Philippines Gaining Ground in Outsourced Transcription

According to an article in the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times, “The business of transcribing American medical files employed 34,000 Filipinos and generated $476 million in revenue last year,” and it’s been predicted that the number of medical transcriptionists will triple, and revenue will jump to more than $1.7 billion by the end of next year.

To date, India has held the largest share of outsourced U.S. medical transcription work, but it’s facing growing competition from Philippines, Pakistan and Caribbean countries.

Ernesto Herrara, a former senator who heads the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, mentioned in the article that Filipinos have an important advantage over Indians when it comes to outsourced medical transcription–Because the Philippines is a former American colony, its citizens are more familiar with American accents. He also explained that the country has a “vast pool of jobless medical workers who need little additional training to take dictation from American doctors.”

Not to mention that the fact still remains that it’s more pricey to have things transcribed in the States as opposed to overseas. American medical transcriptionists make $31,250 a year compared to a $6,000 annual salary for a Filipino medical transcriptionist.

Click here to read the entire article: American’ medical files go digital, by way of Asia.