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With outsourced medical transcription, it's sometimes difficult to know exactly where all of the work is being done. Especially after the "California Incident" - the situation in which a woman from Pakistan who had been a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor for medical transcription for the UCSF Medical Center threatened to publish the information from patient medical records if she was not paid for the work that she had done in October of 2003 - knowing where you transcription is done is vital.

The California incident was able to occur simply because there was not a clear statement of where the outsourced medical transcription work would be performed. While the medical center had contracted with one organization, that company outsourced work to home workers and subcontractors. Some of the subcontractors that they were associated with had a network of subcontractors who worked under them. These details weren't clearly stated; the UCSF Medical Center staff were unaware of where the medical transcription work was actually being done.

When you send work to a transcription company, it is imperative for you to know whether the work will be done onsite or through subcontractors. If the work is being done through subcontractors, then you need to know whether they themselves are doing the work of if it is being passed on further - and on until you've spoken with everyone who will be handling your medical transcription work. This is especially true with concerns about HIPAA compliance and data security; knowing where your outsourced medical transcriptions are being done can help to ensure that you are not confronted with fines or criminal penalties and that you know that public exposure of the files is unlikely to occur.

HIPAA regulations are clearly stated. When you work at a hospital or other medical facility, you know this: you've rearranged offices, created more secure record rooms and established policies to protect the information of your patients. It's important to know that your medical transcription is being performed by a company that is HIPAA compliant and that understands the necessity of keeping files secure.

The only way to know the the transcription company that you are working with is secure is to ask, and to take steps to ensure that the vendor is upfront about where the work will be done. Those transcription companies that are unwilling (or unable) to provide you with information about where the work will be done should be considered with care. Instead of choosing a vendor that cannot or will not acknowledge where the work is done, choose a transcription company like Transdyne that ensures that all work will be completed within their facility in India by hired staff that have trained to be HIPAA compliant.

When you send your medical transcription work to Transdyne, you can be sure that the security of your patients' files is maintained; you can also know with certainty that your data is managed - something that you cannot be sure of if your outsourced medical transcription finds its way into the hands of and onto the unmanaged hard drives of home workers and their computers.