When it concerns transcribing the medical records of a healthcare facility, there are several options in front to them. They could opt to go in for a transcription department or contract Independent contractors, or engage the services of an expert medical transcription company. Sometimes healthcare providers decide to have a mixture of all three.
However, outsourcing medical transcription needs on a total basis to a medical transcription company has a lot of benefits. Once the expertise of the service provider has been verified in terms of correctness, turnaround time, HIPAA compliance, technology and the pliability of services, there are many advantages to outsourcing the work
Given here are some of the benefits of outsourcing medical transcription:
Reducing time: By outsourcing, the administrative staff of the hospital as well the healthcare professionals can structure their limited time better to concentrate on the main business; that of providing healthcare.
Conserving resources: Outsourcing transcription liberates resources like technology, office space, working capital, management personnel etc. These resources can then be utilized for maximum benefit.
Savings on overhead: Having transcription in-house would require infrastructure like space, computers, power etc, which would have to be used to perform medical transcription. By outsourcing, outlay on this infrastructure could be saved.
Decreased efforts: A lot of inputs are needed from teams at every level, when transcription needs are executed in-house or through the use of independent contractors. Activities like hiring and training require a lot of effort. Outsourcing ensures that these efforts are used more productively.
Decreased strain on internal resources: Due to raising costs, declining percentage of payments, and constrained budgets, it has become increasingly challenging to manage internal resources. Outsourcing transcription lessens the burden on internal resources.
Leveraging from the knowledge of the provider: Outsourcing has the advantage of the hospital gaining from the skills of the service provider. The know-how and expertise of the service provider add to the other advantages of outsourcing.
High level of service: As more and more resources of the healthcare facility are liberated, the focus on delivering quality services would get better, thereby enhancing the quality of service.
Flexibility of choice: One of the major advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is the adjustability of services provided. The responsibility of having to arrange medical transcription services for varying influxes of patients, holiday transcription and weekend transcription needs is on the service provider.
Enhance shareholder value: With the decrease of expenses, gains are maximized thus enhancing shareholder value.
Streamlined and improved operations: With one of the vital contributors in the healthcare process being taken care of, the administration of the clinic is free to focus on other areas. This helps streamline and enhance operations.
Staying competitive: The ability to reduce expenses without affecting the quality and prompt delivery of patient records gives a competitive advantage to the healthcare facility.
Enhancement and expansion of services: With enormous cost cutting benefits and improvement in efficiency by outsourcing, the healthcare facility's improvement and future plans become a reality.
Increase in cash flow: Medical transcription is the primary stage of the receivables cycle. Outsourcing ensures that the turnaround time is quicker, thus quickening the receivables cycle. This in turn improves the cash flow.
Apart from all the above long-term benefits, outsourcing transcription needs to a professional transcription company has benefits like quality services at fair prices, done by expert transcriptionists with a very prompt turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very superior levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but simple in usage!
This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/jO3DV
Government task force aims to expand health IT to rural areas
The Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture have signed a memorandum of understanding linking rural hospitals and clinicians to capital loan programs to help them purchase software and hardware needed to implement health IT.On Aug. 16, the White House publicly announced the Administration's commitment to this agreement.
[See Obama's new rural jobs initiative includes health IT.]
HHS' Rural Health Information Technology Task Force, has been working with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure that rural healthcare providers can use USDA's Rural Development grants and loans to support the acquisition of health IT.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Health Resources and Services Administration make up the task force.
Two key USDA Rural Development programs that can help expand health IT infrastructure in rural America include the:
- Community Facilities Program, which provides direct and guaranteed loans as well as grants for community facilities projects in rural areas. This program may help offset the costs of electronic health records implementation for rural health care providers.
- Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program, which may provide grants to help bring telemedicine services to rural communities.
This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/L4e7k
White House sponsored meetings connect health providers, innovators
The White House's Startup America Initiative is sponsoring a series of meetings between local healthcare providers and health IT innovators who are close to the proof-of-concept stage in developing their ideas. The Office of the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) are co-presenting the sessions.
The first such meeting was held in May in Philadelphia, where 10 innovators met with 10 area healthcare organizations. Similar events are planned for San Francisco later this month, Indianapolis in October and New England, also in October.
Writing on ONC's Health IT Buzz blog, Wil Yu, special assistant, innovations, for ONC's office of the chief scientist, offered these potential benefits for the meetings between tech visionaries and providers:
The first such meeting was held in May in Philadelphia, where 10 innovators met with 10 area healthcare organizations. Similar events are planned for San Francisco later this month, Indianapolis in October and New England, also in October.
Writing on ONC's Health IT Buzz blog, Wil Yu, special assistant, innovations, for ONC's office of the chief scientist, offered these potential benefits for the meetings between tech visionaries and providers:
- Healthcare organizations that participate can identify potential future developers that they wish to collaborate with from a host of candidates in a single day, substantially lowering their search costs.
- Innovators can find potential partners by presenting to a dozen organizations at once--saving precious time and accelerating their development timelines.
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