Outsourcing In Healthcare Industry

Outsourcing In Healthcare Sector: Sounds something new……What Should we Know? The healthcare sector in today’s date is facing dwindling bottom lines and increased regulatory compliance. Faced with ever-increasing costs from time to time, outsourcing in the healthcare sector is experiencing exponential growth as several health care centres & hospitals have now begun to outsource a diverse range of services for better operational benefits. Earlier, the healthcare industry used to limit their outsourcing model to medical transcription and medical data entry, but, as the awareness about the benefits of outsourcing is growing, they have started outsourcing services pertaining to healthcare information management systems, Big Data, clinical research, medical billing, and patient data security systems, amongst all others. Thus as a result of outsourcing some of the unique advantages delivered by quality healthcare non-medical operations outsourcing include: 1) Elimination of Critical Mistakes: By outsourcing billing operations and having a dedicated team of technologically-proficient and trained professionals handling important tasks, several critical billing mistakes can be avoided. This in turn can help hospitals & healthcare centres save large amounts of money. 2) Reduced Training Costs: Healthcare organizations which choose to outsource do not need to worry about additional expenses such as organizing staff training sessions, employee education, employee work dedication etc. The outsourcing partner takes care of all staffing requirements and ensures that their employees are up to date acquainted with the latest technology pertaining to the exact outsourcing requirements of the client. 3) Ability to Focus on Quality Patient Care: With an outsourcing partner looking after all the non-medical processes and operations, the health care providers can focus on delivering high-quality patient care too. Outsourcing helps

health care providers to reduce their tedious work management and administrative workload, while focusing their attention on high-quality patient care. 4)Significant Cost Savings without Compromising on Quality of Service: One of the most significant advantages of outsourcing healthcare services is the reduction in overall costs and hospital expenses without requiring to compromise with the quality of patient service and such a scenario is possible due to application of advance technology.

If so much beneficial then what all Can Healthcare Providers Outsource? There are several activities like, operations, and tasks which are commonly outsourced by healthcare organizations to the outsourcing companies specializing in IT services and data entry operations. Apart from medical billing and medical transcription, one of the most common business operations being outsourced nowadays is healthcare application development (HAD). In this technologically dominant era, business apps are necessary for even the health care organizations to enhance their reach, augment their service quality, and deliver vital patient data without any hassle and tussle. BPM (Business Process Management) is another IT operation which is now considered for outsourcing by hospitals and healthcare centres. The tasks which are covered by hospital BPM include member services, financial management, cost management, claims processing, provider services, disease management, case management, decision support, utilization management, and analytic reporting. According to Jonathan Clarke, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Administration at Penn State University, “Outsourcing is something we should think about, especially when it fuels efficiency and expands access to healthcare, but we need to be intelligent about it so as not to put patient safety at risk.” He also stated that around 90% of the hospitals in the Unites States are outsourcing some services particularly radiology service. 1. Data maintenance software: According to Tom Lowery in his article entitled 8 Ways Outsourcing Can Help Hospitals and Patients, US hospitals leave about $125 billion on the table each year because of poor medical billing practices. He adds that 80% of medical bills contain critical errors. One factor

that contributes to this is that some hospitals are not updated with currently changing billing rules and regulations in today’s date too. With outsourcing, healthcare organizations can have a dedicated team of trained professionals that focuses on the billing purposes.

2. Training of employees: Healthcare organizations that outsource their processes don’t also need to worry about shelling out extra money for education, employee need of training, software or staff training since the outsourcing partner sees to it that their employees are up to date with the latest changes in standards and regulations. 3. Access to expert and trained professionals. There is no need to spend time in finding trained professionals for healthcare processes because they will be ready to take on the job as soon as an outsourcing partner is signed in with them. Employee acquisition and retention isn’t also a concern anymore since these will be handled by the outsourcing partner too. 4. Extensive focus on patient care: With an outsourcing partner taking care of looking for a healthcare organization’s staff and training them, healthcare providers will be able to focus on the more important things in the business – in this case of healthcare, giving the best quality of care for patients. Outsourcing will help providers to lessen their tedious administrative and managing workload, and allow them to provide a positive patient care experience. 5. Manpower outsourcing: Outsourcing brings in huge savings with its low cost manpower and infrastructure. Healthcare outsourcing can help save companies 30-60% of costs. Aside from taking care of staff acquisition and retention, having an outsourcing partner also reduces excess administrative costs since the direct benefit of outsourcing is financial surge with the partner.

INTERESTING FACT: Do you know Philippines is Top Healthcare Outsourcing Destination

In the next few years, the Philippines is set to become the top healthcare outsourcing destination thanks to its massive qualified workforce, infrastructure and technology. The country’s outsourcing industry has grown over the recent years and is forecasted to hit $2.4 billion in revenue in 2016.

How me and my country India are being benefitted by outsourcing? Did you know that India is the most sought country after outsourcing destination for healthcare services? So far as observed Indian healthcare services providers are equipped with the latest technology, software and healthcare know-how to provide services that are on par with international healthcare standards. India is one of those few nations that conducts healthcare outsourcing services with optimum quality and at a very affordable cost too. some key outsourcing benefits that hospital or clinic can enjoy by outsourcing to India: 1. Maximum profit margin at a minimal cost Outsourcing healthcare services like medical coding, medical animation, medical transcription, claims adjudication and medical illustration to India can prove to be extremely beneficial for hospital, as it can save a whopping 60% on your current cost miraculously. 2. Make huge savings on your capital expenditure Cost is not the only thing that can be saved on by outsourcing healthcare services to India. It can also save on time, manpower and healthcare infrastructure. Hospital or clinic can concentrate on patient care and leave out worries regarding the management of healthcare staff and compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Profitability and AccountabilityAct). 3. Increase in level of productivity and efficiency: With the outsourcing of non-core healthcare functions like revenue cycle management or healthcare administration, the physicians can focus all of their time and effort on patient care. With healthcare staff totally focused on patients, a marked increase can be noticed in overall level of productivity and efficiency. 4. Access reports from anywhere at any time:

With a dedicated Indian healthcare service provider handling all your work, you can quickly access any of your healthcare reports from your PC, phone or tablet to know the current status at any place at any time. With up-to-date reports, informed decisions can be made. 5. Better business performance: By outsourcing all non-core healthcare work to India, there will be a drastically improve in level of productivity and profits. Outsourcing can also boost hospital’s business value and give an edge over other competitors. 7. 99.9% accuracy: Because of the lack of time or a shortage of resources, hospital or clinic are facing problems in accuracy. However, by outsourcing, there can be assurance of 99.9%accuracy in medical transcription, medical billing, medical coding and claims adjudication, as Indian healthcare service providers follow stringent quality control processes. 1)Source-https://www.infinithealthcare.com/resource-center/top-5-reasons-the-healthcare-industry-shouldoutsource/ 2)Source- https://blog.flatworldsolutions.com/outsourcing-healthcare-sector-know