medical billing transcription supplier information

Chiropractic Office Management and Billing Education With Shared Software and Video Knowledge Base

2008-03-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

As chiropractic office management and billing regulations keep evolving and becoming more complex, technology takes the lead role in maintaining practice profitability and post-payments audit risk management. Practice management systems automate most clinic operation activities, starting with patient check in, SOAP note editing, insurance claim creation, and medical billing.

Unfortunately, the high level of computer skill required by the prohibitively complex chiropractic office management and medical billing solutions often hinders the doctor's ability to use such solutions correctly in a chiropractic office environment. Instead of increasing office productivity and efficiency, chiropractic billing software becomes yet an additional obstacle and profitability impediment. Its high cost and user training problems add insult to injury and frustrate even seasoned and accomplished practice owners.

Combining Wiki (shared knowledge repository on the Web) with video technology solve many of the difficult training problems of chiropractic clinic owners and office managers. Such combined solution amplifies the advantages of individual training video materials with Wiki's ability to reach every chiropractic office, share experience of real-world experts, and help practice owners and managers stay smart at their pace and on just the management and billing content they need to know. The “on-demand” nature of such combined solution enables doctors to learn from experts wherever and whenever it is most convenient to learn.

Wiki takes the concept of shared inter-article repository on the Web to the next, intra-article level, allowing multiple contributors share editing process of the same document. By localizing and focusing shared efforts to the same documents, the resulting sites achieve relevance degrees unobservable to popularity-based search engines. (Wikipedia is the most popular example of Wiki: BBC News has called Wikipedia "one of the most reliably useful sources of information around, on or off-line.")

Vericle's training Wiki now contains both introductory and advanced video training materials, starting with Initial Visit (narrative SOAP note documentation), Subsequent Visit, Advanced Coding, Workbench Management Tips, End of Day Reporting, Demographic Error Avoidance, Appointment Scheduling, Patient Check In, Front-Desk Kiosk, and Compliant Billing.

Reduce Medical Billing Time and Overhead Costs for Your Medical Practice

2008-03-17T04:29:00.000-07:00

Organize your Medical Office

The first step to saving time and overhead costs is to get organized in the office. The office is where all patient information and billing is processed. You can't afford to lose patient or billing information. To organize your office, be sure every paper, form and bill has a designated area or file. Be sure the employees are trained properly so they'll know exactly where all paperwork belongs. This helps prevent lost paperwork, and benefits both your practice and the patient. A lost bill every now and then could result in hundreds or thousands of lost dollars each year!

Use Medical Billing Software

Another time-saver is sophisticated web-based medical billing software. This software is designed to make your medical billing easier and keep it organized. You can quickly retrieve records or past-due bills and claims when needed. You can enter information for insurance companies for quick access to process claims. Medical bills and records are stored at a secure online server instead of on your computer's hard drive. You can access the records from anywhere twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records)

Some web-based medical billing software includes an EMR, or electronic medical records, feature that enables you to file medical histories on each patient, scan related images for each medical record, and even dictate information for a transcriber to access from another computer. The EMR feature works through online technology, making it easy to outsource jobs such as medical transcription, medical billing, etc.

Use a Medical Billing Service

You may choose to outsource your billing needs by using professional medical billing services. Companies that offer medical billing services usually will provide the necessary medical billing software, training and staff to get the job done - saving you many future headaches! Once you have the software in place, it's just a matter of entering information into a computer, and the medical billing company handles the rest. They keep your medical billing and claims organized, so you don't have to worry with it. You are able to concentrate on treating patients and keeping other pertinent office functions in operation.

Most medical billing companies today will provide medical billing software and training on how to work with the software to help make the process easy for you and your employees. For example, if the medical billing software is designed to be integrated with Microsoft Office, you might receive a video or materials for yourself and employees with the necessary Microsoft Office training.

Whether you choose to do your own billing with web-based medical billing software or use medical billing services, follow the tips above to create a smooth-running office and watch your profits soar!

Translating Medical Terms And The Requirement For Translation Services

2008-03-15T02:34:00.001-07:00

When we are injured, sick, or generally in need of medical assistance, we take it for granted that once we have reached a point of healthcare distribution, our needs will be expertly seen to. Even when the cause of distress is an emergency situation, we assume that all we need to do is to communicate the nature of our mishap and an expert will solve all our woes.

Imagine though, not being able to communicate that you were in severe pain, or that you couldn't move your leg, or even the circumstances that led up to your accident. The Doctor would lack the necessary background to make a proper assessment and subsequently his diagnosis might be inaccurate.

There are ever growing numbers of UK residents who speak a language other than English in their homes and who have limited proficiency in English. In the U.S. the last reported figures for similar statistics were that out of the total population, around 45 million people's first language was not English and out of these, about 18 million had limited proficiency in English. There are no figures available for the UK, however, as can be surmised; this is leading to growing problems of communication between healthcare providers and patients.

As well as the problem outlined above, which is one of interpretation, this also extends into another dimension, that of document translation. Ever increasing volumes of patient case notes, research notes and other medical documentation are arriving from foreign medical establishments, or need to be sent to establishments abroad and this throws up a unique set of problems.

Any medical data has to be translated precisely and accurately, however, problems can easily arise when attempting to translate medical terms as there is often no direct equivalency in terms. Put in a much simpler way: language is universal but medical terms are not.

The solution to medical translations lays in the use of medical translation specialists. These firms employ dually qualified translators to cut through the confusing terminology of medical terms to reach a coherent and accurate rendering of the source text.

The medical translators in question will all have a language qualification but in addition, will all be qualified in the medical field as well; it is just as well that this is so, as most medical tracts are indecipherable to non-medical staff, even when written in English.

Translating Medical Terms And The Requirement For Translation Services

2008-03-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs

2008-03-13T03:32:00.000-07:00

Thousands of American businesses, no matter their sector, have turned to outsourcing in recent years as a way to reduce their costs without cutting back on the services which they offer to their customers. Outsourcing non-essential parts of their operations allows them to concentrate on the essential ones, and most often, they outsource work to laborers in developing countries

Those companies choosing outsource outside of their own countries will either find a local subcontractor to supply workers, or establish a company branch in the chosen country, selecting a location with an abundance of qualified, inexpensive workers. As soon as these workers have been trained in the jobs being outsourced, the company can expect to see its labor costs reduced, and because it can hire more workers and still get a cost savings, the speed and reliability with which its work is done will improve.

Medical Transcription

Medical outsourcing is becoming more and more common, and most medical outsourcing is of medical transcription jobs. Medical transcription an IT based process of which requires transcribers, with specially designed software, to translate into digital text the voce dictated patient histories and medical treatment records they receive from medical firms. Because medical transcription must be absolutely accurate, it requires excellent listening skills.

Medical outsourcing of transcription is most often given to outsource providers in Israel, the Philippines, and India. Their location in time zones different from those of the US means that they can return the completed transcription in timeframes advantageous to US health care providers. And more importantly, Indian medical outsourcing providers can work very cheaply when compared to transcribers in the US, saving US hospitals millions, if not billions, of dollars each year.

Other Medical Outsourcing

Medical outsourcing, however, is not limited to transcription services. Billing, claims processing, and coding, as well as remote medical and medical help desk services are all outsourced, to the tune of two hundred billion a year when the global numbers are totaled. As the cost of healthcare continues to soar, healthcare facilities and related industries like laboratories have simply turned to medical outsourcing in poorer countries and in the process saved as much as seventy percent their associated expenses.

Medical outsourcing, in fact, has grown to include the clinical trials associated with bringing new drugs to market. The problem with this is that many countries to whom the drug companies have turned in order to save research costs do not have the same government oversight of such trials as the ES and European countries do. While the pharmaceutical companies slash their expenses, many people have questions about the safety of the drugs which result from these trials.

Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs

2008-03-13T03:26:00.001-07:00

housands of American businesses, no matter their sector, have turned to outsourcing in recent years as a way to reduce their costs without cutting back on the services which they offer to their customers. Outsourcing non-essential parts of their operations allows them to concentrate on the essential ones, and most often, they outsource work to laborers in developing countries

Medical Transcription

Other Medical Outsourcing

Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs

2008-03-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

Medical Transcription

Other Medical Outsourcing

Common Questions to Ask When Choosing a Medical Transcription Company

2008-03-11T03:09:00.000-07:00

With the increased ease of entry for new transcription companies into the marketplace, many different factors will determine how each will fit within an organization. How does the medical transcription company measure quality? Do they understand the impact they have on patient safety? How do they price? How do they reconcile invoices? Can they deliver the document on the timing physicians require? What processes do they have in place to meet the security requirements for protected health information? Do they have a platform in place to accommodate speech recognition technologies? These are some of the important questions to ask while making a decision that will affect an organization's overall profitability, and below are the answers that will help you when determining what company meets your needs and helps you achieve your goals without sacrificing important factors like quality, turnaround times and customer service.

How do the Medical Transcription Service Organizations (MTSOs) differ?

The outsourced medical transcription industry is fragmented and companies vary from small, locally owned operations to large international companies. MTSOs are different based upon technology, scalability, quality approach and focus, customer service processes, executive involvement and the ability to respond to and resolve issues. As your organization is thinking about partnering with an MTSO, you will want to carefully consider organizational goals and objectives and match them to the MTSO that best meets your company's needs.

What will it cost?

You can avoid surprises by thoroughly understanding the cost and units for billing at the offset. There are two standard ways to price transcription - Visual Black Character (VBC) and standard price per line. MTSOs have appeared to move more toward VBC in the last few years, as the benefits to the business have been growing. MTSOs choose to utilize VBC pricing as it gives their customers a greater ability to audit and verify their costs. In order to determine which cost/pricing strategy works better for your organization, it should give any prospective MTSOs a package that includes the company's existing reports that may help to set the future cost standard.

How does the MTSO guard protected health information?

Whether your MTSO keeps work within the United States or sends it offshore, it is important to determine how sensitive health information will be protected and whether the company has already established processes for handling health information. How is the work audited and how are these people trained to ensure they comply with all security standards? How are quality checks performed and have any others experienced security issues? If it is an offshore home-based model, are vendors required to sign a business associate agreement?

How are MTs assigned to my work?

Try to find out how MTs are assigned work. Does the MTSO have specialists for certain work types, or is there a general pool of MTs to perform various transcription specialties? Would the account have dedicated MTs assigned specifically to certain work types, or will they differ on a regular basis? Dedicated MTs will be able to become more familiar with individual physicians, their speaking patterns and the types of reports they perform, thus eliminating language barriers and transcription errors.

What type of support structure do they provide?

What is the overall structure of their customer service process? Will your company be able to reach its personal representative at any time, or will it be directed to a general 800 number? When it does call in, whom does the call go to and how quickly? Is the IT staff educated to help with varying technical issues and are they easily accessible and timely in their response?

What type of tools/technology do they provide?

The transcription industry is in the midst of an overhaul of its technology capabilities. Staying on top of these trends and learning to differentiate between each company's capabilities will ensure that the right company is chosen to meet personal business needs. Look closely at the capabilities available to distribute, track and capture inbound dictation and outbound reports. Find out if that technology will work for the physicians at your company and where they will be able to access that information. If the MTSO is utilizing a third-party for this technology, will it affect the timeliness of resolving issues? Also, if your organization changes its scope of work, does the MTSO have the appropriate technology in place for speech recognition and electronic health records should the need arise?

How do they ensure quality?

The need for quality work continues to far surpass other transcription needs. What is the quality assurance process? How quickly will the MTSO resolve quality issues, and if the work is unacceptable and fails to meets requirements within the service agreement what processes are in place to receive timely compensation? Is the MTSO currently analyzing their quality structure and taking steps to ensure all MTs are thoroughly trained and their suppliers are regularly audited? How are MTs held accountable? What training takes place? Are MTs organized in narrow work pools by specialty?

How are bills reconciled?

Some companies are focused on pricing transparency, which will allow the organization to be continually aware of any and all charges it will be responsible for. Some companies have a system in place that allows reports to be run in real time, thus allowing their customers to reconcile bills at any time. Find out how the process works and how you will be charged.

How difficult will the MTSO processes be to implement?

Ask how easily the MTSO technology will be to integrate into the organization. Is there an implementation team? How is service maintained once the technology implementation is complete?

About Heartland Information Services

Heartland Information Services specializes in high-quality, full-service medical transcription providing financial and service advantages that helps its clients reach or exceed goals. Heartland provides unparalleled efficiency, reliability and management capabilities while interfacing with virtually any health information system and software. Heartland's corporate headquarters is located in Toledo, Ohio, with work centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, India. Heartland Information Services can help you answer these questions.

Visit http://www.heartlandis.com or call 866-277-3199 to find out more about Heartland's quality transcription work and how they can help your organization reach its financial and business goals.

Medical Transcription - Physician Dictation Services

2008-03-11T03:07:00.000-07:00

On the face of it, all it seems to need is a word processing software and a dictation recording player. Still, a truly professed medical transcription service will go further than that. It will be instrumental in effective management of amount of SOAP notes that are supplied by the medical offices, along with ably tracking and storing it.

A medical transcription project has to be executed as per the succeeding steps. Foremost, accept recording tapes from the medical practice, transcribe the first SOAP notes duplicate, save it and do the aforesaid task for the whole batch of SOAP notes recordings. Now, crosscheck the transcripts for errors and transport transcript back to the medical practice.

A point to note is that medical transcription itself is of myriad types distinguished by the specialty of medicine as well as the variety of reports transcribed. We have host of MT types like Radiology reports transcription, Cardiology reports transcription, H&P reports transcription, Surgery notes transcription, Lab reports Transcription etc.

As can be seen plainly, medical transcription occupation can be done from homes too. This means that those who have family constraints of staying at home as well as pressing business needs, can surely opt for the activity of medical transcription.

Outsourcing of Medical Transcription Duties

2008-03-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

Although employed secretaries often do this job, it is quickly becoming big as an area for outsourcing. When outsourcing, the transcription can actually be done more quickly than it can in-house. This is because the outsourcing firm or individual devotes full time to the assignment, while a secretary is constantly interrupted with phone calls and other duties.

In a time of growing interest in home-based businesses, these two needs have merged. Many people make a good living from their home computer typing up medical transcripts. It’s a job that pays well. However, this isn’t an easy job. Specialized training and experience are required. If you have it, you’re in demand. Recent years have shown an increase in demand for medical transcriptionists, but a smaller supply. Therefore, it’s a ripe field for the entrepreneur.

As a outsourcing medical transcriptionist, you would be providing services to medical facilities of all types who outsource this activity. You don’t even have to live in close proximity, as long as you have a reliable computer and Internet connection. They will send you an audio file and you type it up, making sure each word is clear and spelled correctly. It is crucial that it be accurate, as this will serve as the doctor’s documentation.

Many American and foreign companies alike are getting on board and offering medical transcription services. In the U.S., it’s usually existing medical companies that offer these services to other medical facilities. Asian companies are the target of many other American health care institutions for outsourcing their transcription needs.

As an industry, it is growing particularly quickly in India and the Philippines, where labor costs are significantly cheaper. Some estimate it is the 4th largest outsourcing industry in India. It’s gaining ground in the Philippines, where it is one of the government’s top 10 priority growth sectors. It is particularly suited to this field because of the Filipino high literacy rate, proficiency in English and medical training. The population of both countries has always been adept at information technology.

Research shows that the U.S. spent $2.3 billion in 2004 for medical transcription outsourcing services. That number is expected to grow to $4.2 billion in 2008. Worldwide, the U.S. Department of Labor has projected the demand for medical transcriptionists to reach $20 billion.

The demand is there, at least for now. If you’ve always dreamed of your own business and are willing to be trained, go to the Internet and do a search on “medical transcription training”. Research several different courses and choose which one suits you and your present circumstances. You’ll be your own boss making a decent income all from home in no time!

Medical Billing - Software System Reports

2008-02-26T04:13:00.001-08:00

In the land of medical billing, we get so caught up in the day-to-day operations of getting the bills out, we completely forget about checking to see if our software system is operating the way it should. Needless to say, as problems become noticeable, it is usually because of neglect in keeping an eye on things. In this review, we'll go over some basic system reports that you should be running just to make sure that your software is performing the way it should.

The first report that you should be running is an error report. All software packages track any kind of errors that occur during processing. This could be any kind of processing from submitting claims, to printing forms to running other reports. This error report should be run on a daily basis. The number of errors that occur should be minimal to say the least. If you find a gradual increase in the number of daily errors, this could be an indication that there are problems with the software. The most common of these are corrupted databases. If you suspect this, run a utility to check the integrity of your various databases.

The next report you should run is what is called a failed request report. This usually has to be run on the server unless the software package itself has this capability. Most high end DME software packages do produce a limited failed request report. But if you really want to get a full blown report with all the details that you're going to need. The usual cause of failed request is a bad network connection. If this is what you suspect, have your network administrator run diagnostics on the network. Also have him check all the wiring and network cards in all the computers. Usually the failed requests will come from one particular computer which narrows down your search for the culprit.

You're also probably going to want to run a report on network activity and system resources. For the most part, unless you have a massive billing department, the activity on the server should be minimal. Memory usage shouldn't even register a blip. However, if you find that there are spikes in memory usage, you might want to look at the times of the day that this is occurring. Find out from the billing department when their heaviest periods are as far as billing and other activities. See if there is a correlation between the two.

Finally, you're going to want to run a report to see the rate at which your databases are increasing in size. If you are a large medical billing company, your databases are going to grow at an alarming rate. While your server capacity may be in the gigabytes, it doesn't take long before you find that your medical billing software is hogging up 50% of your disk space. Once you see this happening, you're going to need to make plans to either add another drive or upgrade the one you have.

Medical billing is more than just sending out bills. If your system isn't functioning properly, you could be out of business before you even know what happened.

Medical Billing - Insurance Carrier Perspective

2008-02-26T04:11:00.000-08:00

Everybody has their own point of view on every subject. In this world, our point of view, at least in our minds, is the right one. Well, that is no different in the world of medical billing. The patients think they should be paid for the claims, the medical billing companies want the patients to get paid for their claims so they can make their money and certainly the doctors want the patients to get paid for their claims or they'll go to another doctor. But what about the insurance carriers? It seems that they are the last people who want to pay claims. Well, this is for a very good reason. While everybody else is getting paid, the insurance carriers are paying out.

Sure, these carriers also get a monthly premium from somewhere, whether it be from us poor workers if they are a government agency or from the patients themselves if they are a private insurance company. But the truth is, especially with government run agencies, the money coming in is far less than the money going out. That is why the United States Medicare and Medicaid programs are in such trouble and in danger of going broke. Medical costs are skyrocketing because doctors are charging more and more for services, but the common worker doesn't make enough to put into the fund to make up for these increases.

As for private insurance companies, they have an even bigger problem. Whereas the government agencies can work at a loss because they're non-profit, the private insurance companies have to show a profit to their stockholders. Otherwise, the company goes out of business. This makes it so that they are even more reluctant to pay out claims. This however, is a real catch 22. See, the people they are paying the claims to are the people who are providing them with their income in the form of insurance premiums. So if they're not being paid, they're going to take their business elsewhere. Talk about a no win situation for a private insurance company. That's why so many of them have gone out of business over the last 30 years. Even the big giant Prudential has had its problems.

Because of these concerns, the insurance carriers have to be very careful about paying out claims. They have to research each one carefully to make sure the claim itself is legit. This will ultimately slow up the process, which is what medical billing companies and patients end up complaining about. But the truth is, there are a lot of bogus claims out there and if these insurance carriers paid out on all of them, they'd be broke sooner than you can say "I've fallen and I can't get up". So it is understandable that these insurance carriers run their businesses the way they do.

The point of this article is to give these carriers a little slack if you're a patient or a medical billing company. Remember, without them, you wouldn't have a job and would have to pay for your medical bills out of your own pocket.

Medical Billing - DME Software Lookup Tables

2008-02-25T03:26:00.000-08:00

In this installment of medical billing and DME software, we're going to cover a brief overview of lookup tables, which is probably the heart and soul of the whole DME system. Without lookup tables, the whole operation of the system, including the medical billing itself, would be extremely difficult.

A medical biller has a hard enough job as it is. When billing a medical claim, there is an enormous amount of information that has to be sent to the insurance carrier, including patient information, item information, insurance information and so on. If you read the series on DME NSF 3.01 record specifications, then you already know that hundreds of fields of information are transmitted to the insurance carrier. If the medical biller had to enter all this information by hand, the billing of one claim would literally take hours. To speed up this process, lookup tables are used.

A lookup table is essentially a self contained database that has information pertaining to that area of billing, whether it be patient, item or carrier related. The reason that many tables are used is because of the amount of information that is contained in each table. If they were all combined into one table, the lookup process itself would be slowed to a crawl because of all the records the lookup would have to go through. As it is, with very large billing agencies, these lookup procedures can take several minutes depending on how large the network is and its capabilities to handle the load.

Each lookup table is indexed, usually in several ways. By doing this, a medical biller can lookup patient information in a number of ways. For example, if the biller doesn't know the patient's ID number, they can look it up by the patient's last name. Some lookup tables allow you to do a broad search via city and state. For item lookup tables, if the biller doesn't have the sku number, they can look up the item by description. Of course, with many of the same items in the system, this method can be time consuming.

The main point of a lookup table is that for each table, there is a large amount of information that is tied to it. So by looking up a patient, the biller is pulling all the information associated with that patient, such as name, address, phone, date of birth and a number of other things. In the process, all these items are automatically pulled to the various forms that need to be filled out. So what would normally take maybe 5 to 10 minutes to fill out, can literally be done in seconds. Obviously, this is a real time saver for medical billing agencies and greatly reduces costs, which are high enough as it is.

Quite simply, without lookup tables, DME software would be pretty much worthless, as the bulk of the operation would be the manual input of hundreds of pieces of information, which would totally defeat the purpose of having the software, to speed up operations.

Medical Billing - Allowable Tables

2008-02-25T03:23:00.000-08:00

In the world of medical billing, nothing is more dreaded by billing companies than allowable tables. There are numerous reasons for this. In this particular installment on medical billing, we're going to cover the main reasons why allowable tables are such a pain the backside.

Before we do that, it would probably be a good idea to explain what an allowable table is for those who are not familiar with them. Allowable tables usually refer to Medicare billing, though there are other government carriers that also have allowable tables. An allowable table, as applied to Medicare, is a table of prices for each item that can be billed to Medicare. In other words, let's say a patient needs a wheelchair. If wheelchairs can be billed to Medicare, they will have a table entry for how much Medicare will pay for that wheelchair, whether it be to purchase it or rent it on a monthly basis. Sounds simple enough and it is. The problem is what this actually means to the medical billing company.

The first problem this presents is actually getting the allowable tables from Medicare. The reason this is important is because a medical billing agency has to know how much they are permitted to bill for each item. If they overbill for the item and actually expect to get paid that much, it is going to come as a big shock to them when their payment is considerably less than what they expected. So a medical billing company must get these tables setup in their system. To do this, they have to get them from Medicare. Guess what? It's not a free service. They have to pay for it and it's not cheap.

Then there is the matter of actually loading these allowable tables into their system. This has to be done just so or nothing is going to bill correctly. This is a common problem with an allowable table update. Sometimes the files are corrupt, sometimes the software has a bug in it and on and on. Agencies hate when it comes time to have to do an allowable table update, which is usually done four times a year, every quarter.

The bigger problem is when a company bills for a certain item that costs them a certain amount of money and they are hoping to get a certain return on that item. For example. Let's say a company is selling a wheelchair to a patient for $350. The wheelchair costs the company $250 and they hope to make $100 profit on the sale. Medicare has the allowable set to $350 so all is well. Then, the next quarter update comes out and Medicare lowers the allowable for that wheelchair to $300. The agency now can only bill for $300 and can only make $50 on each sale. This cuts their profit margin in half. This is more common than you know and it drives medical billing companies crazy.

The sad part is, there is nothing that can be done about this. Medicare will allow what it will allow and that is the end of it. The company has no other choice but to absorb the loss. Yes, allowable tables are a real pain in the backside.

Medical Billing - Oxygen

2008-02-23T04:40:00.001-08:00

Before we get into the record specifications for billing oxygen claims, we're going to briefly discuss what is involved with oxygen billing and what it covers. In spite of what a lot of people think, it's more than just the oxygen itself. Oxygen billing, as a part of medical billing itself, is one of the most widely billed items.

Part of the reason for this is because of the number of smokers we have in the United States, which is where these billing specifications are meant for. Unfortunately, one man's suffering is another's prosperity. The number of smokers in this country who ultimately end up with chronic respiratory disease are the main contributors to the oxygen billing industry. It is estimated that if smoking didn't exist, at least 75% of the number of oxygen claims could be avoided. While nobody has actually proven this statistic, certainly the overall problems that have been uncovered because of smoking, do at least partially support this theory. Hopefully, the day will come when smoking is a thing of the past and these theories can be proven.

