Healthcare outsourcing now $300m biz, growing at 150%

[OhioChick]

< MONDAY, JANUARY 08, 2007 03:02:54 AM>

BANGALORE: Outsourcing in the healthcare sector has come a long way — from low-end claims processing and medical transcription to medical analytics and clinical processing. The US 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 from the US has seen a CAGR of 150% in the last two years. The bulk of outsourcing is from the US while some work comes also from the UK and the Middle East.

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

Apollo, which has been in this space for the last six years, saw a 200% growth — both organically and inorganically — in the last 12 months, says Mr Sehgal.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Healthcare__Biotech/Healthcare/Healthcare_outsourcing_now_300m_biz_growing_at_150/articleshow/1086147.cms


<snip> 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 $100-105 million worth is outsourced to India.

[Deja Q]

1. And yet premium rates for us working stiffs keeps skyrocketing...

:think:

[kikiek]

2. I bet it won't stop there. Soon you may go overseas for some types of medical care if you want

your insurance to cover it.

[OhioChick]

6. Employers are already trying...

Union blocks U.S.-India healthcare plan


CANTON, N.C., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The United Steelworkers labor union has blocked a Canton, N.C., employer's plan to send employees to India for lower-cost healthcare.

The union stepped in when Blue Ridge Paper Products announced plans to send an employee, Carl Garrett, to India for treatment, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The union said it did not approve of the "shocking new approach" to saving healthcare costs and insisted Garrett be treated in the United States.

"No U.S. citizen should be exposed to the risks involved in traveling internationally for healthcare services," union President Leo Gerard wrote in a letter to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives healthcare committees. He said he was concerned about the willingness of companies to offer incentives for employees willing to seek treatment overseas.

IndUShealth, a North Carolina company that arranges Indian healthcare for U.S. citizens, said its deal with Blue Ridge is "on hold" but deals with other employers were being explored.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061011-112347-5282r

[Vinca]

9. This is insane. Completely and totally insane.

We need to lobby Congress to pass a bill that at the very least makes it illegal for companies to offer only foreign health care to their employees/insured.

[partylessinOhio]

3. We, the public, have been screwed!

Congress did this to us. They have done their part to destroy lifestyles in America.

[Double T]

4. The existing health care system is owned and fleeced by wall street...........

maybe it is time for the patients to outsource the entire american health care system to a National Health Care System owned, operated and run by the American People.

[HockeyMom]

5. Long Distance Diagnosing Far Behind?

Let's go to the video tape. If "Dr." Frist can do it, why not someone in India?:sarcasm:

[OhioChick]

7. Already there.....

When a patient in Altoona, Pa., needs an emergency brain scan in the middle of the night, a doctor in Bangalore, India, is asked to interpret the results. Spurred by a shortage of U.S. radiologists and an exploding demand for more sophisticated scans to diagnose scores of ailments, doctors at Altoona Hospital and dozens of other American hospitals are finding that offshore outsourcing works even in medicine. . . . Most of the doctors are U.S.-trained andlicensed — although there is at least one experiment using radiologists without U.S. training.

—Associated Press, December 6, 2004

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/7/661

[rainbow4321]

10. Already happening in Dallas

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/jlanders/stories/110706dnbuslanders.31b390a.html

Outsourcing is also starting to show up in the health care business. Improvements in computing power have transferred medical imagery that once was locked on film onto the Web.

Dr. Fickenscher recalls flying to Paris seated next to a radiologist who read X-rays from France for a Seattle hospital.

Australian radiologists, licensed to practice in Texas, read X-rays for the night shift at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center's emergency rooms.

It's a small step from radiology abroad to laboratory work where microscopic images can be read and analyzed from Mumbai. "Pieces of the workflow can be done more efficiently on a virtual basis," Dr. Fickenscher said.

[OneBlueSky]

8. but . . . but . . . but . . . the U.S. has the BEST healthcare system in the world! . . .

why on earth would anyone want to outsource healthcare services to India when, according to the industry itself, we have the finest healthcare on the planet? . . .

oh, yeah . . . $$$$$$$$$$$$$ . . . trumps everything, I guess . . .