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THE SURGE IN MEDICAL OUTSOURCING ORGANIZATIONS IN INDIA

Author: Blessy Velpugonda

Modern technology’s emergence has sparked a fresh revolution in every fields of employment in the present era. In such a situation, a novel idea for medical outsourcing services has acquired considerable traction and brought about a revolution in the medical field. Medical outsourcing in India, according to experts, shows no signs of dwindling down.

What is Medical Outsourcing?

Medical outsourcing is a corporate management method adopted by many healthcare institutions and providers to unload their most time-consuming managerial and administrative activities so they can focus on what really matters: caring for patients.

However, there are potential issues with outsourcing, as healthcare organizations increasingly looks to outsource more aspects of their business, it’s critical to comprehend these risks so they can assess if the advantages have transcended the drawbacks.

What exactly are Medical Outsourcing Firms?

One of the biggest global industry sectors is healthcare. Healthcare institutions must adapt to provide outstanding patient care as the market grows more competitive. It is crucial to ensure patient contentment in order to position providers for recommendations and repeat business. Unfortunately, quality care needs a lot of resources and manpower, hence for that to happen organizations must make higher capital investments as well as increased recurring payments. Hence it is obvious that hospitals and other healthcare establishments need to reduce their costs.

They endeavor to reduce expenses for medical institutions by taking on various tasks within the organization and providing service for the tasks from their end. This not only reduces costs but also saves a significant amount of time for the business professionals, allowing them to focus on what is most crucial—taking care of the patients. This is where medical outsourcing organizations play an important role.

These outsourcing firms provide services as like medical coding and billing, claims processing, data entry services, medical record transcription, receivable management, adjudication, cyber security, and more. Nearly 27% of firms outsource in order to cut costs, according to a recent survey.

How has Medical Outsourcing evolved over time and grown?

Information Technology is one of the industries that is outsourced the most. The most outsourced area is IT administration as providers continue to put more emphasis on electronic health records (EHR) and data management, operations management, asset management, and invoicing. However, outsourcing has significantly expanded in the recent years beyond IT. Clinical services include laboratory pathology and microbiology, pharmacy, radiography, dialysis, MRI, nuclear medicine, mental health services, physical therapy and rehabilitation, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical tourism, and home healthcare are now frequently outsourced. Non-clinical outsourced services now also encompass food, patient transportation, procurement, security, and more in addition to IT.

What are the Major Reasons for India’s Rise in Medical Outsourcing?

The idea of medical outsourcing initially gained traction due to the global shortage of licensed medical professionals. Over the years, medical services have begun to be outsourced to many nations. These services range from clinical services and call centres to medical transcription, which requires accurate documentation of a patient’s medical history and specialized treatment.

Several nations support such medical outsourcing. India, Australia, Switzerland, Israel, and Brazil are a few of these nations. Among these, India is one of these nations that is most preferred since it has a sizable population of experts, nurses, and medical personnel who are all well-skilled, as well as the most modern medical technology available within the country.

India is the country of choice for BPO services in the healthcare industry. Due to its large workforce, multilingual experts, skilled administrators, high level of education, and professional development of IT abilities.

One of the major reasons for outsourcing is for reducing payroll expenses and other direct expenses which are the main drivers for the firms. India has a lower payroll rate in comparison to nations like Canada, the United States, and England. Hence for those reasons cited above many multinational firms offload their work to India so they may concentrate on their key aspects and make crucial choices that will advance the business.

Another factor for the rise in medical outsourcing to India is the country’s continual maintenance of stable governments and advantageous offshore working regulations, which facilitate it for International businesses to establish constructive business relationships. The majority of businesses that are looking to outsource their medical coding needs opt for providers of unlimited service. Some nations, despite having good services, have unstable governments, which results in shifting working practices which affects the outsourcing industry in a negative way.

What are the Leading Companies engaged in Medical Outsourcing in India?

From low-end claims processing, medical transcribing to medical analytics and clinical processing; outsourcing in the healthcare industry has gone a long way. With a population of 1.3 billion, India is the most populous democracy in the world and boasts one of the most advanced healthcare systems. India has one of the oldest and most well-known traditional healing methods, making health and medicine a focal point of the country. India is a significant outsourcing hub for healthcare and medicine in Asia because of its long history, recent advancements in medical tourism, and English-speaking populace, flexible prices, and cost-effective services. Furthermore, India has become one of the top Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centers for different businesses worldwide putting it top on the list as the second most popular country in Asia. Some of the top Indian outsourcing firms for healthcare are listed below.

