Modern hospitals depend heavily on medical technology to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases. A typical mid-sized hospital has hundreds of items of medical equipment, from simple stethoscopes and blood pressure monitors to highly sophisticated MRI machines and linear accelerators. Hospitals are complex enterprises with entire departments dedicated to technology planning, assessment, acquisition, maintenance, upgrade and replacement at the end of the product life cycle. They have elaborate systems, programs, policies, procedures and protocols in place for purchasing new medical equipment.

To sell successfully to healthcare providers, marketing and sales professionals have to be well versed in the buying processes that healthcare providers use. Medical device marketing is quite different from any other marketing. Typically, hospitals have a review process to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate their medical technology needs. The review’s scope depends on the cost of the technology, and may involve many departments. For expensive equipment, the review most likely will be elaborate. For less expensive and disposable items, the review may simply assess the department’s current needs, and the proposed purchase’s operational and financial impacts. In either case, a market survey and literature search take place to some extent, and this is supplemented with extensive data collection and analysis when needed. This is why white papers and case studies published by medical device manufacturers are very useful during the review process - the decision-makers look for every bit of information they can find. Hence, white papers and case studies can significantly influence the decision-making process. A typical review process includes the following phases:

1. Strategic
2. Assessment
3. Acquisition
4. Utilization
5. Repair and maintenance
6. Replacement and disposal

The process starts with strategic planning. In this top-level phase, the relevant stakeholders (e.g., Directors, Professors, Managers, Doctors, Engineers, Purchasing, etc.) review key issues, success factors and resource allocation, and assign responsibilities for sustained improvement in technological performance. They identify the services their facility provides, and the technologies that would complement their existing services. The typical questions to answer are: Where are we? Where do we want to be? How are we going to get there?

Because medical technology greatly impacts the cost and structure of healthcare delivery, hospitals include technology assessment in their planning process, which typically includes cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses.

Cost-benefit analysis calculates the costs of applying the technology and compares them to the benefits resulting from its application. It provides criteria upon which to base decisions of whether to adopt or reject a proposed device. The device is adopted if its benefits exceed its costs. However, one limitation of this analysis is that it expresses all benefits, including therapeutic effects, in monetary terms. Hence, hospitals also conduct cost-effectiveness analyses to quantify therapeutic effects in terms of reduced patient hospital stays, and compare these to the costs of the technology’s implementation. Although at first glance the chosen technology may seem to have limited impact on other facility operations, stakeholders also examine the likely effect of the new equipment on existing services.

Other aspects of cost-effectiveness analysis include assessment of long-term replacement strategies and identification of emerging technologies. Since medical devices have finite longevity, hospitals have replacement plans to minimize the effects of unforeseen capital replacement. By identifying emerging technologies that fit into the projected plans of the hospital’s service area, the hospital tries to avoid investing in nearly obsolete technologies.

Purchase of a new technology is justified only when an increase in equipment’s cost-effectiveness is clearly demonstrated. The typical questions asked during the analysis are:

* Will the new medical device increase the volume of the service?
* Will it raise the costs of the service?
* Will the device generate additional revenues and, if so, how much?
* What is the new device’s expected lifespan?
* What is the device’s reliability and the costs associated with its repair and maintenance?
* How reliable and reputable is the manufacturer?
* What impact will the new device have on routine operating costs?
* What will the disposal cost be?
* How easy is the device to operate?

Once the technology has been assessed and the decision to purchase has been made, the next phase in the process is technology acquisition, which typically includes the following steps:

* Preparation of general and functional specifications
* Clinical, technical and cost evaluations
* Review of proposals and evaluations, and making a final decision on a device manufacturer
* Contract negotiation for the device’s acquisition
* Preparation and issuance of a purchase order
* Contract award

A contract award is the green light for the medical device company to deliver and install the product.

Alec Alpert is a business-to-business copywriter specializing in lead-generating white papers, case studies and articles for medical technology. Visit http://www.alecalpert.com to learn how his copy can boost your lead-generation campaign.

