medical billing transcription supplier information

Face it, medical transcription is not "sexy." It's definitely not an area that's topmost on the minds of most hospital administrators. But it is a cornerstone of hospital, physician office, and clinical operations, and if the quality of a hospital's medical transcription services declines, it can cost the organization millions of dollars and create dissatisfaction among physicians.

The question hospital financial leaders need to be asking is, "How can we manage medical transcription services in a way that helps us minimize costs and capital expenditures, speed the revenue cycle, and improve physician satisfaction?" For many facilities, the answer may be to outsource transcription services. To determine if this approach is right for your organization, you should consider the following points, which constitute a primer for healthcare executives who are beginning to explore the outsourcing options.

Transcription Services Today

Certainly, hospitals need healthy accounts receivable and positive cash flows. So it is important that the transcription processes be optimized to enable efficient billing. Interviews with a number of hospital administrators from across the country regarding the impact of medical transcriptions on their operations provided some insight into the status quo in the nation's hospitals with respect to this area.

Three findings were particularly noteworthy:

> The administrators typically want to move toward automated processes to expedite the billing process, increase payment, and reduce employment expenses, but they lack confidence that current technology is up to the task.

> Typically, the transcription department reports to the CFO, and even when it reports elsewhere, the finance department is involved in monitoring the transcription services.

> Backlog was the only dashboard indicator being used by all hospitals. Few have calculated the impact of turnaround time on the revenue cycle.

Other concerns mentioned by the administrators were problems integrating with existing IT systems, physician satisfaction, and transcription quality.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:37 AM