• Fusion BPO
• Genpact
• AGS Health
• Outsource 2 India
• Anion Healthcare Services
• Mediscript
• Accenture
• Cognizant
• FinThrive Global Solutions
• Athenahealth Technologies India

How Medical Outsourcing is driving the economic growth in India?

Not only do many healthcare firms outsource their medical billing and insurance operations to India, but they also outsource their data analysis and software development. Medical services outsourcing from the US has seen a Compound annual growth rate of 150% over the past two years, despite the fact that just a small portion of this work is being outsourced to India. Most work that is outsourced comes from the US, but there is also some from the UK and the Middle East.

Providers (hospitals and doctors), payers (health insurance companies), pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare IT corporations are the four major clients of medical outsourcing. “About $100–105 million worth of the payer side, which consists primarily of data entry, is outsourced to India.

For hospitals and doctors, the provider-end work includes medical billing and claim-raising. India receives up to $30–40 million in outsourcing. About $100 million is outsourced to India for medical transcription.

“In India, the healthcare BPO industry is still rather small. Currently, the industry is thought to be worth $300 million. However, it has tremendous potential and is a very desirable location, according to Divya Sehgal, CEO of Apollo Health Street.

Since a long time ago, Wipro’s Healthcare division has also provided services in this industry.  “We provide services in the areas of business, medicine, and technology.  According to Kapil Khandelwal, head of healthcare at Wipro Technologies, this includes consulting, teleradiology, processing insurance claims, and managing technology.

What Employment Opportunities did the rise in Medical Outsourcing to India bring?

Due to India’s numerous advantages, many nations are now choosing to outsource their needs to India due to the rise in outsourcing demand around the world. As a result, there have been a lot more job opportunities established in India, and we may anticipate further expansion in this area.

These professions come from a variety of backgrounds, starting with low skill workers and going all the way up to high skilled jobs which would include jobs in the sectors like Payroll Management, HR Services, Data Collection and Analysis, Medical Claims Processing, Clinical and Patient Care Services, Hospital Infrastructure Management, and more.

“Medical analytics is a new area inside Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) where we analyze data for providers and insurance companies, according to Mr. V Raman Kumar, chairman of CBay Systems, a company that provides business solutions for the healthcare industry.

Within the realm of medical outsourcing, the software development sector has also experienced growth in the number of job opportunities and is anticipated to do so much more in the future. Advanced healthcare app development by healthcare organizations is revolutionizing the sector including clinical services, healthcare support, and the creation of pharmaceuticals and medical technology. The adoption of AI, IoT, big data, and other cutting-edge technologies into the healthcare sector improves the accuracy of diagnosis and significantly improves patient care.

What Steps is the Indian Government taking to Improve Healthcare Industry and it’s Outsourcing in the Near Future?

To improve the nation’s healthcare infrastructure, the Indian government plans to implement a credit incentive program worth Rs. 500 billion ($6.8 billion). In 2020, the Indian medical tourism market was estimated to be worth US$2.89 billion, and by 2026, it is anticipated to be worth US$13.42 billion. By 2025, it is predicted that the e-health market would be worth US$10.6 billion.

India’s exports of medical equipment are anticipated to reach $10 billion by 2025. The Indian government has launched numerous measures over the past five years to encourage the development of a thriving ecosystem for the production of medical devices there. This is a result of the nation’s expanding middle class, an increase in hospitals, and a resulting rise in the demand for cutting-edge medical technology and better healthcare.

With the huge backing of the Indian government in the healthcare sector, we can predict how much more the industry will expand and how many new opportunities will be created within the country. This will also pave the way for many other enterprises to begin employing medical outsourcing as their main source of revenue and draw clients from around the world to outsource their work to India.

References:

1. https://www.ibef.org/industry/healthcare-india
2. https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/guide/top-healthcare-outsourcing-companies-in-india/
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/it-healthcare-and-bpo-sector-to-create-over-3-lakh-jobs-in-jan-march-quarter-fmcg-auto-to-go-slow/articleshow/11040893.cms?from=mdr
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_outsourcing