I have finished my schooling and awaiting the final exam results.  Before joining any college for continuing education, while researching for the prospects of each job, medical transcription seemed to be an attractive career with relation to the subjects that I chose at school.  I found a couple of schools, colleges and universities offering medical transcription courses in the local dailies and I’m confused a bit now.  Which medical transcription training program is the best in India and which medical transcription education course should I choose, a one-year diploma or just a six-month certification program?  Is medical transcription certification necessary to get on to a job?

Okay, I will speak with reference to my experience and circumstances when I stepped into medical transcription (and please don’t take it as brag) but before that I will answer the last part of your question regarding the necessity of medical transcription credentials.  The quick answer is a big “No.”  You don’t even need the subjects biology, nursing or pharmacy in your school or college.  Take my example, my major was civil engineering.  Even in the US, one do not need a certificate, license, degree or diploma or rather credentialing of any kind to get on to a medical transcription job and there is still a great debate and opinion poll going on about its relevance.  The state of Pennsylvania turned down the idea itself of licensing/credentialing.  A credential like RMT (Registered Medical Transcriptionist) or CMT (Certified Medical Transcriptionist) may elevate the chances of getting chosen easily while changing companies but not a mandatory requirement to get hold of a medical transcriptionist job.  So to begin a medical transcription career, all you need is good listening comprehension skills, good language skills (English) and the ability to be at seat for long hours typing.  Hence I think you can choose and deviate to a medical transcription career even after completing a graduation or postgraduation of any discipline of your choice.  Why sacrifice your higher studies if you have a good academic track record just for the sake of a medical transcription job as it is just a typist’s job?  You can make a decent living in this career in India but definitely can’t steer your way to riches or higher echelons of the society.

And now regarding my experience on how I got on to this job and how you should steer yourself through a course to a job:  It was towards the end of 1998 when only a handful of medical transcription companies had opened shops in India and most of them were in the initial phases of starting business viz., recruiting, training, trial production or just with some small amount of live work.

I was out of college in 1993 and by that time in 1998, all my business adventures flopped due to lack of experience, lack of sufficient knowledge in the fields chosen, lack of proper planning and guidance, and on the top of all these, overenthusiasm, and at last I was on a hunt-out for a job to sustain myself.  Incidentally, I happened to be a passerby of a medical transcription motivational seminar, canvassing people to join a medical transcription training program and on successful completion of the course, the aspirants were offered to be absorbed into live jobs.  As I have an aptitude to medicine and human anatomy, I decided to give it a try; however, this time I didn’t blindly jump into a conclusion but tried to do a little research on the same question, “Which medical transcription institute should I join?”  At that time, institutions mainly indenting to put a live production center were offering courses and one or two private, scam educational institutions that were not at all concerned with live medical transcription production were also offering courses.  I decided to get on to an institution which would pay me stipend while I’m learning rather than I pay fees for studying, so that it is assured that I would be absorbed on finishing the course as the company would be investing some money training me and would not let me down, and it was my need of that hour too.  I entered a contract with a respectful institution, joined the course and the rest is history.  (May be I will opt out of this career once I’m back on track with my finances clear, as it is a tough life with all your senses and organs focused on work, completely dedicated, unable to turn this way or other, with fingers pounding on the keyboard for hours and hours nonstop.)

The scenario has changed a lot now from then.  Irrespective of the sum people owed an institution given to them as stipend, on completion of the course, people used to jump ships breaking contracts, which put the production centers in a soup that they changed their stance now.  They are now demanding security deposits before taking a student into a course and charge tuition fees.

Furthermore, the educational institutions offering medical transcription courses neither do not provide hands-on training on a live production center nor they guarantee to place you suitably that you may end up nowhere on completion of such courses.

Conclusion: Hence what I would advise is to go for a live production center offering a course with an offer to absorb the successful candidates on completion of the course, although they may demand a caution deposit from you, (forget about the stipend or scholarship part as almost all the institutes have now dropped that idea) than to go for a course offered by an educational institution and then hunt for a job afterwards as it is tough for a non-experienced fresher trained in an educational institution to find a job.

So far, I have compiled three lists (one, two and three) of medical transcription companies in India that have web sites (almost all the major companies in almost all the Indian states have been included in the list; however, there may be some companies without a web site that I may have dropped).  Find a medical transcription company that is into live production near to you, find if it is offering training and guarantees absorption on completion of the course.  Once you confirm these and satisfied after having a chat with the existing medical transcriptionists working there about the work atmosphere and prompt, regular payouts, proceed with confidence.  Is the message clear?