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Throughout the country, clinics and practices are tackling the problem of quality improvement–not only to meet new pay-per-performance standards, but also to provide a higher level of care. Many providers are finding that a well-chosen CQMS supports their efforts and greatly improves their success. This ongoing series will highlight ten essential features for any clinical quality improvement system.

The Must Haves

1. An all-problem, all-patient registry of clinically-verified information not dependent on billing optimization

2. Problems documented in a structured and coded manner, using clinical terminology

3.cA sophisticated rules engine of clinical care guidelines that thinks like a physician, not like a computer system

4. Point-of-care functionality to provide easy identification of due items and increase visit efficiency

5. Tools to reach patients due for services but not scheduled for a visit

6. On-demand reporting providing actionable data for quality improvement

7. Features to allow the entire care team to focus on quality

8. Extensibility to other HIT systems to share relevant clinical information

9. Vendor-supported, secure and scalable technology

10. A customizable framework to meet the unique needs of a practice

# 1: An all-patient, all-problem registry of clinically-validated information not dependent on billing optimization.

To truly achieve clinical quality improvement, practices need to focus comprehensively on care delivery and track all patients and all patient problems. Simply tracking a subset of patients or a few chronic diseases is cumbersome and rarely results in long-term improvement.

Often, the only data available for documenting a patient’s problems is administrative data, the data used for billing. This information was never intended to be a source of clinical information on a patient and, as such, does not provide the necessary picture of information when delivering care. The difficulty of culling usable knowledge from this source of incomplete and unrepresentative information is frustrating for practices trying to meet quality benchmarks and improve their level of care.

Seeing a complete picture of a patient population.

A Clinical Quality Management System uses a registry to capture patient information. An effective registry must track the entire patient population of a practice and the entire set of problems associated with each patient. It also must track problems in a manner unbiased by the needs of administrative data and verifiable by a clinician.

An effective registry must track the entire patient population of a practice and the entire set of problems associated with each patient in a manner unbiased by the needs of administrative data and verifiable by a clinician.

With an all-patient, all-problem registry of clinically-verified information, a practice benefits in many ways:

• Allows providers to manage all of their patients, and manage them based on multi-morbidity
issues. For example, patients with both diabetes and depression can have different treatment recommendations than those with just diabetes.
• Ensures care decisions are based on an accurate, documented set of problems.
• Helps practices meet the needs of existing pay-per-performance programs and provides a solid foundation for meeting future quality initiatives yet to be defined.
• Correctly identifies patient populations, ensuring quality calculations are based on the correct denominator of a population measure to avoid negative financial implications.
• Improves the delivery of care by allowing providers to track patient episodes of care, supplying a complete picture of a condition as it progresses over time.
• Makes the CQMS an integral part of every patient visit, ensuring the system becomes part of a practice’s standard workflow.

Choosing an effective registry.

When evaluating different clinical quality management systems, ensure the registry component tracks all patients and all patient problems. Registries that are limited in their scope will add little long-term benefit and will be costly; building registries on a diagnosis-by-diagnosis basis is expensive and time-consuming.

Make certain that the registry only uses clinically-verified information. Using administrative data that is not reviewed by a clinician can lead to incorrect care and waste a provider’s time. Finally, providers should consider how use of the registry will incorporate into their daily operations. A well-designed CQMS will be developed with clinical workflow in mind and should integrate transparently into a practice’s routine activities.

Choosing the right system for quality improvement is crucial to any 21st century medical practice. The registry is a key component of any strong Clinical Quality Management System and should be evaluated against the highest of standards.

Next issue: Problems documented in a structured and coded manner, using clinical terminology

Dave Morin

A Cielo cofounder and veteran senior executive, Mr. Morin brings to the Cielo team over 18 years of experience in both the management of information technology within organizations as well as the management of technology companies. His vision in launching and leading Cielo has always been to help physicians and other healthcare professionals to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare through the intelligent application of information technology. He holds a B.S. degree in computer information systems, with distinction, from the University of Michigan, where he has also pursued graduate business studies.

