The Emergence Of Medical Outsourcing In India : From Providing Services To Becoming Backbone Of Healthcare

Author: Tallish Ansari

Introduction:-

When a business with potential growth expands with time, it brings about an increase in investment, production, labor, requirements, logistics etc. The increase in demand causes the business to scale up its all activities to a large scale, and provide the customer with the best service’s. For any growing company or business, the most valuable thing is, it’s CAPITAL. Using the capital in the most effective way is what a company needs for it’s sustenance. Outsourcing is a prime example of using capital effectively and efficiently.

Outsourcing by definition is the exercise of hiring a third party, outside the company,to perform functions and operations, that were previously done internally,by the company’s staff and employees. Companies mainly use outsourcing as a means of cost cutting, which includes cost of labor, operations, requirements, equipments etc.In these article, we’ll learn what is outsourcing, it’s emergence and recognition,and how it is strongly supporting the medical industry on daily basis. Also we have some interesting facts related to medical outsourcing, go through the article and tell us in the comments how many did you know. The first fact is given below, there’s more in the article,go find them!!

Did You Know:- Outsourcing Was Created By The Economist Ronald Coase

A Peek In To History Of Outsourcing:-

The history of outsourcing dates back to 18th century, when industrial revolution was starting to gain it’s root in United States. The manufacturers and producer’s used to import raw material from India, and would process it in countries like Scotland, which used to have cheaper labor, thus maintaining the quality of product with cost cutting. But this wasn’t realised until the mid of 20th century, and outsourcing wasn’t considered a business strategy.

In 1967, Morton H. Meyerson, an employee of EDS (Electronic Data System) proposed a business model which became the foundation of current outsourcing business. This proposed business model of outsourcing was first recognised in the year 1989 when IBM first provided services of data center to Kodak. Since then, outsourcing has been an intrinsic part of many businesses.

What Is Medical Outsourcing?

Medical Outsourcing refers to providing services to healthcare institutions which includes hospitals, nursing homes, medical college, clinics, pharmaceutical stores etc.The healthcare industry is an industry that has to deals with crucial situation at any point . Medical institutions have the responsibility of their patient’s health. Thus they need support for providing best service’s to their patients without any delay. This is the primary reason medical outsourcing exists.Outsourcing of activities in any ways include those task that are majorly non-core and relatively less important compared to other core activities. Services that Healthcare Outsourcing or Healthcare BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) provide includes medical coding and billing, collection of data, entry of data, medical claims and medical transcription etc. Outsourcing these functions helps medical institutions and medical firms to focus primarily on patient and their health.

Did You Know:- By 2025, The Healthcare BPO Market is estimated to reach $312 Billion Dollars, that’s the growth the Healthcare BPO is going to capture.

Medical Outsourcing In India:-

India is a developing country with a vast population. With increasing population, diseases are likely to spread quickly among people. Any epidemic or pandemic of viral or bacterial disease would certainly burden the healthcare system. Apart from this, long term chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, asthma, arthritis, COPD etc have been reported to drastically increase in India. To provide better health care services to patient, the medical institutions has to focus more on core activities along with all other administrative work. Thus, the increase in demand of healthcare has necessitated medical outsourcing in India, which would provide administrative services and perform non core task. Going through we’ll see how medical outsourcing became prevalent in India. From it’s beginning to it’s emergence and recognition, below we’ll describe, the rise of medical outsourcing in India and it’s role in providing support as a backbone to healthcare system.

Did You Know:- Raman Roy is widely regarded as father of Indian BPO industry.

The Beginning Of Medical Outsourcing Companies In India:-

Just like any other country, Outsourcing services in India started in 1980’s and have exponentially grown by 1990’s. IT services and outsourcing companies were already present and effective in 1980’s, but with increasing population and demand of healthcare, medical outsourcing came in to existence. The globalization and liberalisation in 1990, was a key factor in initiating the medical outsourcing services and commencement of medical outsourcing companies in India.

The Emergence Of Medical Outsourcing Companies In India:-

Medical Outsourcing Companies emerged in 1990, as the Indian government eased the restrictions on different healthcare policies. This liberalisation led rapid growth of medical outsourcing companies in India. Along with liberalisation, the government developed national programs for curing different acute and chronic diseases that were becoming prevalent. Thus, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers started to focus more on heath of individuals. This paved the way for the emergence of medical outsourcing companies in India.

The Recognition Of Medical Outsourcing Companies In India:-

With time the IT sector reformed and Medical Outsourcing Companies were growing exponentially. They were providing services and completing the non core and administrative activities of healthcare system. It was the outbreak of Covid 19 that compelled the healthcare system to move on digital solutions completely for business continuity. It was the pandemic of 2020, when the services of medical outsourcing companies were truly recognised. Apart from providing services of medical coding, billing, transcription, and medical claims processing, medical outsourcing companies acted as a mediator to connect patient with physician and hospital, when both the entities were in a situation where they cannot meet physically. They provided services such as medical scribe, financial and pharmacy management, co-ordinators between vendors and suppliers, managing appointments for doctors and patients demographics etc. These was the journey of growth of medical outsourcing companies in India.