7 Comments

• At May 12, 2009, K.Nivedha wrote:

  Well said Raj, good advice. An MBBS doctor or civil services like IAS, IPS, IFS or a bank officer or a professor, they all have definitely more value in the society than a medical transcriptionist has. If you have solid academic background, you shouldn't waste your future becoming a medical transcriptionist. Keep it as a last option.

• At May 12, 2009, Jasmine wrote:

  LOL. Look at the irony here, I know a couple of doctors working as medical transcriptionists!!!???

• At May 12, 2009, Raj wrote:

  Yep, doctors working for transcription companies as trainers may sometimes work as transcriptionists if they have ample time.

• At May 12, 2009, Jeanette Dobbyn wrote:

  Just starting a Medical Transcription course on line with Allied Schools got any advise on this kind of school ? Located in california I was sent a Mosby's dictionary and a study book called Davi Ellen Chabner The language of medicine Eighth Edition. Along with two cd's. I think it's all self taught with a little help of a phone call when I dont understand something . AM I going the right way with this I really want to be a Medical Transcriptionist. Have a certificate in Certified Medical Assistant I got BACK IN 93.

• At May 13, 2009, Raj wrote:

  Jeanette,

  As I said early in this post, I'm sorry to say that I do not give out any opinion or review, positive or negative, for any particular name or institution to avoid any trouble. I compiled a list of schools giving MT training earlier and this school was included in that list; however, it is you to ensure the credibility of any particular institution.

  My personal opinion would be to get training and support physically from an instructor until you are on your own than self learning because you ought to have reasonable amount of doubts in the beginning until you're comfortable especially if you're new to medicine. Here is a supporting thought from another veteran MT that a study course with instructors is a 1000 times better than self learning or students helping each other to learn. However, since you are certified medical assistant, I think it won't be a problem to get going. Wish You Good Luck.

• At May 13, 2009, Jeanette Dobbyn wrote:

  Thank's so much for your answer Raj. One more can I find a coaching class along with my on line class or do I have to join one when I first started this course?it would be nice if I could do both dont you think? I Started this on line course in febuary and am on my 7th chapter. grade is about 70 to 75 % Want to bring it to an 85% Thanks dobbynj.

• At May 13, 2009, Raj wrote:

  It would be tough time for a fresher to get on to a job unless your training program gives a placement guarantee. If no placement guarantee is given, then mode of training, exposure to variety of reports, and on the top of these, exploiting your networking with your friends could help you out. For eg., associating with one of your friends working at a local clinic as a medical transcriptionist will help you more than going for a second course (which will be a waste of money as well). Why not try such alternative?

• Who Can Become A Transcriptionist?
• How Much One Into Medical Transcription Can Earn (in India)?
• What Are The Future Prospects Of Medical Transcription In India?
• Comprehensive List Of Medical Transcription Companies In India
• Finding A Reliable Online Medical Transcription Training Program

Objective and Caveat: I’m not vouching for outsourcing.  Even I would outcry than anyone else if my bread is getting snatched away by some unknown from a remote place but these are the consequences of globalization and I would soon adapt to live with it, swim along than against the current, and begin my search for better alternatives to benefit myself also from this phenomenon of globalization than fighting against it or grunting my faith.  Hence in this post, I’m rather trying to evaluate the occurrence of events and their impacts and consequences into the future on both sides of the coin.

Before we go into the pros and cons of outsourcing and offshoring and having a perspective view from both sides of the coin, US and India, do you know which are those jobs and businesses that are getting outsourced to India? Are only back-office jobs such as call centers and healthcare documentation jobs where you do not need an eye contact or handshake with the customer getting outsourced? Are only low-skilled jobs getting outsourced or do you know of any high-tech jobs getting outsourced?  Yes, not only low paid, low skilled or labor intensive jobs are getting outsourced but also high tech, brainy jobs are getting outsourced. In this video, let’s have a look at on what sort of high-tech jobs that are getting outsourced, and why India has become such a booming market and an attractive destination for all the major businesses in the United States or rather worldwide, global corporations?!

Source: YouTube video Jobs Outsourced to India.