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As the baby boomers come to retirement and become more elderly, the great debate of the 21st century may be, “Should people be forced to use all of their assets to pay for nursing home care before Medicaid kicks in or might they be allowed to shelter some of their assets?”

This argument can quickly turn heated on both sides of the issue.

Nobody wants to think that he or she may wind up in a nursing home at the end of his or her years, but the sad statistics say that is very likely what the future holds. An estimated 60% will indeed spend some time in a nursing home or care facility.

Proponents of sheltering assets say they have paid into the system all of their working years and want what is due to them. They have worked hard and want to be able to pass on an inheritance to their children.

Opponents say that the system will be bankrupt before long. Medicaid was designed to assist the truly poor and the tax burden on future generations would be astronomical if all of the baby boomers demanded benefits to match their contributions. It isn’t a savings account where you get back all that you put in plus interest.

Proponents say that one spouse shouldn’t be forced to subsist in poverty because the mate entered into a nursing facility. Opponents claim that you loved and lived with your mate for fifty years, now is not the time to refuse to take care of your spouse.

And so it goes. The one thing everyone can agree on is that planning needs to be done and should be done early. Long-term care insurance is definitely something to investigate while you are healthy enough to obtain it.

If long-term care insurance is no longer an option and you still want to preserve your assets, seek competent help immediately. Do not delay, because some of the means to preserve your assets are time sensitive and cannot be implemented when the possibility of needing Medicaid is staring you in the face.

Analyze the company into whose hands you will be putting your trust and your future. As your authorized representative to Medicaid, will they be able to handle the bureaucracy and relieve your family of the pressure of dealing with constantly changing government requirements? Select a company that has vast experience working with Medicaid and has a variety of options that will give you flexibility and choices. Choose a company that has employees who make you feel comfortable working with them as a partner with only your best interest in mind. Find a company that will personalize a strategy for protecting your assets while being sensitive to the needs of you and your family.

Sometimes the price of peace of mind is as little as the amount of time it takes to make a few phone calls. Don’t delay; take action on protecting your assets and your family today.

Mark Possones decided that it was time to start planning for the future. Watching his parents lose the earnings for nursing help he researched about Medicaid qualifications, long term care facilities and the longterm care, he got help - a company that guards his assets and guarantees acceptance into the Medicaid system.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Possones

There is a decline in the United States population as an entirety, there is no wonder. Apart from people killing each other, poverty, starvation, homeless, disease and unemployment, we have lack of adequate health care.

Even though there are some disadvantages to universal health care, wouldn’t it be nice if you had to go to the doctor or emergency room, not to have to decide if you can pay that or afford to eat or pay a bill?

As I see it, the United States will never revert to the Universal health care just for the simple unknowns. Rather than learning about Universal Health Care, they would rather go off hear-say that our government and others tell them.

It’s time for the American people to stand up and get what they want by speaking up, voting and doing rather than slipping away.

So many people struggle every day with the decision of what/how to eat, how they are going to pay a bill and if they can save their home. Many others don’t have those worries as they are wealthy enough not to be burdened with such things. It doesn’t matter what your gross income is, we all need our health. Disease and sickness isn’t bias; it comes to everyone at some point. If you can afford your health care, you have a fighting chance. If you cannot, you may not live to see a cure. That is the hard, cold truth. Sadly, the old saying the only the strong survive is definitely true. Everyone should have a fighting chance when it comes to their health, not just the wealthy.

Think and research Universal Health Care. Many people are skeptical of this as they fear governmental involvement. The government is ALREADY involved/control our health care system and call it private health care. That is something to think about.

It’s no secret that American health care is outrageously expensive-in 2006, we spent more than $7,000 for each man, woman, and child in the US. Within 7 to 10 years, health care expenditures are projected to consume 20% of our gross domestic product. We spend more per capita for health care than any other nation on earth, yet we consistently fall short of enjoying the same quality of life that citizens in other countries do (World Health Organization data for healthy life expectancy, infant mortality, and other important benchmarks show the US system to be surprisingly lacking). We could debate the reasons behind this dichotomy all day- indeed, the topic would be at the top of everyone’s list if it weren’t for the sub-prime meltdown, Iraq, and the presidential campaign- but when all the chaff is sifted from the argument, the problem can really be stated quite simply: American health care is so expensive because we have packaged it and advertised it for sale.

