Medical Transcription Services Market

Medical Transcription Services Market Outlook 2028

• The global medical transcription services market was valued at US$ 64.8 Bn in 2020
• It is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 5% from 2021 to 2028
• The global medical transcription services market is expected to cross the value of US$ 96.7 Bn by the end of 2028

Analysts’ Viewpoint on Medical Transcription Services Market Scenario

Companies in the global medical transcription services market are gaining lucrative revenue benefits due to increasing demand for such services from various healthcare centers. Factors such as increased awareness about the benefits of electronic patient record keeping, government initiatives, increased geriatric population worldwide, reimbursement processing, and availability of various software leading to competitive cost reductions are driving the growth of the medical transcription services market. The use of novel recording system, which combines different type of automatic audio recorders and speech recognition technology, is a rapidly progressing trend. Medical transcription service is a promising and fast growing segment in the field of next generation patient documentation and healthcare database, and is changing the perception and outlook of the healthcare industry.

Rising Demand for Proficient Medical Documentation Services Globally

The global medical transcription services market is negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. After significant efforts taken by governments, healthcare practitioners, and market stakeholders to recover from losses caused due to pandemic, the market is witnessing growth opportunities.

Earlier, medical documentation involved lots of paper work and was time consuming. Such documents were sometimes handwritten or typed on paper and gradually started occupying space in healthcare institutes, hospitals and clinics. Apart from being space consuming, retrieving any particular patient record from piles of record files posed as a bigger issue. Documentation and maintenance of patient records was not only a burden on hospitals but also on physicians and other healthcare staff, which, thereby, created demand for a medical documentation process which involved less manpower, space, and processing time.

Increasing patient population across the globe, rising surgical procedures, and rapidly improving healthcare infrastructure are some of the factors responsible for the global market growth. The global medical transcription services market is creating lucrative opportunities for manufacturers to mark their presence in the global market.

Technological Advancements in Medical Transcription Services Boost Market Growth

The medical transcription process involves transcribing the patient information dictated by physician into text format. Physicians record patient information using audio recorders and send such recordings to medical transcriptionist for further process. This process has not only reduced writing work and efforts of physicians across the globe, but has also helped in reducing space required for the saving of such documents. Apart from efficiently recording, patient records medical transcription services also turn out to be instrumental in reducing the risk of legal disputes and insurance reimbursement issues. Many medical transcription service providers are offering both transcription services and transcription software. Audio recorders are being rapidly replaced with speech recognition software that allows automatic conversion of audio into text format. Medical transcription services can be offshored or outsourced. Many developed countries prefer offshoring medical transcription jobs to the companies situated in developing countries such as India, China and Philippines.

Increasing Trend of Outsourcing Medical Transcription Services

Medical transcription demands high-end accuracy and hence, requires skilled manpower. Developing in-house manpower capable of transcribing medical information with accuracy, along with developing and maintaining infrastructure necessary for providing medical transcription services is a costly affair. Hence, many healthcare professionals outsource their transcription jobs to save both time and monetary resources. Healthcare institutes prefer offshoring medical transcription activities over outsourcing, as it is more beneficial for labor as well as healthcare institutes to avail the transcription services in exchange of dollars (currency rate benefits). Medical transcription has extended definitions of healthcare services by enabling physicians and specialty physicians to treat patients across the globe, refer documents in history for special cases and guide for physicians in case of transfer of patient from one physician to another for better treatment. Developing countries in Europe are investing more on building medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs).

North America Shows Lucrative Growth Opportunities for Market Players

North America is expected to account for the largest market share of the global medical transcription services market due to increased medical documentation in the U.S. Contribution of the U.S. in availing medical transcription services is going to increase further as effects of passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, most of the healthcare professionals availing medical transcription services are domiciled in the U.S., thus giving more scope to in-shore outsourcing. Many major MTSOs are coming up with cost effective products in the market that is driving cost reduction in this market. Growing awareness of medical documentation and its implementation by many healthcare professionals, hospitals, clinics and healthcare institutes is driving growth of medical transcription market.

Countries in Asia-Pacific are focusing more on medical transcription service industry rather than on availing medical transcription services. Governments in India, Philippines and China are providing subsidies, incentives, cost benefits in internet services and tax benefits for developing infrastructure required for set up of medical transcription company, developing skilled manpower and improving technology.