Benefits of outsourcing and offshoring medical transcription services:

If you calculate the expenses for a transcriptionist in Oregon, it works around $47,236.60 per year or 22 cents a line considering that a transcriptionist transcribes 4000 lines a week where as if the work is outsourced, it can be done for as low as 8 or 7.5 cents per line.   That’s a whopping savings of 59%.  By outsourcing non-core functions like medical transcription, coding and billing to low-cost destinations, healthcare organizations and providers will be able to direct their full attention to their core functions like patient care.  The hospitals or companies vouching for outsourcing say the money saved likewise could be further invested in businesses and creating further jobs in the US.  So what goes around, comes around.  So, isn’t it a myth that outsourcing is bad for America?  Is outsourcing to be blamed for lack of jobs?

Source: YouTube video Myth: Outsourcing Bad for America

Source: YouTube Video Is Outsourcing to Blame for Lack of Jobs

We have seen the US scene of jobs getting outsourced. Have you seen the other side of the coin, in India?  Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist, New York Times (but this time for Discovery Channel) explores the other side of outsourcing.  Come on let’s have a look at it.

Source: YouTube video The Other Side of Outsourcing

Here’s another story from Bill Weir, co-anchor of the weekend edition “Good Morning America,” ABC News.

Source: YouTube video ABC News report on Outsourcing to India.

Anything other than  “savings” that could support the cause for offshoring? Of course yes! It maintains peace in that part of the world!

How can a common man in the United States be benefited of this outsourcing wave? Well, you can hire a mathematics private tutor or outsource yourself for surgery, I mean, medical outsourcing! Mixing healthcare and tourism could be specially enticing if it saves thousands of dollars.

Medical tourism/health tourism to India:

Bilateral hip replacement surgery in India costs $20,000 compared to 120,000 in Florida, a savings of $100,000 or one-sixth of what it would cost in Florida or an open heart surgery on infants would cost less than $2000.  A heart valve replacement surgery in the US costs around $200,000 where as in India around $10,000.  40% of the doctors in the US are Indians.  So why not a common man in the US take advantage of the counterparts of those US doctors offering world class service at cheap rates in India combined with a tourism visiting all those great places like Taj Mahal?  See the video below.

Source: YouTube video ABC News Report on Outsourcing Part 2

Okay, we heard all those backoffice outsourcing advantages and disadvantages, benefits, ins and outs, everything on offshore outsourcing to India. Now the next question arises. Where will this trend end?  Jobs from the United States found their way to India or the Asian countries just because of the cost advantage but if that cost advantage is going to be eaten up by the monster ‘inflation’ and wage rises in India, those jobs are obvious to find another destination elsewhere on the map where it is going to be cheaper than India.  With inflation speeding up in India, the jobs have either to be retained at US or diverted to Pakistan or Bangladesh or any other country that provides competitive rates. Globalization and global rates!

Source: YouTube video: Future of outsourcing with the Growth of India and China and emerging markets.

And this video elaborates a bit more in detail about the future trend of outsourcing.

Source: YouTube video Future of Outsourcing and Offshoring.

Conclusion: Well, I think this post has been a total outsourcing guide. Now my opinions.

With a broader perspective, my opinions go with Aziz Premji’s (Chairman, Wipro) words.  I quote Aziz Premji here: “So much of the wealth in the west has also come through access to global markets.  You cannot have double standards in globalization.  Globalization has to be a two-way traffic.”

With the rise in Indian household income levels, there is a new market emerging for US companies and multinationals to sell their products.  What goes around comes around!

And on the part of India, a compromise has to be made with all those adversities that a flourishing economy and imitating a western culture would be bringing in as pointed out by the orthodox mentalities, like deteriorating traditional ethics, morality and cultural values, lack of adequate bond between family members and everything money motivated.  On the economic front, if India still has to sustain the outsourcing wave and its success stories and retain the existing clientele, it has to contain inflation and rising wages, combat terrorism, maintain a vigil alert against any further attacks on silicone cities, and across the table settlement of disputes between neighboring countries, something for the people at helm of the Indian government to think and act up on.  Furthermore, if Indian Rupee appreciates against US Dollar as it did to an extent of 20% in 2008, say for approximately 50%, or to the value where it was in the 1980s or before that, all these buzz of activities will be brought to an abrupt end with all those outsourcing companies fleeing the country at the greatest pace they can!

(For as long as I can remember, the Indian Rupee has steadily depreciated against the US Dollar over time.  In the early to mid 1970s, the exchange rate was 7.50 Indian Rupees to one US Dollar, in the mid 1980s it was 13 Indian Rupees to one USD, in the mid 1990s it rose to 33 Indian Rupees to one US Dollar and in 2005 it moved further northwards to 43 Indian Rupees to one USD.  Now it has crossed 50 Indian Rupees to one US Dollar.)

