The arrival of the EHR may not after all, spell the doom of the medical transcription services industry. This is what the market analysis figures seem to suggest. Traditionally, physicians have been utilizing reliable transcription solutions to lighten their documentation burden and to ensure timely documentation of all patient care activities. When the electronic health record became mandatory, physicians found themselves in the position of data entry personnel with the responsibility of filling in the various fields in the EHR. Medical transcription companies again rose to the occasion with EHR-integrated transcription service via HL7 interface. For doctors treating patients, medical records are a source that help them assess the current health condition of the patient, decide on the course of treatment and also take follow up measures. Accurate medical records also form the basis on which healthcare insurance carriers are billed and healthcare providers are paid for their service.
According to a market report published by Transparency Market Research “Medical Transcription Service Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 to 2019,” the medical transcription market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6 percent and reach an estimated value of USD 60.6 billion in 2019.
The global medical transcription service market is divided on the basis of service types and by the mode of procurement of transcription services. On the basis of service type, the market is classified into History and Physical Report, Discharge summary, Operative Note or Report (OP), Consultation Report, other reports like Pathology report, and Radiology Report market. Among these, the market share of Consultation reports is the largest in medical transcription services. The Consultation report is produced for each and every patient undergoing treatment and in 2019 the global market for Consultation report or Consults is expected to reach USD 2.11 billion. The share of H&P (History and Physical) Report is also rising because earlier H&P reports were made only for hospitalized patients but now these are made for both inpatients and outpatients due to the risk of reimbursement problems.
Outsourcing is regarded as one of the most preferred modes of medical transcription service procurement due to the ease of operation, quick turnaround times and easy allocation of monetary resources on the basis of the nature of reports. Another mode of service procurement is off shoring.
North America currently dominates the market and is expected to retain its position in the future also. The North American medical transcription service market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5 percent by 2019. The global medical transcription service market is very competitive in nature with a huge number of market consolidation activities being conducted in the past ten years. Key market players in the transcription service market are Nuance Communications, iMedX Information Service Pvt, Precyse Solutions LLC, and Scribe Healthcare technologies.
Medical transcription is one of the most common outsourced services the healthcare industry uses, and the primary motive of outsourcing medical transcription requirements is to reduce cost and save time that is spent on documentation.
For good quality medical transcription services, it is best to seek the support of a medical transcription company that uses advanced technology to provide flawless services.
