MT India – What Medical Transcription in India Means and MT Industry,Growth and Problems

Medical Transcription in India

MT India is a short form of  Medical Transcription in India. Medical Transcription is one of the fastest growing outsourcing services in the health industry and is being increasingly outsourced to the world’s top off shoring destination India. MT India provides a win-win for both the parties as the medical services gain by lowering their costs through outsourcing of a basic rudimentary service at a much lower price while the outsourced destinations gain through increased employment and labor. There are a number of companies providing end to end medical outsourcing services in India. Note Medical Billing Companies in India are increasing at a rapid rate and growing in size as well. MT India is much smaller than their technology outsourcing cousins, Medical Transcription, Coding and Billing Companies in India along with legal outsourcing companies are a very fast growing niche in the Indian Outsourcing Industry.

Medical transcription

Medical Transcription Industry, Growth and Problems

The medical transcription business is estimated to be worth $25 billion annually and growing at around 15%. The biggest reason for outsourcing is the savings on labor through cost arbitrage and a shortage of qualified labor in the countries themselves. However, MT India is suffering from problems which are not encountered in other outsourcing professions.

1) Patient Privacy– Stealing of patient medical records in some cases has led to increased scrutiny to outsourcing MT to India

2) The quality of Service – Note Medical Science is quite critical as in the sense that lower quality like a badly transcribed “Medical Record” can lead to health problems even death.Outsourcing such critical life and death processes may not be appropriate

3) Prices don’t reflect lower costs – Transcription Service Providers are still charging the same rates and making increased supernormal profits by outsourcing the work.This results in higher prices for lower quality work that inevitably results from outsourcing to Indian MT firms indulging in a price war with each other

What Does Medical Transcription Mean

Medical transcription encompasses the MT, performing document typing and formatting functions according to an established criteria or format, transcribing the spoken word of the patient’s care information into a written, easily readable form. MT requires correct spelling of all terms and words, (occasionally) correcting medical terminology or dictation errors. MTs also edit the transcribed documents, print or return the completed documents in a timely fashion. All transcription reports must comply with medico-legal concerns, policies and procedures, and laws under patient confidentiality.

The term transcript or “report” as it is more commonly called, is used as the name of the document (electronic or physical hard copy) which results from the medical transcription process, normally in reference to the healthcare professional’s specific encounter with a patient on a specific date of service. This report is referred to by many as a “medical record”. Each specific transcribed record or report, with its own specific date of service, is then merged and becomes part of the larger patient record commonly known as the patient’s medical history. This record is often called the patient’s chart in a hospital setting.- source Wikipedia.

Why is Medical Transcription popular in India

India is a top destination for services which require English language and high education levels. From outsourcing of very high paying financial services to extremely low-level voice and marketing support, India features a huge variety of outsourcing jobs. In fact, the boundaries between outsourcing and in sourcing are breaking down as Indian offshore centers increasingly become the hub of a company’s top end R&D efforts. Companies like IBM, GE, Honeywell etc are using Indian centers for top level critical core research and development activities. MT in India also benefits immensely as Indian Medical Transcription companies can help in developing medical records at a fraction of the cost, saving doctors time for other essential activities. Wipro, Infosys, TCS India enjoy the confidence of global corporations with 82% of the US companies ranking India as their first choice for outsourcing – Medical Transcription, Call Center, Litigation Services, and Data Conversion & Data Capturing Services etc.  Most Indian outsourcing service provider companies are quality certified with the international certification like ISO-90001 and have resources to handle entire process lifecycle.