However, until that happens, oxygen billing will be big business. And as was stated up above, it is more than just billing oxygen. There are a number of pieces of equipment that go along with a patient who is on oxygen. All of these items are billable and come with quite a high price tag. And everybody wants to get a piece of the pie, from the manufacturers of the equipment itself to the doctors to the forms makers to the billers. It's no wonder that medical costs are so sky high. And of course as is true with just about everything else, where the demand is the greatest, the costs are also the greatest. In comparison to other billable items, oxygen therapy ranks up towards the top.

The actual items that are billable cover quite a range of things. There is of course the oxygen itself, which they literally bill by the liter. Every breath is costing somebody a fortune. And of course the oxygen has to be contained in something and also distributed via some means.

Probably the most common way for oxygen to be administered to a patient is through a device called a concentrator. And make no mistake about it, these things cost a pretty penny. Concentrators are made up of a number of parts, all of which can easily break down. So concentrator repairs also add to the cost of these claims. In some cases the concentrators are under warranty, but for patients who are on oxygen long term, such as patients who have serious lung diseases, these warranties are usually only good for a year. After that, any repairs have to come out of the patient's pocket.

Of course none of this even touches on the complexities of oxygen billing, which require calculations and conversions in order to bill the exact amount of oxygen the patient must get per every 30 days or so. This also is added to the cost of billing and the ultimate cost to the patient or insurance company, which ultimately leads to higher premiums.

Medical Billing - Hiring A Staff

2008-02-23T04:39:00.000-08:00

If you're in the medical billing business, or plan to get into it, one of the most important things you're going to have to do is hire a staff of billers. This may sound easy but it is far from it. In this installment, we're going to cover some basic things that you're going to want to look for when hiring a billing staff.

The first thing you want to look for, probably above all else is somebody who has knowledge of the industry. The reason for this is because the medical billing industry is filled with rules and regulations. Medicare regulations alone are enough to make your hair stand on end. The last thing you want is for a biller to have to look up every single regulation before sending out a bill. They need to have a solid command of the rules of the industry or productivity is going to suffer greatly.

The next thing you're going to want is somebody who has excellent typing skills. Sad as it is, most of medical billing comes down to typing and a lot of it. The person will have to type up order pages, patient accounts and a number of other items. Plus, they will be doing this all day. It is critical that they are able to get a certain amount of claims out or the company will not be as profitable as it could be.

The next thing you want to look for in a medical billing person is somebody who is technical to some degree. The reason for this is that most billing today is done by computer and many claims are no longer printed on HCFA 1500 forms but instead sent electronically. If the person you hire is not familiar with modems and things of a technical nature, they are going to have a hard time doing their job in today's environment.

The next think you want to look for in a medical billing person is somebody who is trustworthy. The medical billing world deals with a lot of information that is private. Your biller is going to be seeing information such as patient files that is for nobody's eyes. They are going to have to be able to see all of these things on a daily basis and keep their mouth shut about it.

Finally, you want to find somebody with a great attention to detail. Medical billing is one of the most complex things you can do. Aside from all the regulations and forms, there are things like enteral billing and parental billing where they are going to have to understand feeding methods and conversions. For oxygen billing, they're going to have to know how to calculate oxygen units. They will need to be able to tell when a claim just doesn't look right. For example, if oxygen units shows some crazy amount, they are going to have to be able to recognize this.

All in all, medical billing is harder than most people think. That is why it is important to hire a medical billing staff that can handle the job well.

Medical Billing - GP0 Record Fields 22 Through 33

2008-02-21T01:11:00.000-08:00

We're finally coming to the end of our review of the GP0 record for medical billing of claims via electronic media, using NSF 3.01 specifications. In this installment we'll be covering the last twelve fields, which is where most of the differences are between the parental nutrition CMN and the enteral nutrition CMN, which we reviewed previously when we covered the GE0 record. We pick up this installment with field number 22.

GP0 field 22, positions 78 - 92, is the amino acid name. This is the field that tells the carrier the name of the amino acid that is being administered to the patient. This field must be filled in with the actual name of the acid. No abbreviations or brand names allowed.

GP0 field 23, positions 93 - 96, is the amino acid volume. This field tells the carrier how much of the amino acid the patient is to receive per day, not per feeding, for parental nutrition therapy. This amount is transmitted in milliliters and must be exact.

GP0 field 24, positions 97 - 101, is the amino acid concentration. This field tells the carrier what the exact percentage of concentration is for the amino acid that is being given to the patient for parental nutrition therapy. In this case, a decimal is used to show a concentration that is less than a whole percentage, like 10.5%.

GP0 field 25, positions 102 - 105, is the amino acid weight. This field tells the carrier how much the amino acid that is given per day, weighs in grams. If the number of grams prescribed per day is greater than 100, then a narrative explanation must be given in field number 31.

GP0 field 26, positions 106 - 109, is the dextrose volume. This field tells the carrier how much dextrose is in the prescription given to the patient, per day. This field is transmitted in milliliters and must be exact.

GP0 field 27, positions 110 - 114, is the dextrose concentration. This field tells the carrier what the percentage of dextrose is, in relation to the entire solution given to the patient on a daily basis. As with field number 24, a decimal is used if not a whole percentage.

GP0 field 28, positions 115 - 118, is the lipids volume. This field tells the carrier what the volume of lipids is given to the patient on a daily basis. This field is also transmitted in milliliters and must be exact.

GP0 field 29, positions 119 - 123, is the lipids concentration. This field tells the carrier what the percentage of lipids is in relation to the whole mixture, given to the patient on a daily basis.

GP0 field 30, positions 124 - 126, is the lipids frequency. This tells the carrier how many times per week lipids are used in therapy.

GP0 field 31, positions 127 - 226, is the narrative field. This field is used to give the carrier any information that is not covered above that is required, such as explanations.

GP0 field 32, position 227, is the administration technique indicator. This field is used to tell the carrier how the parental nutrition is being administered. Valid entries are N, G, J, or O.

GP0 field 33, positions 228 - 320, is filler national and must be filled with spaces.

In our next installment of medical billing, we'll cover another in the long list of CMNs.

Michael Russell

Medical Billing - EA0 Record Fields 39 Through 55

2008-02-21T01:03:00.000-08:00

If it seems we've been covering the EA0 record for medical billing of claims for a while now, that's because this record has more info than almost all the other records in the file. We pick up with EA0 record field number 39 in this installment.

EA0 field 39, positions 209 - 241, is the lab/facility name. This is the legal name of the facility or lab where any work was done. This is a mandatory field and must be filled in or the claim will be denied.

EA0 field 40, position 242, is the documentation indicator. There are a number of fields in electronic medical billing that indicate that something is signed or on file. This particular field indicates that whatever documentation is needed to back up this claim is indeed on file. This is for legal purposes.

EA0 field 41, position 243, is the documentation type. This is a code that signifies what type of documentation is on file, be it a CMN or a PPG or whatever. This tells the payer what the documentation is.

EA0 field 42, positions 244 - 245, is the function status code. This code relates to the diagnosis of the patient and the status of same. Consult your manual for a more detailed explanation.

EA0 field 43, positions 246 - 247, is the CHAMPUS special program indicator. This is an indicator that tells the payer if this is a claim that has to do with a special program in CHAMPUS. CHAMPUS itself was explained in detail in an earlier article. Please consult previous DA1 record articles for this explanation.

EA0 field 44, position 248, is the CHAMPUS non-availability indicator. This indicator tells the payer that the claim is not allowed to receive CHAMPUS benefits.

EA0 field 45, position 249, is the supervising provider indicator. This tells the payer that the services rendered were overseen by a supervising provider in addition to the regular physician.

EA0 field 46, positions 250 - 251, is the resubmission number. This is the number of times that the claim itself has been resubmitted, if indeed that is the case. If this is the initial submission, then this field is left blank.

EA0 field 47, positions 252 - 266, is the resubmission reference number. This is an assigned number given to each resubmission.

EA0 field 48, positions 267 - 274, is the date last seen. This is the date that the patient last saw the physician.

EA0 field 49, positions 275 - 282, is the date documentation sent. This is the date that the actual physical documentation for the claim was sent to the payer.

EA0 field 50, position 283, is the homebound indicator. This tells the payer if the patient is confined to the home.

EA0 fields 51 - 54 are not supported at this time so will not be covered.

EA0 field 55, positions 311 - 320, is filler national and must be left blank.

This concludes our very long review of the EA0 record. In our next installment, we'll cover more claim data with the EA1 record.

Why Outsourcing Takes Your Business to a Higher Level

2008-02-20T01:53:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing is a term used in business and it is gaining popularity on the net as millions of web site owners discover they do not have all the tools and skills necessary to handle each and every portion of their businesses.

Unlike having to find, interview, and hire an employee - and thus incur the tax liability of a new employee - often savvy business owners turn to outside companies. Outsourcing services take on the tasks underlying a business leaving the owner more free time to pursue the front-end of his or her business.

Wikipedia states:

"Outsourcing" involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client."

Outsourcing, therefore, becomes an integrated part of your business. The importance is to determine what should be outsourced, why it should be outsourced, and who will provide your outsourcing services.

Business segments typically outsourced include:

* Information technology
* Human resources
* Facilities
* Real estate management
* Accounting
* Direct Online Marketing and SEO

In addition, many companies also outsource their customer support and rely on call center functions.

Using the Know How of Others

The business owner must be able to step back and make an honest evaluation of his or her talents. We are not all created equal. We all have different strengths. One surefire strength for business success that a business owner must cultivate is the ability to delegate responsibility through the use of outsourcing. That's how a well-run, profit-pulling online business accomplishes its goals.

Today's businesses - large and small - gain immense benefits by finding other companies outside their own arena who possess the technological know how to analyze, plan, and implement target objectives.

In the case of the smaller web site owner looking to gain greater footing with the hot market of search engine results, finding an outsourcing service to handle marketing (and a small portion of advertising) is one such effective strategic move.

Traditional approaches to search engine marketing have, for decades, focused primarily around a web site's meta tags, firming up web page content, and then submitting the site on a regular basis to the search engines. From a purely advertising basis, other companies will insist that just driving "targeted traffic" to a site is "enough."

While both of these methods are viable, a good outsourcing company often adds these two methods at low cost or no cost - just bonuses while the real work of marketing is underway.

Choosing the Right Outsourcing Company

As an online business owner it is easy to become frozen in place trying to keep up on all the possible, working, methods for marketing online. Even if one could find the time to read everything and devise a plan, putting that plan into action becomes cumbersome. Doing even the "smallest" of tasks can literally take hours of your week away from you. Hours better spent on web site enhancements and new products, mailing list contacts, and just being there for your web site visitors. Unless the web site owner is willing to give up some control, the grind of working the foundation of marketing too often must supercede the human approach to being there for your customers.

While we all love to do our initial digging online, pick up a phone and call or send email inquiries or submit forms for call back when choosing an outsourcing service. Make sure your questions are addressed intelligently and at a level of understanding that you feel most comfortable with. Avoid listening to pre-scripted sales pitches where all they want to do is monopolize the phone and beat you down to the point where you really don't know what they can or cannot do. Take control of the conversation, then turn that conversation into an effective two-way street of open communication. Any company not willing to do that - or vague in their explanations of how - should be moved to the bottom of your list as you locate the best outsourcing company to work with you and your website.

Finding a company that understands and weeds out fad flash-in-the-pan methods, and builds your marketing business on solid, proven methods of web site promotion should be your goal. Find that company and establish a two-way street of information and trust in order to work effectively together.

How to Incorporate Outsourcing Into Your Business

"Prior to the contract development of any outsourcing agreement, the outsourcing company develops a request for proposal (RFP) document which highlights the major requirements and scope of the project which is to be outsourced."[1]

Through a bid-like process, or the acceptance of agreed upon stated services at given costs, the recipient company has an actual proposal of services in hand. They know what they are getting, what timeframe to expect, and projected results from this outsourced service.

By outsourcing, the owner understands what the benefits to the service(s) are, but the strategy, planning, and implementing can be safely placed into more knowledgeable and efficient hands to get the job done.

In Summary

Outsourcing is not just for the "big guy." Overall outsourcing is viewed by many organizations as a strong business tactic that ultimately is a superior economical approach to developing products and services.

Simply put, don't try to do everything yourself. You may have many fine strong points, but running your online internet business single-handedly should not be one of them. Learn when and delegating responsibility can actually make your business grow by leaps and bounds. Then find an outsourcing service you can work with - one with a complete understanding of your web site - one that is willing to go extra miles to make your business a success.

The Hidden Costs in Offshore Outsourcing - A Case Study

2008-02-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

One company that staunchly opposes offshore outsourcing is Hesperia, California, based Mer-Mar; oddly enough, Mer-Mar is a contract manufacturing and assembly company and is, by definition, an outsource manufacturer. With over 30 years experience specializing in circuit board assembly, Mer-Mar is an outsource provider to other businesses that do not consider circuit board assembly a core competency and/or do not wish to invest their resources in their manufacture.

The company assembles circuit boards for the medical electronics, aerospace, automotive, entertainment and leisure, and homeland security industries. Mer-Mar is an ISO-9001 certified company consisting of 50 highly skilled employees who abide by industrial quality standards. The company is a regional service provider and supplier delivering high quality manufacturing primarily in the southwest United States.

As an end service provider, Mer-Mar does not outsource offshore. The company’s leadership also has a fundamental philosophy that views offshore outsourcing as impractical for their customers, which are in industries with high quality standards and just-in-time delivery requirements. While some of its larger competitors have commenced offshore outsourcing of various services, Mer-Mar has resisted.

Mer-Mar’s customers rely upon the quality of the products, history of dedicated customer service, and dependability of receiving orders when promised. Mer-Mar is also frequently asked to quickly complete orders for customers within a matter of days. In order to be flexible and responsive to its customers’ requests and to provide adequate support, Mer-Mar is required to remain close to its customers and its suppliers to keep its supply chain accessible and lead times brief. Each of these characteristics is perceived to be vital to Mer-Mar’s success and would be compromised if Mer-Mar were to outsource its manufacturing operations offshore.

Despite Mer-Mar’s favorable reputation, several customers have recently outsourced their circuit board assembly operations offshore. As with other industries, the attraction to offshore outsourcing is the promised cost savings. However, Mer-Mar cautions that many companies fail to recognize the increased soft costs frequently associated with offshore outsourcing.

These soft costs include additional personnel to monitor operations in foreign factories; time and money associated with shipping and customs inspections; costs to rework faulty products; the lack of easily accessible spares, and the challenges of working in a foreign country including communication challenges, low-skilled workforce, unfamiliar laws and regulations, and infrastructure constraints. Mer-Mar believes these additional soft costs frequently exceed the promised hard cost savings that initially lure the company offshore.

Mer-Mar agrees that some lower-level technology or lower-end priced products may be outsourced offshore, highly complex assembly, and/or products for which price is not a major obstacle, often remains in the United States. But, customers that rely on high quality, advanced technology, and skilled labor will need to keep their assembly manufacturers close to home.

For example, customers requiring circuit board assemblies for critical care medical equipment may not be comfortable with the risk level that offshore outsourcing firms represent. Instead, they may depend on local contract manufacturers such as Mer-Mar to do the job. Mer-Mar’s focus is on those customers in specific industries where the need for reliability, accessibility, and repeatability outweigh the cost advantages of going offshore.

Management at Mer-Mar does acknowledge that it makes sense for high volume consumer goods, such as low-level electronics including toys and video games, to be outsourced offshore. In these cases, the cost savings are frequently realized, despite the rework and failure rates of these types of products. The also believe it is acceptable to offshore outsource services when the talent cannot be found domestically. In these situations, a company has no other alternative but to outsource.

Yet, offshore outsourcing is not an option for Mer-Mar. However, due to Mer-Mar’s niche market positioning and reputation for excellence in assembling highly technological and advanced circuit boards, customers continue to rely upon them for these services. With its plant located in the lower-cost, high desert community of Hesperia, and its focus on quality, reliability, and offering service to its customers, Mer-Mar continues to maintain its competitive edge.

Dr. Joe Greco is Director for the Center for the Study of Emerging Markets (CSEM) located in Fullerton, California. As part of the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton, CSEM was established to promote the flow of global information and technology between the academic and business communities. In particular, CSEM studies offshore outsourcing and it economic and cultural impact on US based emerging markets.

Medical Billing - Allowable Tables

2008-02-19T02:01:00.001-08:00

Medical Billing - Choosing A Billing Method

2008-02-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

If you're a medical billing company, your main point of operation is doing just that, sending out bills for services rendered to the various patients that you represent. And while this may seem like a simple decision to make, deciding what method of billing you're going to use is sometimes not as easy as some people would think. In this installment, we're going to discuss your various choices and what factors are involved in making your decision.

First of all, one thing a company has to understand when it comes to billing is that it's not simply a matter of what method you use to send the bill itself. After that part is done, the next part involves posting the money that is paid to you by the insurance carrier itself. How you get paid and how you post those payments, unfortunately has a lot to do with how you bill in the first place. So payment issues must be kept in mind when making your decision.

For example. If you're going to send paper claims, meaning that you are sending a HCFA form, then you automatically make it so that you can't be paid via batch billing methods. Batch billing is when the insurance carrier, supported by the software itself, sends you a file, which you usually download from their site, that contains all your payments. Once you download this file and run it through the batch billing system, the payments will automatically be posted to the patient accounts. However, in order to use this system, you have to batch bill, which means you have to bill electronically.

This is where we run into a cost effectiveness problem. Electronic billing is more costly than paper billing if you don't have a lot of patients to bill. In other words, if you're a small billing company, the cost of an electronic billing system will probably eat into your profits more than what it is worth to use. So the first thing you have to do is a cost analysis of what your electronic package will cost as compared to what kind of revenue you'll be bringing in. Most medical billing companies don't know how to do this and end up having to bring financial analysts in to compute this. That too costs money.

You also have to figure in the cost of the forms you're going to need. If you're doing a lot of DME billing, which is billing of durable medical equipment, a lot of this equipment is going to require more than just a HCFA form. You're also going to need a printed CMN or Certificate Of Medical Necessity form. This is going to add to the cost of your billing expenses.

Another thing to consider when choosing a billing method is the experience of your billing staff. If none of your staff has ever done electronic billing, even if it is cost effective, you may not want to use it because of all the problems you may run into because of inexperience.

When in doubt, it is best to consult with the software company itself. They will be able to give you a pretty good idea of the best medical billing method for you to use.

Medical Billing - Allowable Tables

2008-02-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

Medical Billing - Choosing A Billing Method

2008-02-18T01:36:00.000-08:00

Medical Billing - Hiring A Staff

2008-02-13T02:19:00.001-08:00

Medical Billing - Software System Reports

2008-02-13T02:18:00.000-08:00

Medical Billing - Allowable Tables

2008-02-12T01:53:00.001-08:00

Medical Billing - Hiring A Staff

2008-02-12T01:52:00.000-08:00

Medical Billing - G Records

2008-02-11T02:39:00.001-08:00

Before we begin our installment on G records for medical billing of claims using NSF 3.01 specifications, it may be a good idea to give a brief overview of what G records are for and why they are so special.

Because there are so many things that can possibly be done when it comes to the field of medicine, it is virtually impossible to be able to account for all of them in what we call standard specifications. The standard specifications are your AA0, BA0, CA0, DA0, F records and some other records that are soon to follow in this series. Aside from patient information, doctor or provider information, facility information and finally the actual item being billed, there is some information that needs to be transmitted only in certain cases.

The first thing we need to understand is why we have these special cases to begin with before we can even begin to describe what some of them are. The reason we have special cases really comes down to medical need or what they call medical necessity. Because some items can be so expensive, when there is a call for a certain item or procedure, the doctor has to present a clear medical necessity for that item or procedure. This is done by signing off on a CMN, or Certificate Of Medical Necessity. This needs to be sent to the payer to show that the item being ordered for the patient is needed. Now, this isn't done for a $2 test strip because the cost of processing these items would be greater than the cost of the item itself. No, this is done for items that are very expensive. This brings us to some examples.

A patient is injured in an auto accident. The patient is no longer able to walk, either permanently or at least temporarily and needs a wheelchair to get around in. Because of the expense of that wheelchair, assuming that it is covered by insurance, the insurance company, carrier, or payer, requires the doctor to sign off on this wheelchair that there is indeed a medical need for it. If it turns our through investigation that the patient didn't need the wheelchair, the doctor is liable. This certificate that he signs off on is called a CMN. There is an actual paper CMN that is sent to the payer, but because when electronically billing no paper is sent, an electronic record must be created to transmit these CMNs. There are all kinds of CMNs. Way too many to get into in this article. Because of this, a generic record type needed to be created for each type of CMN. This is where your G records come from and there are a number of them.

In the first installment of our CMN series, we're going to cover the GA0 record, which is a CMN that needs to be sent for a patient that was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Yes, it needs to be shown that the ambulance ride was medically necessary for the patient or the claim for the ambulance ride will not be paid. CMNs are big business. After reading the next few installments, you'll understand why.

Medical Billing - Software System Reports

2008-02-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

Medical Billing - DME Software Forms

2008-02-08T01:53:00.000-08:00

As is true in most of the administrative world, there are more forms than people know what to do with. Go to a doctor's office for a procedure and he'll most likely have you fill out a slew of forms that will end up taking you longer to do than the whole examination or procedure itself. Well, the world of medical billing is no different. There are more forms than you can possibly imagine. We take a look at some of the more common of these forms.

Probably the most common form in medical billing is the HCFA 1500 form. This is the main claim form to bill for services. These forms are enormous. There is more information contained on a HCFA 1500 form than probably on any other form in existence. The amount of information contained in a HCFA 1500 is beyond the scope of this article but some of the main pieces of information are patient personal information, insurance information, items billed and patient medical history. HCFA 1500 form manufacture is big business and these forms are very costly to billers. That is why many medical billers are switching over to electronic billing so that they don't have to deal with these HCFA 1500 forms.

Another billing form, though not as common but gaining popularity, is the UB-92 form for billing. The main difference between the UB-92 and the HCFA 1500 form is the format. For the most part, the same information is transmitted. It's just in different places. There are some things contained on one form and not on the other. But for the most part, they serve the same function.

Another common form is the Certificate Of Medical Necessity, or CMN. CMNs are needed for any item given to a patient where the biller has to show proof that the patient is in medical need of this item, such as a wheelchair or oxygen concentrator. This proof has to come from the doctor who fills out a CMN, which he then has to sign. CMNs are also big business and very costly forms, though not as expensive as HCFA 1500 forms.

Not quite as common are forms called Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services, or CMS forms. These are actually very new and as of this writing, a new version will be coming out in April of 2007. These forms cater specifically to Medicare and Medicaid claims.

And there are a number of other odds and ends forms to add to the above list. Each one has its own specific purpose. Some you may use only once in a year but if you don't have it, it could lead to lost revenue. So be assured that the price you will pay for that form will be a hefty one.

And if all that isn't enough, each of these forms comes in either regular dot matrix form or specially made for laser printing. Yes, the laser forms are much more expensive.

Make no mistake about it. Medical billing forms is big business and one of the biggest costs to any medical billing agency.

Medical Billing Books

2008-02-08T01:52:00.000-08:00

Medical billing books serve as important reference tools in medical billing business. They are ideal for both beginners and experts in medical billing. The main purpose of medical billing books is to educate individuals in all aspects of medical billing business. Each book is an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the billing business.

Most books come with hundreds of tips from popular medical billing professionals, and have valuable topics covering all aspects of medical billing. These are user-friendly and engaging, offering step-by-step help for all insurance claims. They contain federal and state regulations, guidance for completing and submitting claims to various health insurance agencies. These books provide many real world examples, simulations, and review exercises that help the reader to understand different concepts relating to medical billing.

Apart from providing a general idea about medical billing, medical billing books are helpful in evaluating business data such as how much money is required for investing, and how long it takes to set up. They also tell you about the best medical billing courses, correspondence courses (on and offline), training programs, and schools. Medical billing books also serve as guide for selecting medical billing software packages. They also assist your new business, provide you with tricks and secret tips in business and select a suitable name for your new business.

Medical billing books available in different price ranges. You can purchase a good book for less than $100. Book shops and online stores house a comprehensive range of medical billing books. Most medical billing books come with CD-ROMs with practice coding software and other gifts.

