Global Healthcare BPO
Market size is expected to witness high growth
over the forecast period. Increasing need to reduce operational costs is
anticipated drive the market. The business process outsourcing (BPO) model has
several advantages such as easy availability of skilled labor, low rates, and
reduced training costs. Through outsourcing, medical organizations can
concentrate on their core competencies and reduce their efforts and investments
on support activities. These factors are driving the adoption of BPO in the
medical sector.
Adoption of
business strategies such as alignment of major resources towards core
competencies is projected to drive the market over the forecast period. Cost
cutting through outsourcing business model is anticipated to further augment
the market in near future.
Costs of
medical services have increased significantly over the last few years.
Developing countries such as India, Philippines, and China offer skilled labour
at low costs. As a result, companies are able to reduce overall cost by
delegating work to vendors located in these regions. This factor is anticipated
to positively influence the market over the forecast period. Offshore vendors
handle activities such as medical billing, accounting, payroll, medical
transcription, and coding.
Hospitals
in the U.S. maintain a patient database used by insurance organisations for
authentication. Database management and analysis are the key activities
requiring professionals with adequate interpretation skills. Staff recruitment
for such activities turns out to be a costly affair. Hence, hospitals find it
easy to partner up with service providers located at distant locations.
However,
risks associated with this business model are major restraints hampering
overall growth of the healthcare BPO market. Data security is a growing concern
owing to high risk of confidential patient data getting misused. Further, most
outsourcing establishments are present in Asia Pacific. This makes coordinating
in different time zones a challenge for both parties. Moreover, delays in
rendering services on account of these factors are the reason why some
organisations prefer in-house activities.
A
remarkable rise in adoption of advanced technology in the medical and
pharmaceutical sectors is anticipated to boost the growth of the global market
for healthcare BPO in the forthcoming years. Hospitals have adopted enterprise
resource planning (ERP) systems for crowd control and management. Digitization
of various supportive medical activities is poised to bode well for demand in
near future.
Moreover,
government initiatives to reduce service cost is facilitating the need for
outsourcing owing to its cost reduction ability. For instance, in 2012, the U.S
Supreme Court upheld the main elements of President’s Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act. As per this act, it is mandatory for all American citizens
to buy a health coverage. Further, this act is aimed at expanding medical
coverage and providing better care along with reduced wasteful spending. The
mandate has forced hospitals to focus on their core functions and cut costs by
choosing third party sub-contractors for non-core functions.
Pharmaceutical
outsourcing, provider outsourcing, and payers outsourcing are the three major
applications of healthcare BPO. Pharmaceutical subcontracting is one of the
prominent applications in terms of global demand. Provider subcontracting deals
with medical coding, billing, Human Resources (HR), and medical coding. Payers
segment deals with handling tasks associated with payroll, finance, and
accounts.
North
America was the leading region in global market on account of highly developed
healthcare sector and high in-house operational costs. Pharmaceutical companies
in U.S take support of off-shore vendors to focus on research and development.
Asia
Pacific is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period
owing to the overall development of medical science coupled with high
prevalence of diseases. In addition, Europe is expected to showcase a steady
CAGR in near future mainly on account of developed pharmaceutical sector,
especially in France and Germany.
Africa and
South America are projected to witness a slow expansion owing to sluggish
growth of healthcare industry. Moreover, companies from developing economies
prefer in-house activities. This factor is anticipated to hinder regional
market growth to an extent. Leading countries where vendors have their
operational centers are U.S, Mexico, Ireland, France, India, Philippines,
China, Vietnam, South Africa and Argentina.
Key players
operating in the healthcare BPO market are Cognizant Technologies; Accenture;
Wipro Technologies; Tata Consultancy Services; Genpact; WNS; Hinduja Global;
Boehringer Ingelheim; Charles River Laboratories; Covance Inc.; Infosys; Lonza
Group; Xerox Corporation; HCL Technologies; Exlservice; Medusind; Catalent;
GeBBS Healthcare Solutions; and Quintiles, Inc.
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