Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Trade groups to lawmakers: support overseas transcription
A group of health information organizations has urged state lawmakers and Congress to avoid regulatory action that could prohibit or limit outsourcing of medical transcription services to offshore companies. Demand for medical transcription and other health information processing services has grown significantly in recent years, but a critical shortage of skilled workers to handle the workload remains, the trade groups said. As such, some companies are sending work offshore.
The associations advocate increased investment in health information workforce development and adoption of communication technology and new technologies that advance critical healthcare outcomes.
"Legislation prohibiting or encumbering outsourcing would further exacerbate the shortage of health information workers and have a direct and immediate impact on patients and healthcare organizations," said Linda Kloss, executive vice president and CEO of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), one of four groups that recently petitioned lawmakers. AHIMA and the other trade groups fear that such legislation might disrupt the flow of patient healthcare information and payment to healthcare providers. The California Health Information Association, the American Association for Medical Transcription and the Medical Transcription Indus try Alliance have joined AHIMA's efforts.
When putting patients first fits the bill: one hospital shows how a change in billing format can reduce costs and improve patient satisfaction - Featu
Rene Siegel dreaded trips to her mailbox. Her aging father required hospitalization on an annual basis at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. And while the clinical outcomes were generally positive, the same could not be said of the billing experience.
Each time one of the familiar white envelopes appeared, the anxiety of having her father in the hospital was replaced with annoyance at having to decipher a confusing or duplicative statement.
Siegel had difficulty understanding the source of the charges, determining what the insurance company would pay or had paid, and identifying exactly which portion of payment was her responsibility. Only after calls to hospital staff could she find the answers.
Unfortunately, Siegel's situation wasn't that unusual. Many patients and their family members were calling the hospital with questions. They were not paying their share as fast as Cedars-Sinai would have liked. And frequently, the high satisfaction that patients associated with the hospital based on their clinical experience was replaced by frustration at later dealing with the billing department.
Faced with these challenges, Cedars Sinai decided to overhaul its billing system in January 2002. Staff researched ways to adapt internal processes and technology to provide patients with enhanced timing and content of communications. Within six months of implementing its patient-focused billing program, the provider saw call volumes drop by 31 percent, improvements in patient feedback, and a significant savings in postage for billing communications.
Time for a Bill Fold?
Looking back, Cedars-Sinai can identify several catalysts for implementing the billing system change. Most pronounced were poor timing of communications, vague or incomplete messages regarding patient payment responsibility, and mailing inefficiencies.
Poor timing. Cedars-Sinai would send the patient a generic letter stating that the insurance company had been billed. The patient would then be sent a separate bill. Also, the system generated a separate bill for every month the patient had a visit. Thus, Cedars-Sinai often had to send out several statements to a patient, which confused patients and resulted in high postage. Some patients requested detailed itemizations on their bills, but these detailed itemizations tended to be too lengthy--frequently as many as 12 pages--and very hard for patients to understand.
What's your problem? No worries—medical billing is still a viable business
Q I'm taking a course on medical billing. Is this still a good business?
Name withheld
A We've included medical billing as a "best business" since the first edition of our book The Best Home Businesses for the 90s (J.P.Tarcher) came out, despite the harm done to this field by business opportunities that promised more than they could deliver to prepare people to do medical billing. Experts estimate 30 percent of doctor's offices and other medical providers contract out their billing.
The homebased medical biller needs to think of his or her market as smaller practices and medical providers that seek payment for services to their patients from third patties. These include chiropractors, dentists and psychologists.
A small office often has difficulty keeping and training an employee to do its billing accurately. Thus, independent medical hillers have more expertise than employees with a variety of office duties. Outside medical billets should be able to increase the revenue of their clients while reducing their overhead.
Medical billets must understand the security and privacy standards for handling medical data provided for in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. These standards change, so you must be up-to-date. For more information regarding new developments in medical billing.
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