It is conversion of the dictation by the physicians and other healthcare professionals into written form, regarding patient assessment, workup, therapeutic procedures, clinical course, diagnosis, prognosis etc. in order to document patient care and facilitate healthcare services. A Medical Transcriptionist is a medical Language specialist who, using a computer and accessories like headphones, and a foot-pedal, transcribes the recorded audio into electronic data. This data is further scrutinized for grammar and clarity by a Quality Analyst.

After the patient’s visit to the doctor, the doctor uses a voice-recording device to record the information derived from the visit. This information may be recorded into a hand-held cassette recorder or into a regular telephone, dialed into a central server located in the hospital or transcription service office, which will 'hold' the report for the transcriptionist.

This report is then accessed by a medical transcriptionist, who then listens to the dictation and transcribes it into the required format for the medical record, and this medical record is considered a legal document.

It is very important to have a properly formatted, edited, and reviewed medical transcription document. Both the Doctor and the medical transcriptionist play an important role to make sure the transcribed dictation is correct and accurate.

When a patient visits a doctor's office or a hospital, a detailed record is kept of any tests, procedures, or examinations that are performed in the treatment of your condition. This medical record provides information necessary to the billing process. After you provide your insurance information to the doctor's office or hospital, the medical billing cycle begins.

Before a bill is submitted to an insurance company for payment, it is coded. During coding, each service or procedure must be given an alphanumeric code based on a standardized system. In the U.S., procedures are given a code based on the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) manual, and diagnoses are coded using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) manual.

After the coding process is finalized, the bill is transmitted to the insurance company. This is normally done electronically, but in some cases a bill may be sent via fax or standard mail. When the insurance company receives the claim from the doctor, the information is reviewed to determine whether the patient was covered at the time of service, and whether the treatment is appropriate for the diagnosis submitted. If the procedure or treatment falls within standard and customary treatment for that condition, it is considered medically necessary and the bill is approved for payment.

Data Processing

Data entry is the act of transcribing some form of data into another form, usually a computer program. Forms of data that people might transcribe include handwritten documents, information off spreadsheets from another computer program, sequences of numbers, letters and symbols that build a program, or simple data like names and addresses. Since the advent of computers, and since the beginning of typing, the need to collect and neatly present documents has required data entry.

With the booming health care sector outsourcing medical data entry is fast catching up. Now it has become increasingly important to maintain the huge database of patience in a professional manner and to access it without much difficulty. Outsourcing medical data entry is the viable option to get rid of the monotonous task of every day data entry.