Medical Billing - DME Software Navigation

2008-02-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

It would be really nice if when a medical biller opened up the software used to do their medical billing, a little voice said something like, "Press letter A for Administrative Options". Unfortunately, medical billing software doesn't speak to us. Add to that the fact that there is so much involved with medical billing that the menu systems are massive and you've got a real monster on your hands. Talk about walking through a Dungeons & Dragons maze. Fortunately, the navigation for most DME software packages is pretty standard, which makes finding your way around fairly easy.

Most systems have a main menu option where you can go to the main parts of the system. These parts include Installation Options, Administrative Functions, Billing Functions and Maintenance Operations. Some systems have extra options depending on what add ons come with the package, such as retail sales and barcoding. These are usually found under an option called ad ons.

Once you've gone past the main menu options, that's where things start to open up quite a bit. For example. When going into Administrative Functions, you'll usually be greeted with a number of menu options such as adding users, deleting users, changing security levels and a host of other security options. Also a part of administrative functions is setting up your network. There are usually a number of options for adding peripherals such as printers, scanners, barcoders, etc. Basically, administrative functions handle anything to do with controlling your software so that the inmates don't take over the asylum.

Maintenance Operations are a world unto themselves. This section usually involves updating the various sections of the software that has to do with data. Some software systems call this Database Operations. This is where you enter your inventory, doctors, facilities and patients, among a number of other things. Anywhere there is a table of data, you'll usually find it in this section.

Billing Functions include a number of things, such as patient lookup, starting a work order, submitting a work order to a print queue and electronically billing. In some systems the electronic billing subsystem, because it is so massive, is kept separate. This gets kind of confusing for the biller because they're looking for the Medicare electronic billing module and it's not under billing functions. Standardization only goes so far in this industry since every software company is trying to build the better mouse trap.

Add Ons are another world all to themselves. Because there are so many things that can be added to a billing system, there is no way to tell what a biller is going to find in this section. The submenu will have a list of all the add ons but unless the biller is familiar with the add ons themselves, they're not going to know what to do with them. Fortunately, most software companies have manuals made just for the add ons that they include optionally with their system. Just be prepared to do a lot of reading.

Medical Billing - Choosing A Billing Method

2008-02-06T00:14:00.000-08:00

Physical Therapy Billing - Will Outsourcing End in 2008?

2008-02-05T02:22:00.000-08:00

The dramatic economic growth of India has created some negative implications for offshore Business Process Outsourcing organizations (BPO). Some of these implications can be directly attributed to the devaluation of the USD in comparison to the rupee. If this trend persists, and the USD continues to lose its value in comparison to the rupee, only the most efficient BPO's in India will be able to continue to make a profit.

Hundreds of physical therapy practices and rehab billing companies in the United States have outsourced their billing and transcription processing to India, taking advantage of the differences in economic development and favorable exchange rates. Outsourced billing processes typically include claims processing, coding, follow up, and data entry of patient demographics, charge and payment data. Labor arbitration between the United States and India has caused considerable heartache for numerous American transcription specialists, billers, and coders, many of whom had to find other jobs or learn new skills. But in the long run, the grand picture has paid off for both sides by creating new jobs in India, saving money in America, and creating more challenging and better paying jobs for those who stepped up to leadership and managerial roles in the new playing field.

The profits for both the outsourcing and the outsourced organizations depend directly on the exchange rate. If the exchange rate changes and the rupee appreciates against the US dollar, an Indian BPO suffers eroding profit margins. In the last six months of 2007, the rupee exchange rate dropped twelve percent from 44-45 down to around 39 against the USD. Since American doctors are paid in USD and not in rupees, the revenue of the US doctor or therapist, when translated to rupees, shrinks in step with the narrowing gap between the economic levels of these two countries and the melting exchange rate.

"For quite sometime I've been reviewing the bottom line margin that started to dip considerably," writes Deepak, Head of the Medical Billing Department in one of the major Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organizations in India. "During the past six months we adopted various methodologies to keep our cost down in all aspects (staff costs, technology, training, etc) so as not to affect the billing rates with our clients. But with rupee exchange rate dropping to around 39 against USD and with no hope of depreciating over the next few quarters, we understand that it would be very difficult to sustain our margins going forward."

Can a physical therapy billing company with significant offshore labor components maintain its profit margins in 2008, against the background of the appreciating rupee? If not, should it reconsider the entire labor arbitration model and in-source at least some of the outsourced jobs?

If the USD continues to lose its value, in comparison to the rupee, only the most efficient BPO's in India will be able to continue to make a profit on outsourcing. To afford the decreasing revenue per doctor, a BPO must be able to increase its volume of clients while simultaneously reducing their workload per each client through automation and, perhaps, secondary outsourcing to other countries.

Reduce Medical Billing Time and Overhead Costs for Your Medical Practice

2008-02-05T02:20:00.000-08:00

Owning a busy medical practice demands organization, tight schedules, and don't forget - plenty of time to care for every patient. In all the hustle and bustle, the very backbone of your financial well-being, medical billing, can get put on the back burner if you're not careful. But, don't let it get out of hand. Use the tips below to develop a steady stream of capital for your practice and keep your medical billing in check.

Organize your Medical Office

The first step to saving time and overhead costs is to get organized in the office. The office is where all patient information and billing is processed. You can't afford to lose patient or billing information. To organize your office, be sure every paper, form and bill has a designated area or file. Be sure the employees are trained properly so they'll know exactly where all paperwork belongs. This helps prevent lost paperwork, and benefits both your practice and the patient. A lost bill every now and then could result in hundreds or thousands of lost dollars each year!

Use Medical Billing Software

Another time-saver is sophisticated web-based medical billing software. This software is designed to make your medical billing easier and keep it organized. You can quickly retrieve records or past-due bills and claims when needed. You can enter information for insurance companies for quick access to process claims. Medical bills and records are stored at a secure online server instead of on your computer's hard drive. You can access the records from anywhere twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records)

Some web-based medical billing software includes an EMR, or electronic medical records, feature that enables you to file medical histories on each patient, scan related images for each medical record, and even dictate information for a transcriber to access from another computer. The EMR feature works through online technology, making it easy to outsource jobs such as medical transcription, medical billing, etc.

Use a Medical Billing Service

You may choose to outsource your billing needs by using professional medical billing services. Companies that offer medical billing services usually will provide the necessary medical billing software, training and staff to get the job done - saving you many future headaches! Once you have the software in place, it's just a matter of entering information into a computer, and the medical billing company handles the rest. They keep your medical billing and claims organized, so you don't have to worry with it. You are able to concentrate on treating patients and keeping other pertinent office functions in operation.

Most medical billing companies today will provide medical billing software and training on how to work with the software to help make the process easy for you and your employees. For example, if the medical billing software is designed to be integrated with Microsoft Office, you might receive a video or materials for yourself and employees with the necessary Microsoft Office training.

Medical Transcription - Physician Dictation Services

2008-02-04T00:25:00.001-08:00

Medical Transcription involves the transformation to text variant of taped SOAP notes. The recording of SOAP notes is done by medical practices but the process of transcriptioning is left to the professionals as that operation can take away all the time and resources of a medical center.

On the face of it, all it seems to need is a word processing software and a dictation recording player. Still, a truly professed medical transcription service will go further than that. It will be instrumental in effective management of amount of SOAP notes that are supplied by the medical offices, along with ably tracking and storing it.

A medical transcription project has to be executed as per the succeeding steps. Foremost, accept recording tapes from the medical practice, transcribe the first SOAP notes duplicate, save it and do the aforesaid task for the whole batch of SOAP notes recordings. Now, crosscheck the transcripts for errors and transport transcript back to the medical practice.

A point to note is that medical transcription itself is of myriad types distinguished by the specialty of medicine as well as the variety of reports transcribed. We have host of MT types like Radiology reports transcription, Cardiology reports transcription, H&P reports transcription, Surgery notes transcription, Lab reports Transcription etc.

As can be seen plainly, medical transcription occupation can be done from homes too. This means that those who have family constraints of staying at home as well as pressing business needs, can surely opt for the activity of medical transcription.

Outsourcing of Medical Transcription Duties

2008-02-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

One of the largest growing sectors of the medical field is that of medical transcriptionists. Hospitals, clinics and doctors offices require the doctors’ words to be put into writing for patients’ files and other documentation purposes. In addition, a most hospitals require it to be in digital format. Hence, the need has arisen for people to translate doctors’ oral reports into digital documents.

Although employed secretaries often do this job, it is quickly becoming big as an area for outsourcing. When outsourcing, the transcription can actually be done more quickly than it can in-house. This is because the outsourcing firm or individual devotes full time to the assignment, while a secretary is constantly interrupted with phone calls and other duties.

In a time of growing interest in home-based businesses, these two needs have merged. Many people make a good living from their home computer typing up medical transcripts. It’s a job that pays well. However, this isn’t an easy job. Specialized training and experience are required. If you have it, you’re in demand. Recent years have shown an increase in demand for medical transcriptionists, but a smaller supply. Therefore, it’s a ripe field for the entrepreneur.

As a outsourcing medical transcriptionist, you would be providing services to medical facilities of all types who outsource this activity. You don’t even have to live in close proximity, as long as you have a reliable computer and Internet connection. They will send you an audio file and you type it up, making sure each word is clear and spelled correctly. It is crucial that it be accurate, as this will serve as the doctor’s documentation.

Many American and foreign companies alike are getting on board and offering medical transcription services. In the U.S., it’s usually existing medical companies that offer these services to other medical facilities. Asian companies are the target of many other American health care institutions for outsourcing their transcription needs.

As an industry, it is growing particularly quickly in India and the Philippines, where labor costs are significantly cheaper. Some estimate it is the 4th largest outsourcing industry in India. It’s gaining ground in the Philippines, where it is one of the government’s top 10 priority growth sectors. It is particularly suited to this field because of the Filipino high literacy rate, proficiency in English and medical training. The population of both countries has always been adept at information technology.

Research shows that the U.S. spent $2.3 billion in 2004 for medical transcription outsourcing services. That number is expected to grow to $4.2 billion in 2008. Worldwide, the U.S. Department of Labor has projected the demand for medical transcriptionists to reach $20 billion.

The demand is there, at least for now. If you’ve always dreamed of your own business and are willing to be trained, go to the Internet and do a search on “medical transcription training”. Research several different courses and choose which one suits you and your present circumstances. You’ll be your own boss making a decent income all from home in no time!

Outsourcing And Transaction Costs - The West's Achilles Heel?

2008-02-02T01:27:00.001-08:00

Today the value chain in a typical business has become riddled with transactions due to outsourcing.

Product is transferred from raw material provider through the outsourced value chain to the end customer.

Each of those transfers generate transactions such as ordering, shipping, billing, receiving, customs clearing, settling and so forth.

A simple transaction such as billing triggers a number of multiple transactions. On the shipper's side, generating an invoice, booking the sale, delivering the invoice, receiving the payment, booking the payment and so forth, and on the receivers side, receiving the invoice, registering the invoice, receiving the goods, booking the receipt goods, generating a payment and so on.

I can mention many more transactions but you get the idea.

So with the advent of outsourcing, as the number of functions outsourced increases, so do the number of transactions multiply because each of the outsourcers will perform al these necessary reciprocal functions which generate transactions and the costs associated with them.

A traditional value chain used to consist of, for example, a supplier of raw materials, a manufacturer, a wholesaler and a retailer each generating a number of transactions as the product gets transferred from one to the other. Today each of the players in this value chain will have a number of its own internal processes outsourced, thus generating more transactions as they do so.

As more is outsourced, more transactions are generated.

Current studies indicate that up to 70% of the cost of a product in a long value-chain are transaction costs (see the purple shaded area in the chart above). This is an enormous slice of the pie that some competitor inevitably will be able to take a bite out of if he/she solves the issue of transaction costs and either reduces the costs considerably or takes many of them out altogether.

The dominant factor in global trade is Transaction cost not Labor Cost.

A reduction in the transaction costs is where the greatest damage can be done to the West's economies and where it is most vulnerable, a veritable Achilles' heel.

So how do you reduce the transaction costs in this equation?

Ensure that your transaction costs are the lowest in the current environment through increased investment in Information Technology thus maintaining a sufficiently steep barrier to entry for any competitor.

Reduce your existing transaction costs by outsourcing transaction processing to a Subject Matter Expert (SME), whose critical mass and expertise ensures a reduction in these costs.

Shorten the value chain by vertical integration and thus eliminate most of the external transactions generated by outsourcing.

One part of the solution is to have superior and efficient Information Technology that reduces the costs of these transactions thereby keeping them lower than your competition, making it difficult for them to compete.

A perfect example of a company that understands the basics of information warfare is Wal-Mart and the way it uses information technology as a weapon. Its competitors are unable to match its transaction costs. Wal-Mart has other cost advantages such as, huge volume/critical mass, its own distribution system and so on.

Due to its enormous investment in IT and the lead it has in information management the threat to the West is relatively low in the short run, however they must maintain their technological edge in information management in order to avoid becoming vulnerable in this race. Many emerging economies are rapidly ramping up to come to do battle with the Western economies in this area.

Smaller companies with high transaction costs and not enough capital to invest or insufficient critical mass should be scrambling to outsource their Information Technology and Business Processes to an SME. With their superior system integration skills and critical mass these SME's will reduce their customers' transaction costs.

Another option is to eliminate the number of transactions involved in the value chain through vertical integration and by eliminating a number of links in the chain. An attack like this is much harder to defend against as it takes considerably less investment than maintaining a superior Information Technology infrastructure. This is the real threat to the dominance of the West.

The internet has always been a threat to some players in the value chain and will continue to be a real leveler of the playing field as technology improves its performance and more and more people start gaining confidence in performing transactions over the web.

The internet has taken out many middlemen that used to be in the value chain and has started with the retailer. Look at what happened to the travel agencies, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Expedia have all taken an enormous chunk of business away from the traditional Travel Agent. That is just on the retail end. Phase two is already underway. There is a threat to that model with the arrival of YTB and various other turnkey secure hosted travel portals where the end consumer is the travel agent.

When have you last ordered Anti Virus software in a shop, or Adobe Acrobat software, or Microsoft software and upgrades or for that matter car insurance from Geico? What I am trying to say is that selling on the internet through internet storefronts is already a reality.

Now, once these contract manufacturers from China and India and other emerging countries move up in the value chain and are able to bring the products, they currently manufacture so cheaply on an outsourced basis, directly to the consumers through vertical integration by acquiring distributors or a mail order houses in the West, God help us.

So what does this mean?

Information Technology should be used as a weapon in Information warfare. We must become system integrators encompassing the entire value chain. IT budgets should increase not decrease and should be based on its effect on the entire value chain. CIO's must view themselves and become enterprise economists not just corporate CIO's.

Optimize other phases and disciplines in the value chain, as competitive advantage is provided by many factors, business processes, volume or critical mass, distribution techniques, utilizing the Internet, as demonstrated in the Wal-Mart example.

The winner of Information Warfare will be the entity that understands that Information Technology is the weapon of choice and is capable of integrating the information that encompasses their entire value chain.

Transaction Costs must be reduced to the point where they are equal or less than those of a vertically integrated value chain, or else the ability for emerging countries to beat the West to the consumer through vertical integration with lower transaction costs and lower prices will become a reality in the long run.

King Of Rules Of Choosing The Legitimate Wholesaler

2008-02-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

No matter you are a eBay seller, drop shipper or sales distributor, your product source is the key of success. In other words, who has lower priced products is the one who will grab more chances to win the game.

There are tons of wholesalers and each of them claims to have the lowest price offer. Confused? You should be, if you are not aware of the tricks of how business is operated and the complexity of computer-world that touts itself about bursting information, technique and scams.

From personal experience and collective knowledge i want tell you a three-step way to identify the legitimate wholesaler.

Step one: choose a candidate list. You don't have to finish this work in a hurry. Do a wide comparison and make a candidate list that meet your requests. Those companies who have significant advantages in scale, price and diversity of product line should earn your consideration.

Step two: check their reputation and credibility. Weed out those obvious cheaters and ones who have negative track history. Always remember when one is too good to be true, it probably is.

Search the company reputation in Google to find reviews and relative information made by other individuals or organizations. Such as look up the wholesaler website history in whois.com, check Google PR value and Alexa traffic rank. Or you can go with relative message boards or forums to ask for decision-make help.

Thoroughly inspect wholesaler's website. Search all the company information. Legitimate company will state their information clearly and fully. Pay attention to the concrete contacts like a fixed line phone number and physical location which allows you to reach them in person. The missing of any one should add to your doubt. Also legitimate wholesalers usually allow secure online payment via Pay Pal or online credit card transactions.

Step three: make contact. Firstly, you can contact via email. Ask detail information about product condition, shipment and return policies if it have any. In most conditions your will get a prompt reply either tell you the information or refer a link of web page. Notice how long it takes to reply and what kind of manner is displayed.

Still feeling suspicious? Then make a phone call or use the live chat function. Talk about your worries and conditions and listen carefully of their response. Be wary of the company that urges you to take their services.

By now you have gathered all the information necessary. Then here is the final step - place a sample order. Don't be too afraid to place your first order, think it as a test. See if the goods are available as they say and will arrive within the estimated time. And most important check the quality according to its statement.

Electronic Medical Billing - Should You Use A Clearing House Or Bill Directly To Insurance Companies

2008-02-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

Medical Electronic Billing - Thru a Clearinghouse or Going Direct

Most people think that the only choice is whether to bill on paper, or submit your claims electronically. Actually, if you decide to file your claims electronically, that just opens the door to many other decisions that must be made.

First of all, is your software capable of electronic filing? If you are not sure you will need to check with your software vendor to find out. Most likely if your software is capable of handling the NPI number then it is capable of electronic filing.

Once you determine that your software is capable you will need to decide if you are going to use a clearinghouse. A clearinghouse takes all of your electronic claims and reroutes them to the correct insurance carriers. All electronic claims would be batched together into one file and then uploaded to the clearinghouse. Then you would receive reports from the clearinghouse on the status of all the claims you uploaded.

This method has its advantages since you don't have to separate the claims, you just batch them all together and submit them in one file. The clearinghouse usually charges a per claim fee around $0.39 per claim. If you do a high volume of claims, this can get quite costly.

Most clearinghouses will also drop any claims that cannot be submitted electronically to paper and mail them for you. Some offices like this method because they can just batch ALL claims and send them to the clearinghouse and be done with it. There is no printing, stuffing in envelopes and mailing. Usually the drop to paper charge is a little higher than the per claim fee for electronics.

Another method of medical electronic billing is to file them directly to the insurance carrier yourself. You will need special software for this in addition to your practice management system, but basically you will be acting as your own clearinghouse. The software needed can be costly, but you are eliminating the per claim fee. If you submit a high volume of claims the cost may be worth it. As a billing service billing for over 50 providers across the US, this option works well for us.

We are set up direct with our biggest carriers, Medicare, Excellus, Medicaid and a couple others. Then the remainder of claims go thru a company that acts as a clearinghouse. Submitting direct to the insurance carriers can cut up to 3 days off the processing time.

So once you determine that you want to submit your claims electronically, you need to determine which method will be best for your office. Make sure you research all your options. Good Luck!

How The Billing for Your Medical Services Works

2008-02-01T02:03:00.000-08:00

If you've been to a doctor, you know how crazy things can get with the billing even if you have insurance. In this article, we seek to explain how this maze of red tape works.

Simply put, medical billing involves a series of communications between a doctor's office and a medical insurer. What is medical billing used for? As you sit atop that cold steel table awaiting your prognosis, your doctor's office is engaging in a dialogue with your current insurance company. The topic of conversation? You, of course. As your doctor checks for all your vital signs, various medical codes are placed next to your personal medical information contained within your file.

Once your doctor leaves the examination room, your file then goes into the hands of a medical secretary, and it is sent electronically to your insurance provider using the codes mentioned above. Once your insurer has your medical information, they then begin to check your policy in order to make sure that your claim is valid. If you are covered insurance wise, your insurer will then pay the claim. If not, your medical request will be rejected.

As a matter of fact, medical claims are rejected nearly 50% of the time. In most cases, a lack of adequate communication between your doctor's staff and the insurance company is to blame. Most of the time, a medical provider will have to contact an insurance company more than once in order to make a claim. Codes can become crossed, and medical diagnoses may be overly complicated causing a bit of a problem. What is medical billing used for when it comes to government medical programs?

Whether you have a private or governmental insurance provider, the billing remains the same. No matter what sort of coverage you currently have, there must be some form of consultation between an insurance provider and a medical facility. It is interesting to note just how many claims are filed every day within the United States (millions), and how many people actually know what a medical claim consists of (hundreds).

Now that you are able to answer the original question (what is medical billing?), you have a better understanding of how insurance companies work. The next time that you visit your doctor's office, think about all the different types of interactions that are occurring at that very moment. It may not be the most intriguing subject, but it does effect nearly every person that's ever made a doctor's appointment.

Reduce Medical Billing Time and Overhead Costs for Your Medical Practice

2008-01-31T03:22:00.001-08:00

Medical Transcription Industry Top Trends

2008-01-31T03:20:00.000-08:00

Technology, offshoring and pricing transparency among the key issues

The changing perceptions of offshoring, pricing transparency, and the ongoing development of voice recognition/speech recognition technology are among the key trends impacting the outsourced medical transcription industry.

Positive shift in perceptions about offshoring

As providers continue to get a better understanding of the overall business benefits of offshore transcription - faster turnaround times which help speed the reimbursement process and reduce cost - the number of organizations using offshore transcription continues to grow. Current negative perceptions about offshore transcription will continue to diminish over time as companies begin to address customer concerns by directing more thorough training of employees and suppliers, conducting regular audits, leveraging technology to better guard Protected Health Information and ensuring that a systematic, thorough approach to HIPAA compliance at all levels (MTs and suppliers) is given the highest organizational priority.

Quality matters

While health care organizations continue to focus on speed, turnaround times and costs, quality transcription is equally important. In fact, hospitals and health systems have shown that they are willing to pay more for increased quality of work. Many offshore transcription companies have taken steps to improve the quality (as well as the security/privacy) of reports by providing their own secure facilities, hiring direct employees, having English-speaking editors perform quality reviews, modernizing their technology and software to enable more direct monitoring of MTs work, providing additional coaching and increasing accountability of both direct employees and suppliers. "We have worked closely with our customers to understand how they define quality, and we have established rigorous criteria that exceed industry standards and meet the needs of our customers," says Jerry Cirino, President and CEO of Heartland Information Services, headquartered in Toledo, OH.

Speech recognition/Voice recognition technology improving, gaining acceptance

While the technology is still being enhanced, speech recognition continues to gain acceptance and is an area in the industry that will continue to see significant growth. Companies that recognize the importance of this technology are either in the midst of building their own speech recognition platforms or have acquired the platforms through mergers and acquisitions. The use of SR platform will lead to a shift in demand for back-end editing, which has resulted in an overall increase in productivity.

The move to Visual Black Character

While a large number of medical transcription companies still use pricing per line, the use of Visual Black Character (VBC) pricing, which is endorsed by AHIMA and MTIA, is emerging as the industry standard. "We want it to be easy for our clients to understand and see the value of what we do. We typically price based on VBC because it is easiest for us or the client to audit and verify," says Dennis Paulik, Executive Vice President of Business Strategies at Heartland.

Pricing transparency

Hospitals and health care systems are looking for their transcription partners to provide pricing transparency, which includes invoice reconciliation and the ability to track what the transcription is actually doing compared to what it says it's doing. "Heartland's document delivery software, Tracker Plus, enables the provider to run a report in real time to determine how many VBCs have run, thus allowing them to reconcile invoices during any given period," says Paulik.

Core competencies not forgotten

The medical transcription industry will continue to focus on ongoing core competencies such as timely turnaround times, faster responsiveness and customer service. With ongoing labor shortages and continued pressure for healthcare organizations to reduce costs, the future of medical transcription, although continuing to evolve and expand, remains strong.

Choose The Best Medical Billing Training Program For You And Save Money Too

2008-01-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

There are standard medical billing training requirements to be a 'medical biller'. Employers usually prefer to hire someone who has completed at least nine months of training. So if you want to work in health care but who rather deal with numbers instead of patients you might want to consider one of the many medical billing training courses that are available nationwide. Medical billing specialists handle a wide range of activities including everything from medical office operations, including billing and coding, processing of insurance forms, and using specialized medical billing software.

Medical billing is basically the process covering a wide range of activities but the primary goal of any medical billing company is the processing of medical bills and then submitting claims to right insurance companies in order to receive payments for their clients in a most timely manner. In order to be clear on the payment of a claim, however, the doctor must have complete knowledge of different insurance plans that insurance companies are offering, and the laws and regulations that preside over them.

Check out all the financial assistance programs that are available to you and apply for grants. Find out about federal assistance programs. Federal money is available for online degree programs - do some research. Find out if your course or program qualifies before you sign up. There are a multitude of education loans available. If you do need money to go after your career, keep looking for a solution.

