What impact does the medical transcription have on the billing of your practice?

One of the most overlooked aspects of healthcare billing and revenue cycle management is medical transcription. Did you know that it is responsible for increasing the percentage of physician burnout in the country? 

Physician burnout affects not only the medical practitioner physically but also reflects on their ability to deliver care and treatment to the patients. This disengagement is different from depression and can haywire the entire healthcare organization’s operations. 

This is why a healthcare facility needs to have a dedicated team of medical transcriptionists who will take care of the administrative work for them and ensure that the physicians are no longer hustling between keyboards and patients—a reason why many healthcare facilities are switching to outsourcing medical and pharmacy transcription service. Having a dedicated team of specialized, experienced account managers ensures accuracy and compliance. 

A minor error in the medical transcription can lead to misdiagnosis or wrong treatment being rendered to the patients, further risking their life. 

This misdiagnosis will further reflect on the billing and insurance claim proceeding, resulting in either denial, rejection, underpayment, or overpayment to the healthcare facility. 

There are certain common medical and pharmaceutical errors made by healthcare facilities utilizing under qualified in-house staff: 

Same sounding words: sound-alike words are some of the common errors made on medical transcription, which affect the diagnosis as well as billing. Furthermore, selling if the tests, medicines, diagnosis, procedures should be carefully checked so as to avoid any possibility of error. It will help you if you refer to a medical terms book or credible website for accuracy. 

Laboratory errors: Medical trainees might make mistakes jotting down the description or the diagnosis from the physicians because of the dictation problem. There can also be punctuation issues. It is important to keep on mind that whatever is going to be written jas someone’s life at stake. Hence it should be proofread and edited by a professional medical transcriptionist.

Improper software setting: if you are using transcription software, make sure it has the right inputs and the filters; otherwise, the output will be wrong. It is even more important to understand that software should be timely updated and checked for any bugs that can lead to the wrong transcription. 

Dosage error: Not every medicine has to be given in the same dosage. This is why it is important to make sure that the numeric mixups don’t happen. Dosage error can happen due to varying speech and dialects, which get mistakenly transcribed into the patient’s data. This can have life-threatening repercussions. 

Use the latest technology: 

If you are getting it done in house, make sure to use the right set of tools with updated technology for clear and accurate processing. It is important that the transcribers are provided with correct and meaningful recordings that they can accurately transcribe. 

Be careful with the complex terms: 

Medical and pharmaceutical terms are complicated in general. It can be confusing for the transcriber, leading to mistakes. This is why we suggest hiring a dedicated team of professional transcribers who will save your time, money, and efforts otherwise wasted on deciphering and fixing the transcription mistakes. 

Be descriptive: 

It is important to understand that the more description the transcriber will be provided with, the higher will be the chances of accurate and minimized errors in the reporting. Instead of talking in the acronym, use abbreviations for clarity to avoid any misunderstanding that can potentially be damaging to the patient and ruin four hospital’s reputations.

Dedicate staff: 

Don’t rely on two people to take care if transcribing, editing, proofreading. Make sure you have a team of qualified, experienced transcriptionists so that the documents go through eyes that can promptly pick up and resolve errors, if any, and ensure accuracy without wasting too much time and resources.

Train the staff: 

If you are using an in-house team, make it a point to train them with the latest trends, tools, and technologies being used in transcriptions to enhance their efficiency and the overall productivity of the facility. Check for certified courses from reputed institutions and get your team enrolled in them. This will increase the credibility and strengthen your medical transcription service.

Have a quality checklist: 

A checklist will ease the process and save the significant time of your staff trying to find and fix critical errors. Make sure to include spelling, audio, medical terminologies in it. The more number of quality checks it will pass, the leader would be the probability kg errors in the transcripted document. 

Outsource medical/pharmaceutical transcription process:

Instead of burdening your in-house staff, why not outsource medical transcription to a proficient medical transcription billing company like Medphine. They have a dedicated team of qualified, trained, and certified medical transcriptionist that will ensure 100% accuracy, and quality transcription for documents that do not hamper the processing of claim management and revenue cycle that enhances the financial health. 

Get a free 30-day trial service to know why you should choose Medphine team of medical transcriptionists, without any obligation to sign a long term contract. 

Get in touch with Medphine representative today!