What Are The Future Prospects Of Medical Transcription In India?

By Raj | Jul 13, 2007

In the US, medical transcription business is a $10 to $25 billion industry (annually). NASSCOM predicts a potential annual revenue of Rs. 4000 crore and employment for 50,000 people by 2008 in this industry. The number of medical transcriptionists in the US has remained static while the demand for transcriptionists is growing by about 15% every year. The current average age of medical transcriptionists working in the US is 55 years and with this force retiring out in a couple of years and youngsters not willing to take up this job as the pay rates are getting down day by day in the US, the jobs are ought to be routed to offshore destinations and this is where India is going to capitalize on this opportunity with its large, educated, young population

Read the interesting article BPO is here to stay in the leading daily “The Hindu” which says:

Compared to software and dotcom businesses, BPO is critical for the day-to-day functioning of US businesses. For example, medical transcription is a regular task that needs to be done on a daily basis; not so with software development, which can even be postponed.

No matter whether it rains or shines, recession or progression, inflation or deflation, people will get sick. So the medical transcription industry is going to stay in India unless there is a change in the laws between the two countries and it has already started moving beyond the metros.

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15 Responses to “What Are The Future Prospects Of Medical Transcription In India?”

syed on August 10th, 2008, at 3:37 am said:

Yes, BPO is critical for US and for that matter, TRANSCRIPTION. Hope it’s going to stay in India forever.

Naresh on November 23rd, 2008, at 7:59 am said:

Ok, then what about the voice recognition technology?

Raj on November 23rd, 2008, at 4:09 pm said:

@Naresh: Output from any voice recognition software isn’t going to be 100% error free. Train up yourself to edit such documents and embrace such technological advancements that reduce your workload. Reluctancy on your part would be like dragging yourself behind the crowd.

USMT on November 30th, 2008, at 8:57 am said:

Cool site! I agree that there is a huge demand for medical transcription, but pay is not declining for US MTs. The young ones in the US are the ones who are more likely to work for less. Pay depends on what type of transcription – employee or contractor? Employees are paid $12+/hour or $0.075+ per line usually, independent contractors are more flexible.

I do QA for a firm that offshores transcription, I have regular contact with an Indian MT company. My prayers go out to our Indian colleagues in Mumbai.

Aravind Vasu on March 20th, 2009, at 4:30 pm said:

Hi Raj,
Keep up the fantastic work. I have something to discuss:

Transcription business has not matured or is not facinating as that of a call center or other service based industries since the revenue generated is production based rather than value added service. So, the income has a ceiling because there is a limit to production by a transcriptionist. Moreover, there is very little hierarchy level in the companies doing MT business. Pay is synonymous with the number of sandbags that you carry i.e. number lines that one produces. There r very less number of holidays that one can enjoy as well since the jobs demands 24 hour service. In most of the companies proper metrics are not set. I am very much depressed regarding the tardy growth of the industry. Please give me positive feedback.

Aravind Vasu on March 20th, 2009, at 5:55 pm said:

Hi Raj,
can u tell the growth aspect in visual transcription against the audio transcription. Please post names of the companies those that are involved in visual transcription.

Regards,
Aravind

Raj on March 21st, 2009, at 2:12 am said:

Until a solid voice recognition software has been invented that converts any dirty accent language to solid transcripts, I think the prospects of visual transcription, business transcription converting seminars, conferences, meetings, discussions etc., or rather any transcription will be very good. If at all a damn good speech recognition software has been invented by all those geniuses working on it, the transcript of a group of speakers as in the case of a discussion will be a mess.

As of now, I do not have the data on companies involved in visual transcription. I will keep posted on this blog as and when I have enough data of companies into visual transcription. So stay tuned by subscribing to the RSS feed or newsletter feed.

Raj on March 21st, 2009, at 2:51 am said:

In my view, a medical transcription job is harder than a call center job as in a transcription job, your brain, eyes, ears, hands and feet are involved, that is almost total involvement of your body whereas in a call center it’s a bit relaxed. You do not have to pound on the keyboard racing against time and at least have the opportunity to request the speaker to repeat the question if it is not clear. I’m not aware on what basis you are paid in a call center or if the rates are attractive compared to the medical transcription rates.

Companies keep on underquoting the rates and undermine each other’s clients and concentrate more on volume, something very similar to the problem that the US companies too had in the past 1-1/2 decades with outsourcing and I think that is the major problem why this industry is becoming less attractive even in offshore outsourced countries. Furthermore, the pitiful irony is that even the pay earned by a typing MT is distributed to nontyping managerial staff or quality control staff in the existing management hierarchy so that the MT who types and brings in revenue to the company is not adequately compensated where as the job levels above the MT get paid more. A medical transcription company with less hierarchy levels will be able to pay more for the medical transcriptionists who actually type and bring revenue for the company. Hence until solutions are found to these problems, a medical transcription job ought to look less attractive than a call center job especially if you have excellent fluency in English.

Regarding holidays you won’t be able to match your holidays with Indian holidays and festivals except for New Year and Christmas. You will have a holiday for New Year, Memorial Day which is the last Monday in May, US Independence Day on July 4th, US Labor Day which is the first Monday in September, Thanksgiving Day observed on fourth Thursday of November and Christmas, which is totally six days a year. However, you have lesser restrictions if you work for a company than being an independent contractor who has orders from the US.

Naveen on August 27th, 2009, at 2:51 pm said:

What is the future demand of medical transcriptionist Home based by next 20 yr. I am confuse whether i should go on this field as a career for High Paying job.

A.K.Saradhi on February 13th, 2010, at 12:11 pm said:

Mr.Raj,

What I have read about the future of medical transcription is that really it is in problem. I have read the article from “The Hindu” which says that there is no future for medical transcription in India. I am a science student and I am really worried and skeptical whether to go on with this profession or not. Please reply me sir. I will be waiting for it.

Raj on February 15th, 2010, at 10:58 am said:

Doomsayers have been saying it for long even from those days when I jumped into this profession way back in 1999.

The risks involved that could lead to the termination of the medical transcription industry in India are:
1.) Any policy change with the governments, either at US or in India.
2.) Automations like voice recognition technology and electronic health records churning out 100% accurate records.
3.) Rupee getting appreciated against the US Dollar.

Hence it is up to you to take up the risk or not.

Keshaw Kumar on June 26th, 2010, at 7:12 am said:

It is really helpful to come to know about the current scenario and development in medical transcription.

Anandhan.S on October 29th, 2010, at 12:18 pm said:

Hello Sir,

They say that medical transcription is going to be overtaken by EHR in a couple of years and thus medical transcription is going to end, this gives me sleepless nights as I am fully dependent on this profession for livelihood, I need to know the answer. Please reply.

Raj on November 1st, 2010, at 4:12 am said:

We tried to find an answer for your query here: How EMR (EHR) Is Going To Affect Medical Transcription Industry? Read and update yourself.

Farid on May 2nd, 2011, at 7:15 am said:

Currently, I am working in a MT company from the last two years. I want to know in the future the medical transcription industry will progress in amount of work if the VRS or EMR is invented with 90% to 95 % accurancy report?