Documenting the healthcare process is an important aspect of healthcare services; as this aids in several areas including meeting statutory requirements, providing continuing care, preparing for coding & billing and as evidence in case of malpractice litigation.
Though healthcare facilities have several options available to them for creation of medical records like point and click entry into an EMR/EHR, speech recognition, using the services of an in-house transcription team etc, one of the most preferred and cost-effective method is to outsource the entire process to a professional medical transcription service provider.
Outsourcing provides support to the healthcare facility and healthcare professionals in several aspects.
Not only do outsourced service providers provide accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective services they also provide numerous benefits by virtue of the software and tools used by them for this purpose.
Outsourced vendors create patient medical records adhering to a strict code of ethics.
The standards for the services provided include: Healthcare documentation that meets quality standards - This ensures that patient medical records are created with maximum accuracy.
The transcription provider would use specialty trained transcriptionists and a multiple level quality check method to ensure that the quality and integrity of the data is maintained.
Securing data - Protecting the confidentiality of patient data is not only a legal obligation under HIPAA it is also a moral obligation.
Outsourced service providers understand the need for this and have measures in place to ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance by securing people, processes, infrastructure and technology.
Meeting turnaround time commitment - The provision of quality healthcare and ensuring quicker receivables cycle requires the patient medical records to not only be created with maximum accuracy but also on time.
The vendor using a combination of well-trained teams of transcriptionists, diligent processes and the right technology ensures tight turnaround time.
Billing methods - Reducing costs is one of the prime reasons for outsourcing medical transcription.
Transcription vendors ensure that the pricing methods used by them are verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent, fair and honest.
This ensures that the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals understand the components of cost and are comfortable with the method of billing used by the vendor.
While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to source a service provider who can provide services while adhering to the above given standards