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Medical transcription companies like Spryance are now expanding their
footprint in the country. "I believe it was a simplistic view of the
medical transcription business, that all it required was for a person to
listen and type, that killed the industry. It led to several training schools
being set up which churned out low quality people. This was in a situation where
there was a desperate demand to offshore work for cost reasons but the low
quality killed the industry, says Rajiv Shetye, vice president (operations)
Spryance (India).
The shakeout that subsequently followed has now led to six or seven serious
players surviving in a segment where the US market is estimated to be
worth $ 10 billion. Of this, 15% is outsourced within the US of which a
part comes to India.
"India is the most significant outsourcing destination from the US,
Ireland and Philippines being the other. Medical transcription worth nearly $
110 million is being outsourced to India. We have been growing at 25% every
quarter and expect this to continue.
The importance of the MT practice in the US is the statutory link between
insurance companies and doctors receiving payments. Which is why medical
transcription has taken off in the US and is still lagging in Europe. Moreover,
the US healthcare industry has been in the private domain; in Europe, it has
largely been in the government. Though that is changing, the US remains a huge
market.
The sector, which got off to a hyped up start and then collapsed, is now
reviving and Shetye says the industry needs to seriously look at training more
and newer people. While that could be an industry initiative, Spryance itself is
examining the idea of taking on doctors.
Spryance has chosen the home based medical transcriptionist (HMT) model. This
allows professionals to work from home, reducing costs for Spryance. Another
innovation to create small groups of four-five medical transcriptions, to be led
by the one with the best skills. This micro-entrepreneur model allows for a more
distributed network, without moving people form their existing
locations.
(Ref : Economic Times Dated January 20, 2005)
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