We cannot contain medical costs because the very people we have charged with this responsibility are the ones who stand to profit from ever-increasing costs. According to Robert Kuttner (The New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 7, 2008), “…profits, billing, marketing, and the gratuitous costs of private bureaucracies siphon off $400 billion to $500 billion of the $2.1 trillion spent.” Furthermore, research indicates that between one-fifth and one-third of all medical outlays do nothing to improve health.

What are we to expect when we allow insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and conglomerates of investor-owned hospital corporations to set up their own incentive structures, establish rules that govern all the other players on the field, and then play by an entirely different set of rules themselves? How have we come to believe that, on the one hand, incentives will lead to cost containment when, on the opposite hand, those incentives are by nature designed to drain more money from the market?

The usual market forces (supply, demand, competition, productivity, and quality) that control costs in other sectors don’t seem to apply to this commodity we call “health care.” One telling problem- and here I paraphrase a statement made by Victor Fuchs many years ago- is that we perceive health care to be a privilege that all can enjoy, but we market it as though it is a right for the chosen few. Due to a truly discriminatory insurance system, many citizens who most need medical services can least afford them. And we continue to sidestep those measures that could control costs, such as offering universal screening programs or standard treatment protocols for those conditions that have been shown to improve with widespread application of such programs. Instead, because standardized protocols, screening programs, and other public health measures aren’t as lucrative as specialty treatments, we allow the “rule-makers” to promote those modalities that bring in the most profit (simply by offering to pay for these services while excluding those that offer lower profit!).

The following serves as an example of how perverse this “managed economy” has become: In order to divert attention from the real causes of escalating medical costs, the private insurance industry has, in the main, shifted the burden of cost containment to primary care doctors (family physicians, general internists, pediatricians, etc.). Thinking that doctors are motivated by salary, the insurance companies reduce the amount they pay the physicians for each visit, believing that doctors will simply increase the number of patients they’ll see in a given day. So, the insurers appear to be “cutting the costs of medical care” while the providers of that care run harder to keep up with repeated cuts in their reimbursement per visit…inevitably, the real losers in this scenario (if you don’t count the physicians, whose quality of life is abysmal and whose overhead costs per patient often exceed reimbursement) are the patients.

The truth of the matter is, any physician trained in any accredited institution this side of Mars will tell you that the time we spend with each patient is the single most important factor in determining a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. When our time is squeezed, patients tend to fare more poorly, and we know it. So, in order to compensate for the lack of time spent with each patient, we order more tests or arrange more specialty consultations to ensure our people get the kind of care they’ve come to expect. Thus, the cost per patient rises…but now it’s the physicians’ fault.

In closing, I once again turn to Robert Kuttner, whose eloquent treatment of this matter far surpasses my strident emotionalism:

“Despite our crisis of escalating costs, dwindling insurance coverage, and deteriorating conditions of medical practice, true national health insurance that would not rely on private insurers remains at the fringes of the national debate. This reality reflects the immense power of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, the political fragmentation and ambivalence of the medical profession, the intimidation of politicians, and the erroneous media images of dissatisfied patients in universal systems.”

Enough said.

Stephen Christensen, MD, a board-certified Family Physician, practiced rural medicine and emergency medicine for nearly two decades before retiring in 2003 due to visual impairment. He continues to advocate for responsible and effective health care policy, and he believes that not all is well with American health care. His interests include not only conventional Western medicine, but encompass such topics as Ayurvedic medicine, herbalism, homeopathy, and energy healing. Visit his blog at http://www.naturallyimmunemd.com

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Everyone has medical records. At some point in your life, you’ve gotten sick enough to go to the doctor, and somewhere, a record of that visit exists - you didn’t think all that paperwork was for nothing, did you? And even if you’ve never been to the doctor for anything, the chances that you were born in a hospital are pretty good. Everyone has medical records.

