US slump spells growth for MT industry

The Medical Transcription industry in the Philippines is seeing stable growth despite the economic recession in the United States, in fact industry players are confident that the financial slump in the west would bring in more business for the sector.

Francis Patalinghug, SPI Technologies vice president for Healtcare operations in Asia, said that the country’s Medical Transcription industry is running on the growth pathway, although its premier market in the United States is experiencing a financial crunch.

“We did not notice any adverse effect at all. The business or the industry is flat and stable,” Patalinghug said.

Instead, what is happening in the United States now could bring in more outsourcing business, like Medical Transcription jobs to the Philippines, as hospitals and other medical institutions are looking at cheaper sites to do transcription works, he said.

SPI Technologies, one of the largest outsourcing and offshoring providers, especially for MT services in the world, has maintained five medical transcription sites in Asia, three in the Philippines and two in India.

Overall, the entire Outsourcing and Offshoring (O&O) operations of the company, which include publishing, legal, retail and financial services, employ a total of 14,000 people in 13 locations around the world.

In the Philippine operation, the company is more affected of the foreign exchange movement, more than the US economic crisis.

Emmanuel Dizon, SPI’s chief information officer (CIO) said that although the company has lost about 20 percent of its dollar revenue, due to stronger peso, the cost is being absorbed by the company.

No service charge increase or adjustment had been implemented to all its clients since the Peso started to gain strength against the dollar early last year.

He said that the company has managed to sustain from threat of shrinking revenue, by adopting hedging strategy, improved efficiency, productivity, within the organization.

Medical Transcription outsourcing service is the process of converting voice dictation (typically either cassette or digital forms) into a permanent written record utilizing word processing equipment and software.

This service developed after the United States government amended the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) under the administration of US President (then) Bill Clinton in 1996.

This law ensures the continuity of healthcare coverage for individuals changing jobs and includes a provision that impacts on the management of health information, seeks to simplify the administration of health care insurance, and also aims to combat waste, fraud and abuse in health insurance and healthcare.

In the Philippines, there are about eight major players in medical transcription industry, these include; SPI Technologies, eData Services, SVI Corporation, Medscribe Asia, Transkripsyo Inc., Total Transcription Solutions, Inc., Dictation Source and Pilipinas Data Contracts Corporation. —Ehda M. Dagooc