Outsourcing medical transcription helps hospitals meet meaningful use requirements

Outsourcing Medical Transcription Helps Hospitals Meet Meaningful Use Requirements

Hospitals are outsourcing medical transcription to achieve meaningful use goals and to make the most of technological advancements.

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The medical transcription industry has undergone significant changes in the recent past.

There is a growing demand for electronic health record (EHR) integrated transcription services and improved speech-recognition and data-mining technology. These developments have transformed the role of the medical transcriptionist and made medical transcription outsourcing a viable option for hospitals.

The HITECH Act makes provisions for incentives to eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs), and Medicare Advantage Organizations that adopt and implement meaningful use of interoperable health information technology (HIT) and qualified electronic health records (EHRs). These incentive payments are of the effort to speed up the adoption of HIT and use of qualified EHRs. To meet meaningful use requirements, many hospitals now prefer to partner with a medical transcription company rather than carry out the dictation-to-text task in-house. According to a report in fosters.com, a Dover-based hospital opted to outsource its entire medical transcription department as a part of quality control and to make the EHR transition easier.

Meaningful Use Requirements drive Decision to Outsource Transcription One of the main factors that spurred the Dover-based healthcare organization to outsource its entire transcription department was the EHR mandate.

According to HealthIT.gov, “meaningful use” of digital medical and health records will provide the following benefits: 

Improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities



Engage patients and family

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Improve care coordination, and population and public health

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Maintain privacy and security of patient health information

Organizations that do not meet the deadline for electronic medical record implementation face penalties. Physicians who either have not adopted certified EHR / EMR systems or cannot demonstrate “meaningful use” by the EMR deadline face reductions in Medicare reimbursements. The payment deduction rate increases over years – it was 1% and 2% in 2015 and 2016 respectively, and is 3% in 2017 and 4% in 2018.

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(800) 670 2809

Medical transcriptionists help physicians achieve meaningful use with faster and more accurate information through EHR-integrated documentation solutions.

The adoption of speech recognition technology has grown along with the implementation of electronic health records. In the EHR age, speech recognition software adds efficiency to the transcription process. Physicians often find themselves restricted by the point-and-click templates of the EHR. Real-time transcription of the provider’s dictation using speech recognition helps preserve the quality of the narrative and improves medical documentation.

Relevance of Medical Transcription Services in the EHR Age Digital records and other new technologies have transformed the role of medical transcriptionists.

The

use

of

speech

recognition

technologies

has

improved

their

productivity. In fact, transcriptionists now function as editors. This is especially evident in specialties radiology where back-end speech recognition allows transcribers to edit radiologists’ dictation and provide quality transcripts in fast turnaround time. Medical transcription services have definitely made the transition to digital patient record keeping much smoother, in addition to helping medical facilities reduce overhead costs and save time.

The positive aspect about the Dover hospital’s medical transcription outsourcing decision was that it made alternate provisions for the staff that were displaced. Many were offered positions by the transcription service provider.

www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com

(800) 670 2809