But did you know that medical records are one of the primary targets for identity thieves? Fraudsters can steal your identity to get health services or obtain insurance. They can even use your insurance, by pretending to be you. And just like your credit history, it’s important to keep track of your medical records, shredding any copies of them the second you’re done.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act - better known as HIPAA - is the federal law that governs the protection of your health records. It contains provisions for accessibility, medical record shredding,and the general reliability and accuracy of your health-related paperwork. Here are some of the ways HIPAA lets you control your medical records:

Accessibility. You have the right to see copies of your medical records. Your health provider is obligated to show you the records within 30 days of your request, or ask for more time. Providers do have the opportunity to charge you for making copies. You should check your records periodically - if someone has impersonated you to get health care or insurance, there may be false information in your records, which could lead doctors to make bad decisions regarding your care.

Accuracy. You should make notes about any information on your medical records that looks wrong to you. Providers aren’t obliged to change the data in question, but they are obliged to make a note that you requested the change.

Medical Record Shredding. HIPAA demands that doctors and insurance companies hire professional document shredding services to regularly dispose of any paperwork containing sensitive information. It also has provisions for protecting and deleting data stored on computers.

Maintaining your medical records might be the most important process that hardly anyone initiates. It’s something we should all be pro-active about; health care providers and insurance companies won’t take the initiative to make sure your records are correct. Financial identity theft is easier to spot - a failed credit card application or a sudden decrease in a savings account are among the red flags - but medical identity theft carries greater risk: Imagine being given a medicine you’re severely allergic to, because your records fail to indicate the allergy. It’s that important.

Kevin Ott is a freelance copywriter living in California. He writes about identity theft, document shredding, health and wellness, travel and home improvement for a variety of clients.

One of his clients is Accurate Document Destruction, Inc., the premier document shredding service in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. Visit their website here for a free quote:

http://www.accurateshredding.com

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Do you need to undergo surgery? Do you have a choice of hospitals or surgeons to take care of you? If so, you probably have many questions and concerns about what is your best course of action. Facing surgery of any type can be quite frightening and stressful for many people. Putting your health in someone else’s hands can be quite a leap of faith.

One of the largest concerns many people have is whether to choose a private or academic hospital for their care. While both are potentially excellent there can be some differences. The following comparison is a generalization. Not all academic or private hospitals are the same so you should investigate your own options as well.

Academic Versus Private Hospitals: What is the difference?
Generally, academic hospitals are teaching institutions. They are often associated with some university or other school system, although there are exceptions. What defines them is that academic training and/or research are conducted at these centers. This means that medical students, interns, residents and/or fellows may be involved in the care of patients.

A private hospital is one which is privately owned and operated. While there can be academic private hospitals, a purely private hospital does not generally train students, residents or fellows. Therefore, all your care is provided by physicians who have completed their training, along with nurses and/or physician assistants.

What are the advantages of a private hospital?
Private hospitals are often run very efficiently. Therefore, operating room schedules, clinics and other care is generally more prompt and efficient. Additionally, your surgeon and/or other physicians are all finished with their training. No students or physician trainees are involved in your care. Many patients find this to be an important point, but it is not always necessarily better, as will be discussed shortly. Finally, most large private medical centers are very efficient and skilled at treating “bread and butter” cases which are performed frequently. For example, general surgical procedures like an appendectomy or laproscopic cholecystectomy are often performed hundreds or thousands of times a year and are therefore done very well with a low rate of complications.

What are the advantages of an academic hospital?
Academic hospitals are often large medical centers with a full range of sub-specialties covered. Because of the number of physicians who have specialized interests in various areas you can often find the leaders of each field in an academic setting. Because of this sub-specialization and the resources available to a large academic center, many rare and complex cases are referred to them. For this reason, academic centers often have a larger clinical volume and therefore more experience with treatment of these difficult cases. For example, whereas a neurosurgeon at a small private hospital may only perform a few of a given procedure a year, a specialized neurosurgeon at an academic institution may see dozens or hundreds of that type of case.