Complete information is easily available online both on how to start a home billing business and develop your career through an online course program.

Learning from home on the Internet may be the best work on a well-paying career. If you plan to sign up at a college or institution, before you sign on the dotted line or pay any fees for training, make sure the institution is accredited.

If you choose an on campus school, after graduating you should be able to find a job in wide variety of health care environments. If you're taking any training locally you can check with the Better Business Bureau to ensure the program, course or school is legitimate.

In the past, specialists were only required to have a high school diploma. So check with your local colleges to find out what career training is available and if there are any licensing requirements. The smaller doctor's offices usually outsource work to qualified businesses who have established an electronic online billing business from their homes.

More job opportunities will be available to you if you have extensive training under your belt. So if you're thinking about becoming a 'medical biller' decide whether you want to attend a local college, take an online training course or a home study course. Schools may be either traditional vocational facilities or alternative distance education or distance learning programs.

There are many online courses available as a career program and starting a billing company. The best career training should include proper certification once you have completed the course. Graduates from most billing schools can plan to earn between $24,000 and $30,000 per year.

Medical billers are increasingly being sought after by clinics, larger medical practices, management services organizations and many other health care providers to perform all of their billing business services. Make sure to compare prices in order to find an on-campus or online school that is within your current budget. Also make sure to find out the graduation requirements.

Today starting your own medical billing business from home has never been easier. There are many Internet training programs that offer introductory, intermediate, and advanced classes. Do try to find financial aid in the form of education loans, federal loans or grants that may be given for online degree programs to make your education experience easier.

What You Can Do With A Medical Billing School Education

2008-01-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

Once you have completed a degree or certificate program at a qualified medical billing school, there are a number of different ways to apply what you have learned. Here are a few examples of what you can do with the medical billing school education and make a comfortable living.

One of the first career options to consider with your medical billing school credentials in place is to seek employment at a doctor's office. You will be able to work with all the abbreviations and other medical jargon that are a normal part of any medical environment. With your expertise, you can make sure that insurance claims are filed properly, that prescriptions and doctor's notes are recorded accurately in each patient file, and that patient invoicing is done in a timely manner. You can easily be a valued part of the office staff, and enjoy your work immensely.

If you prefer a work environment that is larger than a single office, consider going to work in the billing department of an insurance company. With your medical billing school background, you can easily find work checking and verifying information that is submitted on claim forms. The position will allow you to work with doctor's offices and patients to obtain any additional information needed to process the claims, and make sure that correspondence to both physicians and patients is kept current and complete.

As a third option, you can decide to open your own medical billing business. This will allow you to capitalize on your medical billing school education by taking on several clients and taking care of their billing needs. You can work with several different doctors at one time, making sure that payments are posted to their accounts, as well as generate monthly invoicing to patients and to insurance companies. Best of all, this application allows you to set your own schedule, which is always a nice option.

Common Questions to Ask When Choosing a Medical Transcription Company

2008-01-29T01:49:00.001-08:00

Outsourcing of medical transcription services has experienced a steady growth in the last few years as hospitals and clinics come to a greater realization of outsourcing's strategic benefits. Combined with an increased shortage of medical transcriptionists as well as the emergence of increased technical capabilities, hospitals who are deciding to outsource are seeing many overall financial and customer service advantages.

With the increased ease of entry for new transcription companies into the marketplace, many different factors will determine how each will fit within an organization. How does the medical transcription company measure quality? Do they understand the impact they have on patient safety? How do they price? How do they reconcile invoices? Can they deliver the document on the timing physicians require? What processes do they have in place to meet the security requirements for protected health information? Do they have a platform in place to accommodate speech recognition technologies? These are some of the important questions to ask while making a decision that will affect an organization's overall profitability, and below are the answers that will help you when determining what company meets your needs and helps you achieve your goals without sacrificing important factors like quality, turnaround times and customer service.

How do the Medical Transcription Service Organizations (MTSOs) differ?

The outsourced medical transcription industry is fragmented and companies vary from small, locally owned operations to large international companies. MTSOs are different based upon technology, scalability, quality approach and focus, customer service processes, executive involvement and the ability to respond to and resolve issues. As your organization is thinking about partnering with an MTSO, you will want to carefully consider organizational goals and objectives and match them to the MTSO that best meets your company's needs.

What will it cost?

You can avoid surprises by thoroughly understanding the cost and units for billing at the offset. There are two standard ways to price transcription - Visual Black Character (VBC) and standard price per line. MTSOs have appeared to move more toward VBC in the last few years, as the benefits to the business have been growing. MTSOs choose to utilize VBC pricing as it gives their customers a greater ability to audit and verify their costs. In order to determine which cost/pricing strategy works better for your organization, it should give any prospective MTSOs a package that includes the company's existing reports that may help to set the future cost standard.

How does the MTSO guard protected health information?

Whether your MTSO keeps work within the United States or sends it offshore, it is important to determine how sensitive health information will be protected and whether the company has already established processes for handling health information. How is the work audited and how are these people trained to ensure they comply with all security standards? How are quality checks performed and have any others experienced security issues? If it is an offshore home-based model, are vendors required to sign a business associate agreement?

How are MTs assigned to my work?

Try to find out how MTs are assigned work. Does the MTSO have specialists for certain work types, or is there a general pool of MTs to perform various transcription specialties? Would the account have dedicated MTs assigned specifically to certain work types, or will they differ on a regular basis? Dedicated MTs will be able to become more familiar with individual physicians, their speaking patterns and the types of reports they perform, thus eliminating language barriers and transcription errors.

What type of support structure do they provide?

What is the overall structure of their customer service process? Will your company be able to reach its personal representative at any time, or will it be directed to a general 800 number? When it does call in, whom does the call go to and how quickly? Is the IT staff educated to help with varying technical issues and are they easily accessible and timely in their response?

What type of tools/technology do they provide?

The transcription industry is in the midst of an overhaul of its technology capabilities. Staying on top of these trends and learning to differentiate between each company's capabilities will ensure that the right company is chosen to meet personal business needs. Look closely at the capabilities available to distribute, track and capture inbound dictation and outbound reports. Find out if that technology will work for the physicians at your company and where they will be able to access that information. If the MTSO is utilizing a third-party for this technology, will it affect the timeliness of resolving issues? Also, if your organization changes its scope of work, does the MTSO have the appropriate technology in place for speech recognition and electronic health records should the need arise?

How do they ensure quality?

The need for quality work continues to far surpass other transcription needs. What is the quality assurance process? How quickly will the MTSO resolve quality issues, and if the work is unacceptable and fails to meets requirements within the service agreement what processes are in place to receive timely compensation? Is the MTSO currently analyzing their quality structure and taking steps to ensure all MTs are thoroughly trained and their suppliers are regularly audited? How are MTs held accountable? What training takes place? Are MTs organized in narrow work pools by specialty?

How are bills reconciled?

Some companies are focused on pricing transparency, which will allow the organization to be continually aware of any and all charges it will be responsible for. Some companies have a system in place that allows reports to be run in real time, thus allowing their customers to reconcile bills at any time. Find out how the process works and how you will be charged.

How difficult will the MTSO processes be to implement?

Ask how easily the MTSO technology will be to integrate into the organization. Is there an implementation team? How is service maintained once the technology implementation is complete?

About Heartland Information Services

Heartland Information Services specializes in high-quality, full-service medical transcription providing financial and service advantages that helps its clients reach or exceed goals. Heartland provides unparalleled efficiency, reliability and management capabilities while interfacing with virtually any health information system and software. Heartland's corporate headquarters is located in Toledo, Ohio, with work centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, India. Heartland Information Services can help you answer these questions.

Medical Transcription Industry Top Trends

2008-01-29T01:48:00.000-08:00

Attorney Advertising - How To Choose an Injury and Medical Malpractice Lawyer

2007-09-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

Attorney advertising and how to choose an attorney from an ad. “Ooh, ooh, pick me,” “No, pick me,” yelled the ad in the phone book. “I needed an accident lawyer to find out what I need to do since I was hit from behind last week. I looked in the yellow pages in Brooklyn, and found over 40 pages of lawyer ads. Who do I pick?”

The truth is, not all lawyers advertise. Those who do are required to list specific areas of law in which they practice. In New York, injury and malpractice lawyers are not allowed to call themselves ‘experts’ in their field of law. Nor can they misrepresent themselves in an advertisement. For example, they cannot stand next to a person with a cast on their leg, in a wheelchair and a pile of cash on the table claiming that since this person recovered all that money, he or she could do the same for you. That’s nothing more than a shameless sales pitch. The reality is that no lawyer can claim to get you “cold hard cash” because every case is different. Some lawyers claim that they can “Settle your case fast!” Sure they can, for a lower amount than your case might be worth.

Don’t you think the insurance companies that deal with law firms like those know they’re looking for a fast settlement? There’s no incentive for the insurance company to offer top dollar because they know that this law firm isn’t going to take the case to trial. They’re settlers!

There are some yellow pages ads that proclaim the lawyers handle everything from criminal to real estate to injury cases to malpractice matters. Be weary of a firm that claims they can do everything. In today’s legal climate it’s rare that a general practice firm can do all that extremely well. That’s why there are firms that focus exclusively on one or two areas of law, such as medical malpractice and personal injury.

If you call a law firm you’ve found in the yellow pages, ask these important questions: Who will be handling my case day to day? When will I meet with the partner? Who will be negotiating my case? Who will be trying my case? How quickly are my phone calls returned? What is your experience with my type of case? How many cases do each of your attorneys handle at one time?

Does the size of the lawyer’s ad mean they’re a better firm than the one with a ½ page ad or smaller ad? No. It only means that the larger ad costs a lot more (The Verizon yellow pages charges lawyers about $6,500-$7,000 per month for a full page ad. In some counties, lawyers take out a double page ad which can cost between $12,000-$15,000 PER MONTH!). That’s not a typo. That’s per month. We’ve all been trained to think that just because an ad is larger, that it must somehow correlate to how well that firm does for its’ clients. Not necessarily true. You must ask lots of questions and you must become an informed consumer before you choose to hire an attorney based upon an ad in the yellow pages.

Ask the attorney you call whether they can recommend another colleague to get another opinion about your case. If they’re reluctant to do this, I suggest you look elsewhere. Why should the lawyer be afraid to recommend another good lawyer? In all likelihood the injured client will stay with them, especially when they’ve been so honest and willingly advised the client to get another opinion.

Ask the attorney for references from clients he’s helped. Ask about cases he’s lost, and ask whether he’s ever had a client go to another attorney after he started their case. The lawyer you choose must be able to communicate with you and spend time explaining the legal process and what to expect down the road. I’ve never liked it when I’m handed off to a junior associate to handle my questions and the rookie has to go back to the senior partner with all of my questions. Like many of you, I appreciate personal attention- especially in a case where the injuries are severe and life altering. Having an attorney know your file as well as you do, if not better, is extremely important.

When you call the lawyer’s office for an update on your case, do you really want to be asked “How do you spell your last name?” Or how about, “Uh, let me pull your file and see what the other five lawyers did on your case recently.” Or how about, “I’m with another client now, and I’ll call you back,” and you don’t get a return call for days. To me, that’s not professional service. It’s bad enough that you were injured through someone else’s wrongdoing, but you shouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of having your law firm figure out who you are when you call.

Medical Malpractice Suits: Death By Medicine

2007-09-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

A recent report has found that Americans are more frightened of dying at the hands of their doctor than they are of a plane crash. The overwhelming majority of those who participated in the survey said that information about malpractice suits and medical errors would be the single most deciding factor in trusting a healthcare provider. These people must have heard that medical errors cause more deaths in the United States every year than car accidents, AIDS, or breast cancer.

In fact, for the airline industry to parallel medical errors in mortality rates a 280-person jet would have to crash every day of the year. This would account for the over 100,000 people who die annually due to complications in medical care, not to mention the nearly 2 million who are maimed and disabled. This malady is called iatrogenic disease, a disease that is a direct result of medical care. What is causing this epidemic? Many agree that the cause is over-treatment. More medicine is administered than necessary, people are hospitalized unnecessarily, and doctors prescribe drugs instead of healthy lifestyle choices. This is a major problem and it shows no signs of stopping.

In the ten year period between 1983 and 1993 the incidence of death by medical error, or iatrogenic disease, jumped 260% overall and 850% among patience receiving outpatient care. These statistics could only be an indication of the true numbers, because medical error is not often recorded on death certificates. Some people blame the increased number of deaths on a greater number of prescriptions, but the number of prescriptions issued has increased less than 40% in 10 years, compared with the 260% increased death rate. Instead, some doctors blame increased usage of anesthesia, especially among those receiving outpatient care.

Medical malpractice insurance rates have been skyrocketing, causing a small crisis among doctors who must be insured in order to practice. They complain of medical malpractice lawsuits going out of control, large cities awarding record settlements, too many people filing claims. Well can you blame people for filing claims? Doctors must be held accountable for their prescriptions, and if a doctor writes you a prescription that hurts you they deserve to be taken to court! This is truly an epidemic, and it must be stopped by holding irresponsible healthcare providers responsible. One in five Americans has experienced medical errors directly or has a family member who has suffered a medical error. If you feel you have suffered unnecessarily at the hands of a doctor, seek legal council and work it out with a lawyer.

Medical Malpractice - 10 Reasons Why Most Victims Won't Recover a Dime

2007-09-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Despite popular opinion about the “skyrocketing” increase in malpractice suits and awards, the number of suits has not increased since 1996, and in most cases, plaintiffs receive nothing. There are a variety of reasons why patients do not recover any compensation for injuries suffered while receiving medical care. Most of these issues stem from general misconceptions about medical malpractice. It is important for potential malpractice victims to understand these issues while seeking counsel to represent their case.

1. Patients don’t know they are victims of medical malpractice.

Studies show that roughly 2.9 to 3.7 percent of admitted hospital patients suffer some sort of preventable injury as a result of medical management (i.e., not from the original medical condition). Even more management-related injuries occur outside of the hospital. These injuries are a result of a physician /administrator’s affirmative mistake, or that person’s failure to act in a particular situation. Types of mistakes include errors in diagnosis, use of automated materials, and inappropriate delay of treatment.

However, one of the most common errors occurs with administering medication. The Massachusetts State Board of Registration in Pharmacy estimates that in Massachusetts alone 2.4 million prescriptions are filled improperly each year, the majority of which involve providing the wrong strength drug, or the wrong drug altogether. Each layer of communication introduces another opportunity for error. Improper diagnoses and negligent supervision of trainees are other common errors, and both have led to disastrous results in many cases. Up to 98,000 patients are killed each year as a result of preventable medical errors, the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S., yet only 10,000 cases of malpractice are filed each year. In the vast majority of cases, however, the fact that a poor medical outcome was caused by malpractice is hidden from the patient.

2. No autopsy was ever performed.

Remember that we must prove both carelessness on the part of the doctor or hospital and that the carelessness resulted in death or injury. In a medical malpractice case that results in death, it is extremely difficult to prove that the death occurred because of the malpractice without an autopsy. This is because there are so many reasons why a person might have died, but we must prove that at least one of the reasons for the death was the negligence of the doctor or hospital.

3. A physician’s poor bedside manner does not constitute negligence.

In the vast majority of cases, even egregiously poor bedside manner cannot be considered in determining whether a physician was legally negligent in providing treatment. We have reviewed many cases where arrogant doctors provided care and the patient was injured. It just doesn’t matter legally that the doctor was a jerk. We must prove, with expert medical opinion that the treatment departed from good and accepted medical care, and not bad bedside manners, that caused injury.

4. The patient suffered no significant damages.

As we noted above, the legal system is not set up to handle small medical malpractice cases. We decline hundreds of cases a year where it appears that the doctor was careless but the resulting injury is not significant. A pharmacist may incorrectly fill your prescription, and you might get sick for a few days. If you have a good recovery, however, you probably don’t have the basis for a case. That’s because the costs of pursuing the case will be greater than the expected recovery. Our Court system may not be perfect, but it does act as a filter to keep out all but the most serious cases of medical malpractice.

5. The physician or hospital’s mismanagement did not necessarily cause the injury suffered.

As discussed earlier, it is very difficult to prove that medical wrongdoing was the reason why the patient suffered the injury that he or she received. The insurance companies have many standard defenses including, for example, that (1)The injury was an unforeseeable consequence of the initial condition/injury, (2)The injury was due to the patient’s non-compliance with prior medical advice, (3)The risk of the patient’s particular injury was a known, recognized, acceptable risk (acceptable to whom?), (4)Some other party was responsible for causing the injury, or (5)The injury was caused by a previous illness or disease.

Medical malpractice claims must show that the doctor’s substandard care, more likely than not, was a substantial factor in causing injury.

6. The injured patient has not retained an experienced attorney.

The world of medical malpractice claims is a world unto its’ own. It has its’ own special rules and laws. We believe that it is imperative that an experienced medical malpractice attorney or an attorney that is ‘teaming up with’ an experienced malpractice attorney represent you.

7. The statute of limitations has expired.

This is the time a person has to start a lawsuit. The time limit is very different for a city, state or municipal hospital than it is for a private hospital or doctor. One reason that you should consult an experienced medical malpractice attorney early is to determine when the statute of limitations expires in your case! DON’T LET YOUR TIME RUN OUT without knowing your legal options!

8. Jurors have been biased by the insurance industry.

The insurance industry has spent millions of dollars funding research to suggest that there is a widespread problem with respect to medical malpractice suits. These studies claim that excessive verdicts are causing malpractice insurers to raise their premiums, forcing physicians out of the medical profession. It has been proven that increased medical malpractice premiums have nothing to do with lawsuit verdicts! Even the American Insurance Association has said that lawmakers who enact “tort reform” should not expect insurance rates to drop! Jurors who hear the insurance company propaganda then award less of a verdict than they would normally have deemed appropriate. Unfortunately, after the verdict is reduced on appeal, malpractice victims often receive less than is necessary to pay their medical bills for treating the subsequent injury that was caused by the malpractice. Even your doctor probably believes that by capping, or reducing damage awards, this will cure all that is ill with the legal system.

Nothing is further from the truth. The medical malpractice insurance companies are in business to make money. Not to pay out money. The more they pay out in claims, the less profit they and their shareholders take home. I have always asserted that if the doctors wanted satisfaction in reducing their inflated premiums, they should look no further than their own malpractice insurance companies. By demanding rate reductions and by threatening to obtain coverage elsewhere, the insurance companies have to realize that their rates must be re-evaluated. Also troubling is why physicians have not banded together to open competing insurance companies in order to obtain reduced rates.

9. The injured patient is unable to hire good qualified medical experts.

You cannot win a malpractice case without a medical expert. A good expert who is willing to testify can be hard to find. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find doctors who are willing to stand up for what is right and to right a wrong. It takes time and money to find the best experts for your case. This is one area where insurance companies have an advantage. If they have a case that is particularly bad for their doctor, they may show the case to many experts before they find one to support the defense (or concoct a defense). They can afford to hire many experts. Most plaintiffs cannot afford to have ten experts look at their case in order to determine which expert will work ‘best’ for them.

Increasingly, doctor’s professional groups are now attempting to bring claims against doctors who testify against other doctors. These claims seek to revoke the doctor’s board certification or punish the expert doctor for testifying for a patient. This has happened recently in the field of neurosurgery and obstetrics and gynecology. The potential threat of professional repercussions for testifying on behalf of a patient will significantly inhibit many doctors from helping injured victims in seeking justice and proper compensation.

10. Juries like doctors.

Folks sitting on juries rely on doctors when they’re sick. They trust their doctor. Their family uses the doctor. The doctor has trained for many years to learn their specialty. How can the doctor be faulted for something that would have happened even if good care were rendered? Fighting a malpractice case is an uphill battle. But, with proper information, the right facts, the right experts and an experienced attorney, you stand a much better chance of knowing the risks of taking your case to trial.

Medical expenditures during the last year of life: findings from the 1992-1996 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey - Cost of Care

2007-04-25T04:23:00.001-07:00

The elderly (65 years of age and older) have consumed more than 33 percent of health care spending (Waldo, Sonnefeld, and Arnett 1989). Their medical expenses are substantially higher in the last year of life (Scitovsky 1984; Riley et al. 1987; Scitovsky 1988; Gaumer and Stavins 1992; Temkin-Greener et al. 1992; Lubitz and Riley 1993; Scitovsky 1994; Barnato et al. 1999). While only 5 percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries have died annually, the percentage of elderly Medicare expenditures spent on persons in the last year of life fluctuates between 27 percent and 31 percent (Lubitz and Riley 1993; Hogan et al. 2001). Mean annual Medicare expenditures for the last 12 months of life in the elderly rose from $1,924 in 1976 to about $23,000 in 1995, but the pardon of Medicare expenditures spent on beneficiaries in the last year of life did not change during this time period (Lubitz and Riley 1993; Garber, MaCurdy, and McClellan 1999; Hogan et al 2001).

Inpatient hospital expenditures constitute a large portion of end-of-life expenses, but use of this service by terminally ill patients declined in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Temkin-Greener et al. 1992; Lubitz and Riley 1993; Scitovsky 1994; Garber MaCurdy, and McClellan 1999). Still, Garber et al. (1999) observed that hospital inpatient Medicare expenditures in the last year of life among the 20 percent Medicare sample grew from 1989-1995, although perhaps not as rapidly as did expenditures for other services during this time period. Recent initiatives to promote the use of home health care, hospice, and advanced directives might be expected to curtail "unnecessary" or unwanted inpatient hospital and other end-of-life services, but these services are difficult to target without also reducing valuable services (Emanuel and Emanuel 1994).
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The continuing growth of population in the oldest age groups in the United States could also change the portion of medical expenditures spent on the last year of life either through larger numbers of elderly deaths or different medical spending patterns for those dying at the oldest ages. Medicare expenditures during the last 12 months of life decline with age at death (McCall 1984; Scitovsky 1984; Lubitz and Riley 1993). Reasons suggested for this include shorter intervals between illness and death and decreased use of acute care, hospitals, and other services with older age at death (Gaumer and Stavins 1992; Scitovsky 1994), as well as less desire among the oldest individuals or their health care providers to use advanced (and expensive) technological methods to prolong their lives (Kramer 1995). By contrast, endof-life non-Medicare expenses are higher among those with older age at death. Three studies observed rising non-Medicare expenditures with older age at death during the last 90 days of life (Temkin- Greener et al. 1992), last year of life (Scitovsky 1984), and last two years of life (Spillman and Lubitz 2000). This increase in terminal year non-Medicare expenditures with older age at death was largely from greater long-term care facility expenditures for older decedents.

Evaluating Medicare and non-Medicare expenditures among the elderly near the end of life remains important as the American population ages. But end-of-life non-Medicare and total elderly medical expenditures have not been studied or compared to non-end-of-life expenditures in a national sample. We, therefore, study 1992-1996 Medicare and non-Medicare expenditures during the last 12 months of life (referred to as "terminal year expenditures") as compared to expenditures before the last 12 months of life (referred to as "nonterminal year expenditures") using data from the Medicare Beneficiary Survey (MCBS). Expenses are subdivided according to service, payer, and person's age. Implications of the findings with respect to current and future health care costs and efforts to reduce medical expenditures are discussed.

METHODS

Study Population and Expenditure Data

The 1992-1996 MOBS is a weighted, stratified, multistage, area probability sample of Medicare enrollees (community and facility dwellers) drawn from the Medicare enrollment file maintained by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). This sample is supplemented annually to add newly enrolled individuals and replace attrition from death. The MCBS interviews participants/proxies every four months, reviewing all health care encounters with the assistance of calendars, along with explanation of benefits from all payers. To improve accuracy of data, respondents record medical events/ procedures on special calendars, and bring receipts, statements, and medication containers to the interview. In computing Medicare expenditures, MCBS cross-checks and supplements the survey with Medicare claims information. For facility residents, billing office workers are asked to provide data on charges and payments. However, only total health care expenditures for a calendar year (or the portion of the year a person survive s) are recorded and non-Medicare costs cannot be subdivided further from available information on dates of service. More details on the MCBS are given elsewhere (Olin, Liu, and Merriman 1996; Eppig and Chulis 1997). This analysis includes full-year Medicare enrollees aged 65 and older on January 1 of the MCBS calendar year.

Medical Center may step in when King/Drew steps out

2007-04-25T04:22:00.004-07:00

THE proposal to close the trauma unit at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center could benefit at least one Los Angeles hospital.

The plan to close in about 90 days, announced to howls of protests last week by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, has breathed new life into an effort by California Hospital Medical Center to open its own trauma unit. In July, the downtown L.A. facility failed to reach agreement with the county on how many patients would be sent there.

