Heads up, people! Your medical records might just end up in India soon!

Crossposted from the Lounge:



So it seems as though the medical transcription company I work for has been sold to a company who has a headquarters in India. Just by coincidence, I'm sure, the Indian company is now hiring 500 MTs and 400 QA (quality assurance) workers. Time to look for a job, but that's not why I'm posting this here. If you don't want your SSN, birthdate and all of your medical history going on over to India where, btw, HIPAA laws cannot be enforced, it might behoove you to send off a nice little e-mail to your senator or congressman (or woman) and tell them to start doing something before it's too damn late.

Oh yeah, the company I work for?? MedQuist, the second largest MT company in the United States, and they have accounts from all of the major hospitals in the majority of the U.S. Odds are good that the hospital you go to has their transcription done by this company. So yeah, call now or,next time you go to the hospital, some guy in India might end up with all of your personal info.

A hearty fuck you to the Bush assholes who made it possible for my job, which once seemed safe, to be stolen and taken overseas.... now off to bed to dream of January, 2009 and, maybe, better days ahead.

when I took my husband to the E.R. over a year ago. They wouldn't even give me information. I was treated like-well not entitled.

Or, at least, it's going to be hard to enforce. That is one reason it's taken so long for India to become a major player in medical transcription. Most hospitals, until recently, have resisted having work sent over there because of the problems with enforcing privacy laws in another country. Greed has caused a lot of the hospitals to change their minds and we're starting to see a real trend towards outsourcing transcription. It's all about the bottom dollar these days and, believe me, they can get the work done a lot cheaper using Indian MTs.

:(

Not that transcriptionists weren't paid well to begin with, but it's just another field NOT to get into.

And the dollar won't bottom until we start doing more work here, in the country that gave birth to it.

LCD monitors would save them a ton in electricity costs too.

before we'll all have to travel to India to get affordable medical care.

in this dump.

where people are well-educated and likely motivated in their work, than they would in the UK or US, where education is frowned up by our governments, and the workforce is made to feel as valueless as their remuneration. My wifes file's were lost at one of our local hospitals.

High-quality products made in China, outstanding customer service in India....

(singing) Who could ask for anything more??

:sarcasm: X 10

has likely already sent your personal information to India. Just add this to the list.

Here's a thought...HIPPA likely doesn't apply or will be enforced in India. How long until health insurance companies start paying for lists of high risk individuals they do not want to insure......

If local people know my medical condition, it could be embarassing, but if someone 10,000 miles away knows, it's hard to believe they care.

Begin "paying" for those records of your medical conditions? Might be hard for more Americans to get health care coverage, as they're considered high risk.

Quite a convenient way around HIPPA, wouldn't you say?

You know who steals our personal data the most? People in Eastern Europe.

Isn't privatizing grand? You HAVE to give all your financial data to the government ( I am fine with that) then the IRS is forced to outsource some of the work to private corporations because bush is the decider. Then those private corporations do not want to pay wages within the framework of what workers get in the US, so off to India goes all that financial data you were required to give.

Oh, mortgage processing is happening there too.

edited for typo

which means the government will go over every byte

I was an employment attorney in Seattle and two or three years ago, medical transcriptionists were already being offshored to India. HIPAA offers no protection -- the transcriptionist service is considered an agent of the hospital or doctor.
In addition to your personal information being divulged to so many people, the information is sent over the internet and subject to tapping by the government and interception by the same persons who would intercept banking and other personal info.
Radiologists' services are also being offshored. Hospitals are sending diagnostic testing overseas for interpretation.
Someone today told me that when he was going for surgery, United gave him a choice: he could have stay in the hospital two days here or have the surgery overseas and get seven days in the hospital.
Finally, remember whatever services can be offshored will be offshored. The only secure positions are those jobs that can not be sent overseas. Not many of them are left.

If you can't afford medical care and don't have insurance, there are no records. Sorry about your job, though.