Medical Transcription Services Market: Overview

• According to Transparency Market Research’s latest report on the global medical transcription services market for the historical period 2017–2019 and forecast period 2021–2028, increase in healthcare automation and rise in emphasis on using standard reporting styles are projected to drive the global medical transcription services market during the forecast period

Growing Emphasis on Using Standard Reporting Styles

• The healthcare industry, particularly in the developed countries, is dependent on insurance. Physicians, healthcare facilities, and other medical practitioners are required to document patient cases for insurance purposes. Earlier, the transcription tasks of such cases were performed by medical practitioners themselves. However, with the standardization of transcription procedures, requirement of documentation became more stringent which increased the pressure on medical practitioners and hospital administration.
• For instance, the publication of the Book of Style for Medical Transcription by the American Association of Medical Transcription increased the emphasis on standard documentation and accuracy of MT reports. Stringent regulations for documentation of medical records have assisted in generating demand for professional transcription services. Mandatory adherence to Health Insurance Protection and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has initiated further pressure on healthcare service providers for accurate documentation of healthcare records.
• Insurance companies also demand legible and accurate patient documents to comply with government requirements. Medical practice in North America and Europe is strictly regulated with government statutes. Violation of such regulations results in malpractice lawsuits against healthcare providers. Hence, healthcare providers need to strictly adhere to the required standards of documentation.

Assurance of Patient Record Portability Boosts Market Growth

• One of the important considerations of medical transcription is the assurance that the transcribed patient and related healthcare records can be easily retrieved from the repository. Another major preference of healthcare facilities and other eligible professionals toward opting for outsourcing medical transcription is the current ability of easy switching of vendors, should the customer wish to switch vendors in case of price discrepancy or should the vendor fail in the market. Standardization of the format of transcribed reports has turned out to be a major benefit rendering the growth of the medical transcription servicers market.
• The ability of avoiding the phenomenon of “vendor lock” and thus the resultant avoidance of risk of ending up in a non-transferrable and proprietary format of transcribed reports is driving the demand for opting for medical transcription services across the world.

Dictation Challenges with Medical Transcription Services to Hamper Market

• For years, physicians used to dictate patient reports while medical transcriptionists used their auditory skills to decipher what they are saying. Technologies such as EHRs and speech recognition have been instrumental in converting such transcription issues into further downstream problems, thereby increasing the focus of the intermediaries on exploring ways to tackle this issue.
• Various phenomena together or individually cause poor dictation. Tendency to multi-task such as eating, typing, or driving while dictating record or with having others in the room could cause distortion in the quality of the record and further challenge the transcriptionist to distinguish the speaker’s voice among others. Moreover, increase in the number of physicians in a healthcare system widens the range of poor dictation. Accuracy of such reports is of utmost importance as treatment decisions are based on the information included in these reports.

Medical Transcription Services Market: Competition Landscape

• This report profiles major players in the global medical transcription services market based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, business strategies, and recent developments
• The medical transcription services market is quite competitive with the top ten players accounting for major share of the market and every company focusing on research & development to produce better pharmaceutical and vaccine products for the existing diseases
• Leading players operating in the global medical transcription services market are
  • Nuance Communications, Inc.
  • MModal, Inc.
  • Acusis, LLC
  • Transcend Services, Inc.
  • TransTech Medical Solutions
  • Precyse Solutions LLC
  • iMedX Information Services Pvt. Ltd., among others

Medical Transcription Services Market: Key Developments

• Key players in the global medical transcription services market are engaged in regulatory approvals, technologically advanced products, launch of new products, and acquisition & collaborative agreements with other companies. These strategies are likely to fuel the growth of the global medical transcription services market. A few expansion strategies adopted by players operating in the global medical transcription services market are:
  • In October 2021, VIQ Solutions, Inc. announced commercial launch of NetScribe for transcription agencies across the U.K. and Canada. VIQ's cloud-based transcription workflow automation solutions, powered by artificial intelligence, enable efficiency and productivity gains globally.
  • In February 2021, MModal's technology division was acquired by 3M for a total enterprise value of US$ 1 Bn. MModal's technology division offers cloud-based, conversational artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools that will help 3M's Health Information Systems division extend its capabilities.
  • In July 2020, Allscripts and Microsoft Corp. announced that their long-standing strategic partnership would be extended to allow the development and delivery of cloud-based health IT solutions. The five-year agreement will support Allscripts' cloud-based Sunrise electronic health record, establishing Microsoft as the solution's cloud provider and allowing for co-innovation to help improve healthcare with smarter, more scalable technology.
• The report on the global medical transcription services market discusses individual strategies, followed by company profiles of manufacturers of medical transcription services devices. The competition landscape section has been included in the report to provide readers with a dashboard view and a company market share analysis of key players operating in the global medical transcription services market.

Medical Transcription Services Market Snapshot

Medical Transcription Services Market – Segmentation