Medical transcription errors are not inevitable. Medical transcription like legal transcription or any other transcription demands the highest level of accuracy. Medical transcripts can be used as evidence in a court of law. Medical transcription must be error free because only based on these transcripts, medical billing and coding has to be done. Any errors can reflect on the medical coding and billing processes. It is a critical situation because all medical claims have to be made for services that were given by the healthcare providers from the respective insurance companies.

 

An error in a medical record can sometimes become a very expensive mistake. Experts warn that medical transcription errors along with outdated information and inadvertent omissions can put to risk our ability to secure individual health, life or disability insurance. Even if the client does get insurance coverage, inaccurate data can also become the reason for him to pay much more than he should be paying.

 

According to a very recent study conducted by the New York based health issues researching group Commonwealth Fund one-fifth of working-age adults who seek insurance coverage are turned down. They get charged higher because of pre-existing conditions or are offered plans that exclude some types of health issues

 

These are the common types/causes of errors during transcription

 

 

What can be done about the problem and can medical transcription errors be reduced? There had been discussions earlier that the transcription output quality variability cannot be systematically improved because of the inherent variability of input quality and human skills involved. But this problem was well researched and it was later found out that by the application of quality control method using Six Sigma techniques relevant to the medical transcription problem of errors, major mindset changes became possible. Today it has paved the way to significantly understand, monitor and avoid medical transcription errors. 

The author of this article is Ricci Mathew of OSI (Outsource Strategies International), a US based company that offers services in Medical Coding, Medical Billing and Medical Transcription for clients across the US.