HealthScribe buys back Max stake

BANGALORE: HealthScribe India, one of the top medical transcriptionists of the country, has returned to its status of being a subsidiary of Healthscribe Inc. in the US as per an announcement made by the company on January 29, 2004.

"We have bought back the 65 percent stake in the organization that we had originally sold to Max at $10.3 million. With the buy back we now have 85 percent of the company, the remaining portion being held by a Swiss private equity firm," said president and COO of HealthScribe Inc., David Ehrhardt.

According to him, the buy back is the first step to turn HealthScribe's attention to allied services in the healthcare industry apart from medical transcription. This will include coding, billing and claims processing for which, Ehrhardt said that India will become the hub for service provision.

"We have a total of 2,000 employees, 1,200 of whom are based out of India. 99 percent of our revenues come out of medical transcription, the rest being made up of healthcare consulting work. We will add 500 more for the calendar year of 2004. In the next 12 to 18 months, we will set processes in motion to move into the allied services space as well," said Ehrhardt. He also added that the company will be looking seriously at acquisitions, both in India and the US, to augment its skill sets in the services it wants to enter and to increase its revenue potential as well.

HealthScribe India contributed close to $10 million to the global revenue last fiscal and expects to increase that to $13 million this fiscal with global revenues expected to reach $50 million. The transcription part of the trillion dollar healthcare industry is chalked at close to $10 billion, half of which is outsourced according to the company.

CyberMedia News Service