US Healthcare Outsourcing Grows by 150 Percent Yearly

Outsourcing in the healthcare Latest News about healthcare sector has
come a long way -- from low-end claims processing and medical
transcription to medical analytics Free Trial - Way Beyond CRM -
Learn how Landslide can help you. and clinical processing. The U.S.
healthcare industry outsources to India not only its medical billing
and insurance processes, but also data analysis and software
development.

Though, at present, only a small percentage of such work is being
outsourced to India, medical services outsourcing Latest News about
Outsourcing from the United States has seen a compound annual growth
rate of 150 percent in the last two years. The bulk of outsourcing is
from the United States while some work comes also from the UK and the
Middle East.
'Immense Potential'

"Healthcare BPO is still not very large in India. The industry is
estimated at about US$300 million now. But it has immense potential and
is a very attractive space to be in," says Divya Sehgal, CEO of Apollo
Health Street.

Apollo, which has been in this space for the last six years, saw a 200
percent growth -- both organically and inorganically -- in the last 12
months, says Sehgal.

Medical outsourcing has four clients -- provider (hospitals and
physicians), payer (health insurance companies), pharmaceutical
companies and healthcare IT companies.

"On the payer side, which is mostly data entry, about $100 million to
$105 million worth is outsourced to India. The provider-end work
involves medical billing and raising claims for hospitals and
physicians. Up to $30 million to $40 million is outsourced to India.
Medical transcription outsourcing to India is about $100 million. A new
area, which is in the area of knowledge process outsourcing, is medical
analytics where we analyze data for providers and insurance companies,"
says V. Raman Kumar, chairman of healthcare business solutions firm
CBay Systems.
Continued Growth

"There is huge potential for growth, but in India skilled man power is
a problem," he adds. CBay saw a 60 percent growth in the last year and
is expecting up to 80 percent growth for the next five years.

Wipro Technologies' healthcare division has also been offering services
in this sector for many years now.

"We offer services in the business, clinical and technology aspects.
This includes consulting, teleradiology, claims processing and managing
technology," says Kapil Khandelwal, a chief executive of Wipro's
healthcare division.