Studies have shown that the outcomes and rate of complications with a given surgical procedure is strongly related to the experience and volume of such cases treated at a given institution. Therefore, outcomes are more likely to be better with fewer complications when a procedure is performed by an experienced team which has performed many of those procedures. For complex surgical procedures, most academic hospitals have superior volumes of such cases. There are exceptions of course, with some private hospitals supporting a large volume of complex cases in a particular area of specialization.

Finally, while some people would consider medical trainees a disadvantage, there are some advantages to having medical students and residents involved in your care to consider. Academic hospitals often have one or more resident and/or medical student on call and in the hospital at all times. They are responsible for the minute to minute care of patients on their service. The advantage of this can be that you may have more regular attention from a physician. In some private hospitals, physicians may not be as available, particularly during off-hours. Therefore, some people feel the continuity of care and the availability of doctors is greater in some academic institutions.

You must remember that faculty surgeons are often very busy individuals, pulled frequently in multiple directions. In a private setting they may be spread thing, without residents to back them up. In an academic setting, the resident team manages the patients day in and day out and therefore are often much more in tune with the minute to minute and day to day issues that may arise in your care. Knowing that you have a strong team caring for you may be comforting to many patients.

In the end, if you have a choice, you must go with what feels best to you. If you do not have first hand experience with a particular hospital or physician, ask someone who does. Ask how their care was conducted. What was the availability of physicians? How much of their care was through nurses, physician assistants, medical students, residents or others and was the care thorough and attentive? Only you know what form of care you will feel most comfortable with so go with your gut instinct. After all, your comfort during your surgery and hospitalization are most important.

Josh Dusick is the editor of Nervous System Diseases, at http://www.nervous-system-diseases.com, your guide to diseases of the neurological system, providing an in depth introduction that is understandable even if you do not have a background in science or medicine.

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What is HIPAA? It stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. It is the standard for electronic exchange of sensitive patient data and protects patients from disclosure of their medical data without authorization. Who has developed these regulations? Well, it is The Department of Health and Human Services that has developed this series of privacy regulations known collectively as HIPAA. HIPAA has many regulations for electronic transmission of sensitive patient data that define internal procedures that have to be followed for privacy and security. It has today become mandatory for all medical transcription service providers to comply with the HIPAA requirements.

HIPAA regulations extend to all health care plans, health care providers who transmit health records in an electronic format, and health care clearinghouses and medical billing companies. What about the rules/regulation for transcription service providers? Yes, these are the basic factors that HIPAA compliant medical transcription service providers must adhere to;

• Ensure security of PHI (Patient Health Information)
• Maintain record of all those who access patient information
• Implement new technology/processes
• Provide physical security requiring password protection.

The primary focus of the Act is to restrict the dissemination of patient health care information. What is actual patient data? Well, patient identifying information includes such things as name, address, social security number, phone number, or any other information which could be used to identify an individual.

Today most Medical transcription companies get their transcription done from professional medical transcriptionists some of who may be located outside the US. Transmission of files is done using the Internet. HIPAA requires all online transmission of voicemails and e-mails be done only after encryption. Or one must use a secure FTP site to send the documents. Whenever documents are faxed, a disclaimer statement explaining the confidential nature of the information has to be attached. Telephone dictations are however exempted from the need for encryption during transmission of patient data.

Who are covered entities for the act? All health care plans, health care providers who transmit health records in an electronic format, and health care clearinghouses and billing companies are covered entities. Those covered entities which fail to comply with the final regulations may incur stiff penalties, including the payment of a fine. In certain cases, criminal charges may be brought against the non-compliant entity.

Take a look at the full text of HIPAA at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/Downloads/HIPAALaw.pdf

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

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Medical transcription industry has evolved over the years and has always made use of the cutting edge technologies. Many different tools/equipment are used during the medical transcription process. In general one can say that the digital audio technology has been greatly revolutionizing different transcription industries that include other sectors besides medical transcription like legal and business transcription.

