Petition to Congress about outsourcing...sm

• Petition to Congress about outsourcing...sm - oldtimer
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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,

I signed the petition because I know firsthand how outsourcing has affected my job.  I have lost over 5 accounts and losing my last one due to India.  I have just been offered a position to go back in my field of billing that I did 12 years prior to the four I have done in transcription.  I am not at all eager to go back into the office, but I have no choice.  This field was wonderful four years ago with so much work that my head spin, but now there is nothing all because of Nationals and outsourcing because they- DR- saw a cheap way out thinking that this was better.  In fact, from what I hear, it is worse with all the editing.  Such a shame this field has gone to the DOGS!!

her medical info being leaked to gossip papers.  A question was raised about this on the Gab Board under 'Question about med records, privacy and the law"  and explains the issue in a little more detail. 

I received this from my sister, please pass it on. It is very important. It may not be LEGAL, but it is important... just click on the link, then click on the sign petition...let's make our voices heard on this issue...please also pass it on...

Mastectomy Bill in Congress:
It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take
the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all
women.

Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever
a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those
times. If you are receiving this it's because I think you will take the
30 seconds to go and vote on this issue and send it on to others you know
who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which
will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital
stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the
"drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home hours after
surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia
and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a
petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House
signed on.

PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You
need not give more than your name and zip code number.
 http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

I wrote to an official in office, a few days ago, about out-sourcing.  Trust me there are many concerned people who do not know about personal information going off United States soil.  Anyway, here is the response I received back just today.  MTs, we have to stick together and stay strong on this one!  There may be hope yet.

Greetings,  Thanks for taking the time to contact me regarding your concerns about out-sourcing medical records beyond our country's borders.  I appreciate you bringing this important issue to my attention.  I will forward your very valid concerns for consideration. We have a responsibility to protect personal information and medical records.  So many loopholes!!!!!  Thank you again and have a Happy and Holy Easter Season.  Mauree G.

She also sent me a second E-mail asking that we keep this topic alive in our field.  We can do this.  Yes we can!  Write to your state representatives.  Trust me they don't know what is going on, but they do listen.  I pointed out that if we work from home in the U.S. that we also save our earth.  We are not using gas to travel to other jobs, ect.  There are many, many valid issues here.  Just take a few minutes and type out a quick note to your representatives. 

http://www.petitiononline.com/GOKAYSAR/petition.html

Two Border State Governors Declare Illegal Immigration State of Emergency

SIGN THE PETITION!
CLICK HERE!

THANK YOU!

Sign petition and letters to Representatives and President.

http://www.billing-coding.com/forum/read_thread.cfm?ForumID=8&ThreadID=11607&Thread=2506

I think it will get to the point where everybody will outsource at least some of the work.  With all these companies begging for employees it doesn't seem like there's enough of us.  The employer I just left was a private owned company and one of the biggest accounts decided to outsource. Don't know who they chose to do this for them, they didn't say, but my income was cut from 4500. a month to 1300. a month.  Right now just desperate for a good job.

I agree with the posters. Check your medical reports, some of them contain serious errors, I was misdiagnosed in an op report as having a serious condition I was determined "not" to have.

I also was treated like a common criminal by a foreign country because I bought a laptop from someone who lost their job in 9/11. I paid a little more than I should have because I felt sorry for him and unless I pretended to be "him" they would not help me. I finally after two months got the right part from an American company and my laptop worked just fine after two shipments of the wrong part and a whole lot of aggravation and misinformation.

They are a third world country and we will take their place soon if we don't watch out. They'll be taking over more than our jobs. It's very dangerous. It is life-threatening as far as information goes. Some will be saving money but losing lives.  

In response to: People say outsourcing will happen.....It is happening!! There are a few National companies (which will go unnamed, but you know who they are) who have contracts with facilities who know the work is being outsourced and they want it because it cut their line rates significantly. This is our biggest competition right now. Overseas, the piddly line rates of 6 cents/line is a lot of money to those people. They are getting better and better at it (the offshore countries), and in time, they will be so good that there will be little editing needed. It is just like newbies here in the US, it just takes time for them to improve and learn...and before you know it, we'll wake up one day and poof...very little if any work in US, all overseas! It is a global economy and what we think is peanuts, they think is a fortune! I am currently retraining in another profession (nutrition) because I have been watching this evolution for the past 7-10 years. I managed a company back in 1997 that first sent transcription overseas and I had to proof and edit that crap! I think in 9 years, they are probably getting better at it and with time, they will improve even more. Don't be so sure that outsourcing will not continue to be a current event! IMHO.

I originally posted this on the "Company Board," but one kind soul there suggested I repost it on the Main Board, so here it goes:

I'll tell you my personal take on this.  I'm a very small MTSO and am fighting like heck to keep my jobs in the good old USA - hiring only Americans, etc.

We face stiff competition from companies who offshore, use EMR, etc.  I charge my clients what the market will bear.  I've already had to lower my rates to 2 of my largest clients because even at the lower cpl rates I was charging them at the time, they were ready to walk to India, and in fact were testing out some Indian MT companies - this after I had, in fact, already lost 2 other doctors' offices to offshore Indian companies.  I feel I am fair and pay my IC transcriptionists 2/3 of whatever I make from my clients.  But whenever I advertise for experienced transcription help, I am pretty much told to go jump in the lake with the rates that I'm able to afford to pay, even though it's good, steady work.  So the bottom line is that I really find it difficult to get any competent help from American MTs. Not that there aren't many around, just that I and many like me can't afford them.  Not blaming the MTs (American OR Indian) for wanting to make a living either, I'm just saying this to demonstrate the dilemma I find myself in. I suspect it's the same for other small MTSOs.  Can't really raise my rates, because from prior experience, many doctors offices have no scruples about sending work offshore.  I've never resorted to offshoring anything, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted.

Not singing the blues, just telling the facts.  Personally, I'd rather be selling hotdogs on the beach.

I am the only Transcriptionist in a doctor's office.  We started sending some work to a transcription company in November and later found out they were outsourcing to India.  I thought my doctors would be upset, but guess what??? NO!!!  It has been the biggest "mess" for me to correct.  It has been far more trouble for me than if I just typed everything.  I started leaving all the blanks, etc. and let the doctors start dealing with this and as of 6/15/07 we are no longer using that transcription company.  We found someone locally (IC) who is typing our work for the same amount per line.  YEAH!!!!! 

All our hospitals/facilities Outsource - to us.- so unless we all want to loose our jobs, we need to be careful what we complain about.  It's Offshoring that we're protesting. 

This just recently happened at the company I work for (not just psych but psych was included), they went with another service to do their work (we were just doing overflow) and part of the deal was they had to take all the inhouse transcriptionists...well from what I hear they are making it real difficult for the transcriptions, I think so they'll quit and they can bring newer people in at a lower rate.  Just my opinion.

It's not just us - but darnit, I'm still mad!!!

http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=928157451&pl=newestFinance.xml&config=&launchpoint=Link&cid=fanlink&attr=featured_sidebar&tab=featured&attr=finance_sidebar