March 29, 2024

The Hospital Employees Union says costs are soaring for outsourced transcription services.

The Hospital Employees Union wants BC’s Health minister to step in for a “sober second look” at privatizing medical transcription services, with 130 jobs on the block. 

 HEU Spokesperson Bonnie Pearson says billing costs for transcriptionists, already privatized, have shot up 150% in just four years.

 Pearson says while they used financial documents to discover outsourcing costs soared from $ 2 million to $ 6 million, what isn’t exactly clear is why.

 She said “I do note that they use primarily one vendor it seems to me that once you have got one vendor they can ask you to pay whatever it is they determine their costs are plus whatever they determine an appropriate profit level is so I am assuming that is where the costs come from.”

 Bidding by Providence Health Care to outsource medical transcription services in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health Authorities closed last week.

CKNW Vancouver News

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