| Philippines medical transcription industry faces busy years ahead |
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The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), in cooperation with the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, Inc. (MTIAPI) brought four companies in this year’s participation dubbed as e-Services Philippines Goes to AHIMA, namely: ELink Transcription Academy, Inc., E-Transcribe Global Transcription Services and Training, Inc., GlobalQuest BPO Specialists, Inc., and Rapid Data Services LLC. The Philippine medical transcription industry faces busy years ahead after it bagged deals with American companies as a result of its recent participation in American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) exhibition and conference in Philadelphia. A consortium comprising of small and medium MT service organizations (MTSOs) will handle the US$ 1.4 million deals generated from AHIMA. The said cooperation is seen to utilize the industry’s available capacity to deliver accurate and timely services. “The reason that we decided for a consortium is to show large companies based in the U.S. that the Philippines has the ability to handle their accounts, and has enough headroom for future requirements, said Raoul Sia, President of Rapid Data. AHIMA is a dynamic professional association that represents more than 51,000 specially educated health information management professionals who work throughout the healthcare industry. The organization’s annual convention and exhibition serves as an extensive and focused venue to meet decision-makers in the industry. It is projected that the Philippine sales for transcription will be at 20 million lines, translating to 1.2 million dollars, and medical coding in 130,000 charts, amounting to 175,500 dollars annually, added Sia. The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), in cooperation with the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, Inc. (MTIAPI) brought four companies in this year’s participation dubbed as e-Services Philippines Goes to AHIMA, namely: ELink Transcription Academy, Inc., E-Transcribe Global Transcription Services and Training, Inc., GlobalQuest BPO Specialists, Inc., and Rapid Data Services LLC. AHIMA is seen to create opportunities for Philippine MTSOs to meet new clients, potential partners, and providers, as well as a venue to sustain the country’s promotional effort as a preferred global sourcing destination for health information management services. It is also where the Philippine MTSOs may undertake focused market study on global sourcing trends, best practices and outsourcing niches and opportunities. MTIAPI projected that the need for medical transcription will reach by US$ 301 million in 2010. The rise in US healthcare spending because of its aging population and increasing demand for health maintenance organizations and medical insurance, coupled with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) directive require healthcare providers with loads of complex documentation requirements. The Philippine MTSOs’ quality of work, turnaround time, which may reduce to 3 to 6 hours in emergency cases, and client data security, attracted companies who visited AHIMA, such as Spheris, Medquist, All Medical Resources, to name a few, to work with the country. According to Sia, the companies who signified their participation in the consortium are now on the testing stage. It is estimated that the alliance with the US-based companies will be on its full operation in the next few months. Aside from transcription and medical coding, a growing number of US companies are also interested to outsource editing requirements to the Philippines. The industry as well, is targeting to hone its capabilities in voice recognition. The Philippines is now recognized as a viable choice when it comes to outsourcing. According to Sia, the Filipino work ethics is one of the factors that convinced US companies who are working with India for quite some time, to try the Philippine MTSOs. With a stronger market presence in the US, local medical transcription industry is working to attract countries like Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom in the future. Recently, the Philippines was cited by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) of the United Kingdom as the Best Offshoring Destination of the year. By 2010, the local BPO industry is expected to corner 10 percent of the world market, with revenues from animation, back office, customer care, digital content, engineering design, software development, legal and medical transcription. The Philippines relies on its manpower resource, robust government incentives, developed telecommunication infrastructure, low cost office space, and strategic location.
Source: CITEM: http://www.citem.com.ph/DisplayIndividual_newsarchive.asp?ID=245&search=mts |
