The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) has a fun game  for its Individual Professional members to play this summer.

The G.A.M.E. (Get a Member Event) is a fun way for current members to recruit new members to the transcription association and earn discounts on their own membership renewal in the process.

According to AHDI’s web site, all you have to do to play the G.A.M.E. is download a Summer G.A.M.E. scorecard, tell your friends and family to join the association, and send in your completed scorecard once they join.

Here’s a list of the rewards:

• First new Individual Professional member: receive 50% off your membership
• Second new Individual Professional member: additional $22.50 off your membership
• Third new Individual Professional member: additional $22.50 off your membership
• Fourth new Individual Professional member: FREE membership renewal

Visit AHDI’s Summer Rewards G.A.M.E. page for more details.

According to MTIA’s web site, the Medical Transcription Industry Association partnered with AHDI to engage the Dewey Square Group lobbying firm that is tasked with proactively positioning the transcription industry associations with congressmen, senators and cabinet members in Washington, DC.

Here’s a list of what the initiative has already done for MTIA and AHDI members:

1. Better defined landscape on meaningful use that will raise awareness about issues and will continue to make the case for our industry as rules and regulations around certification and future iterations of meaningful use are crafted
2. Significantly moved the needle on awareness and visibility through education and grass roots connection, which will help us continue to establish stronger credibility and understanding of the roll the industry plays in an ever-changing healthcare system
3. Created key relationships that focus on frequent, consistent connection in a personal way and will allow us to be on the offence and in front of policy as it is crafted rather than trying to change laws that have already been enacted, yielding a return over time
4. Benefited from more targeted, strategic organization of our efforts, which has maximized the expertise of DSG and our resources
5. Built critical advocacy infrastructure for future regulatory positioning, including identifying critical issues, shaping key messages, developing outreach strategies, and building key contacts

If you’re a medial transcriptionist or medical transcription service owner, and you want to invest in the MTIA Annual Fund for Advocacy/Public Affairs Special Projects Initiative, you can download the form here.

According to MTIA’s  Blog, the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) changed it’s name to the Clinical Documentation Industry Association (CDIA).

The official press release announced that MTIA’s members “voted to change its name to Clinical Documentation Industry Association (CDIA) in an effort to reflect not only the expanded scope of services its members provide to the healthcare industry, but also a more appropriate focus on the health record and its critical role in clinical decision-making and continuity of care.”

Last week, PRN Funding exhibited at AHDI’s 2010 Conference and Expo at the Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas. Overall, this medical transcription trade show was a good one.

Thanks to the Around the World Contest, PRN Funding’s team of medical transcription invoice funding specialists were able to meet a lot of the show’s attendees. Medical Transcription Service Owners (MTSOs) were especially intrigued by PRN Funding’s factoring services.

PRN Funding looks forward to exhibiting at ACE11 in Phoenix, AZ next year!

Last week, Nuance released NaturallySpeaking 11, and David Pogue of the New York Times had a few things to say about the upgrade. Pogue referred to Nuance as a “near-monopoly in the speech-recognition game” that continues to make “steady improvements and price cuts.”

PRN Funding’s medial transcription invoice factoring specialists summarized the review below:

15% more accurate.

4-minute training (used to be 15 minutes).

Cheat sheet of commands that fills panel on right-hand side of computer screen.

Additional speak-to-type commands - Ability to open programs, pick menu commands, click Web links, move the cursor, format text, etc.

Apply the same formatting to every occurrence of a word/phrase in a document.

The software can recognize children’s voices now.

Accuracy improves regardless of how you manually edit corrections (type over or speak the correction).

Click here to read the entire review of Nuance’s NaturallySpeaking 11.

Austin, TX-PRN Funding is exhibiting at the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI) Annual Convention and Expo at the Hilton Austin August 4-7, 2010.

Owner of PRN Funding, Phil Cohen, and Account Manager, Ryan Elliott, will be available in booth 511 to speak to attendees about PRN Funding’s medical transcription accounts receivable factoring program.

MTSOs and medical transcriptionists are encouraged to stop by PRN Funding’s booth to get a sticker as part of the Wheel of Prizes game. After visiting with participating exhibitors and collecting stickers, attendees can turn in their completed cards for a chance to spin the Wheel of Prizes. In addition, convention attendees will judge exhibitors and their booths during the exhibit hall based on two categories: Most Friendly Booth Staff and Most Creative Booth.

With years of experience in the medical transcription industry, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within medical transcription. PRN Funding offers financial resources to these companies by purchasing their accounts receivable–a process known as ‘factoring,’ which provides the cash needed to sustain and grow a healthcare business.

According to MTIA’s blog, the medical transcription organization is “encouraging its members’ companies to continue efforts initiated during the Advocacy Summit in strengthening and building relationships with members of Congress in local and regional locations over the summer. These meetings, or constituent coffees, provide a rare opportunity to interact directly with elected officials about the industry as well as discuss the important role MTs and MTSOs play in the healthcare community. Meetings can be held in company offices or in client locations to share the work we do in contributing to patient care delivery.

The Dewey Square Group has created Guidelines for Hosting a Regional Congressional Meeting to assist you with scheduling a local visit with your members of Congress.

If you have any further questions or would like assistance in getting started, please contact Andrew Wolf at awolf@ahdionline.org or Miranda Youkhaneh at myoukhaneh@ahdionline.org.”

Last week, BusinessWeek published an article entitled: Health-Care Bill Surprise: 1099 Nightmare, and we thought the small business owners who read The Factoring Blog should be aware of its contents.

In essence, the article says: Small business owners should be aware of page 737 of the recently-approved healthcare reform bill, as it contains a three-paragraph provision, inserted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to help offset the cost of the bill. In a nutshell, this insertion requires companies to report to the IRS payments of more than $600 a year to any vendor. The intent is noble: to capture $2 billion or more a year in taxes on income that currently goes unreported by contractors and small businesses.

Business advocates fear that the new rule will create a massive paperwork headache for small businesses because come 2012, the new rule will expand 1099-MISC reporting to include payments to companies, and for goods as well as services.

Read more here: Health-Care Bill Surprise: 1099 Nightmare.

Review of Systems-expanded (ROSe) recently announced that it has added an advanced-level program to its compliance training offering specifically designed for medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs).

Developed by lead ROSe instructor, Brenda J. Hurley, CMT, ADHI-FL, the Advanced Compliance Course Training consists of four classes surround topics such as security risk assessments, policy development for reducing potential risks, and tips for business associate agreements.

According to For the Record Magazine, the new course “offers MTSOs the ability to provide instruction to their medical transcription staff regarding the new compliance requirements and new security and privacy risks they will encounter in their daily work activities.

There is special pricing available through June 30th. For more info, visit www.rosemtschool.com.

It’s hard to believe that 25 years have gone by since President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation making this week National Medical Transcription Week.

Here are some fun medical transcription facts to keep in mind while celebrating the week:

• There are 1.2 billion medical records produced in the U.S. every year.
• 60% of those records are documented via medical transcription/dictation.
• Dictation/medical transcription is still the preferred method among US physicians for documenting patient encounters.

For more information on the 2010 Medical Transcription Week, please visit AHDI’s web site.