medical billing transcription supplier information

The medical transcription outsourcing market has had to weather financial scandals, medical privacy threats, and offshoring trends that have threatened to decimate the U.S. market. Oddly, none of these factors has been sufficiently lethal to wreck or even weaken the transcription outsourcing industry that has grown around this important back-office task, mainly because it is crucial to the healthcare industry. In fact, new research published by IDC reveals that U.S. spending on medical transcription outsourcing services totaled approximately $2.3 billion in 2004. IDC forecasts that the market will increase to $4.2 billion in 2008, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1%.

"Medical transcription outsourcing is not as high profile, or even headline demanding, as IT needs around other healthcare issues such as the electronic medical record," stated Scott Tiazkun, program manager for IDC's U.S. IT Opportunity, Healthcare research. "What is important to remember is that information from medical transcriptions will be valuable in populating many fields of information in electronic medical records, and in some cases today acts as a de facto medical record."

IDC's research shows that although much medical transcription is still being performed with antiquated technology, IT vendors are springing up to provide this business process with new technology and more efficient and accurate ways to deliver a quality product to healthcare providers. A side benefit will also be reduced medical error rates.

Among the key findings presented in this forecast document are the following:

--Medical transcription outsourcing in the United States will remain in high demand due to new initiatives around the electronic patient record, as well as HIPAA regulations that demand that certain health records do not make their way overseas.

--Although there is some consolidation among larger players, the medical transcription outsourcing market is so overpopulated with smaller providers that consolidation is practically meaningless. Therefore, IT vendors need to make IT solutions and technology available at a price point that makes sense to technology companies that are the equivalent of mom-and-pop operations.