subject: Medical Transcription Service Providers Cut Costs [print this page] Medical transcription service providers benefit medical clinics and physicians in numerous ways. These service providers improve accuracy, improve provider satisfaction, increase practice productivity and ultimately reduce costs. This article will examine how medical transcription service providers benefit health care clinics and ultimately save them money.
Government Funding
Government payments to physician practices and hospitals are declining - and every time a government-funded program, such as Medicaid or Medicare, decreases its payments, private insurers quickly follow suit.
The natural outcome of the aforementioned process is that medical organizations, such as hospitals and physician clinics, are always seeking new ways to cuts costs wherever they can, as long as these cost cuts will not hurt their efforts to provide their patients quality health care. One of the most effective ways that these hospitals and clinics can reduce costs is to implement a third-party medical transcription service provider.
Cutting Costs While Retaining Valuable Services
According to a survey of 1,215 Veteran Hospital Association medical executives conducted by the Veteran Hospital Association in 2007, hospitals and clinics are finding it imperative to reduce costs while retaining their valuable services.
The survey indicates that clinics and hospitals' "ability to keep up with new medical technology and service line development to meet the evolving health care needs of the community is greatly diminished" due to the challenges of treating an uninsured patient population and shrinking margins. However, the report does indicate, "by turning to outside suppliers to provide services not deemed as core competencies, such as the services of a medical transcription service provider, members can focus on providing high-quality health care."
In-house Transcriptionists
Hospitals and medical practices that employ in-house medical transcriptionists must invest in training, equipment and management to oversee their in-house transcription staff. Over time, this can be extremely costly. In addition, updating dictation software or computer systems to keep up with the ever-changing requirements can be expensive and difficult. Practices that implement a third-party medical transcription service providers will not have to make these investments because these costs are absorbed by the medical transcription company.
Additional costs that can be saved by implementing a third-party medical transcription service provider include employee benefits, such as payroll taxes, health insurance, medical office space, paid vacation time and office equipment.
Electronic Health Records and Government Bonuses
In order to optimize their chances of collecting bonuses from the government for implementing electronic health records, medical practices should turn to the experts. Medical transcription service providers are highly-trained in the nuances of HL7 and EHR requirements.
Medical practitioners are eligible to receive annual bonuses over a period of five years if the implement meaningful electronic health records. Over the five-year period, the amount of money allocated to a specific medical practice could total $44,000. However, many medical practices have found it difficult to make the initial investment in electronic health record technology. Not only because it is costly but also because it can be extremely confusing to determine which system to invest in.
Fortunately, medical transcription service providers can be a useful springboard into electronic health record utilization. Healthcare enterprises that integrate their electronic health record system with a medical transcription service provider will ultimately realize a smoother transition. Transcription service providers ease the transition process and result in faster adoption of electronic health records, which in turn leads to a better chance of collecting additional government funding for EHR usage.
Medical transcription service providers improve accuracy and efficiency within medical clinics and ultimately reduce costs. These service providers are invaluable to medical clinics in terms of increased efficiency, increased accuracy and reduced costs.
