A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

which is worse...offshoring transcription or - having it done by inmates

Posted: Jun 23, 2010

Don't laugh. It could be considered..."free" labor you know.

See, I really hate this idea that just anyone can do medical transcription ... - ginger

[ In Reply To ..]
...including morons like inmates in prison. It is one of these ideas that is killing what used to be a fairly decent profession.

Exactly, what kind of statement is that?! - qCMT

[ In Reply To ..]
If the OP is an MT, why in the world would he/she make a statement like that?! I agree that we are not being paid enough in our profession anymore, but that doesn't change the amount of knowledge and expertise we need to do the job. MT is not a job that just anyone can do, you have to be educated. I wish we were compensated better for this though. I agree with Ginger, it is these types of attitudes and statements that contribute to how MT is viewed.

your post should have gone under OPs post; right now it looks like - you are talking to Ginger.

[ In Reply To ..]
.

comments are not posted according to who - it should, but no

[ In Reply To ..]
answers to what post.
They are placed in the thread according to the date and time they are posted, in descending order:

Oldest post on top, newest post at the end.

With some exceptions, sometimes comments are posted in between.

again, you clicked Post A Reply under Ginger; instead, you - should have clicked to Reply under Inmates

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

what are you talking about? We click on the heading to - see ins

[ In Reply To ..]
which we answer and it is posted at the end of the thread.

If we click on OP's comment, nobody knows to which comment in the thread we answer!

.... sigh .... - see inside

[ In Reply To ..]
qCMT posted Exactly What Kind Of Statement Is That? .... she was asking this question/replying to the Done By Inmates post. However, qCMT posted her question/reply under Ginger post instead of the Done By Inmates post.

sigh, sigh...qCMT clicked by mistake on the ginger post - we understood, anyways! nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

uh, why then did you ask what I was talking about? - wth ...

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Oh No! - I posted in wrong location!

[ In Reply To ..]
I still love you guys. You're too funny. Shouldn't be allowed. Who's on first, what's on second, and I don't know who's on third. I also don't remember. It's an old Laurel and Hardy routine, if anyone is that old..... Similar post further down, because I posted in wrong location. Please forgive me.

remember LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION - Joker nm

[ In Reply To ..]
j

ginger, I think they are referring to inmates taking the course for rehab. sm - anon

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you know, rehabillitate and migrate into the work forcI - off the streets...all kinds of eduction can be had while an inmate - they certainly have the time....

So easy even a caveman can do it! - Joker nm

[ In Reply To ..]
z

LOL!!!! ;D Sounds like a commercial for all the - transcription schools out there.....nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

you crack me up! Hahaha! - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

what makes you think this could be considered? - n/m

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n/m

this has actually been considered - at one point because

[ In Reply To ..]
of the perceived shortage of US transcriptionists. In the past prison inmate labor at the state level was allowed to be outsourced with customer service type jobs where they took airline reservations and other types of call center operations including surveys. Yes they took personal info from customers. Inmates are actually taught to do transcription in the general sense and for braille applications. They are also encouraged to see work in the medical field after they are released. They cannot get board certified or state certified (as in nursing) as a convicted felon, but they can try to get into medical transcription, coding and billing.

Back to my original point. I don't see why medical transcription done by inmates might be so far off in the future? Did we ever think our personal medical, legal and banking info would be in the hands of other countries? The general public does not seem to care about any of that as they have become numb to this practice of offshoring services. The only thing that would save medical transcription from being done by inmates would be a public outcry by US citizens that "criminals" had access to their records. I never said it was a good idea. I said it could be considered. Nothing surprises me anymore.

I Don't Think Any Questions the Security - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
I think it's more a question of finding the skill level in prison to do it. For instance, when I googled for some specifics, Florida in 2006 had only 25% considered functionally literate...which is defined by them as between 6-9th grade level. They haven't built the spell check that could make that successful, and without even a rudimentary grasp of English grammar, there is no chance at being successful at transcription.

I am not sure they could not do a better - job than some of our current ILPs

[ In Reply To ..]
prisoners make about 20 cents an hour. Of course we MTs would have to edit the work for accuracy.