Besides the basic requirements like a desktop with the required operating system and software, there are many specifically developed tools and brands that are used today and manufactured by companies around the world. Here is a list of the different tools/ software and equipment that may be used either for home based medical transcription or at a bigger work unit that usually consist of many level of staff like transcriptionists, editors, Quality Assurance, leaders etc. This list of equipment and tools is not exhaustive.

• MP3 playback software
• Document processor software
• Version Control software
• Time markers
• Bud microphone
• Digital voice recorder
• Headphone
• Computer with Internet/Printer
• Desk and comfortable chair
• AAMT Book of Style
• Encryption software
• File/Documents management software
• Blue Cross/ Shield Directory.
• Electronic Medical Dictionary
• Fax machine
• Document shredder
• Word processing program
• Audio playback software
• Anti virus program/
• Thesaurus/dictionary for windows
• System recovery software
• Drug/pharmaceutical reference guide
• Foot pedal
• Ad blocker
• Medical specialty books
• Spyware removal Utility
• Monthly newsletter
• Telephone line
• Editing software
• Conference recorder
• Voice recognition software
• Dictation recording equipment
• Text counting software (for home based work)

Voice recognition is one technology area that is being actively researched upon and one can expect a near perfect voice recognition software in the future that will make the transcriptionist’s job much easier. While most medical transcriptionists hope that the voice recognition technology does not develop fast enough to replace the human factor, research in this field is very challenging and it is only a question of time before voice recognition software is perfected. However the medical transcription industry can breathe easy for a few generations as the demand for medical transcription professionals is on the increase. One can choose to take up medical transcription as a career and get a job easily. Using the best of technologies and tools, transcription professionals can be more productive, earn more and deliver a more perfect transcript.

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

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A healthy life is a better life. Medicare strives to make sure you can get the health care and prescription coverage you need and the quality of care you deserve.

Medicare prescription drug coverage is insurance that covers both brand-name and generic prescription drugs at participating pharmacies in your area. Medicare prescription drug coverage provides protection for people who have very high drug costs or experience unexpected prescription drug bills in the future.

Everyone who currently has Medicare is eligible for prescription drug coverage. This is regardless of income, health status, or current prescription expenses.

You are eligible for Medicare prescription drug coverage three months before the month you turn age 65 until three months after you turn age 65. If you get Medicare due to a disability, you can join from three months before to three months after your 25th month of cash disability payments. If you don’t sign up when you are first eligible, you may have to pay a penalty. If you didn’t join when you were first eligible, your next opportunity to join will be from November 15, 2008 to December 31, 2008. So mark these dates on your calendar so you won’t miss them. There are generally no prior notifications.

Medicare prescription drug coverage benefits depend on the kind of health care coverage you have now. There are two ways to get Medicare prescription drug coverage. You can join a Medicare prescription drug plan or you can join a Medicare Advantage Plan or other Medicare Health Plan that offers drug coverage. Whatever plan you choose, Medicare drug coverage will help you by covering brand-name and generic drugs at pharmacies that are convenient for you.

Like other health insurance, if you join, generally you will pay a monthly premium, which varies by plan, and a yearly deductible. You will also pay a part of the cost of your prescriptions, including a copayment or coinsurance. Costs will vary depending on which drug plan you choose. Some plans may offer more coverage and additional drugs for a higher monthly premium. If you have limited income and resources, and you qualify for extra help, you may not have to pay a premium or deductible.

Medicare prescription drug coverage provides greater peace of mind by protecting you from unexpected drug expenses. Even if you don’t use a lot of prescription drugs now, you should still consider joining. Most people need prescription drugs to stay healthy, as they age. Joining now means protection from unexpected prescription drug bills in the future.

If you have limited income and resources you may also qualify for additional help. Medicare will pay for almost all of your prescription drug costs.

Medicare is your partner in staying healthy. They are committed to providing you with benefits that meet your needs and the information that can help you make informed health care decisions.

Joel Williams is a recognized authority on the subject of senior health care. His website, http://seniorlivingmatters.com/care provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about senior health care.

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