"This whole thing has made people more responsive," said Katreena Salgado, the hospital's director of public affairs. "We are at the point where we are ready to move forward."

The previous discussions foundered when the county only wanted to guarantee $1.6 million in annual funding for 600 projected trauma victims. The hospital projected it would receive 1,000 patients.

But with King/Drew being taken out of the 13-hospital trauma network, the county appears open to new discussions on the matter. The hospital had been projected to treat 1,800 trauma patients next year.
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California Medical Center, which is owned by Catholic Healthcare West, the San Francisco-based non-profit, has increased staffing and made a host of emergency-room improvements in preparation for what officials thought would be a summer agreement on the trauma unit. "We are ready and waiting," Salgado said.

Tenet Billing Impact

Just how responsible might Tenet Healthcare Corp. be for the high premiums paid by Los Angeles County employers? Possibly a lot, according to a recent study conducted for the California Nurses Association.

The study found that 14 area hospitals owned by Tenet were among the top 50 most costly nationally as measured by their charge-to-cost ratio (the amount of their gross charges for services compared to the actual cost).

The hospitals ranged from Midway Hospital Medical Center, which ranked No. 4 nationally and charged nearly 10 times more than its costs, to Queen of Angels/Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, which ranked No. 50 and charged nearly seven times its costs, according to the study by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy.

"They are fighting lot their bottom line. There is a war among the major players in this industry. The market demands and encourages this kind of behavior," said Don DeMoro, executive director of the institute.

Recovering buried revenue potential: New Hampshire medical center deploys document management solution that attracts at-home coders and enables reduct

2007-04-25T04:22:00.003-07:00

Decreasing the number of unbilled days, or the time it takes to generate and mail a bill and get it into the hands of a discharged patient, by just several days can reduce a hospital's weekly cost of unrealized revenue from delayed payments by millions of dollars. That's the kind of bottom-line fact that cannot be ignored as healthcare providers continuously strive for financial security.

Stuck in Coding Limbo

Concord Hospital, a regional medical center based in Concord, N.H., is the second busiest acute care hospital in New Hampshire, with 205 licensed beds and more than 15,000 admissions in 2004. It provides traditional acute care services in 50 medical specialties and subspecialties, and offers individual centers dedicated to cancer, trauma, orthopedics, cardiology and urgent care.

Last year, Concord Hospital's Walk-in Urgent Care Center was in urgent need of three additional coders to prepare and process invoices. Like many healthcare providers, Concord Hospital had always relied on paper-based patient invoices and records to drive the billing process, but mounting cost pressures and compliance with federal regulations such as HIPAA forced the medical center to seek out a better coding method.
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According to Concord Hospital's coding manager, Dottie Poudrier, her department could not keep up with the backlog of paper claims waiting to be coded because of a lack of staff. There was a limited supply of coders looking for jobs, and enticing new hires was an issue, since most candidates wanted to work from their homes. "We needed to offer something special as an incentive to make coders jump ship, since most of them generally stay in one place," she says.

Poudrier's goal was to facilitate the hiring of more coders that would ultimately shave two days off Concord Hospital's average number of unbilled days, which was 14. The problem, though, was clear: How do you keep patient records secure and adhere to HIPAA's strict requirements while attracting quality coders who require the freedom to work at home?

Expediting the Workflow

In addition to addressing the coding staff shortage, Poudrier and her team aspired to eliminate paper completely from the billing process. With this in mind, they mapped out a plan to move to a data entry solution through specialized network devices and customized electronic forms processed by Concord Hospital's mainframe system. To accomplish this, the medical center needed a method of converting existing paper records into electronic documents while the hospital's infrastructure and applications were being revamped.

As an initial step in 2004, Poudrier upgraded the department's photocopier to a digital Canon imageRUNNER equipped with eCopy software from Nashua, N.H.-based eCopy Inc. In the fall of 2004, her staff began scanning paper generated by the Urgent Care Center into the department's computer system. The new process required minimal training. In four hours, the staff learned to scan emergency room records and ancillary claims, including laboratory results, and assign them to a secure network folder that both on-site and off-site coders could access through a virtual private network (VPN).

This procedural evolution allowed Poudrier to entice prospective coders with the option of working remotely; she hired the three at-home coders that she needed. Training them, installing and configuring additional PCs, and setting up VPN access took approximately three months, however. "Coder training and scanning training were minimal. It generally took the remote coders about a week to get comfortable," Poudrier says. Best of all, the remote coders were committed to learning the new process because of the benefits and flexibility of being able to work from home.

Remote Coders to the Rescue

The document management software, coupled with the high-speed scanning capabilities of a digital copier, enabled Concord Hospital to convert paper documents into electronic information that was easily integrated into commonly used business applications, including the existing Novell GroupWise collaboration and communications system and other networked enterprise applications. The result was low-cost, easy and instantaneous distribution and management of electronic copies of paper documents.

Peer comparisons promote improved billing practices - Data Trends - hospitals should compare billing patterns among peer hospitals - Illustration

2007-04-25T04:22:00.001-07:00

Hospitals can best understand the fall range of factors that can affect their outpatient revenue by comparing billing patterns among peer hospitals. To identify missed charges, regardless of cause, this comparison must consider both primary and secondary services appearing on the claims.

Focus 1: Practice Patterns

The analysis of differences in practice patterns, should begin with a comparison of the actual services performed. Simply looking at a charge description master (CDM) alone would not provide evidence of such differences. A hospital in a major Midwestern metropolitan area, for example, compared primary and secondary services delivered in association with echocardiograms with such services delivered by peer hospitals in its market. The peer hospitals had different practice patterns in the type and volume of services. Upon analyzing secondary services, the hospital found that its peers perform a number of additional examinations for a small percentage of patients that it typically does not perform or performs at a much lower rate. For example, the peer hospitals perform cardiovascular stress tests and nuclear medicine exams of the heart in conjunction with echocardiograms 1 to 4 percent of the time, whereas the hospital generally did not perform these exams. The analysis raised the question of whether all hospit als should be performing these studies, and alerted the hospital to a practice pattern that might need to be reviewed.

Focus 2: Internal Procedures

Comparing billing patterns of two or more hospitals also can allow a hospital to identify missed charges caused by deficient internal procedures. For example, upon comparing its MRI services with those of its peers, a large urban hospital found that it was not reporting MRIs in conjunction with emergency department services, whereas its peers were routinely reporting such MRIs. When hospital managers investigated this finding, they discovered that patients' charge tickets were not being updated following MRIs. As a result, billing information for the MRI was not being captured. A CDM review would not have identified this operational problem.

Focus 3: CDM

Following such an analysis, it is critical that the hospital update and maintain its CDM to account for all such secondary codes, as well as recent changes in factors such as HCPCS codes, APCs, and Medicare's rules for coverage. Failure to perform this step will likely lead to missed charges and denied claims.

Billing Alert

2007-04-25T04:21:00.001-07:00

Q: Our business office manager and accounts receivable employee ask a lot of questions about the care and treatment of individual residents--more than necessary for billing purposes. Both seem to think they should have access to all resident information. How much information do they need for financial purposes, and what information would be a violation of HIPAA?

A: The amount of protected health information (PHI) your staff is using, disclosing, or requesting is subject to the minimum necessary provision of the HIPAA regulations. Based on this provision, your facility must determine what PHI is necessary for your staff to carry out their job functions. Use common sense. For example, if someone on your staff is responsible for determining the appropriate ICD-9 codes for billing claims, that staff member will need access to the resident's complete medical record to accomplish that task. Your collections staff should never have access to medical records because their tasks only require the information typically found on the resident's admission paperwork, commonly called the resident face sheet. This data includes the responsible party, addresses, phone numbers, and insurance information. Determine by job function what PHI your staff need to know to carry out their duties. Make a reasonable effort to limit PHI access to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request.

From Billing Alert for Long-Term Care by Lee Heinbaugh, consultant, PMG, LLC (Cleveland), published by HCPro, Inc. (www.hcpro.com). Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management bears no responsibility for the opinions/advice contained herein

Charging and collection concerns: A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran another story in a series about the "growing public backlash" related t

2007-04-25T04:17:00.000-07:00

The issue also is complex. On the one hand, when a hospital or any business provides service, it should expect payment. On the other hand, overly aggressive efforts to collect payments from patients with limited resources appear both harsh and, in many cases, futile. And medical service providers often are expected to provide service even when payment is unsure.

Various state and federal regulations require hospitals to provide certain services regardless of the ability to pay. For example, construction grants and loans through the Hill-Burton program required that receiving hospitals provide a certain level of uncompensated care. Various tax exemptions carry explicit and implied obligations to serve as a community asset. And fair-credit reporting and collection laws restrict the approach that can be used to, charge interest or collect past-due accounts.

Pricing and discount policies also affect this issue. Similar to most businesses, including the Wall Street Journal, hospitals provide discounts to high-volume purchasers. These discounts, often provided to insurance companies and managed care organizations, recognize the benefits of marginal income derived from additional patients, as well as the reduced cost of collection associated with these patients. Other payers, such as Medicare and Medicaid, dictate the prices or discounts that will be provided.
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So, uninsured or underinsured private patients are left paying full prices. And the full charges reflect the hospital's financial requirements, including the "discounts" provided to government and private insurance payers. Thus, private-pay patients pay more because of the "cost shifting" that occurs related to these negotiated or dictated discounts. Seems unfair.

There are macro and micro responses to this problem. On the macro level, this country must deal with the problem of the uninsured and underinsured population. We are the only industrialized country that has not dealt effectively with this issue. It is a national embarrassment. And hospitals and other healthcare providers are stuck trying to deal with a problem that should be addressed properly by policy makers.

The micro solution relates to the manner in which hospitals set prices, set discounts, and pursue collections. Hospital financial professionals should examine their price-setting policies to ensure they are rational and reflect the financial requirements of running the facility. Hospitals also should perform a cost/benefit analysis of negotiated discounts to ensure the benefits received outweigh the costs incurred. As to your collection efforts, embrace the philosophies of PATIENT FRIENDLY BILLING[R] to ensure that your financial communications maintain high customer-service standards (see www.patientfriendlybilling.org). Finally, hospitals should carefully examine and uniformly administer a charity-care policy. Determining the ability to pay is critical to an effective collection effort.

Careful examination and administration of pricing, discount, and collection policies are keys to ensuring that hospitals take a rational approach that reduces the potential for public backlash.

OIG: DME ordered with surrogate UPINs - Updata - durable medical equipment; unique physician indentification numbers - Brief Article

2007-04-13T04:50:00.001-07:00

The OIG's report on suppliers' billing and documentation practices for durable medical equipment (DME), prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) found that 61 percent of services were ordered using surrogate unique physician identification numbers (UPINs) rather than permanent UPINs. According to the OIG, the ordering physicians have had permanent UPINs for at least five years, when one-third of these services were ordered. For 17 percent of these services, the ordering physicians had individual permanent UPINs for at least 10 years before the dates of these services.

In addition, the OIG reported that supporting documentation was missing for 45 percent of services ordered using surrogate UPINs. The OIG recommended that CMS perform a targeted review of claims for medical equipment ordered with surrogate UPINs and continue to educate suppliers and physicians about the need to use accurate UPINs on claims. In addition, the OIG recommended that CMS advise physicians to stop using surrogate UPINs when they have a permanent UPIN. To read the report, go to http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-03-01-00270.pdf.

Medical Center may step in when King/Drew steps out

2007-04-13T04:49:00.002-07:00

Medical expenditures during the last year of life: findings from the 1992-1996 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey - Cost of Care

2007-04-13T04:49:00.001-07:00

Recovering buried revenue potential: New Hampshire medical center deploys document management solution that attracts at-home coders and enables reduct

2007-04-13T04:48:00.002-07:00

Stuck in Coding Limbo

Concord Hospital, a regional medical center based in Concord, N.H., is the second busiest acute care hospital in New Hampshire, with 205 licensed beds and more than 15,000 admissions in 2004. It provides traditional acute care services in 50 medical specialties and subspecialties, and offers individual centers dedicated to cancer, trauma, orthopedics, cardiology and urgent care.

Last year, Concord Hospital's Walk-in Urgent Care Center was in urgent need of three additional coders to prepare and process invoices. Like many healthcare providers, Concord Hospital had always relied on paper-based patient invoices and records to drive the billing process, but mounting cost pressures and compliance with federal regulations such as HIPAA forced the medical center to seek out a better coding method.

according to Concord Hospital's coding manager, Dottie Poudrier, her department could not keep up with the backlog of paper claims waiting to be coded because of a lack of staff. There was a limited supply of coders looking for jobs, and enticing new hires was an issue, since most candidates wanted to work from their homes. "We needed to offer something special as an incentive to make coders jump ship, since most of them generally stay in one place," she says.

Poudrier's goal was to facilitate the hiring of more coders that would ultimately shave two days off Concord Hospital's average number of unbilled days, which was 14. The problem, though, was clear: How do you keep patient records secure and adhere to HIPAA's strict requirements while attracting quality coders who require the freedom to work at home?

Expediting the Workflow

In addition to addressing the coding staff shortage, Poudrier and her team aspired to eliminate paper completely from the billing process. With this in mind, they mapped out a plan to move to a data entry solution through specialized network devices and customized electronic forms processed by Concord Hospital's mainframe system. To accomplish this, the medical center needed a method of converting existing paper records into electronic documents while the hospital's infrastructure and applications were being revamped.

As an initial step in 2004, Poudrier upgraded the department's photocopier to a digital Canon imageRUNNER equipped with eCopy software from Nashua, N.H.-based eCopy Inc. In the fall of 2004, her staff began scanning paper generated by the Urgent Care Center into the department's computer system. The new process required minimal training. In four hours, the staff learned to scan emergency room records and ancillary claims, including laboratory results, and assign them to a secure network folder that both on-site and off-site coders could access through a virtual private network (VPN).

This procedural evolution allowed Poudrier to entice prospective coders with the option of working remotely; she hired the three at-home coders that she needed. Training them, installing and configuring additional PCs, and setting up VPN access took approximately three months, however. "Coder training and scanning training were minimal. It generally took the remote coders about a week to get comfortable," Poudrier says. Best of all, the remote coders were committed to learning the new process because of the benefits and flexibility of being able to work from home.

Remote Coders to the Rescue

The document management software, coupled with the high-speed scanning capabilities of a digital copier, enabled Concord Hospital to convert paper documents into electronic information that was easily integrated into commonly used business applications, including the existing Novell GroupWise collaboration and communications system and other networked enterprise applications. The result was low-cost, easy and instantaneous distribution and management of electronic copies of paper documents.

Using the new software allowed Concord Hospital to offer a digital document workflow that could accommodate teleworkers. The at-home coders who Poudrier hired have been 25 percent more productive than those coders who work in-house, she says. Overall, Concord Hospital's coding department has experienced an almost 50 percent decrease in the average number of unbilled days, from 14 days to 8 days. No one anticipated the results would be so dramatic, particularly not the medical center's administrative department. By hiring the at-home coders and decreasing the number of unbilled days, Concord Hospital reduced its weekly cost of unbilled days by an average of about $3.6 million, according to Poudrier.

Peer comparisons promote improved billing practices - Data Trends - hospitals should compare billing patterns among peer hospitals - Illustration

2007-04-13T04:48:00.001-07:00

Billing Alert

2007-04-13T04:47:00.001-07:00

: Our business office manager and accounts receivable employee ask a lot of questions about the care and treatment of individual residents--more than necessary for billing purposes. Both seem to think they should have access to all resident information. How much information do they need for financial purposes, and what information would be a violation of HIPAA?

A: The amount of protected health information (PHI) your staff is using, disclosing, or requesting is subject to the minimum necessary provision of the HIPAA regulations. Based on this provision, your facility must determine what PHI is necessary for your staff to carry out their job functions. Use common sense. For example, if someone on your staff is responsible for determining the appropriate ICD-9 codes for billing claims, that staff member will need access to the resident's complete medical record to accomplish that task. Your collections staff should never have access to medical records because their tasks only require the information typically found on the resident's admission paperwork, commonly called the resident face sheet. This data includes the responsible party, addresses, phone numbers, and insurance information. Determine by job function what PHI your staff need to know to carry out their duties. Make a reasonable effort to limit PHI access to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request.

From Billing Alert for Long-Term Care by Lee Heinbaugh, consultant, PMG, LLC (Cleveland), published by HCPro, Inc. (www.hcpro.com). Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management bears no responsibility for the opinions/advice contained herein

Laboratory information systems: continue to add features that contribute to maximizing personnel and cost containment - Product Focus

2007-04-05T23:49:00.001-07:00

LAB/HEX is a complete LIS for independent, commercial, clinics, hospitals and research labs. All routine lab tasks are managed, including order entry, result entry, barcodes, microbiology, cytology, user-definable reports, autofaxing, remote printing and analyzer interfaces, to name a few. Integrated billing, HIS and practice management interfaces are available. Additional options include ad hoc reporting, document scanning, advanced pathology with voice recognition, electronic billing, medical necessity, and reference lab interfaces. All products are robust, stable and flexible, and can easily and readily be adapted to any application and laboratory. Large labs will find maximum growth capabilities -- simply by adding more workstations, analyzers, printer and users. Storage and speed can be increased as needed.

LAB/HEX

HEX Laboratory Systems

Circle 174 or visit www.rsleads.com/301ml-174

Data 24x7, no downtime

Polytech for Windows is a complete LIS designed by laboratorians for laboratorians. Ninety percent of technician work is performed in one screen, so there are no wasted movements. Utilization of the Medlink redundant database topology means no downtime. All data are available all of the time. The laboratory workflow is automated, while streamlining test processing and regulatory compliance. The system is simple, easy, affordable and flexible. ICD-9 coding and advance beneficiary notice (ABN) generation is standard, as are host-query capabilities and ad hoc reporting, along with rules logic. The product interfaces to all major analyzers and medical information systems.

Polytech

Comp Pro Med Inc.

Circle 178 or visit www.rsleads.com/301ml-178

Serving small to high-volume labs

Triple G Systems Group Inc. is a global provider of software for the clinical laboratory, ranging from a single facility to integrated networks spanning multiple facilities and wide geographic areas. The company develops and implements software -- ULTRA, for high-volume distributed lab operations, and NT-based TriWin, serving small to medium-size laboratories -- that automates and integrates laboratory processes in the hospital, clinic and private reference laboratory settings.

ULTRA is a comprehensive LIS for the management and automation of all areas, including identification, tacking and routing of specimens, managing workflow and aggregating test results across sites and platforms. All its modules are fully integrated, allowing users complete access throughout the system.

ULTRA

Triple G Systems

Circle 181 or visit www.rsleads.com/301ml-181

Marketing to physicians

With ClinLab's LIS, lab managers not only have the opportunity to increase the technologist's efficiency, but automate other office functions, as well. A customer overview of the system delineates a variety of benefits. Lost charges can be eliminated and revenue increased. Less time is spent searching through file cabinets and logs. Writing and rewriting patient demographics on sample logs, requisitions, result slips and send-out logs are eradicated. Transcription errors no longer exist. All patient information can be accessed in seconds; and physician and nursing staff can view verified patient results anywhere, anytime. Billing summaries and ICD-9/CPT checks aid with correct billing of tests. LIS reports help ensure correct reimbursement for all lab tests is received on the first submission. Recoding is diminished or completely ended. Workload analysis reports help evaluate efficiency, while utilization analysis helps highlight profitable services. Flexible reporting and faxing capabilities help market lab services to outside physicians.

Thinking inside the box: using banking technology to improve the revenue cycle: bank on this: medical practices are ideal for pioneering programs in p

2007-04-04T00:00:00.002-07:00

Ongoing industrywide challenges in the management of healthcare information are acute; some providers, insurers, and practice managers find them overwhelming. In fact, operational difficulties in processing and man aging medical records and billing information have only intensified in the current environment of managed healthcare reimbursement, complex claims processing, and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

Common Challenges for Providers and Physicians

Today, staff at many healthcare organizations, including medical practices and medical management firms, still manually extract data from complicated explanation of benefits forms. This is an increasingly time-consuming task in the current managed care environment. Rekeying this information into IT systems often introduces clerical errors, especially when staff is working with numerous nonstandard forms from several insurance payers.

The sheer volume of EOB documentation and the need to archive and store documents for several years make document organization, storage, and retrieval expensive and labor intensive. Employees dread having to rum mage in dusty dungeons where paperwork is stored, occupying space that could be used better for other purposes. This document storage and retrieval problem also wastes worker and management hours.

Complicating matters is the fact that HIPAA requires that medical records remain confidential and secure. Unfortunately, as IT managers of visionary healthcare organizations everywhere have discovered, this requirement may collide with their desire to automate operations and coordinate patient information through transparent, practicewide information accessibility.

MaternOhio Takes Action

In the computerized business world, where connectivity is key, software solutions offer interfaces that effectively integrate functions, bringing new operational efficiencies to medical practices and other healthcare organizations. In fact, such automated solutions are increasingly critical in effective healthcare financial management.

The size, mission, and capabilities of Columbus, Ohio based MaternOhio Management Services made it ideal to pilot an innovation involving shared document imaging. The company was founded by ob/gyn physicians to facilitate a cooperative business model along specialty lines. Formed to streamline costs and share administrative support functions, it operates as a physicians' cooperative and allows members to select services according to their specific operational needs. It now serves 200 physicians, 140 of whom are ob/gyns. MaternOhio provides members with business support services such as contract negotiations with suppliers and vendors. In addition, because ob/gyn practitioners are particularly vulnerable to malpractice litigation, MaternOhio developed group risk sharing initiatives with insurers and carriers, and established its own malpractice insurance company.

To this forward-thinking firm, a patient payment and medical records system based on shared document imaging made sense from both operational and financial standpoints. Sharing the image across workstations, with different staff' members authorized to access and work with the imaged and linked documents, made more sense than continuing the all-too-familiar wasteful paper chase. MaternOhio staff hoped to use optical character-reading capacity for aspects of a patient's record other than EOB forms, searching and matching for Social Security numbers and medical records so all components would be cross-referenced, with no information standing alone and all information secure as required under HIPAA.

NACDS joins X12 e-billing effort - Chain Pharmacy - National Association of Chain Drug Stores joins X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel

2007-04-04T00:00:00.001-07:00

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- In a move that could speed the development of a uniform electronic billing standard for pharmacy services, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores has joined the X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel.

NACDS announced its decision last month, becoming the sixth pharmacy organization to join the panel. The group already includes the American Pharmacists Association, the National Community Pharmacists Association, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

X12 is an organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop uniform standards for electronic data exchange, including such health insurance claims as professional pharmacy claims. The panel was launched in 2002 to promote a single billing standard for professional pharmacy services, based on the same EDI claims format--known by the unwieldy title of ASC X12N 837--that physicians and all other health care professionals use. Advancing community pharmacy's importance as a provider of services to help manage patients' therapeutic outcomes.

* Integrating pharmacy into national organizations and widely used coding systems that have been developed to allow all other health care providers to document their professional services, and bill payers for those services.

* Supporting compensation for pharmacists' professional services.

NACDS' decision to join has been a while in coming. Mary Ann Wagner, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for NACDS, indicated in an interview late last year that the organization might join the X12 group to boost its chances for developing a single, standardized electronic billing procedure, despite some reservations. Those reservations hinged on fears that X12 could classify certain disease state management services already performed by pharmacists as medical benefits, instead of pharmacy benefits, potentially denying pharmacists the right to bill payers for those services.

However, the expanded effort by the panel to promote pharmacists' therapeutic efforts--and payment for those efforts--was apparently enough to allay NACDS' concerns.

"NACDS has joined the X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel to help expand chain pharmacies' electronic billing for professional services to all possible health care payers," said Roy Bussewitz, vice president of managed care and telecommunications at NACDS.

In addition, Wagner, Bussewitz and other NACDS staffers likely were reassured by the composition of the chain drug industry leaders who have agreed to serve as the organization's representatives on the X12 panel. All three have developed solid reputations as champions of an expanded role for community pharmacists and of payment for their patient care services. The group includes Anthony Provenzano, manager of clinical programs for Albertsons; Rebecca Chater, group manager of clinical services for, Kerr Drug; and Jean-Venable "Kelly" R. Goode, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Pharmacy and a shared faculty member with Ukrop's Super Market Pharmacy.

Be careful what you wish for: consumer-driven health plans may slow the rate of health care inflation, according to proponents. But the technological

2007-04-03T23:59:00.001-07:00

In the complex and tedious world that is health care billing, those who pay the bulk of the bills--insurance carriers and health plans--have always had their hands full managing bill payment to physicians practices and hospitals of all sizes and types.

