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Outsourcing can be a convenient, less expensive option for health care organizations looking to shake up their transcription or coding operations. A customer-friendly contract cures many ills in overworked and understaffed departments.
However, like most things in life, it’s important to perform due diligence before entering into an agreement. As this month’s E-News Exclusive explains, it takes extensive detective work and research for providers to feel comfortable and secure with any new partner.
— Lee DeOrio, editor |
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HIPAA-Friendly Guide to Picking a Secure Outsourcing Company
By Elizabeth Hipp
All reported instances of medical data breaches put practices and patients on high alert, but the recent M2ComSys breach is especially troubling.
In August 2013, Cogent Healthcare and Genesis Health Systems announced the breach, which disclosed more than 32,000 patient records due to a reported firewall error. And in this instance, Google indexed some patient health records that were left unprotected on servers, which means it will be hard to remove the disclosed content
Why is this troubling? The company that handled the outsourced transcription work, M2ComSys, said it was based in Las Vegas, but it actually was a branch of M-Squared, a company based in Kottayam, India. Health and Human Services has yet to figure out how to penalize overseas vendors that violate HIPAA regulations, meaning the company can continue to do business with other unaware practices without any repercussions.
What is the lesson to be learned from all of this? Any company to which you outsource functions such as transcription needs to be fully vetted. In industries that outsource, including medical transcription, billing, and coding, overseas companies often pretend they are based in the United States to get work and charge higher rates. However, clients unfamiliar with outsourcing won’t know what to look for in a legitimate company. To help, here are some suggestions for researching an outsourced vendor.
Full Story » |
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Telemedicine Reduces Pediatric Medication Errors in Rural EDs
A study from researchers at the University of California, Davis has shown that telemedicine consultations from pediatric specialists reduced the number of drug errors in eight rural emergency departments (EDs). Published in Pediatrics, the study is the latest in research from the university demonstrating that telemedicine consultations can improve quality of care in rural settings.
“We wanted to look at medication errors and see how telemedicine consultations impacted those rates compared to telephone consultations or no consultations at all,” says Madan Dharmar, MBBS, PhD, an assistant research professor in the Pediatric Telemedicine Program. “We know that having a specialist treat children lowers the risk of medication errors. However, no one had ever studied whether specialists could use telemedicine to have the same effect.”
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ICD-10, Health Care Reform
Slow Patient Engagement Solutions
The current concerns over HIT regulations and health care reform could be delaying implementation of patient engagement solutions, according to MedCity News.
WebMD to Launch Health Device Marketplace
The WebMD 5.0 app will include a marketplace for buying personal health devices and some FDA-cleared medical devices, reports MobiHealthNews. |
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| Have a coding or transcription question? Get an expert answer by sending an e-mail to edit@gvpub.com. |
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ICD-10 Mythbusters
Does the new coding system really contain the formula for time travel? At this point, you never know what you’ll hear about the impact of the impending transition. Read more »
A New Day for ROI Workflows
Federal initiatives and technology advances are redefining release of information processes. Read more »
How to Address Transcription Fluctuations
Demanding turnaround times and anxious staff members make it difficult for department managers to contend with irregular workflow. Read more »
Technology Tandem Packs a Punch
The one-two combination of enterprise content management and an EHR can put poor document access down for the count. Read more » |
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