Hard though it may be to believe, I think - it would be worse

[ In Reply To ..]
I loathe offshoring our work, but, at least in the case of Indian ILPs, they are by and large educated, albeit in The Queen's English rather than American, and consequently they botch our stuff royally (pun intended). In addition, I would hazard a guess that they have the same trouble with some US accents as we do with some of theirs. I cannot imagine, though, taking the average prisoner and being able to turn them into even a crappy transcriptionist. Based on some things I've read when I helped out in my kids' classes years ago (and things have only gotten worse since), even the "top tier" 9th grade educated prisoner is going to produce stuff that's too ugly to correct and much like ASR, retyping the whole report will be easier than trying to fix it.

not all inmates are morons! - sikence of the lambs

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Not all; a mere 75% - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
Which means that 25% have a better than 9th grade education. Justice Bureau statistics show 28% federal and 20% state prisoners actually have a high school diploma. Given the fact that a large percentage of college prep students need remedial help in English when they go off to college, it is reasonable to question how skilled those with a basic HS diploma in prison would be. Break that percentage down because there will be some that choose to work a different "skilled" job while in prison, those that can't do because of a physical ailment, those that don't have earned the 'privilege' of career training, those whose crimes would prohibit them from doing 'sensitive' work, and those that choose for whatever reason not to pursue career training.

So I don't think everyone is prison is a moron. But I think the number of people able to learn transcription in prison is a very small number.

so, let the 25% train and do MTing - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Actually the state prison systems have their own hospitals - and some seem to be enlarging - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
their in-house transcription force.

you post"...because of the the perceived shortage - what ?

[ In Reply To ..]
of US transcriptionists...."

There is NO shortage of MTs.
Why do then so many newbies not get hired?
The Department of Labor should UPDATE their outdated and misleading statistics everybody relies on.
Aaarrrgggghhh!

It has happened - Yep

[ In Reply To ..]
About the year 2000 MQ took over the small company I worked for that had VA accounts. MQ had someone training inmates from women's prisons in the SE to take over our accounts. Our supervisors were quite open about it and a lot of us left at that time to get new work. What happened was this - with VA accounts the patient #s were and still are the Social Security #s, plus you had many elderly vets and many death reports. We got the account back in a hurry after the prisoners started committing Social Security fraud because they had the patient's name and SS# - it only took about a month before they were calling us back to work.

That's Really Stupid - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
I worked a VA account around 2004 or so and at that time you had to get a security clearance to do the account, replete with background checks mailed to friends and family and fingerprints. I wonder if this is a consequence of that little prison labor escapade or if those rules were always in place and someone just noticed that all the VA MT fingerprints were showing up in their criminal database rather than the generic civilian one!

It was before - Yep

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, this was several years before the security requirements, and the security requirements have steadily increased since that time. I just hope if anyone knows of a situation where a company is in fact hiring prisoners as MTs that this information is shared with them as far as what the consequences might be.

I would include offshoring as reportable as well. - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
I can't imagine that our law enforcement departments doing fingerprints and background checks on our 'ILPs' and, I would doubt the veracity of anything coming back across the ocean. This is not meant as a dig, but according to a dear friend from Delhi, the price of a "sworn statement" from law enforcement might be the equivalent of a case of a beer here (unfortunately, this has not yet led to a significant decline in the amount of money required to bribe domestic law enforcement, but I have my fingers crossed...my speeding tickets border on the ridiculous).

why are these sensitive data not kept secret to the inmates? - and entered later? nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

I get what you mean. We know that the - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
education, working conditions and payment for ILPs are all very bad.

Inmates could get an inexpensive MT training (like the ILPs, same working conditions, horrible, that means) and no monetary payment.
I have heard that inmates that do some productive work get some kind of rewards, not monetary.

I do not know how this would work, but the ones who would profit from this
would be the inmates by gaining MT education and experience and the clients for whom they work for free, or maybe not. The paid cpl rates would probably go into somebody else's pocket.

When the inmates are released, they can work as MTs, this would mean more competition for US MTs.

Well, inmates working for 20 cents/hr can finally compete - with India!--joker nm

[ In Reply To ..]
j

We just gave India an idea of what to do with their - PRISONERS!--Joker nm

[ In Reply To ..]
j

Hello - Love you guys, MTs

[ In Reply To ..]
Who's on first, what's on second, I don't know's on third?

Huh? Laurel and Hardy, if you remember.

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