BUSINESS

Physician paperwork swept offshore

Billing and transcription services are making their way to countries like India and South Africa. Companies save money, but it's unclear whether physicians do.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. May 10, 2004.

Family physician John Cerritelli, MD, since 2002 has retained a company based 12 miles north of his Belleville, N.J., office to handle his billing. But his billing paperwork is actually being done thousands of miles away, in India.

Dr. Cerritelli isn't alone. Whether physicians know it or not, services such as billing, transcription, interpretation of radiology images, coding, claims review and adjudication, as well as staffing nurse call centers, are being performed in English-speaking countries overseas -- including India, South Africa, Philippines, Ireland and Australia -- that can offer cheaper labor and, perhaps, a larger pool of qualified workers than America.

No one knows exactly how much of this work is being outsourced -- or, to use another popular term, offshored -- to workers outside the United States, or even how much offshoring is going on in other fields. It's been happening for years, but with the government estimating that the American economy has lost 2.2 million jobs since 2001, outsourcing has emerged as a political issue.

Proponents of offshoring say the jobs created overseas aren't always replacing American jobs, and in fact can create financially healthy companies that would hire more workers at home. But with various reports forecasting that American companies plan to outsource millions of jobs over the next decade, legislators are nervous about the future: More than 20 states are considering legislation that would limit offshoring jobs.

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