Did You Know:- India and Philippines are considered to be one of the best destinations for medical outsourcing.

Medical Outsourcing Companies in India have now gained it’s root and providing services to healthcare institutions 24/7. It’s the outsourcing services they provide, that help physician and nurses to focus more on patients health and eliminate the doubt from an individual that the healthcare institution focus more on industry need than patient needs.

Key Services That Medical Outsourcing Companies Provide That Led Thier Rise In Health Care Segment Are As Follows:-

1) Medical Billing Services:-

Hospitals deals with number of patients every day. Thay have to deal with different information of patients, and would encounter mistakes and delays while processing this information and generating bills for the same, if not trained properly.

Outsourcing this task to medical outsourcing companies reduces the risk of errors and ensures no billing and coding delay. Healthcare BPO experts have the appropriate tools to carry out this function effectively so that hospitals could focus primarily on patient.

Did You Know:- On an average, 80% of medication bills and code contains errors.

2) Medical Claims Services :-

Another service that Healthcare BPO provide is claiming of medical insurance of patients. When having several medical claims in hand ,it becomes difficult to manage, while maintaining it’s accuracy and timing of claim. To manage medical claims efficiently, Healthcare BPO provide medical claim services.

As the number of patients would increase the demand for medical claims would also increase . As a result, medical claim services would be essential in coming future.

3) Medical Transcription Services:-

A patient has to be looked by physician,nurses, surgeon, medical personnel etc. Transcribing the notes of every other healthcare personnel, takes lot of time and effort. This reduces the time of patient-physician interaction and creates further complications.

Outsourcing this difficult tasks to a well experienced medical transcription would reduce the burden on healthcare professionals.

4) Collection And Entry Of Data:-

While treating acute and chronic illness of an individual, patient demographics are taken well in to consideration. Patient health information and historical records are required to be organised in proper format for ease in treatment.

This vast data can be effectively collected and entered by a Healthcare BPO professional. Healthcare BPO uses this data , for patient surveillance and finding out disease related solutions.

Other Services:-

Apart from these key services, Medical Outsourcing Companies have started services like Chat and phone services, patient scheduling in hospitals and patient care services, management of pharmacy and physicians,revenue care management, coordination between vendors and suppliers etc.

These are some important services that the Medical Outsourcing Companies are providing currently. The exemplary usage of these services by healthcare system has led the Rise Of Medical Outsourcing Companies In India.

But Providing services aren’t the only cause for emergence of Medical Outsourcing Companies. There are certain factors that lie behind these services that are actually the reason for the growth of healthcare BPO.

Did You Know:- Healthcare BPO and Medical Outsourcing companies help hospital and other healthcare institutions save 30% to 60% on cost.

The factors responsible for the growth of Medical Outsourcing Companies are:-

1) Extremely Fast Service :-

Whether a client, customer or patient, they are more intended to receive quick response and extremely fast service. Providing the patient with best solution within a short frame of time is a major factor responsible for Healthcare BPO.

2) Quality Of Service And Phenomenal Patient Experience :-

Medical Outsourcing Companies hire the best individuals to provide quality service to their clients. Hiring well experienced and qualified staff not only benefits the company, but also help building good patient experience. Thus, benefitting everyone including the physician,the patient and the medical outsourcing company.

3) Supply And Understanding Of Important Data :-

When hospital and other healthcare organisations outsource their daily task and routine to medical outsourcing companies,they recieve information regarding the areas that need to he improved, and upgraded. These information provide insights to medical practitioner about patient health information and his/her routine of drug administration. These data provided by Healthcare BPO, helps in selection of the best care services to be delivered to the patient.

4) Minimising Errors :-

When the number of patients are vast, a hospital or healthcare institutions would certainly try not to create errors in billing and transcription as it would affect it finance and organisations. Management of data and billing procedure by Medical Outsourcing Company would minimize errors regarding this. Healthcare BPO provides individuals with professional expertise that would complete the task and minimize these errors.

These are the important factors that led the rise of medical outsourcing companies in India.

With changing time the healthcare sector is changing drastically. Healthcare BPO or medical outsourcing companies used to provide services to hospitals and health institutions. But now they are acting as a backbone of healthcare system or we can say they are the backbone of healthcare system.

One of the Healthcare BPO acting as backbone of healthcare system is Staffingly. Staffingly Inc. is one of the leading medical outsourcing companies, giving best outsourcing and offshoring services. Staffingly has professional staff with experience and expertise, that support healthcare business operation 24/7 without any delay. It provides clinical customer services, medical billing and coding, long-term pharmacy care, and other outsourcing services etc.

So this was all about the emergence of medical outsourcing companies in India. We told you earlier that are some facts hidden in the article, as you go through it. How many did you found, and which one did you already knew?? We’re eagerly waiting for your response! Tell us in the comments how was the article according to you, and did it help you to enhance your knowledge regarding medical outsourcing services.