But with the latest trend--consumer-driven health care--taking center stage in recent years, managing bill payment is growing more, not less, complex--even as simplifying bill payment continues within the industry.

Consumer-directed plans typically mean more choices of health plans and providers, as well as more financial risk, for employees and health care consumers. Simply stated, health care users, typically employees and their dependents, must pay for medical services for a defined amount with dollars in a flexible spending account, a health savings account or a health reimbursement arrangement.

Health savings accounts, for example, can be used by workers to pay for routine medical expenses, which count toward the deductible of accompanying catastrophic health insurance. Ultimately, consumer-driven plans shift more of the responsibility for health-spending choices onto the patient

The challenge is that when you create a new way for providers to be paid, as you do with consumer-driven health care, you create more complexity. Some carriers/payors are turning to technology to ease the pain that comes with managing bills in a consumer-driven world.

PreferredOne, a regional health benefits management company serving 550,000 members in Minnesota, needed to meet that growing demand from employers for consumer-driven health products--and solve the technology challenges that go with it. A relatively new entrant in Minnesota's payor market traditionally dominated by several well-established organizations ranging in size from 700,000 to 1.5 million members, PreferredOne needed an edge.

In January 2003, PreferredOne introduced Consumer Advantage, a defined-contribution plan that combines a high-deductible medical plan with both a health reimbursement arrangement and flexible spending account. Quickly, Consumer Advantage became PreFerredOne's fastest growing health plan product, but the product posed an administrative challenge.

With one system housing medical claims data and a second system storing health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account records, each claim had to be processed at least twice, causing bill payment issues. Labor-intensive and error-prone, the process threatened to offset the product's inherent cost benefits. PreferredOne quickly developed a strategy to improve product administration, using software technology from TriZetto Group, a Newport Beach, Calif., technology provider for health plans and carriers.

Using TriZetto's Facets Extended Enterprise application suite, all of PreferredOne's critical data--claims, HRAs, FSAs and more--are held in one central data repository. The claims are processed in one step, quickly and accurately, says John Hofflander, PreferredOne senior vice president and CIO. With both traditional and consumer-driven plan claims now on a single administrative system, PreferredOne has eliminated the expense and risks of integrating disparate software.

"The key to efficient bill management is having the data in one version and in one place," says Hofflander.

Hofflander explains that the new system also automatically updates information related to health reimbursement arrangement or flexible savings account balances, deductibles, and copayments.

"One of the biggest challenges of administering health reimbursement arrangements and flexible savings accounts is that schedules and criteria for rolling over unused balances vary tremendously by employer," he says. "The upgraded system handles this entire process automatically across all employer groups, eliminating hours of work for PreferredOne employees."

Consumer-directed plans may provide health plans and carriers with tremendous opportunities, but, as was the ease with PreferredOne, it also may involve some real IT challenges, mainly the strain of increasingly complex administration.

Kim LaFontana, director of Collector Services and Payor Relations at Athenahealth, a Waltham, Mass., technology provider that tries to smooth electronic billing and collections between doctors' offices and insurers and health plans, says that the consumer-driven health care movement is indeed making things more complex for both payors and providers. Mainly, the carriers need to know when the consumer or employee has met the deductible, which is the point when the insurance carrier or health care plan needs to make payments to doctors or hospitals.

Stitching up surgical costs: OR management system gives Texas pediatric hospital improved financials, automated reporting, decentralized scheduling an

2007-04-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

As many patients know firsthand, surgery is a critical and often lifesaving part of the healthcare delivery system. It is also the financial lifeblood of a hospital--a revenue producer that can't afford to be undermanaged or inefficient. But often, within the confines of operating room suites, underutilization of information technology equates with waste.

Texas Children's Hospital in Houston is a 697-licensed-bed, internationally recognized pediatric hospital in the Texas Medical Center and the largest children's hospital in the U.S. As part of the specialized care that the organization provides, its surgical staff operate 24 hours a day in three different sites, treating patients ranging from newborns to adults. The challenge of managing costs and revenue for this demanding area is formidable, but it's a challenge met by Judy Swanson, R.N., director of perioperative services, who has managed operating rooms (ORs) like Texas Children's for more than 17 years.

Soon after joining Texas Children's Hospital in February 2001, Swanson discovered that an existing perioperative information system in the department needed upgrading. This basic system required a lot of manual data entry and contributed to inefficient workflow and inaccurate data. Because Swanson's team could not generate statistical reports from the system, they had to manually enter information into Excel spreadsheets, which was costly and resource-intensive.

Scheduling was computerized, but intraoperative nursing documentation and inventory control were handled on paper--often with illegible handwriting. Surgeon preference cards were stored in Microsoft Word, so there was no automated method in place to keep these updated and ensure all supplies used in the operating room were recorded.

These shortfalls contributed to an inefficient charging process that was continually at risk for errors and often riddled with them. Nurses documented surgical cases and calculated OR charges manually, in addition to caring for patients. If an implant was omitted from the documentation, this costly supply would be missed on charges, amounting to significant lost revenue for the department.

About 40 percent of patient records sent to billing contained missing or wrong information that needed to be reconciled. Errors might be as significant as the wrong patient name, medical record number or account number, or they might be a simple misspelling. Regardless of the reason, all errors were routinely sent back to the OR department for correction.

Inaccuracies wasted staff time, sent nurses scurrying around trying to correct information and caused reimbursement problems. The department might spend up to 11 days to process a bill for surgical charges, and anything beyond the five-day limit of some managed care companies could lead to a late charge. Perioperative services averaged in excess of $100,000 a month in late charges.

Swanson knew that the department needed a comprehensive business system to address multiple user needs, not just a system to manage preference cards or billing. Department users wanted accurate and complete documentation and a complete record of patient care. She decided to replace their existing surgical software with a comprehensive OR management system that would be good for the hospital's business as well as good for clinicians and clinical documentation.

The hospital began looking for software that would automate all phases of surgical care, from scheduling and supply management to preference cards, nursing documentation and billing. The system also needed to provide easy-to-use data management capabilities and a complete electronic record of the surgical event.

Workflow Meets Automation

The hospital team evaluated all appropriate software systems on the market, and in 2001 they selected CareSuite OR Manager, a perioperative solution from Wakefield, Mass.-based Picis, a company that specializes in automating high-acuity areas of healthcare. They chose this system because they felt it offered the clinical and administrative functions that the hospital needed, electronic record-keeping from preoperative care through surgery to recovery, and complete OR management. The system also interfaced with the hospital's IDX admissions system and offered many different ways to capture and report statistical data without the need for manual data entry.

Swanson's staff set out to fully implement the system, so the organization could use this technology to its fullest. The implementation team examined in detail the functionality of the system and then streamlined organizational processes to maximize the use of its capabilities.

Products Promise Productivity Gains in the New Millenium - News Briefs

2007-03-24T02:54:00.000-07:00

Autumn was among the busiest on record in the $1.2 billion healthcare field, with more conferences, symposia, and gatherings than ever luring healthcare providers with the promise of bringing them up-to-date on the latest information system or technology. In fact, there were so many exhibitions showcasing the inventions and innovations unveiled in 1999 that our editors decided to bring you this "Round II" selection of products and services that grabbed our attention as the millenium wound down. Refer to our November issue for Round I of some of the products and services that are bound to boost productivity in hospitals, physician practice, managed care organizations, and other healthcare settings in the near future.

Handheld Coding at the Point of Care

DynaMedix Corporation has unveiled PocketCode, a portable coding tool for healthcare providers that is designed to eliminate coding errors and reduce the denial rate of claims by ensuring proper coding is captured at the point of the patient encounter. With PocketCode, the caregiver can easily document the diagnosis, select procedures and record notes for each patient on a personal digital assistant (PDA). When the encounter is complete, PocketCode transfers the data to a variety of systems for storage, such as a desktop PC, and allows links into management systems, billing systems or lab information systems. PocketCode software includes ICD9 codes, Procedure Codes, Fee Schedules, CCI data and HCFA's Medical Necessity Guidelines. The system beta tests have been based on use of Casio's Cassiopeia E-100 PDA, but it will operate on any system utilizing Windows CE, including a Windows-based desktop PC. By reducing time for proper coding and submitting proper claims the first time, use of PocketCode can also improve cash flow and revenues for physician practices.Amid a flurry of new Websites offering online purchasing of medical supplies and equipment, a "veteran" company operating since August 1998 announced its enhanced site. Medicalbuyer.com, founded by radiologist Edward Rollins, M.D., unveiled its new "trading exchange" that offers physicians, hospitals and long-term care facilities more convenient and user-friendly online purchasing. The system allows physicians the convenience of ordering from a selection of about 500,000 items, requiring only an Internet browser, a credit card, and UPS delivery. The system is open to manufacturers, distributors, dealers and end-users and offers discounts of 15 percent to 50 percent. Future services will include an RFQ auction, where buyers select products for open bidding, and a customer-initiated "reverse" auction that will allow selling overstock inventory

New Products & Services - Product Announcement - Brief Article

2007-03-24T02:45:00.000-07:00

Patch cords that ensure uninterrupted flow of data are available from KRONE, Inc. TruePatch[TM] cords, when used with the company's TrueNet[TM] structured cabling system, the physical layer-between the NIC and server--is guaranteed a zero bit error transmission rate. When the cords are used to upgrade an existing installation, they improve network performance by increasing data throughput. The cords feature a high-pressure, injection-molded boot that locks each cable pair in place inside the plug; an extra-long strain relief that prevents kinking at the plug head; stranded conductors that are compacted into a near-round shape to enhance the cable flexibility;

A new suite of Internet and software-based knowledge tools that allows users to access a large national perioperative data warehouse is available through Picis. Savent is designed for advanced analysis and research to measure clinical performance and asset utilization in the perioperative environment. With Savent you can also benchmark practice patterns against national averages and make informed decisions to help reduce costs while improving patient outcomes. The tools are built specifically to meet the needs of the anesthesia provider. --Picis,

Advanced optics and scanning methodology allows 100 percent positive identification using the U-Match BioLink Mouse[TM] from BioLink Technologies, Inc. An optical fingerprint scanner is built into a fully functional mouse. Fingerprints are stored as templates that cannot be used to regenerate fingerprint images, thus eliminating any threat to personal privacy. Up to 10 users can register fingerprints on the mouse at a single workstation. --BioLink Technologies, Inc., alty mounting solutions for computers, introduces a new addition to its mobile cart line, the new MWS-102. This mobile computer cart was specifically designed to accommodate patients who are temporarily or permanently bedridden. The cart easily adjusts to users who are in an upright, semi-reclined or fully-reclined position while providing an ergonomically correct environment. Patented Adjustable Rotating Mounting Solutions (ARMS) allow users to swing, lift, tilt and turn a flat panel monitor and keyboard into an infinite number of positions for convenient computer access while in bed. Ergotron, Inc., Eagan, MN,

The Orator Pro Digital Dictation system is a multiline telephone dictation and transcription system from Bytescribe Development Co. The system has an open architecture that integrates with other systems and is expandable from four to 48 ports within the same dictation server. The system includes a conversion utility that automatically converts voice files into TrueSpeech WAV files, a standard Windows[R] WAV file format, for Internet transfer. It also can automatically re-record dictation from other digital dictation systems, and features such management tasks as purging old files, displaying system resources and automatically handle aborted and computed jobs. Transcriptionists can access the system using digital transcribe stations, which can connect to the system via phone lines or hard-wired connections. --Bytescribe Development Co., Birmingham,

A clinical information system that standardizes, coordinates and monitors patient care, and tracks the use of resources to improve patient outcomes and reduce medical costs is available from CliniComp, Intl. WinCIS, which uses a Microsoft[R] Windows graphic user interface, also helps to increase efficiency by collecting data, performing calculations and reducing administrative tasks. Primary features of the software include easy navigation, automated patient record, online users manual, interface for seamless information exchange between other on-site disparate systems, no redundant charting and automated calculations for intravenous drips and output fluids. --CliniComp, Intl., San Diego, CA

Embrace technology - prudently

2007-03-06T01:08:00.001-08:00

Can you imagine medicine today without technology? We're committed to computers, dedicated to databases, bonded to billing systems. Without the time-saving, labor-reducing benefits of technology, we'd nearly be at a loss as to how to care for patients and keep track of their visits.

But how much of a good thing is too much? Are we letting electronic bells and whistles overwhelm our organizations so that we actually sacrifice efficiency to mechanization? Take a moment to consider technology's place in your practice. Are you running it - or is it running you?

More technology not necessarily better

How many disparate systems does your organization currently support? Electronic medical records (EMR)? Billing? Accounting? Scheduling? Credentialing? Transcription? Do they integrate with one another or function as islands that require many staff to operate them? Could they integrate with one another and share data? If not, perhaps your practice would be better off with a new suite of office management products that work together. Many unrelated systems may hamper the efficiency of your practice operations, rather than streamline them.

Something else to consider: How many manual processes did technology replace? Or did it actually add labor because a product was not really a good fit for your particular organization, causing you to work around it? If your scheduling software doesn't communicate with your EMR, your employees may need to check patient records against patient requests for appointments to prevent duplication of services. If your billing data aren't available for use with your accounting software, you're creating extra work.

Possibilities and pitfalls of outsourcing

2007-03-06T01:07:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing has become a $4 trillion-a-year business, according to Dun and Bradstreet. Outsourcing potentially enables businesses to reduce costs and concentrate on core competencies while transferring noncore business processes, thereby providing more effective goods and services elsewhere. But is it a boon or a boondoggle?

Many healthcare organizations are finding that diverse functions can be outsourced without affecting the core competency of health care. Although outsourcing was once primarily used to provide noncore services such as dietary, housekeeping, and security, it has extended to top executive jobs, clinical areas (e.g., nurse and physician staffing), and a growing number of business functions, including coding and billing. Functional outsourcing involves a single function that solves one problem in a facility, such as outsourcing transcription or coding. Departmental outsourcing is much broader in scope and may include reengineering of a department, such as the health information management department or the payroll department. Strategic outsourcing involves more than one department, such as the human resources division (including payroll, benefits, hiring, and firing) or the business office (including chargemaster, insurance, admissions, and collections). There is no general consensus on the optimal mix of in-house and outsourced functions. Each organization should assess its own needs and determine for which functions benefits outweigh the concerns discussed below.

Outsourcing offers many potential benefits to healthcare organizations. One major benefit is providing enough staff to operate the facility. Altoona Hospital in Altoona, Pa., for example, successfully outsourced some of its radiology readings to India. Outsourcing routine X-rays and scans helped to stabilize the heavy workload for the hospital's in-house physicians. The number of nighttime radiology calls was swamping the seven on-call radiologists at the hospital. In addition, transferring routine paperwork off-site allowed in-house staff to concentrate on core competencies, such as improved patient care, and to spend more time practicing medicine.

Another major benefit is the cost savings resulting from reducing the in-house full-time and/or temporary staff and the training associated with that staff. In addition, healthcare organizations can invest capital in new medical equipment and supplies rather than in staff and/or technology to complete core business processes such as billing and coding. For example, an Evanston Northeastern Healthcare executive in Highland Park, III., estimates that the organization's outsourcing contract will save it about $400,000 annually. By outsourcing coding, Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis reduced its discharged not final billed due to uncoded records from $13 million to $4 million. Its outpatient unbilled encounters also improved from more than $2 million to less than $800,000.

Concerns Regarding Outsourcing

Outsourcing does carry risks. Several hospitals have been stripped of their tax-exempt status due to the extensive use of outsourcing, that is, having for-profit entities operating inside a tax-exempt facility. Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana, Ill., received a $1.1 million property tax bill after its status changed. Another concern is potential declining employee morale and the loss of community support due to layoffs associated with outsourcing, especially when unemployment is high in the United States.

A healthcare organization considering outsourcing must be assured that the vendor can provide credentialed, knowledgeable, properly trained staff. Liability must also be addressed. No one knows if liability is going to fall on the healthcare organization that is doing the outsourcing, the referred physician, or the third-party provider. Other factors at issue include cultural barriers, differing management styles, potential political instability, time zone differences, and labor pool quality that may add real costs through resulting management inefficiencies.

A key ethical consideration is whether a healthcare organization should inform its patients that their information is being outsourced. Most healthcare organizations do not tell their patients that some services are outsourced. Other professions have dealt with this issue by requiring such notification. In late 2004, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued several ethics rulings, one of which requires its members to inform clients, preferably in writing, of the transfer of personal information to a third-party supplier before the transfer takes place (see www.aicpa.org/download/ethics/ 2004_1028_outsourcing.pdf). However, the rule does not require a member to inform a client when he or she uses a third-party service provider to provide administrative support services, such as record storage or software application hosting services, to the member.

Speaking of Efficiency - Technology Information

2007-03-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Next generation of voice recognition products comes with gentle learning curves and integration to clinical workflow.

Discard any preconceived notions or past experience with voice recognition (VR) and what it can do for your practice. Once a "not ready for prime time" oddity, voice recognition technology has become a productive citizen.

Early VR products in healthcare had several shortcomings. First and foremost, they were not integrated into the clinical workflow. Medical documentation generally follows a predictable flow from front office sign-in to chart review, patient encounter and documentation. Early VR systems simply sat on a stand-alone computer where a physician had to walk over and dictate, apart from workflow. There was no interface to existing systems, which created inefficiencies and slowed physicians down.

Voice recognition software works by hearing the spoken word and converting it to text by making an "educated guess" at what the user is saying based on an individual voice model and associated vocabulary. Earlier voice engines (and many still today) used a medium such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect to display and store the text. The second problem arose with these forms and the inability to organize them in a database format. Dictated and completed notes were stored in Windows Explorer and provided no organized access, useful search ability, means for electronic distribution such as faxing or e-mail, or anything more than transcriptionists normally supplied.

Third was the problem of editing limitations. Voice recognition requires an edit process to improve. As dictated text is edited for accuracy, any changes update and improve the user's voice model. Most VR products digitally record and save the user's voice and synchronize it with the created text as they dictate. This is done to create an audible reference. If the user said "the lumbar spine" and the system interpreted it as "the lumber is pine," there would be a recording associated to the incorrect text that would allow the user to understand what was actually said and make the correction.

In earlier products, editing for recognition accuracy had to be completed immediately after dictation; otherwise this recorded audio file was lost. In addition, dictated text and audio files could not be moved across a network so the physician had to complete the editing tasks himself, instead of delegating it to a staff member.

Finally, the learning curve was unbearable. Early models required two or three hours to "enroll" or create a voice model and there was virtually no training available. Many were discrete speech, which meant a user could not dictate at normal conversational speeds, but had to pause between each word. Training consisted of a user's guide or a video, and users had to self-train and self-implement.

Early products were designed for the masses and generally sold off-the-shelf; they were not designed for the specialized healthcare utilization. Even those designed for healthcare only offered a preloaded medical vocabulary of terms.

Today's Difference

Today some VR systems can interface and share data with legacy billing and electronic medical records (EMR) systems. This is significant for several reasons. First, when starting any note, the physician typically identifies the patient or chart number, visit date and type, and maybe a carbon copy reference. Some systems today can import this information from the billing system and shorten dictation time by eliminating dictation of redundant data.

Second, some current systems can export dictated or captured information such as charge codes back to the billing system and can export completed dictation into an existing EMR system. When interfaced with the electronic patient scheduler, they can also manage the outstanding dictation queue, thereby eliminating the possibility of missed dictation.

Import of demographic data elements, including referring physician information, can be downloaded from the practice management system. Dictations can then be automatically faxed or e-mailed to a referring physician or colleague after dictation is complete.

Some systems today can provide useful and timesaving dictation templates. These forms or note templates should be in some database format to maximize their benefit. The application also should be able to provide voice macros whereby the user can give a short verbal command and have repetitive statements or preformatted text inserted into the note automatically. Macros can also contain information that has been downloaded from the billing system.

Some Tips In Promoting Your Medical Transcription Business

2006-12-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

If you just started a work at home business as a medical transcriptionist and are thinking of advertising your services, there are various means of sending the word out.

The first is one of the most effective way of promotion, sending out Promotion Letters. Advertisers do this by sending out a promotion letter describing the services being offered to any reachable medical offices within an area. To be very effective, follow up your advertising by telephone after a few days of sending it out.

Another favorite advertising gimmick which is proven to work is giving away Freebies or any kind of Giveaway. Freebies are not necessarily small items like pen and such. You may also giveway a service for free, perhaps a sample transcription job or a discount for the initial transcripts would also work fine.

Distributing flyers is another well known technique of reaching more customers. Distributing flyers to hospital, doctor's office or clinics is a cost effective way of advertising.

In addition to flyers, your business card is another tool, in fact the most utilized tool by any business person. As long as you follow the proper business card promotion etiquette, instant connection with a prospect can be achieved. When you needed to share your business card to a prospect, always ask for your prospects business card in return. And please, don't just stick inside the other persons card in your wallet. Be sure to glance and read the card for a few seconds to show your interest.

A newer version which is gaining some popularity are magnetic signs. This is a rehashed version of the famous bumper sticker which is up to now is one of the favorites of advertisers. You can place a bumper sticker or magnetic signage to your vehicle and instantly turn your car into a traveling salesman. Add your website and other contact details prominently on those ads to obtain maximum exposure.

All time giveaway favorites such as pens, coffee mugs, T-shirts and other cheap priced items with your business name and contact details printed on them is another effective marketing technique. This things work very well in medical transcription field.

Supporting a local charity to gain exposure is a feel good way of advertising your medical transcription business. Choose a charity that is related to medical awareness such as cancer, diabetes or heart and stroke charitable institutions. Raising funds for charities not only help your advertising objectives, you will also feel good knowing that you are able to extend help to someone in need.

Ask for referrals from your present customers, don't be shy about it. If your customers liked your service, they will gladly oblige to tell their other collegues about you. Leave a few business cards with them, and ask in a pleasant way to pass out your business card to their contacts.

Network! Make genuine friends with other medical transcription business owners and network with them. Extend your help to them in anyway you can and you will be treated the same way.

Ensuring A Profitable Home Based Business Opportunity

2006-12-30T01:34:00.000-08:00

If you would like to be one of many who has found a home based business opportunity and become successful with it, then hard work is going to be needed to achieve this goal. A home business opportunity is quite popular now for various reasons. Some people need a home business to help them supplement the income received from there regular job, while others need the home based business as a way for them to keep busy as they might not have another job.

There are many different and numerous types of home based business opportunity for people to become involved in. They range for medical transcription services, to selling cosmetics and toiletries. Each opportunity is unique and suitable for just the right kind of person. There are a number of people or companies who will try to convince you there home business opportunity is perfect for you, when in fact, it might not be. It is up to you to weed through all of the different opportunities to find one that will make you successful. The question, which now arises, is how to ensure that when you have started your home business opportunity that is a profitable one?

You should be aware that a profitable home based business must first start with the correct home based opportunity. Most people choose a home business opportunity, which is quite popular, and everyone knows about. However, the problem, which arises with this, is, without realizing it, the market has already become saturated with many people selling the same product. In this way, your chances of having a profitable home business will diminish due to over availability of the product. On the other hand, choosing a home business opportunity that no one has ever heard of is too risky if this is your first time working with a home based business opportunity. Just because a product or concept might be new, there is no guarantee that it will sell. Therefore you run the risk of not making a profit at all with your home based business opportunity.

In order to ensure you are on your way with a profitable home based business opportunity, everyone thinking about working at home, should think about the amount of money necessary in starting a business. Each different type of home based business opportunity will require various amounts of time and finance dedicated to the job to make it work. For you business to be profitable, it is necessary to first plan out how much will initially be invested into it. A new startup business can quickly drain a bank account if a business plan is not initially drawn up. Therefore, to ensure you business is a profitable one, spend time budgeting out your much money will be allocated for each aspect of the business, and stick to this business plan without spending carelessly.

When first starting a home based business opportunity, a lot of hours are necessary in order to make the business as profitable as possible. This would initially include time spent away from family and friends growing your business to a stable level. Therefore, to ensure your business is profitable, the hours spent away from loved ones must be factored in.

After considering the amount of money and time which is needed to make your home based business opportunity profitable, the most important advice would be to start marketing your business as much as possible. There are many forms of business marketing available such as word of mouth, business cards, brochures and flyers, or ads in the newspaper. Yet whatever type of marketing you choose to adopt, be consistent with it. With more people becoming aware of your business, and telling their friends about it, the more profitable your business will be.

Long-time Medical Transcriptionists Tell All

2006-12-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

If you are evaluating medical transcription training options in order to start a career as a medical transcriptionist, you very well could benefit from hearing how my wife and I launched our business years ago. We struggled through some tough times together, and we are happy to share what we learned here with you. Hopefully you will be able to benefit from this information and not repeat the mistakes we made. I can say from personal experience that being able to work from home as a medical transcriptionist is one of the most liberating opportunities that you will find - anywhere.

