Quality Medical transcription: Foundation for revenue cycle and first line of risk management

Medical transcription plays an important part in the healthcare process, creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by converting audio files of the healthcare professional into a text format. Though this is the main service provided by medical transcription, there are a large number of benefits to be derived from quality medical transcription.

By creating accurate, timely and secure records, medical transcription additionally helps healthcare facilities in two main areas:

• Speeding up the revenue cycle: The revenue cycle of a healthcare facility typically follows the following stages:

• Patient visit/Emergency visit
• Collection of patient demographic data
• Treatment /test/procedures/referrals
• Dictation of the patient visit by the healthcare professional
• Medical transcription
• Coding and billing
• Claims processing
• Reimbursement of claimable amount.

It is evident that timely and accurate medical transcription can help speed up the revenue cycle, as it form the base of information about the patient’s visit and all other relevant details. This information is then used to start the process of reimbursement.

• Risk management:. Risk management is the process of assuring that covered persons receive all of the health care services they need, to which they are entitled under the contract, no more and no less at the most cost effective level possible by reducing or eliminating untoward incidents that might lead to injury or illness of patients. In an increasingly litigious environment it is important that healthcare facilities are adequately covered against risk of litigation by keeping accurate records of the whole treatment procedure covering all the details. Medical transcription aids in the process of risk management by capturing every nuance of the treatment process as narrated by the healthcare professional, in an accurate and timely manner.  Another potential litigation risk that healthcare facilities face is due to the leakage of confidential patient information, namely a HIPAA violation, during the process of medical transcription. The data becomes vulnerable to exposure during the process of medical transcription by being transmitted back and forth. A service provider providing quality medical transcription would ensure adequate measures are taken to protect the data, pertaining to technology, processes, people and infrastructure.

As medical transcription plays such an important role in different aspects of the healthcare process, it is important to stringently evaluate the medical transcription service provider on various aspects.

What are the criteria for evaluating a medical transcription service provider?

• Quality/accuracy: As the information captured in the medical record plays such an important role in various aspects of the healthcare facility operations, it is important to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the basis of the accuracy levels guaranteed. Apart from the accuracy level guaranteed by the service provider, it is important to evaluate the service provider’s ability to meet quality standards. This can be ascertained by evaluating:

1. The number of quality checks used to achieve accuracy
2. The training methods used
3. The quality guidelines adopted by the service provider
4. Ascertaining whether the service provider executes all the transcription work in-house or by using subcontractors.

• Turnaround time: Timely delivery of finished reports is an important aspect of ensuring that the reimbursement process takes place on time. It is important to evaluate whether a service provider will be able to meet turnaround time guarantees. This can be ascertained by evaluating:

1. Availability of skilled medical transcriptionists
2. Skill level of the medical transcriptionists
3. The technology used for transcription

• HIPAA compliance: As maintaining the security of confidential patient data is of absolute importance, it is important to evaluate the service provider on the basis of HIPAA compliance. The service provider needs to be evaluated on the following:

1. Steps taken to protect technology
2. Steps taken to protect processes and people
3. Steps taken to secure Infrastructure

• Cost of transcription: The reduced cost of transcription is perhaps one of the most important benefits of outsourcing medical transcription. It is important that the price quoted by the medical transcription service provider be evaluated to ascertain that it is fair and reasonable to the services rendered. This can be evaluated based on the billing methodology used by the service provider.

• Track record: Ascertaining the track record of the service provider in providing similar services is an important aspect of evaluating the capability of the medical transcription service provider. This can be evaluated by verifying the testimonials of satisfied customers.

• Technology: Technology used by the medical transcription service provider plays an important part in three vital areas, namely:

1. Turnaround time
2. HIPAA compliance
3. Ease of use

Evaluating a medical transcription service provider based on all these aspects would ensure efficient, effective, secure and economical medical transcription services.

TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use.

To benefit from immaculate medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here