List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Nov-12
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
A growing number of health care services are being outsourced not only to domestic companies but also to those based overseas in a process called “offshoring.” These range from coding and billing to patient lab results, ICU (intensive care unit) monitoring, documentation, eligibility determination, and front office services. These actions are being taken largely for business purposes. What does this mean for physical therapists, their patients, and the health care system? What are the trade-offs between less expensive services and quality of patient care?
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Many reports and studies were available addressing the offshoring of medical (physician-related) services. We reviewed those closely, although they seldom addressed the rehabilitation aspect that would be of interest to physical therapists and their patients.
Explain types of human sources used.
Physical therapists, owners of foreign-based companies, researchers and policymakers who follow the subject of offshoring, and others were interviewed.
Results:
The article generated positive feedback from physical therapists as well as some debate and discussion regarding the benefits and drawbacks of offshoring.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections or clarifications were necessary.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
This was a complicated topic, dealing with sensitive health care topics, practices that could (and have) produced both positive and negative outcomes, business and financial issues both domestic and international, and more. We ended up with enough material to have written an article easily twice the length of the published piece. From a business perspective, an ample body of literature exists on medical offshoring but virtually nothing has addressed the effects on physical therapists. As a result, although we could find examples, we initially had difficulty showing the financial (or treatment) implications for our readers: physical therapists. A second challenge was to present a relatively unbiased article when most of the players had strong feelings about the topic. A third was to take a number of complex topics and present them in understandable fashion without unnecessarily “dummying them down.” What worked for us was taking it slowly and carefully, and paying particular attention to editing for clarity. We also found a number of unexpected angles that we weren’t able to cover–due both to space and to the focus of our article. Among them: A trend among states and other government entities to offshore their tasks. A link between venture capitalists and the offshoring movement. Conflicting understandings and opinions regarding the extent to which offshoring is (or can be) regulated by U.S. agencies. All these seem to offer interesting prospects for future articles.