19 Comments

• At April 13, 2009, Carlos wrote:

  India has immense underutilized potential of youth that if employed in a proper planned manner, it is definitely to become an economic super power in a decade or two.

  Secondly, if the trade gap narrows, that is, if exports from India outweigh imports to India, it is obvious that the Indian Rupee will strengthen against US Dollar, which is quite possible and cannot be ruled out. You made it a point there. What makes outsourcing so attractive is the difference in value between the two currencies and if that gap too gets narrowed down, outsourced jobs have to find another country or to be retained at homeland itself.

• At April 14, 2009, Shabu wrote:

  We are self sufficient in most of the commodities including food, think of feeding a population of 1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est.)

  However, we are depending entirely upon other countries for our energy requirements. We are a major importer of crude and petroleum products. Once you have an alternative for fossil fuels, that's going to have a major impact on our economy or if we could tap all those crude that we're finding in our river and sea basins ourselves, we could be self sufficient. Dunno if it's going to be a distant dream. We definitely don't want those American jobs and culture in our country.

• At April 15, 2009, Sakthivel wrote:

  As said in the second video, I would definitely say that only after the apparels from our country, (Tirupur, India) that reached the US markets in the 1980s (perhaps late 1970s), the US clothing prices started treading southwards. I, myself, export apparels from India and am a witness of the prices. US clothing price index shown here is absolutely right. Isn't that a damn good savings for every American citizen? Why aren't they blaming India for shifting of those manufacturing jobs even two-three decades ago while enjoying the fruits of it?

• At April 15, 2009, Pratap Singh wrote:

  If American companies like Coke, Pepsi, Citibank, General Electric, Reebok, Motorola, McDonald, Oracle, MicroSoft, to name a few, taste success and rake in profits to the US, why not we bring some of their money to our homeland? How can the Americans expect the businesses to be a one-way traffic?

• At April 16, 2009, Raj wrote:

  Thought provoking valid points by everyone of you. I'm amused by the discussion going on here.

• At April 16, 2009, Harshvardhan wrote:

  I think the recent Mangalore pub attacks by Shri Ram Sena activists on women found consuming alcohol dressed in western style and and the protests that India sees year on year against Valentine's Day celebrations depict our conservatives' unwillingness to accept the western culture creeping into our society, all the credit of this chaos goes to the American jobs landing in our country. What do you say, either to accept blindly and transform to a country's culture that's merely 200 years old or preserve our tradition of thousands and thousands of years old?

• At April 16, 2009, Mark wrote:

  Yes, I agree that India for 10 or 20 years will become super economic force which with china will rule the world, at least at east side of world.

  Mark

• At April 17, 2009, Joseph Kim, MD, MPH wrote:

  As the economy faces pressure in the United States, more and more jobs and getting assigned to India. This trend will only grow as technology needs increase in the healthcare industry.

• At April 17, 2009, Raj wrote:

  Read my caveat. Neither I'm pro outsourcing nor con. Neither I've a conservative nor a liberal mind for Indian customs, tradition and rituals. Staying neutral, I'm just evaluating the occurrence of events as it happened over the last two decades and am looking into the future in trying to evaluate where will this offshore outsourcing trend of US jobs to India would lead to in both the countries in the next decade.

• At April 17, 2009, US MT wrote:

  Great article Raj! I recommend that everyone with gripes about outsourcing read this article. Not all effects of outsourcing are bad, lots of good that comes with it. I'm an MT, and I do not consider you guys rivals but colleagues. We're all in this together :)

• At April 17, 2009, Raj wrote:

  Thank you dude.

• At April 17, 2009, Raj wrote:

  After reading our discussion here, one of my friends mailed me an article something in relation to the discussion here, about "Petrodollar scam" or "Petrodollar warfare." (In fact, I got two mails from two different friends but with the same essence.) Google about it or read Wikipedia's theory of petrodollar warfare or the petrodollar theories of warfare.

  I'm reproducing a presentation on it here. Find time to view it.

  While looking at the occurrence of events right from the 1970s till date as said in this presentation, the possibilities described in this presentation cannot be ruled out entirely as a scam especially with the fact that Bush couldn't prove to the rest of the world after the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein was in possession of chemical weapons or biological warfare. So if the points charted out in this presentation is true and if all or at least some nations migrate to Euro as their trading currency, no wonder we can anticipate another world war, "world war III," or even if there isn't going to be world war III, one can still anticipate a sharp fall in the value of US Dollar with the gradual acceptance of Euro as common currency, leave aside the current state of American economy in doldrums.

