Approximately a decade ago, medical dictation and transcription were considered to be such delicate processes that it was unthinkable to allow them to leave the confines in which they were created. Environments were structured to assure quality, control, responsibility, security, and accountability. When the outsourcing trend first began, that same control was demonstrated by medical transcription service owners who required transcriptionists to work in their offices under the control of the manager or supervisor. Client organizations continued to carefully monitor the quality, confidentiality, and security of the outsourced work. I want to assure the Committee that many continue that practice today.
Medical transcription lends itself well to being a legitimate home-based occupation.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of highly qualified and reputable home-based medical transcriptionists and services who are dedicated to providing the greatest possible quality healthcare information. They are committed to safeguarding that information, and they support the need for laws that will protect it. It is also not uncommon for the quality of health information to be compromised because of the demand on medical transcriptionists for high production. In addition, some medical transcription services are selling storage space in order to become data repositories. And unless their contract with the healthcare provider specifically prohibits it, some service owners are considering how to market the healthcare information they now control.