Medical Transcription Services in Seattle, WA
Human-verified medical transcription for practices, clinicians, and hospital departments in Seattle, WA. Every file is transcribed with AI and then checked line by line by a human reviewer before it reaches you, from $1.75 per minute.
The work is delivered online, so nothing about it depends on being in the same city as you. What does depend on where you are is the rule set: Washington has specific requirements covering how long records must be kept and who may hold them, and those requirements change what a transcript is useful for. This page states them with sources rather than leaving you to assume the national answer applies.
Medical record rules in Washington
Washington is unusual in having almost nothing to say about physicians and a great deal to say about hospitals. There is no general statute requiring an individual practitioner to retain a patient record for any particular period; the Washington Medical Commission publishes a guideline rather than a rule, and the state medical association recommends ten years from the last patient contact, twenty-one years from a minor patient's birth, and six years from a patient's death. Hospitals are in an entirely different position. RCW 70.41.190 was amended effective 27 July 2025 to require that all hospital medical records be retained for a minimum of twenty-six years from creation - one of the longest fixed periods in the country - and the requirement reaches back to records still in a hospital's custody on that date rather than applying only going forward. For a clinician who works in both settings, the practical consequence is that the same dictation may be governed by a recommendation in one building and a twenty-six-year statutory duty in the other.
Under HIPAA, a transcription provider that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information on a covered entity behalf is a business associate. A covered entity must have a Business Associate Agreement in place before disclosing PHI to that provider, and the business associate must in turn hold agreements with any subcontractor that touches PHI. Any transcription vendor unable to produce a BAA should not be receiving patient information.
Sources
- RCW 70.41.190 (hospital records; minimum 26 years from creation; amended effective 27 July 2025)
- Washington Medical Commission, Retention of Medical Records (guideline, not a rule - no general statutory period for practitioners)
- WSMA guidance: 10 years from last contact; 21 years from a minor's birth; 6 years from death
- 45 C.F.R. § 164.308(b)(1) (business associate contracts required)
- 45 C.F.R. § 164.314(a)(1) (business associate contract provisions)
- HHS.gov - Business Associates guidance
Verified 19 September 2026.
Healthcare in Seattle
Seattle is served by UW Medicine, whose Harborview Medical Center is owned by King County and holds the only Level I adult and paediatric trauma and burn centre in Washington, alongside Fred Hutchinson and Seattle Children’s. Harborview’s role as the designated disaster control hospital for Seattle and King County means its documentation load is weighted toward trauma and emergency encounters.
How medical transcription works for a Seattle practice
Nothing in this process requires us to be in Seattle. You either dictate straight into the browser or upload a recording you already have, choose a turnaround tier, and the price is confirmed before any work starts. Files never travel by courier or post, which is the part of traditional transcription that genuinely did depend on geography.
Every file goes through the same two stages. The first pass is automated transcription, which is fast and handles ordinary speech well. The second is a human reviewer working through the transcript against the source audio. That second stage is the reason to buy this rather than a raw AI transcript: model output fails quietly, and it fails hardest on exactly the content that carries the most risk.
For clinical work the reviewer is checking drug names, dosages, laterality, anatomical terms, and numeric values - the places where an error is not a typo but a clinical error. Where your practice already has a house format for SOAP notes, histories and physicals, progress notes, or discharge summaries, we match it rather than returning something your staff then has to reformat.
Protected health information is encrypted in transit and at rest, access to every file is logged, and your material is not used to train any model. A Business Associate Agreement is available on request, and for a Washington practice that agreement is a HIPAA requirement rather than a courtesy.
What is included
- Human review when you enable it before delivery
- Clinical terminology, drug name, and dosage verification
- Your existing note templates matched, not replaced
- Speaker identification for multi-party encounters
- Encrypted storage with full access audit trail
- BAA available on request
Medical Transcription pricing in Seattle
The same rates apply nationwide. We do not price by city or ZIP code.
4-Day Standard
Delivered within four business days
$1.75/min
48-Hour Rush
Delivered within two business days
$2.50/min
24-Hour Same Day
Delivered within one business day
$3.50/min
Recordings with heavy background noise, crosstalk, or strong accents are quoted at the difficult-audio rate, from $2.25 per minute. We tell you before work starts, never after.
Human-verified orders carry a minimum: $25 for audio and documents, $30 for video. AI-only orders have no minimum.
Medical Transcription in Seattle: common questions
Do you provide medical transcription in Seattle, WA?
Yes. We work with practices and clinicians in Seattle, WA and across Washington. The service is delivered online - you upload or dictate a file and receive the finished document - so there is no courier step and no need for anyone to visit an office. We do not operate a physical location in Seattle; what is local about this page is the Washington rules below, which do change what you can do with a transcript.
How long must Washington practices keep medical records?
Washington is unusual in having almost nothing to say about physicians and a great deal to say about hospitals. There is no general statute requiring an individual practitioner to retain a patient record for any particular period; the Washington Medical Commission publishes a guideline rather than a rule, and the state medical association recommends ten years from the last patient contact, twenty-one years from a minor patient's birth, and six years from a patient's death. Hospitals are in an entirely different position. RCW 70.41.190 was amended effective 27 July 2025 to require that all hospital medical records be retained for a minimum of twenty-six years from creation - one of the longest fixed periods in the country - and the requirement reaches back to records still in a hospital's custody on that date rather than applying only going forward. For a clinician who works in both settings, the practical consequence is that the same dictation may be governed by a recommendation in one building and a twenty-six-year statutory duty in the other. Sources: RCW 70.41.190 (hospital records; minimum 26 years from creation; amended effective 27 July 2025); Washington Medical Commission, Retention of Medical Records (guideline, not a rule - no general statutory period for practitioners). The regulatory information on this page is general background compiled from public primary sources, not legal or compliance advice. Requirements change and vary by jurisdiction and by court. Verify current rules with the relevant authority or your own counsel before relying on them.
Will you sign a BAA with our Seattle practice?
Yes, on request. Under 45 CFR 164.308(b)(1) a covered entity must have a Business Associate Agreement in place before disclosing protected health information to a vendor, and a transcription provider handling PHI is a business associate. Any provider that cannot produce one should not be receiving your patient information, wherever they are based.
Which Seattle courts do your legal clients work in?
Clients in this metro most often deal with King County Superior Court, which also runs an Involuntary Treatment Act calendar at Harborview, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, sitting in Seattle and Tacoma. Requirements can differ between a state trial court and a federal district court sitting in the same city, so confirm the rule for the specific court before ordering a transcript intended for filing.
How much does medical transcription cost in Seattle?
The same as everywhere else - we do not price by ZIP code. Audio is $1.75 per minute on 4-day standard turnaround, $2.50 for 48-hour rush, and $3.50 for 24-hour same day. Difficult audio is quoted from $2.25 per minute and we tell you before work starts, never after. A $25 minimum applies per order.
How fast can we get a transcript back in Seattle?
Within one business day on 24-hour same-day turnaround, two on 48-hour rush, and four on 4-day standard. Because delivery is electronic, turnaround does not depend on your location - a file from Seattle is handled on the same schedule as one from anywhere else.
Is every Seattle file reviewed by a person?
Yes. Every file is transcribed with AI and then checked line by line by a human reviewer against the source audio before it is released. That review step is the product, not an upsell - it is where drug names, dosages, and clinical terminology get corrected rather than guessed.
The regulatory information on this page is general background compiled from public primary sources, not legal or compliance advice. Requirements change and vary by jurisdiction and by court. Verify current rules with the relevant authority or your own counsel before relying on them.