Lowdown on offshored medical transcription
Ever worried about your off shored medical information and what measures are taken by medical transcribers and companies in different countries around the world? It is clear that in the US the contractors can be made accountable and you can file for HIPAA violation, but what happens to the sensitive data overseas?
According to the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT), the global medical transcription pie is estimated to be anywhere between $12 billion and $20 billion, with the US being the largest market. Only 50-60 per cent of the US transcription market gets outsourced from hospitals and clinics, and of that amount approximately 10 per cent is off shored to countries such as India and the Philippines.
The latest Market Intelligence Service report of Nasscom, says that with at least 120-150 companies engaged in medical transcription in India, the sector is clocking an annual revenue aggregate of about $220-240 million. And this figure, analysts say, will witness a meteoric rise in the coming years, given factors such as increasing healthcare costs in the US, its ageing population, and increasing regulatory emphasis on digitization of medical records and documentation.
It’s obvious looking at the figures, that India for example is not going to take the seriousness of medical record violations lightly. The fact that there are other countries like China, Phillipines and Mexico out there to eat into the market and so Indian companies are take HIPAA seriously.
Implementing improved security standards and conforming to HIPAA guidelines is how these companies are going to keep this market growing. Under HIPAA, transcription service providers must implement technology and business processes to ensure the security and confidentiality of patient information and establish an audit trail of all those who have accessed this information.
Even though there is no specific data protection legislation in India equivalent to the US, Indian laws like the Information Technology Act is enough to prosecute those violating the stipulated norms. This booming sector in India, would have liked a specific Act on data protection to get more credibility according to, The Hindu.
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