - all targeted to the important 2008 coding and compliance issues of radiology.
• Highlights on the 2008 CPT® and 2008 ICD-9-CM changes. For CPT® 2008, there are 242 new codes, 298 revised codes, and 364 deleted codes. These code changes must be implemented by January 1.

CPT

Understand the latest CPT code and modifier updates that are specific to radiology with instructions for successfully implementing them into your practice. Learn how these changes will affect your organization, and how you can prepare effectively.

HCPCS Level II

Successfully implement the Medicare rules for new and revised HCPCS Level II codes. BONUS: We also cover ICD-9-CM
Find out how the ICD-9-CM changes (effective Oct. 1, 2007) will alter the way you code and how it affects your reimbursement.

Details on the Ophthalmology conference scheduled for December 19th can be seen at http://www.aapc.com/onlinestore/item-details.aspx?pid=5140&id=141

Conference registration forms can be accessed at http://www.aapc.com/documents/Workshop_Audio%20Reg.pdf

AACP Membership details are at http://www.aapc.com/membership/index.aspx

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company offering professional solutions for all medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription outsourcing.

Outsourcing Medical Work

Outsourcing is the process where a third party (who may be located domestically or in a offshore country) is used to perform a company’s in-house work. Outsourcing has many benefits and may involve many different types of activities.

Medical outsourcing of health sector back office processes like transcription, coding, and billing is growing by the day. Medical outsourcing work groups in offshore Asian countries like India and the Philippines are constantly trained to be conversant in US guidelines and standards and services like medical transcription is delivered on a daily or even a few hours turnaround basis.

In recent years medical outsourcing has taken a different path where people are seen taking flights out of the US to get surgeries done. Expensive heart or spine surgeries from cheaper countries mean savings in tens of thousands of dollars. Look at this 2006 Time magazine article titled “Outsourcing Your Heart” at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1196429,00.html

One of the main reasons for the high cost of medical expenses in the US has been due to the lack of competition. Countries like India are planning and focusing on their medical tourism industry where patients from around the world will come for getting high quality health services at competitive rates. As India is a developing country development growth in this type of surgery outsourcing has to develop gradually. But when it comes to processes like medical transcription or medical billing India and the Philippines have already become the world’s favorite destinations.

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

Medical Billing Career

Medical billing is the process of submitting claims to insurance companies and following up to receive the payment for various speciality health services rendered by a health care provider. Medical billing is in itself a specialty area of work and professional medical billers are real experts at claim reimbursements.

Now if you are thinking of becoming a medical billing person, the foremost thing to do is to try and know a bit about the profession, the required skills and abilities and also determine which medical speciality area is preferable to you. It is also essential to know about medical transcription and the medical billing software.

All billing work can be outsourced to professional medical billers who will coordinate between the patient and the health providers/ doctors anytime during the claims process. Transcription work is usually outsourced to some third party who will be from a different location. It is the billing software that links the actual billing and the electronic documents and transcripts that are transcribed from audio recordings by the medical transcriptionist. All health service aspects have specific medical codes. The medical billing personnel must be familiar and also an expert in record keeping. He must also familiarize himself with the various medical codes besides being at ease with various other healthcare standards and certifications.

Medical billing professional can take the CMRS (Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialists) exam which is a voluntary, national credential for the medical billing profession. The CMRS designation is awarded by the Certifying Board of the American Medical Billing Association.For more details go to the AMBA (American Medical Billing Association ) website at, http://www.ambanet.net/AMBA.htm

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