Medical Transcription has become very personal to me. To help you understand, let me tell you a bit about my history with the industry. My spouse actually went through medical transcription training years ago by tutoring on the job with her mother, who was a long time medical transcriptionist and who owned a medical transcription company. Back then, there really weren't many other options to receive Medical Transcription Training. You could say that she went through the school of hard knocks. Actually, you could say we both did. It was a difficult and stressful time. And since medical transcriptionists are typically paid on production, it was a very lean time for us financially. Her line counts were extremely low during the first 6 or 8 months of apprenticeship... and so were her paychecks.

Over time, however, she improved her production and eventually I felt emboldened by her progress to the point that I went out and started selling our own accounts. I approached clinics, hospitals, physician offices -- pretty much anyone who would listen to my pitch and I would sell them on the idea of using our Medical Transcription services. We teamed up with my wife's parents and began to expand our presence in the marketplace. It was slow going at first, but eventually we built our little Medical Transcription company up to a level where we had dozens of medical transcriptionists working for us. It was an extremely exciting time!

This new career allowed my wife to work at home as a medical transcriptionist and be there for our young children. We were all happier with the flexibility that her Medical Transcription Training afforded us. I think our kids were the happiest of all. And the pay just kept getting better and better. For one thing her typing speed increased dramatically over time -- which meant more money in her pocket. More importantly, though, she got to the point where she didn' t have to stop and look up difficult medical terms so often. She actually got to where she had transcribed enough medical reports that she could generally anticipate what the doctor was going to say next. I was totally impressed as I watched her work! And I became even more impressed when I asked her to let me have a try at the keyboard. I put on the headset and pushed the play button on the footpedal all excited to type my first report... Guess what? She went upstairs for a snack and came back down to find me curled up on the floor in the fetal position out of sheer frustration. I could no more transcribe an operative report than I could fly to the moon! Her school of hard knocks medical transcription Training had definitely paid off -- in spades!

As technology advances came into the picture she was able to create macros on her computer that automatically inserted whole strings of common technical words and phrases with one or two keystrokes. You cannot believe the difference this made in her productivity. It was amazing! As her productivity went up, so did our income! We could finally do some of the things we had been putting off for so long for lack of money. Life was good!

What Is A Transcriber?

2006-12-29T01:31:00.000-08:00

A transcriber is a person that transcribes recorded information to written form. Companies use transcription to shift the burden of typing from highly paid executives and professionals to lower salaried employees. Executives and professionals, such as doctors, dictate and then a transcriber transcribes the work to document form.

Although most of us are familiar with medical transcribers, transcribers work in a variety of fields and in a variety of circumstances. Many transcribers work in offices while others are self employed, working on a contract basis. Today there is a great deal of work available online for transcribers.

Professional business people will hire a transcriber on contract to transcribe for them. The contract will define the relationship between the professional and the transcriber along with what the rate of pay will be. It will address matters relating to confidentiality and file storage, as well as how you will handle files on your computer. Well laid out contracts are beneficial to everyone.

As a transcriber working independently, accuracy is your number one concern. However, the quicker you can transcribe the better for you so here are some tips to help you.

Make sure your Dictation equipment is in good working order. If you use software on your computer make sure it is operating optimally. Clean and service your Dictation equipment regularly and replace the tapes frequently. Tapes wear and although they will still work, the quality of the recording depletes.

Make sure you are working from a good ergonomic chair to avoid injury and to stay comfortable. Youll be a lot more productive if you are comfortable. So dont skimp on the right chair and the proper desk. Remember, if you are self employed and injure yourself you wont be making any money. Is that enough incentive not to go cheap?

Try to keep your work environment quiet. Fast, accurate transcription depends on it. Speed and accuracy goes up the less ambient noise there is. So although it might not always be possible, its definitely worth striving for in order to reduce your error rate and help speed up your completion time.

Speaking of errors they simply are not acceptable as a transcriber. And some individuals, especially some doctors, are really bad at dictating. So there are a couple of tricks you can try if you cannot understand something. Play with the tone by removing as much bass as you can, and try slowing or speeding the tape up. Sometimes a mixed speed will help catch the word.

Another trick that sometimes works is to listen to the recording through the regular speaker instead of the headphones. If confidentiality isnt a problem, you can also have someone else listen to see if they can understand it. And sometimes taking a break and coming back makes it seem clearer.

Remember no guessing! If you simply cant understand a specific word or phrase, you will have to leave a blank in the transcription - noting that the area needs clarification by the dictator. If its feasible you can contact the dictator right away asking for clarification.

If the dictator is consistently bad at dictating, tell him or her. Youll be doing yourself and other transcribers a favor by telling that person they need to improve their skills. And if things dont get better, as a contract transcriber you can drop the client.

A career as a transcriber can be rewarding and interesting, and the pay can certainly be good.

The Right Medical Equipment For You Home Or Practice!

2006-12-29T01:30:00.002-08:00

Quality, dependable Medical Equipment is an important component of every medical practice. It cant be overstated that while the practice of medicine is an art, Medical Equipment is the science behind the implementation of that art. Increasingly, patients are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of the medical supplies and Medical Equipment that is being used to treat them. This means that a health care provider needs to know and understand not only how their equipment operates, but also have confidence that the Medical Equipment they use is of the highest quality.

Your Medical Equipment needs to be reliable and of a high quality.

The tools of your profession, whether its a stethoscope or a nebulizer, can now all be ordered online over the internet, generally at substantial savings. This means an easier approach to Medical Equipment management.

Both the professional and home health consumer are now ordering many of their Medical Equipment and medical supplies right from their computer. Prices are low and the quality is excellent. If you work in the health care field you'll need medical supplies to help you with your work. Quality products that you know you can depend on will give you greater confidence during stressful situations.

10 Effective Tips for Promoting Your Medical Transcription Business

2006-12-29T01:30:00.001-08:00

Looking to build your existing MT business or just starting out? These marketing tips will give you some good ideas for finding new clients.

Promotion Letter A very effective way of landing accounts. Send out a promotion letter to all your local medical offices describing your services. And follow it up a few days later with a personal phone call.

Freebies and Giveaways Give away a certain amount of services for free, such as a free sample transcript or a discount for a certain amount of work. Tell clients about your giveaways in all your advertising material.

Flyers Flyers are great for marketing a medical transcription business. Distribute them to doctors offices, hospitals, clinics, social workers or any other targeted customers.

Business Cards Carry them with you wherever you go and give them out as necessary. Use proper business card etiquette. Always ask for a business card in return and dont just stick the card in your purse or wallet. Glance at it a few seconds to show the person you are interested in them.

Magnetic Signs Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Make it short but effective so people will remember you. Include your website address and/or contact details on it. Remember it will be easier for people to remember a catchy .com website address than a phone number. Not everyone will have pen and paper handy.

Pens or Other Tokens Pens, mouse pads, mugs, t-shirts or other small tokens with your business name and details on them is an inexpensive and effective marketing tactic. Pens, mouse pads and mugs work especially well in the MT field. Your business name will be displayed in busy medical offices and hospitals for potential clients to see.

Charitable Acts Support a local charity in return for exposure. Choose a medical related charity for targeted exposure, such as cancer awareness or heart charities. Youll raise funds for needy charities and feel good about yourself in the process.

Ask for Referrals Dont be shy about asking for referrals from current clients. If youve provided a good service for them, they will be happy to spread the word about you in return. Ask if they would please pass out some business cards to their colleagues for you.

Network, Network, Network Find other local MTs and network with them. The key to network is not to go out with a whats in it for me mentality. Genuinely make friends and help others wherever you can and people will do the same for you in return.

The Phone Power Hour Set aside an hour every day or every few days of uninterrupted time and make this your phone power hour. Pull up a list of local potential customers and start calling them. If youre a bit nervous at first, write down what you would like to say. Follow up with potential customers youve sent letters to or potential marketing partners. Use this hour to expand your networking opportunities as well.

Thats it, 10 easy, affordable and effective ways to start spreading the word about your MT business. With a little practice youll be well on your way to finding new clients.

Voice Recognition And Medical Transcription

2006-12-28T01:29:00.001-08:00

Youve probably heard different opinions and views on this subject. If youre a medical transcriptionist you may even be concerned about voice recognition taking over your career and youre not alone.

Lets dig a bit deeper into voice recognition.

As you already know, doctors are busy people. This is never more obvious then when theyre dictating their notes. Its understandable theyre busy, and as their MT, I can surely forgive them but will the latest voice recognition software be as forgiving as me?

Not likely.

As a transcriptionist you will have typed through background noise, patients moaning, doctors eating their lunch, personal conversations (oops they forgot the recorder was on) and other incomprehensible noise. Not to mention, ESL doctors with heavy accents and very tired ER doctors after a long shift!

At this time there is no voice recognition software which can handle this type of voice recognition. It is impossible for the software to determine actual speech from mistakes in conversation, background noise, heavy accents, etc.

So what does this mean for our future?

Rumors of MTs being out of r a job have been around long before I became an MT. Eight years later, there are still no real advances in this field.

Can voice recognition ever replace transcriptionists?

Sure it can.

If a doctor is willing to sit down and take the sufficient time to train his voice recognition software to recognize his voice and speech patterns (this takes time and is not done automatically), yes it is possible.

If the doctor thereafter dictates very clearly, using proper punctuation in his speech (stopping for periods, pausing for commas) without any background noise or interruptions. Yes, it is possible.

Will the document be 100% accurate?

No.

Remember medical records have to be in compliance with a number of very strict regulations. Most doctors, will not trust voice recognition enough to send these records through without at least a quick glance through.

Even under the best dictating circumstances the report will still need to be proofread and edited. So, yes under the perfect circumstances, voice recognition can replace a transcriptionist.

Is it likely? Not unless every physician out there is willing to take the time, energy and ongoing effort to train their voice recognition software and maintain a certain standard of dictation.

I dont see that happening any time soon. Doctors are busy people, remember? ;)

If anything, us MTs should embrace voice recognition and use it as a tool to help us in our MT careers. If applied properly, it can be a time-saving tool. So why not use it for our purposes?

As with any business to stay ahead of the game you have to adapt to change and technology. Learn how to use it to your advantage instead of being frightened by it. Thats the only way to stay ahead of the competition. Voice recognition or otherwise.

Medical Transcriptionist - A Closer Look

2006-12-28T01:29:00.000-08:00

Medical Transcriptionist jobs have been around since doctors first took the Hippocratic Oath. Ancient cave writings indicate that records of what medical treatments were being performed have been kept for thousands of years. Back then, it was for different reasons but today, medical transcription and in particular, the medical transcriptionist profession has been quietly taking steps forward and is "suddenly" making itself known to the world.

In a nutshell, a Medical Transcriptionist transcribes dictated matter by phone or from electronically recorded messages by doctors, nurses or other health care professionals, into records of treatments, procedures and up to date patient status reports.

Surprisingly, Medical Transcription wasn't "official" recognized as a profession until 1999 when finally; the United States Department of Labor assigned the profession its' own job code, in order to monitor statistics about the field. Until that point, medical transcriptionist jobs were unjustly given the title of medical secretary or typists.

Today, the American Association for Medical Transcription, which overlooks the profession, administers testing and upon passing the test you earn the title, "Certified Medical Transcriptionist" (CMT) which lends additional credibility to your knowledge, skills and abilities over those that are uncertified. Although certification isn't required for gainful employment, CMT status certainly has its' advantages like; the assurance to your employer that you are highly qualified and this in turn, increases your "market value" as an employee.

Medical Transcriptionist take on the role of converting the spoken words, of health care professionals, into written text either as hard or soft copy. But of course, with the dawn of new technology, this task is becoming increasingly less time consuming per unit produced. A good example is the ever-increasing use of voice recognition software.

Sounds great but the questions arises, if technology is transforming the profession now, then will technology transform the profession to such an extent anytime in the foreseeable future that it more or less makes the role of humans in the profession obsolete? I think the best way to respond is by using an example. Has the technological advances in every aspect of the medical profession reduced the role and importance of doctors and nurses? The answer to that question is clear and the same applies to the field of medical transcription.

Although transcription programs continue to evolve and become more and more adapt they will never be able to replace the trained human mind. They certainly allow for aspects of the translation process to speed up but they will never be able to compensate for all the differences in diction styles like accents, grammar, pronunciation and the list is as varied as the doctors doing the dictation.

Basically, the evolving transcription software programs are simply a tool but like all tools they are only as good as the skilled craftsman using them. In fact, because of these software shortcomings, transcriptionists need to be very adept at editing; especially in the correct use of grammar and the ability to proofread. And because most transcriptions start via the recorded message listening and strong keyboard skills are becoming more and more an essential.

Sure, voice recognition software has made the whole transcription process easier than it was in the past. Back "in the old days" when a medical transcriptionists had to listen to every single word and then transcribe it via stenograph, by long hand or more recently into a word processor but thanks to technology the editing skills mentioned above are becoming increasingly more important because voice recognition software is taking over more and more of the tedious hand entry portion of the job.

Medical Transcriptionist job training covers a wide curriculum including general knowledge of a wide variety of medical topics like medical language, Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, biology, anatomy and physiology body systems. A medical transcriptionist also needs to have a fair knowledge in diseases; how they progress and how they are treated because this process makes up a large portion of the medical dictations that they are responsible for transcribing.

In addition, medical science, surgery, surgical procedures and terminologies, surgical and laboratory instruments are also an important part of the transcriptionists knowledge set. And, if that's not enough prosthetics, pharmacology, laboratory test results and their interpretation must also be understood and mastered. As you can see, a medical transcriptionists knowledge base must be wide and deep.

Medical transcriptionist jobs can be applied in a variety of health care settings, either as full time employees of firms that are need of these kinds of services to doctors and other healthcare professionals or as part time transcriptionists that from home for private clients.

Transcription - Making Your Life Easier

2006-12-27T02:14:00.001-08:00

When it was first used and aired over the radio, the word transcription drew large attention and become the gist of the publics conversation. Newspapers also have many data about and everybody who can read it become interested in getting into it.

Being a transcriptionist, working on transcriptions offers a different kind of job opportunity. It is a task that you can get fond of, aside from that you will also be earning more money as compared to other jobs.

However, does working as a transcriptionist present to you the greener pasture you are looking for?

Quality transcription generally means providing the client with the clearest and most comprehensive drafts that the clients look into. In order to achieve this goal, the company makes sure that they get highly experienced transcriptionists and the best audios that can be acquired.

The work somehow leads to pressure, aside from being a deadline-driven business; it also needs a full precision. All the information that you will be hearing over the audio, you must be able to transcribe it accurately. The clients always seek for an output that is both credible and reliable.

The companies also have to make it sure, that they will deliver the complete transcripts in the quickest time as possible. Aside from accuracy, deadline is another important consideration. Once the client has given a particular cut-off limit, by whatever means, it has to be delivered.

The value of a transcription will vary on how the clients assess the work that these transcriptionists accomplished. The increase or the decrease on the number of their clients will also depend upon the quality of output that the transcriptionist produced.

Most of the noted formats that are accepted by the transcriptionist are the following:

1. Court tapes- This will be comprise of the coverage of court hearings be it in higher or lower courts. It will also include testimonies from both of the parties involve in a particular case.

2. Interviews- This will also include the dialogue usually between the interviewer and the interviewee.

3. Board Meetings and Conferences- The important agenda of the meeting are necessary things to be discussed and taken into account.

4. Roundtable Discussions- this refers to either a formal or an informal manner of laying discussing things out by a group.

5. Medical Advisory Groups- Usually, this is one of the most in demand services in transcription at present.

6. Video and Film Time Coding- Clients who are in the field of movie editing are offered these services.
On the other hand, when it also deals with the transfer of your audio in various media types, you can do it on neither of the audiotape, Compact Disc, CD-ROM, DVDs, and some can be transmitted to videocassettes. There are several preferences so that it will be easier for you to transfer the data from the audio that you needed.

The entire task in transcription needs to be done precisely. The transcriptionists make it sure that they are able to make all the necessary omissions, corrections, formatting and other technical tasks that must be done before sending the outputs to the clients.

The companies also provide for several trainings and reviews for their transcription to keep track that the quality of their work is for the better.

How To Choose The Right MT Course

2006-12-27T02:13:00.002-08:00

Looking for a good medical transcription course can be tricky. There are so many different MT schools popping up all over the place, and a lot of online schools too. Its definitely a difficult choice and you should take your time before making any commitments.

Remember, the better your training the better your earning opportunities will be. So keeping that in mind, its really important to choose the best medical transcription school possible.

So just how do you choose a good medical transcription school?

If youve decided a traditional school course is right for you, then start having a look around your local area. Ask other MTs where they were trained. Look in the yellow pages and the internet and make a list of all the local community colleges and technology schools in your area.

Call each school individually and ask them to mail you information on their medical transcription courses. Then narrow it down to a few schools you feel area good fit for you.

While deciding ask yourself some questions such as Can I go to school on the days and times required? Is it too far? Will I be able to stick with a course for that long? Can I afford it?

Once you have your list of schools, call them up and make an appointment to visit. This will give you a better feel of the school before making any commitments. Remember, good schools are always willing to take the time to show you around and answer your questions.
If the staff isnt happy to take a few minutes to speak to you then how will they treat you once youre a student.

Heres a list of things to look for once you visit the school:

What subjects are included in the course?

A good MT program should include word processing & typing, medical terminology (various levels), anatomy (at a general level), pharmacology (introduces you to different medications), grammar/English, and lots of hands on transcribing.

Do they have job placement assistance or Internship?

The upshot of choosing a school course is they usually have job placement. It can be difficult to get a job without real experience so job placement is important.

An internship is almost as good as job placement. Your school places you at a location to work (as part of your course training). You will not earn any money during this training but it is great hands on real experience. Sometimes, the employer may even hire you after your training. They will also give you a reference which you could use to find future work.

What are their success rates?

What have some of their students gone on to do? Are they working as MTs?
You could also ask what percentages of students actually receive the job training.
Good schools will have statistics of how well the course worked for their students.

How much is the course and is there payment assistance?

Most schools are pretty good about funding issues. They will usually have in place certain schemes where you can get discounts depending on your situation. Some have a sliding scale fee which means their fees are based on your income.

You may also find scholarships or the school will have a payment plan in place. This will allow you to break your payments down into smaller chunks. With some schools you dont have to pay back the remaining amount until 6 months after your course finishes. They may also have reduced interest rates.

What to look for in Online Courses?

If you decide an online course is right for you, then ask all the same questions as you would for a traditional school course. Job placement assistance is a bit more difficult with an online course but you should receive a letter of reference you could use to find local work.

Whichever method of training you receive, you can find your own work right away. This is sometimes easier than starting with a big online company. You can send a letter or visit your local doctors and offer to type a free report or tape. This will show them you can do the work before either of you make any commitments.

Working At Home As A Medical Transcriptionist

2006-12-27T02:13:00.001-08:00

Medical transcriptionists responsible for transforming various hospital reports from their dictated form to the written form. Every day, thousands of patients are admitted to hospitals around the world. Most patients are seen in any emergency room and in some point would require for various laboratory tests and x-rays. Every time a patient interacts with a medical professional, reports are generated just imagine how many medical reports are dictated every single day.

Medical transcriptionists transcribe medical reports that are saved as hard copies or stored on computer. As long as there are doctors, medical reports will be created and will need to be transcribed, providing job opportunities for medical transcriptionists.

Working as a medical transcriptionist doesnt necessarily mean working at a desk in a hospital or medical office you can have a career in medical transcribing while working from the comfort of your home by applying online to medical institutions. Most medical institutions have web sites where they list job openings.

Be very careful, however, when in filling out the online form. Carefully the instructions before answering questions, since medical companies look at how well you've followed instructions and filled out the form as a basis for hiring. You must be meticulous with your grammar and spelling since medical reports need to be transcribed without any mistakes..

The usual requirements for transcriptionists are as follows: They must have a thorough knowledge of medical terminology, an excellent command of grammar and above-average keyboarding skills. Keyboarding is more than just typin it means proficiency in using all the keys on your keyboard. Procrastination is not a trait that works well in this profession, so if you have the habit of putting things off then medical transcription is not the job for you. Home-based transcriptionists must be independent self-starters, should be able to research unfamiliar phrases or jargon when necessary, and should be conscientious, detail-oriented workers.

Most companies would rather hire medical transcriptionists with previous in-house experience when hiring someone to work from home, since they can save time that would be spent training. Many require that applicants have a year or more of experience working in a clinic or hospital.

If you're an aspiring medical transcriptionist without any experience, though, there are some companies that only require their applicants to have excellent listening and keyboarding skills and, of course, good understanding of English grammar. These employers provide their home-based applicants with medical resources that contain terms, abbreviations and medical definitions to assist them on their transcription.

The Medical Transcriptionist Boom

2006-12-26T01:57:00.003-08:00

In spite of the somewhat sluggish economy, in specific fields job opportunities are truly abundant and simply waiting to be tapped by qualified applicants. As a result of new technology and techniques, new skill sets are required but because the required skills have changed faster than the overall workforce, the numbers of qualified applicants has actually been decreasing for the past several years as workers rush to brush up and improve their talents in order to be considered "qualified" and in the mean-time, companies wait to fill these in-demand jobs.

From legal assistants or paralegals, pharmacy technicians and nurses, various training programs are now being made available for the public... including medical transcriptionist aspirants.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, becoming a medical transcriptionist represents one of the top ten job opportunities in the country. Medical transcriptionists are those people who create the legal documents which health care professionals like physicians, registered pharmacists, therapists, registered nurses, dieticians and chiropractors all rely on and use as reference materials.

The potential topics under which a medical transcriptionist could find themselves working in are incredibly varied and they range from Medical Terminologies, Medical Law and Ethics (HIPAA), In-Patient or Out-Patient Medical Transcription to Human Anatomy.

This wide range of potential topics is one of the big reasons why becoming a medical transcriptionist is not for just anyone. People who aspire to become medical transcriptionists need to undergo proper education from medical transcriptionist schools, which teach and train them in the various fields that they need to master in order to become a certified medical transcriptionist.

Medical Transcriptionist schools will also be able to help you better prepare for the Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) examination. Various medical transcriptionist schools offer training courses for potential medical transcriptionists. Aakers Business College, TechSkills, National College and PC Age are just some of the medial transcriptionist schools that can be found in the country.

Some medical transcriptionist schools even offer the option of training online via the comfort of ones own home. By simply having access to the internet, students from online medical transcription schools can actually access the available training modules and other medical transcription related materials that they will need in order to pass the medical transcription training.

More and more Medical transcriptionist schools are moving to this modern method of teaching because it expands their potential market due to the fact that many of their medical transcriptionist students are quite busy and value the option to take the medical transcription training at their own pace and being able to enjoy the convenience of setting their own schedules.

With the current high demand for medical transcriptionists, it's not surprising to see entrepreneurs jumping into the fray and taking advantage of this opportunity by setting up all sorts of medical transcriptionist schools... all geared towards training their students for an exciting medical transcriptionist career.

Apart from the necessary training that one acquires from medical transcriptionist schools, it's also important to note that any top medical transcriptionist will also possess excellent listening skills. Solid listening skills are truly and indispensable requirement in this field because medical transcription requires that the medical documents you are transcribing be perfect in every way possible.

Health care professionals are relying more and more on those transcribed medical documents when it comes to going about their everyday business. Whether it be filling prescriptions or doing some type of research, it's simply vital that the transcribed information they receive is accurate.

Just a small slip or momentary loss of concentration could result in unexpected negative consequences for a patient because so many health care professionals rely so heavily on the medically transcribed documents they receive as the basis for making their diagnoses and prescribing medications.

Although the potential to earn a substantial income lures many into the medical transcriptionist field, it doesn't automatically mean that they are cut out for the position. To succeed you must be extremely dedicated, patient and be able to handle the weight of responsibility that comes with the title - Certified Medical Transcriptionist.

Medical Transcription Students – How To Make Extra Money

2006-12-26T01:57:00.001-08:00

So youre taking a medical transcription course but really need to make a little extra money. Its difficult being a student and having to work only part time or not work at all. But there may be a few things you can start doing to money until you finish your course.

If you really want to work from home, then consider general transcribing until you finish your MT course. This will give you lots of typing practice and listening skills while making extra money.

The first step is to find a few clients. You can use inexpensive advertising strategies to do this. Make out some simple flyers on your computer and pass them around.

A few good places are Universities, schools, legal and insurance offices, social work offices, and government offices.

The more services you offer the better your chances of finding work. You can offer services like resume writing, general transcribing, administrative help, and answering emails. Think of the skills you possess to help you expand the number of services you offer.