• At April 18, 2009, janet wrote:

  Obama in his recent interview with the public affirmed that the high paying jobs will be retained in the United States itself. I'm losing hope in him. It should be the other way round. If you take a count on who's affected, it's people in the ordinary jobs, ordinary US citizens that are more affected while those in high profile jobs are only a few. So what does he indent to do retaining those high paid jobs? I don't know who he is going to save. Another nail on our coffin?

• At April 20, 2009, Stuart wrote:

  I am really stupefied by the above conversations!!!!

• At April 23, 2009, Deboleena Ghosh wrote:

  Hi Raj,

  This is the first time I am visiting your blog and is really amazed at the kind of discussion forumm that you have build up here. Since Promantra is also into Outsourcing and Medical Transcription, this discussion is really palatable for me. Thanks for your initiative

• At April 23, 2009, A.R.Senthil wrote:

  According to the latest report of Reserve Bank of India on foreign exchange reserves dated Jan 16, 2009, for the period ending September 30, 2008, India is sitting on huge forex reserves of US $286,336 million. (It peaked USD 309,723 million on March 31, 2008.)

  Personally I feel if the Indian government banks on this reserve for domestic investment purposes, (I mean purchase Rupee for Dollar) the Rupee should appreciate in value.

• At April 24, 2009, Raj wrote:

  One more supporter for you Pratap! Another friend of mine, Gops, sent me a mail with the contents of this link: Indian Economy Is In Your Hands.

• At April 29, 2009, US MT wrote:

  To Janet - It's not Obama's fault that some in the US are losing jobs.... Put the blame on the CEOs of the US companies - CEOs are the ones who exploit everyone!

• At May 11, 2009, Lynette wrote:

  Thanks for your view from "the other side". America and Europe are both in a state of either static or declining populations. Eventually there aren't going to be enough people to fill the jobs needed (although that's not quite the case in our current economic situation). Globalization is the only solution. There are risks and benefits either way, but why fight the inevitable? I don't have time today to view all the videos, but I do plan to come back and peruse them in more depth. Thanks for your thoughts!

• What Is The Advantage Of Outsourcing Work To India/Asian Countries?
• What Are The Future Prospects Of Medical Transcription In India?
• Which Medical Transcription Educational Course To Join In India?
• How Much One Into Medical Transcription Can Earn (in India)?
• Offshore Outsourcing – Indian Medical Transcription Company List

With the US unemployment rate creeping up with a fading American economy, reports of job loses and the US government in preparation to do all that it can do to put it back on track, it is obvious for an Indian medical transcriptionist to have a query in his mind (especially with dangers of automation like speech recognition technology looming over head) – “What’s the future of medical transcription in India?” At this juncture, it will be worth noting that while employment continued to fall in sectors like construction, manufacturing and retail trade, sectors like mining and health care continued to add jobs as per “Employment Situation Summary of September 2008” of Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. With the younger generation in the US not willing to indulge in this trade due to various obvious reasons like reducing wages/rates, and those who are already in this industry being at the retirement age, there is going to be a huge demand-supply gap, which could only be met with routing the jobs elsewhere, leave aside the money saved by doing so.

With great opportunities in offing, I’m amazed with the number of companies that have already forayed into medical transcription industry in India and at the pace and depth at which this industry has penetrated into tier III and IV cities of India in the past decade alone preparing themselves to tap this huge opportunity. We have already listed 240 companies in our three lists, the count is still not exhaustive as we haven’t included those without a website to portrait their activities.

If the MTSO in India that you own or represent or work for is not included in this list or the first list or the second list, proceed to my contact form, give me the details like website URL, postal address, contact numbers and email ID to include in the next list; it’s absolutely free.

So here goes the current list:

4 Comments

• At May 4, 2009, Naveen kasu wrote:

  Its really good, which is helpful for the MT-related people

  thnx alot.

  regards

  nav

• At March 12, 2010, naresh wrote:

  good work, thank you

• At July 20, 2010, satya wrote:

  may i know any Medical Transcription Companies in cyber towers,madhapur,hyderabad

• At July 22, 2010, sujata wrote:

  Is CAT technologies is not in top 10 companies. What is the reason for exclusion?

• Comprehensive List Of Medical Transcription Companies In India
• Offshore Outsourcing – Indian Medical Transcription Company List
• How Much One Into Medical Transcription Can Earn (in India)?
• What Are The Future Prospects Of Medical Transcription In India?
• Which Medical Transcription Educational Course To Join In India?