Is Medical Transcription really in hot demand these days?

[Khephra]

I ask, as my mother has been taking classes on this topic, convinced she'll be making some serious money once she's a graduate.

[amazona]

1. I have rather bad news for my area

Years ago it was a wonderful small business for women, and I knew women making $50,000 a year. Unfortunately, it is one of those businesses that is very easily out-sourced, and demand seems to have dropped precipitously. Unless she has a good network of doctors/hospitals that she knows will be interested in using her, I wouldn't be especially optimistic. For whatever reason, the field has become overcrowded. Perhaps in your area, things are different though. As with any small business, there are no benefits, so you have to make substantially more than you would as an employee, just to stay in place -- you pay double Social Security, have to provide your own health insurance (assuming she can get it at all, many older women can't), etc.

If I were spending money to get an education, my own choice would be to pursue something that involves going to an actual job, with benefits, such as nursing, X-ray tech, etc. Anything that can be done at your house can be done just as well in India, unfortunately.

[scarletlib]

2. I wish her luck

This was a great job for people who wanted to work out of their homes and the wages were pretty good. Unfortunately, this is one of the many jobs that is currently being outsourced to places like India. So, I hope your Mom is one of the lucky ones who gets work and keeps on getting it.

[ikojo]

3. For the time being, due to HIPAA, Med Transcription

may be a "safe" job...meaning it doesn't face imminent outsourcing to countries (such as India) with cheap labor...I think this type of job WILL be outsourced but perhaps not within the next few years.


http://www.indiainfoline.com/cyva/repo/medi/ch03.html

The medical transcription industry had its genesis in the USA and was a development of three requirements:

the need to maintain basic hospital data,
recording of data and medical procedures for research and
records for insurance purposes.

Today medical practices in the US are bound by strict codes of ethics and statutes, which if flouted can lead to expensive malpractice lawsuits. Hence a high level of documentation is required at every stage of treatment, and Medical Associations have mandatory and complex requirements on documentation from doctors.

This being a highly time consuming process and demanding additional skills on the part of the doctor, the solution to this problem lay in outsourcing trained professionals to convert voice files into typed forms. Since medical practices in other parts of the world are not driven by the kind of regulatory and legal requirements that exist in the USA, the demand for medical transcription does not exist in any meaningful way anywhere else. In India too the demand for medical transcription is yet to come of age and it is safe to say that for the next five years there would be no demand for transcription as there is in the USA.

The current practice is for doctors to simply record their findings through a dictaphone or some such device.These sound tracks are then sent through datacom lines to overseas companies (where costs are much lower) that employ "medical transcriptionists" who hear these recordings, transcribe them into reports and send them back electronically through datacom lines. Initially, it was only being contracted out to companies that were in close proximity to these hospitals. Increasingly, however to take advantage of lower costs, this work is being sent to abroad to Mexico, West Indies etc. Because of the availability of high speed satellite links, it is now entirely feasible to do this.

[brokensymmetry]

4. I've heard the same things Amazona has.

Medical Transcription is going offshore, and it's going fast. The rates paid are going down quickly.

Sorry....

[ikojo]

6. I have brought this up at work (I work for an HMO)...

What about HIPAA regulations? The world really is a very small place. Believe it or not..insurance companies DO insure famous people. I used to work for the insurance company that insured politicians and actors, as well as DC think tanks.

Right now their private health information is protected by HIPAA. If I shared any PHI on a famous person (or not famous person) with this board then I (or my employer) could be sued.

When I brought this concern up at a meeting, I was rebuffed saying that the company I work for did not want to be the first one sued on account of PHI being released from an outsourced employee. I was not told of any measures taken to protect PHI when it comes to outsourced services.


on edit: Edited to include the policy that ALL personal health information is to be kept private and not only that of well known people.

[brokensymmetry]

7. Have I got a link for you!

You REALLY ought to take a look at an event that has just happened, with lawsuits and bankruptcy all 'round.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/28/MNGFS3080R264.DTL

You might even want to make copies for your company...

[ikojo]

8. Thanks a lot for the link.

I sent it to my work e mail address as well as to an actuary friend of mine and someone who works for a med school.

People know people regardless of where they live.

[teryang]

9. Great story!

Thanks for the link.

When you contract for anything you give up control to a certain degree. All you have is a legal remedy in the courts.

When you contract or subcontract with foreign entities you give up the remedy as well.

I see the potential for abuse with this type of information that goes way beyond what is depicted in this article. I envision lists being compiled from medical records and sold for use by insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, and other institutional service providers for those with certain conditions.

[Skittles]

10. I deal with PHI data too

I've seen a couple famous names but I would never talk about them, not because of PHI but as a human being who respects their privacy.

[rocktivity]

5. It's hot for the medical transcription SCHOOLS

because they make their money off class tuitions. The IT trade schools are doing the same thing--insisting that the field is still "hot" so you should sign up for their classes. The non-outsourced IT jobs require at least two years' experience. And without that experience, an IT certification isn't worth the paper it's written on.

:headbang:
rocknation