Rebuttal to AHDI, MedQuist Open Letter

Posted on: September 23, 2009

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In response to the open letter printed in the August 2009 issue of ADVANCE, I wanted to clarify some inaccuracies.

The allegations raised in the class action lawsuit against MedQuist from its employees were not proven. Therefore, the parties agreed to discontinue the lawsuit and allowed any affected employee named in the class action lawsuit to pursue their own lawsuit if they chose to do so.

MedQuist, in a good faith effort, approached the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) to administer a program to benefit the continuing education of MedQuist employees as well as MTs and medical transcription service organizations more broadly. The terms of the agreement are twofold. First, former and current MedQuist employees from Nov. 29, 1998, to Aug. 11, 2008, can access an AHDI program offering of their choice to include one of the following:

1. One-year AHDI professional membership.

2. One-year subscription to BenchMark Knowledge Base.

3. Education CD bundle for continuing education and to prepare for credentialing exams.

4. Online courses for continuing education and to prepare for credentialing exams.

5. Access to the AHDI educational Webinar library.

In addition to these program offerings, AHDI agreed to develop and administer a compliance outreach program to promote ethical best practices for medical transcription businesses and practitioners. An advisory council was appointed, comprising experts in medical transcription practice and operations, under the expert legal guidance of Scott Edelstein, Law Partner in the Washington, DC, firm of Squire Sanders. The Compliance Outreach Program, now underway, will emphasize transparency of operations for businesses and home-based medical transcription professionals. The program will provide an updated Code of Ethics for businesses and practitioners, as well as guidance around ensuring the transparency of:

1. Transcription billing.

2. Compensation of transcription employees.

3. Transcription location (i.e., where the work is performed).

4. Industry marketing and solicitation practices.

5. Practices for safe handling of protected health information.

AHDI will use these funds-after fulfilling program offerings to MedQuist employees-to offer this sector, businesses and MTs alike, a tremendous educational opportunity to better operate businesses and home-based offices knowledgeably, ethically and transparently. The launch of this new compliance program could not be better timed, as this sector is becoming more heavily scrutinized for our standards and practices in documenting health care encounters in a secure, private and confidential manner.

Peter Preziosi, PhD, CAE

CEO, AHDI

It thoroughly amazes me how others who were not affected by this dirty practice have made decisions, without taking into account, WE WERE CHEATED, WE SHOULD BE PAID, PERIOD. I seriously doubt if it were their money someone had tried to take from them, a different stance most likely would have been taken.

MEs/MTs continue to be ignored when it comes to pay raises, raises for experience, education and so forth. Many MTs/MEs have over 20 years of experience and are paid less today than they were 10+ years ago. I believe that if we worked in an office and not at home, primarily, things would be completely different. We are held to slave-like practices because management, MTSOs, etc., hold it over our heads, that it is a privilege to work at home when in reality, it is COSTLY for us to work at home; we are paying for our own equipment, internet, office space, educational materials, utilities, and on and on and on. We can take these as deductions, some of us, but in the end, it does not ever seem to amount to much. What we need are fair wages and to be paid for our knowledge, consistently and regularly.

Anon	December 31, 2011

Peter: While I appreciate your adeptness at legalese, I do not appreciate the evasiveness of your rebuttal. I find you thoroughly amusing.

You assert: "...any affected employee named in the class action lawsuit to pursue their own lawsuit if they chose to do so." Are you deaf to the membership and the concerns about compensation being at poverty levels in this industry? That's a rhetorical question in case you miss it.

You further assert: "MedQuist, in a good faith effort, approached the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) to administer a program to benefit the continuing education of MedQuist employees as well as MTs and medical transcription service organizations more broadly."

Good faith effort? Can you say "CONFLICT OF INTEREST?"

Why are we hearing from you as opposed to Susan Lucci, who currently leads AHDI?

Why did you not respond directly to the concerns of the person who initially wrote in?

Amanda	September 27, 2009

I am re-posting previous comments:

I totally agree with Cynthia. AHDI has thrown the individual medical transcriptionists to the wolves by bedding down with the MTSOs, creating their stand on VBC, and their close affiliation with MTIA.
Maggie , CMT September 09, 2009

I, too, had the reaction that this settlement resulted in MQ giving itself money, in that AHDI is now predominantly a service-company organization (not focused on the individual MT) and MQ is an important member of the organization. Kind of incestuous, and doesn't feel like much of a penalty for MQ -- if a penalty is what the court intended to impose.
Rebecca McSwain September 03, 2009

Well stated, Cynthia. Thank you for your writing directly and frankly about your concerns.
Let us hear from the person who leads AHDI and oversees the large settlement funds, Susan Lucci. Susan?
Amanda August 31, 2009

Amanda	September 27, 2009

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