Congress does that sometimes. nm
Posted By: blame Congress on 2006-06-08
In Reply to: Regan - msbeanctr
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Letter to Congress...
After thinking a while about some of the posts I have read here regarding pros and cons of unions, I decided to actually sit down and write my congresswoman about our work being taken over by ILPs. This has nothing to do with ASR, just ILP. Maybe if enough people write to our representatives, that would be a start to doing something proactively to try to save our profession and maybe, just maybe we could see things turn around in the next year and keep our jobs here in our own country instead of sending them overseas.. If anyone is interested, here is a copy of the letter I have sent and you could use the same letter to send to your congress person.
Dear Congresswoman/man _______,
I am writing to you regarding the issue of U.S. jobs going overseas to foreign countries. Specifically, I am a medical Transcriptionist (MT) working out of my home for a large MTSO (Medical Transcription Service Organization) named _____ and am personally experiencing the downfall of the MT industry due to several factors, one of the largest being that our work is sent overseas to India. I frequent a website, mtstars.com, specifically for MTs to express their thoughts on a number of issues regarding the MT profession. You would be very interested to read some of the posts written there and get a good idea of the frustrations of MTs due to our work being taken over by International Labor Partners (ILP). I consider myself a professional in the health care field with the knowledge that I have acquired over the years to contribute to excellent quality patient care. An accurate medical document is a legal and very important part of the health care industry and can positively or negatively affect patient care. Disturbingly, MTSOs are becoming less and less concerned about quality patient care and are instead focusing more on saving money by sending our work overseas because it is cheaper. As a MT working for a MTSO, I get paid on a production basis, per line that I transcribe. As an example, I get paid ____ cents per line whereas a MT in India is paid 2-3 cents per line. Yes, it is much cheaper for the MT in India but at what price are we sacrificing U.S. jobs? We need to keep our jobs here in the U.S. For one there is the issue of patient confidentiality. Many times there are Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal identifying information that is being sent to another country. In watching the news, India lately has been in political turmoil by terrorists. Imagine what would happen if those terrorists obtained personal information from medical records data.
Another issue is the quality of the completed transcribed report by an Indian MT. These reports are to be transcribed in the English language as they will legally be placed into a patient's medical chart here in the U.S. Indian MTs just cannot have the necessary proficiency of the English language to be able to accurately complete a legal medical report so that it can be easily read and understood. This will ultimately have a negative impact on quality patient care and could seriously endanger the life of a person who is ill and in need of medical attention and treatment.
So many U.S. industries have gone overseas and good American people have and still are losing their jobs. Long ago it used to be the fear in the MT profession that hospitals would outsource their work to a MTSO and a MT would lose his/her job. That fear became a reality and now most hospitals are outsourcing a portion, if not all, their work. Now the fear is that MTSOs are outsourcing all their work overseas and more MTs are losing their jobs or are just plain quitting the MT profession altogether because it isn't a viable occupation in which to make a decent wage to actually live on. Many MTs who just a few years ago were making $40,000 to $50,000 a year are now faced with the reality that they are making just minimum wage, all due to the fact that MTSOs are trying to save money by sending work overseas for cheap labor. It is abhorable to think this is happening in our country, but it is.
I am writing to you today as a plea to do what you can to put a stop to this. We need government protection to keep our jobs here in the U.S. I don't know what the answer is - more taxes for companies that offshore, eliminating offshore altogether. It just is not right that U.S. jobs are being sacrificed and eliminated by being sent to foreign countries all for the sake of saving money.
Thank you for taking the time to read my plea for help.
Sincerely,
Please everyone write your congress people!!
The AAMT lobies washington. Dont let theirs and the nationals be the only voices they hear. The only way we are ever going to get anywhere is by pushing for the safe ID act to be passed
Petition to Congress about outsourcing...sm
medical records. http://www.rallycongress.com/support-fo ... formation/
You should blame Congress, they make the laws. nm
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These companies often pay big bucks to support congressmen. Not likely congress will want to make
:+
Bill in Congress re: offshoring/outsourcing of medical records
Just something to think about.
The link below will take you to a page explaining the House and Senate versions of the bill and a link to send an email to your representatives in Washington indicating that patients have the right to be made aware that their personal information and medical records are being sent overseas for transcription. The letter is already written for you!
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