You can also try finding work online. There are a few sites you can go to and bid on projects, Elance.com has everything from administrative work to software design.

Finding a few projects on the side may be the perfect solution until you find work as a medical transcriptionist. It can also give you valuable experience while helping you build your network.

And if you really need to work while studying, then thats okay. You can always study part-time while working on the side. Its better than being financially stressed or quitting your course because lack of funds.

These can be difficult times, but just think ahead and keep motivated with the thought that once you finish your course youre going to have some great financial opportunities.

Is Medical Transcription Certification Necessary?

2006-12-26T01:56:00.002-08:00

Becoming a certified medical transcriptionist is really a personal choice. At present, there is no requirement for MTs to become certified at this time.

To become certified you will need to pass an exam given by the AAMT (American Association of Medical Transcriptionists). This is a two part exam, written and practical and takes about 5 to 6 hours to complete. It is a very in depth exam and most MTs take a prep course before taking the exam.

The exam consists of two parts. The first part is a written exam which consists of 120 multiple choice questions about anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, English and grammar, etc.
The second part of the exam is a practical test where you transcribe several different reports.

Once certified it means you can use the letters CMT (certified medical transcriptionist) behind your name. You must recertify every 3 years.

Certification is highly regarded in some circles of the MT field and some MTs believe it opens doors for better opportunities.

Personally, I feel medical transcription certification is a personal choice. Although, certification gives you the opportunity to prove your skills as an MT, not being certified does not take away from them.

I have never run across a physician or account manager who has asked me whether I am certified or not. They are merely interested that I can efficiently complete the work, follow all the privacy regulations and charge them a reasonable rate.

I dont know of any MTs who have lacked opportunities due to not being certified either. Again, the choice is a personal one and for some it is a great sense of personal achievement.

If you do decide to become certified, it will be a great personal achievement. It will take a time and financial commitment. At present, the AAMT fee for the CMT exam for US and Canada is $195 US dollars for AAMT members and $275 for non AAMT members. You must also have 2 years experience working as an MT.

Medical Transcription Schools – Avoiding Online Scams

2006-12-25T01:56:00.000-08:00

Medical transcription is a lucrative profession which allows you the flexibility to work from home. Unfortunately, its this appeal that has opened the doors for less than honest online medical transcription schools.

If you dont know a lot about MT, then I will assure you it is a real profession and a real possibility. It is not a get rich quick scheme or overnight money maker.

If youre shopping around for an online medical transcription course, here are a few things to keep in mind.

How to choose the right course and avoid scams

Make sure the company offering the course is reputable and has been around for a long time. You can do this by checking with the Better Business Bureau. Here are a few other things to look for.

Send the school an email asking a question about their course. If they respond promptly in a professional matter thats a good sign. If they seem overly pushy be a bit weary.

Look at their website. Is it professional? Do they give you statistics about their success rates, student testimonials, Q and A section?

Do they have an online student log in area or online support if you have questions?

Are their company details listed on their website? Such as how long theyve been in business, contact details (mailing address and phone number).

Do they make exaggerated promises about their course? If they are promising you will make a lot of money in a short time, then be careful. No one can really predict how much you will make or how long it will take you. They should give general statistics and figures in an unbiased way.

Do they provide financial aid or payment assistance?

Do they have a list of graduates or companies which have hired their graduates?

Do they give you updates of students who have graduated from their school?

Do they have a student message board, a newsletter or information which will make you feel part of a community?

Studying from home can be lonely at times, a reputable course will offer you assistance from the very beginning until you find a job.

Medical Transcription - Myths and Realities: The Basics

2006-12-25T01:55:00.000-08:00

Unless you have some sort of super anti-spam e-mail blocker installed on your computer, you have probably received e-mails with titles such as "Make $150,000 a year as an at home medical transcriptionist - no investment required". Many of these e-mails are nothing but solicitations to try and get you to buy some sort of e-book, or other item, that will teach you how to become a medical transcriptionist. While remembering that many of these e-mails are nothing more than spam, it is equally important to remember that many of them are legitimate.

To start with, medical transcription is one of the fastest-growing of the medical related career fields. A study conducted about 6 years ago found that transcription, and related fields, would continue tremendous growth for many years to come. This is due in part to the rapid advance in the number of retiring "baby boomers". As well, virtually all medical career fields are nearly recession proof, as no matter what the economic climate, people are always going to need medical care; thus, doctors and other medical professionals are always going to need medical transcriptionists.

In essence, a trained medical transcriptionist can take the notes (most commonly being voice recordings) of doctors, nurses, etc., and translate them into various forms, including medical reports, charts, etc. Potential medical transcriptionists will need good listening skills, as medical terminology may sound the same, but have different meanings depending upon the context in which it's used. The final results of a medical transcriptionists work must be 100% accurate, as this work is what's used to document a patient's medical history. As well, a transcriptionist's work may be utilized during certain legal proceedings, so everything must always be perfect. Legal matters can hinge entirely on the accuracy of the transcriptions. And, no matter what the outcome of the proceedings, all transcripts most generally become a matter of public record.

A medical transcriptionist is normally employed in one of the following 4 ways:

In an actual hospital
In a doctor's office, clinic, or other outpatient medical care facility
In labs, medical schools, third-party transcription services, etc.
As independent or "home-based" medical transcriptionists

Most appealing to potential new transcriptionists is the possibility of working from home. While being home-based has its benefits, it has its challenges as well. The lack of a normal "9 to 5" work schedule, and structured office environment are two good examples of such challenges. As well, if you decide to become home-based, you will likely need to form your own business legally, set up your tax requirements, etc. All of this is really not anywhere near as difficult as it may sound. But all potential home-based transcriptionists will want to keep these things in mind.

Start a Medical Transcription At Home Career

2006-12-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked several times a month, how I got started in this business. So many people nowadays want to work from home, especially mothers with young children. Thats the primary reason I started my home business ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter. I didnt want someone else taking care of her after school instead of me.

Its really not hard to start a medical transcription business. The start-up costs are low compared to many other home-based businesses.

You need a form of education, via home study courses or by attending your local community college. You do NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a business either. In a short amount of time, usually nine months or less, you can be working from the comfort of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer, a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need, outside of the education, which include:

* Excellent grammar skills

* Good Listening Skills,

* Basic computer skills with a word processing program

* Research Skills

* Ability to type your speed will increase with experience

* Must be detail oriented

* Ability to work on your own

* Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a self-motivator

You will also need some computer programs such as a medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut down on the amount of actual typing you do. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word include this type of utility. It is the best invention by far, in my opinion.

Basic bookkeeping is necessary, but not difficult. A good bookkeeper is great to have when it comes to taxes and advising you about saving money with tax deductions for your business.

Medical transcription is usually paid by the amount of work transcribed. Therefore, it is quite normal to charge your clients by the line. If you charge 13 cents per line and type 200 lines per hour, (this is a very comfortable speed to type) your hourly rate would end up being about
$26.00.

Being self-employed does have some pitfalls. One must consider, as with any home based business, that once you become self-employed you are responsible for securing your own health insurance, and putting away money for retirement.

However, there are many positive things about being self-employed, as Im sure you can imagine. For me, what I love the most, is the flexibility I have with my time. If I want to work late in the day I can, and if I want to work early in the morning, thats up to me. Running a home-based medical transcription business is a lot of fun.

Medical transcription is not for everyone, and it is important before venturing in to any business that you weigh up the pros and cons of it all and do what is best for your situation.

Medical Transcription Salary Outlook

2006-12-23T01:13:00.001-08:00

So how much can an MT actually make?

MT salaries can vary greatly, and your actual earnings will depend on a few different factors. For example, an MT who works from home and has her own accounts will usually make more money than an MT who works for an online service or at a traditional job setting.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor the average earnings for MTs in the year 2004 was between $11.50 and $16.32 per hour. MTs in the higher earnings range (10%) earned $19.11 per hour.

Now, keep in mind thats just a statistic. How much you actually earn can vary greatly and its really difficult to come up with a true earnings statistic.

If you work from home on your own accounts there may be months where you have extra work and months when you have less. Your earnings could also differ dramatically from another fellow MT who works from home on her own accounts.

A great advantage about having your own MT business is you can truly have control over your earnings. The more accounts you have, the more money youll make.

As your business grows you can hire subcontractors and take on even more work. There really is no limitation in how large your business can grow.

You may also choose to have a smaller and easier to handle business. You can always work a little extra to increase your earnings, or simply take on the amount of work that suits your needs.

If you have a home based MT business and you do all the work yourself, you can make anywhere between $20,000 a year to $50,000 a year. A larger transcription service, which hires subcontractors can earn between $50,000 a year to $200,000 and upwards.

Medical transcription jobs outside the home can vary just as much, depending on where you live. Earnings can be from $9.00 per hour to $22.00 per hour.

Its really difficult to say exactly how much your medical transcription salary will be. But one thing to keep in mind is the earning potential is there and there are many opportunities for you to take.

This is TRULY a business which allows you to have control over how much you earn.

Medical Transcriptionist Training Expectations

2006-12-23T01:12:00.002-08:00

The medical transcription field continues to grow in conjunction with the demands on the health care industry. For those who are suited to this job, there are some good opportunities. But isn't it just a case of listening to the voice of a health care professional and typing up exactly what's been said? While that's the basic idea behind the medical transcriptionists' job, there are some reasons that health care professionals and facilities want to hire those trained for the job.

The terminology is one of the biggest reasons training is so vital. While you don't have to be able to name the bones in the leg, you do need to learn to recognize words like "tibia." Terminology is one of the reasons medical transcriptionists need training, and one of the points that will be taught and practiced during Medical Transcriptionist training.

But is there really a need to learn those things? After all, you can certainly stop the tape and look up any words that you don't recognize. That constant starting and stopping are the difference between an experienced transcriptionist and someone who's filling in. If you have the right training and the right real world practice provided by most medical transcription training programs, you'll find yourself able to meet the demands of the terminology.

Specialized training is one of the many options of medical transcription training, and many health care professionals who have a specialty are seeking out those people who can most accurately transcribe notes and medical details. In that case, the transcriber learns those words that apply specifically to the system, disease or other narrow focus of a particular doctor's practice. Adding those specialties make you more valuable on the marketplace.

Remember that doctors aren't the only ones who need medical transcription, and you'll find most training programs offer at least some exercises and information to prepare you for those situations. You may be called on to create exit notes for patients at a hospital. The patient is about to leave and those notes have to be legible, accurate and available now.

One point of the training is to learn to be fast and accurate in real-life situations. A busy emergency room isn't going to suddenly quiet down so that you can concentrate on transcribing a doctor's orders for a patient who is about to be released. Many medical transcription schools will put students into those noisy, busy, stressful situations with orders to transcribe. As important as it is to learn the terminology, it's also vital that you learn to listen - regardless of what's going on around you.

There are even those outside the medical field that use transcription. Though the demand for attorney transcribers isn't as big as for medical transcription, there is definitely a need in that field.

There are other points that will become part of your training. How to make use of technology, software and resources that are available to help you better accomplish your tasks as well as the best ways to handle various situations you're likely to encounter. Take a look at the courses being taught by MT schools. You may be surprised at how thoroughly you'll be prepared for a career in medical transcription.

Medical Transcription - Career, Home Business Or Both?

2006-12-23T01:12:00.001-08:00

One of the great things about a career in medical transcription is that almost anyone can set up an office to handle the duties of a medical transcriptionist or a medical transcription service. Even the office requirements are fairly generic, meaning this has the potential for a home-based business.

A computer and Internet connection are probably your biggest needs for medical transcription, though technology has truly come a long way in this field. More than ever, there are products that can help you along this path, making your work easier and aiding in your speed and accuracy.

If you know little about medical transcriptions, you may have the idea that a doctor or other health care professional records information on a tape recorder and the medical transcriptionist simply writes whatever is recorded. Digital recordings have greatly aided the medical transcription industry. No longer is there a need to deal with scratchy tapes and poor sound quality.

The industry is also making it easy to make dictation easy for your clients. You don't even have to have the physical recording device used by the health care professionals in your hand. There are several options for telephone recording. You can set up a recorder especially designed for medical transcription on your own telephone line and have your clients call in their dictations. These systems are secure and easy to use for both you and the client. And once you have the dictations onto your personal recording machine, you can choose what to do with the information. You can route it to another destination (your computer dictation software, for example) or transcribe directly from the recorder.

Many of the recorders come with easy controls so that you can start, stop, pause, fast forward or replay segments of the recording using your feet or voice. This leaves your hands free to do their typing.

There are also several types of software available that will help you do your job more efficiently. It won't take long to figure out that Microsoft and other typing programs aren't ideal for medical transcription. The terms and proper names - including drug names - are not likely to be recognized. Mistakes are also likely to fall through the failings of those systems. Using the programs especially designed for the medical transcription industry will allow you to more accurately evaluate your work.

With the technology and training available, you can see that it's a fairly simple matter to become involved in this industry. Many people even do so from the comfort of their own homes. However, this isn't the home business for the busy parent who wants to work a few hours during their toddler's daily naptime. Most deadlines associated with medical transcription are fairly tight and there's no room for error.

There's no doubt that medical transcription isn't for everyone, but it is an important part of the health care industry and one that provides a good living for those who choose to pursue this particular aspect.

Medical Transcription - An Emerging Profession

2006-12-22T01:12:00.000-08:00

Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and transcribing the dictation made by doctors or other health care professionals regarding patient status, treatment procedures, diagnoses, prognoses, etc. With medical transcription of dictated data from physicians, the medical transcriptionist may also edit the text that is produced by voice recognition software. Medical Transcription is the translating of dictations made by a doctor. As a result, it requires an extensive knowledge of medical, pharmacological and anatomical terms.

In the past medical transcriptionists would listen to dictations and type it themselves, but with the dawn of technology and voice recognition software, this has become unnecessary and today, for the most part, the medical transcriptionist merely edits the output of the software. However, the editing process can range from a few corrections to major changes because voice recognition software still hasn't been perfected and probably never will be due to the wide variety of speech variations and dictating habits of health care professionals.

Aside from medical knowledge, a quality transcription requires a transcriptionist to have excellent listening skills because they must be able to simultaneously interpret dictation while typing, they must also have an exquisite knowledge of English and grammar, proofreading and editing skills, a high state of analytical skills in order to analyze and convert spoken words into meaningful writing, as well being adept in the use of transcription equipment and computers.

Medical Transcription has been seen as writing in ancient caves and in documents of lost civilizations, but still the purpose of medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist remains the same and that is to keep a record of a patient's medical status and treatment.

However, it wasn't until the late 20th century that Medical transcription was recognized as a profession. Initially, those who did medical transcription were labeled as typists, word processors, medical secretaries or dictating machine operators. This was and still is a highly unjustified job title for those who practice medical transcription because the profession requires a wide knowledge of medical terms. Thus, in 1999, Medical Transcription was assigned its own job classification and those practicing it were officially called medical transcriptionists.

Medical Transcription as a profession is very underground and most people might not have heard about it. However, medical transcription is an essential profession in the every growing health care industry... especially to health care staff that does not have the time to put into writing every single bit of information that they gather from patients. As a result, the demand for qualified medical transcriptionist professionals is continually growing and because the number of new procedures coming into the market doctors don't have the time to transcribe all their findings.

Medical Transcription as a profession is very versatile as well. Medical transcriptionists, can acquire after a few years of education, work from medical transcription firms. Medical Transcription firms receive dictations made by doctors and in turn, these orders are turned over to medical transcriptionists to be transcribed.

A medical transcriptionist can also work full or part-time at home. Currently, the American Association for Medical Transcription is governing body in the United states that certifies Medical transcriptionists, although you won't need a certification to be able to work as one, a certification form the AAMT, will surely increase you're "market value" and credibility.

Medical transcription is no longer merely listening and transcribing the words dictated by a doctor. Medical Transcription is evolving and now requires specific education centering on medical language, knowledge of Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, anatomy, physiology, disease processes, medical science and procedures, medical instruments, pharmacology, laboratory instruments, laboratory test results, medical reference material techniques and many more.

Medical Transcription - An Evolving Profession

2006-12-22T01:11:00.000-08:00

How To Choose A Medical Billing Specialist

2006-12-21T03:34:00.001-08:00

When considering how to choose a medical billing specialist, you must consider the skills and abilities of a good one. If you know what you are looking for, making the right decision as to which billing specialist to use becomes fairly obvious. Take a look at what a medical billing specialist should be familiar with and what they have to do so that you can choose the right medical transcriptions

First of all when considering how to choose a medical billing specialist, you should make sure you find one that understands medical transcription. Medical transcription is the transferring of medical information from audio recordings to either paper or electronic format. Your billing specialist should be aware of this because of the information contained in the transcripts. The transferred data becomes an electronic medical record, which just shows how much everything the billing specialist works with is interconnected.

The job of medical transcription is usually outsourced to a third party company or done through the use of medical transcription software. Each part of the process, though, must be overseen by someone with training to do the transcription so as to catch all potential errors.

Secondly, you want your medical billing specialist to be familiar with the various medical codes. Additionally, he or she should know about governing record keeping, billing, and certification. This allows the billing specialist to be familiar with the important standards that control how a medical billing specialist actually performs his or her job. Knowing how the codes function and what they say is crucial to being a good and an effective medical billing specialist.

When you look at how to choose a medical billing specialist, you should also make sure he or she is familiar with electronic medical records (EMR). The information in such records is coded and means that a billing specialist must be able to decipher the information in order to make sure billing is done correctly. Additionally, the specialist must be trained due to the fact that all EMRs must be managed, backed up, and stored with great care so that everything is kept secure. The information is very sensitive.

In an age of software and computers, it is vital that your medical billing specialist knows how to use medical practice software. The software is made to allow a database of EMRs to go along with access to medical codes with which your billing specialist should also be familiar. The software helps practices to cut their IT expenses by only forcing them to pay monthly secure hosting for the system. Medical billing specialists are some of the people authorized to use the programs to get information via computers or PDAs off the server.

Deciding how to choose a medical billing specialist is not easy. You must have an understanding of what all a good billing specialist knows and understands. The information above helps you get a feel for what you should look for when choosing your medical billing specialist.

Future Outlook For Medical Transcription

2006-12-21T03:33:00.002-08:00

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the future outlook for medical transcription looks good. This is a lucrative, in demand-career with great growth opportunities.

If youre considering a medical transcription course or are already taking one, this is good news. It means you will have plenty of employment as well as financial opportunities.

Although, medical transcription is predicted to grow and remain stable, there are a few common concerns among the MT community.

These are the most common.

Will voice recognition replace transcriptionists?

There has been talk for a long time about voice recognition and new software which will replace the jobs of MTs. This will not affect you any time soon. There are a number of growing issues and concerns with this software. It is not being used in a large setting and has not yet replaced the need for medical transcription on the whole.

Medical terminology is complex and the regulations for patient records are stricter than ever. At present, the most accurate way to transcribe these records is by trained MTs.
According to the Medical Records Institute, which actually promotes the use of computerized medical records, current research shows use of speech recognition in the medical fields is less than 1%.
What about offshore transcription companies?
Some companies are using offshore transcription companies to save money. However, while outsourcing medical transcription to offshore companies can save money, many companies are not following this route.

There are various concerns and issues with outsourcing to offshore companies. Offshore MT companies are not required to comply with HIPPA regulations. This means they dont follow the HIPPA security and privacy guidelines to safeguard medical records.

In some cases it can be done, but mandatory agreements required by HIPPA guidelines must be signed. And precautions must be taken so that data isnt sent overseas. The overseas vendors must log on to U.S. database to do their work, which means extra systems and measures must be put in place. This can be expensive and time consuming.

Although, some companies may find the need for saving money is worth these risks, most wont.

I agree with the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics and believe the future of medical transcription looks good and there are many opportunities out there for the taking.

However, although the future of MT looks promising, times HAVE changed. MTs of today should start adapting to the ever changing business technology around them.

The technology is there and available for us to take our businesses to the next level. With a few clicks of a mouse we can build our own MT website, set up an online diary or download files for transcribing.

Be smart in your business, keep up with the times, adapt to technology and your future outlook will look better than ever.

Is A Career In Medical Transcription For You?

2006-12-21T03:33:00.001-08:00

If you have an interest in the medical field and enjoy office work, you should consider a career in medical transcription. Demand in this field continues to grow and each year there are more job opportunities.

Medical transcription clerks quickly and accurately transcribe medical records that are dictated by doctors and other medical professionals. You will be working with clinic notes, physical reports, office notes, consultation reports, operative reports, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory results, pathology reports, and x-ray results to name just some of the record types.

The clerk receives the information on a dictation tape which is then listened to using a Dictaphone machine and transcribed into a word processing program. Different doctors use different word processing software but all have medical dictionaries. There are several that are required including medications, medical definitions, and abbreviations.

In order to do this job you must have good computer and language skills. You must also be well versed in medical terminology, laboratory terms, surgical terms, procedures, and abbreviations. Medical transcription clerks must be accurate as they are responsible for correctly transcribing patient medical records.

You can complete a Medical Transcription certification program online. The length of programs varies depending on the level of training you undertake, but on average they take anywhere from 6 months to 9 months to complete.

You will then be qualified to work in a hospital or medical office as a transcriptionist. There are also job opportunities in the field becoming available online. In the United States you can expect to earn around $10.00 per hour to start, and with just a few years experience this can jump to $20.00 per hour or more. National transcription companies require 2-5 years of hospital experience, but they pay substantially better! Online, in a self employed environment, you can earn up to $40.00 per hour.

Although membership in a professional association is not required, it is recommended. The AAMT, The American Association for Medical Transcription, was founded in 1978 and provides you with the bimonthly Journal of the Association for American Medical Transcription, discounts on professional services and products, access to educational conferences and seminars, access to AAMT professional staff, and the opportunity to become a Certified Medical Transcriptionist.

If a career in medical transcription is for you, check with the many online universities about their program requirements.

Outsourcing Transcription To Save Costs

2006-12-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

Looking for ways to cut costs has become a way of life in most medical offices and institutions. One very efficient way to reduce expenditures has been found to be the outsourcing of medical transcription services.

In the past medical and business transcription was performed by in house based employees. This means that the institution not only had to pay salaries, health care benefits, vacation and sick pay for their employees, they also had the expense of the physical space and equipment needs. Hospitals and other institutions have found that outsourcing of their transcription needs eliminates some of these internal management responsibilities and costs.

Most institutions pay on an average 28 to 36 percent more for their in house transcription then they would pay for the same if it was outsourced. Studies done in the past have found that a production based transcriptionist working in her or his home has a cost of nearly 37 percent less per character than an in house transcriptionist.

Another consideration of outsourcing transcription is accuracy of work and turn around time. Even with on site transcriptionists many hospitals have physician complaints regarding the quality and accuracy of the transcription and the turn around time of their dictations. Turn around time is directly related to the productivity of the worker. It was found that on site transcriptionists have many more disruptions and a much lower production rate when compared to outsourced transcriptionists. The on site transcription production rate is around 39 percent less than production based and home based transcription production rates.

At the completion of a nearly two year study it was found that hospitals and other institutions could save as much as 33 - 38 percent a year utilizing outsourced transcriptions services.

Choosing Medical Transcription as a Career

2006-12-20T03:32:00.000-08:00

Medical transcription is one of those careers where you either hate it or love it. I have been a medical transcriptionist for a long time and still love what I do. I enjoy the continuous learning, take pride in my work and think its absolutely fantastic.

But, what will it be like for you?

If youre thinking about a career in medical transcription here are a few things to consider:

Do you enjoy working on your own?

Whether you work outside the home or from home, this is one career where you will have to be self disciplined. You are left to produce your own work and will not have someone looking over your shoulder.

Do you have a good grasp of the English language?

You will need to have a good understanding of English and grammar. Grammar you could learn through a class, but if you have trouble understanding spoken English then perhaps you could take a class to improve your language skills before starting your MT course.

Will I be able to sit in front of a computer for extended periods of time?

Medical transcription is all about typing. You will sit in front of a computer for hours at a time transcribing documents.

Do I need a social career?

Medical transcription isnt the most social career out there. You will network and meet other MTs but while youre working you will be on your own concentrating on your work, and you cant have a conversation while transcribing.

So whether you work from home or in an office, you really wont spend a lot of time involved with others while working.

Am I good researcher or willing to learn?

As an MT, you will really develop your researching skills and will become very resourceful! You will need to look up medications and terms you dont understand or cant clearly make out. This will take some thinking and resourcefulness on your part.

Will I be able to apply common sense?

You will find yourself in many situations as an MT where you really need to think outside the box. You will find yourself applying common sense on a daily basis. There is no precise 100% formula in medical transcription. Good common sense will really help you.