The conventional business model is rapidly changing. Businesses are aware that outsourcing some tasks can help them save a lot of money. The term “outsourcing” is usually associated with large corporations shifting half of their operations to nations like the Philippines or India, hoping to save money. But the truth is that outsourcing is not just limited to Fortune 500 companies. In fact, with minimal effort or cost, any business can effectively blend in-house and outsourcing models and achieve success.
According to research by Clutch, 37% of small businesses contract out at least one business function. Small firms also frequently outsource Development (28%), Human Resources (24%), Customer Service (24%) as well as Digital Marketing (34%).
Outsourcing has undoubtedly changed the way businesses work today. In this blog, let’s put our spotlight on outsourcing in the healthcare industry, its benefits, and how outsourcing helps in solving some of the pressing issues of the healthcare industry.
Let’s begin.
Outsourcing in the Healthcare Industry
Ultimately, diagnosing and treating patients is a healthcare provider’s fundamental duty. Providers can cut costs by outsourcing non-core tasks while enhancing patient outcomes and service quality. As healthcare providers increasingly contemplate outsourcing more aspects of their operations, they are also making it imperative to assess whether the advantages of outsourcing exceed the drawbacks.
One of the most frequently outsourced areas in healthcare is IT. By 2023, it is anticipated that the global market for healthcare IT outsourcing will be $61 billion. However, outsourcing now goes far beyond IT. Clinical services such as laboratory (pathology and microbiology), pharmacy, radiography, dialysis, and magnetic resonance imaging are now frequently outsourced. Non-clinical functions such as facilities management, sterilisation, meals, patient transport, procurement, and security have also been outsourced.
Key restraints that are steering the healthcare industry towards the outsourcing way
Rising Costs and Capital Investments
One of the USPs of healthcare facilities is providing top-notch care in their own way. But it takes a lot of labour and money to provide top-notch care. In order to meet this demand, facilities are required to make larger capital investments and more frequent and recurring expenditures.
Unless, of course, they outsource!
In nations like the United States, healthcare costs have increased to an unaffordable level; however, despite this significant income stream, there is still a shortage. According to a recent Black Book poll, for the average hospital to break even by 2022, costs will need to be reduced by 24%. Due to the unsustainable cost structures of hospitals, almost every provider is either considering Outsourcing or has already done so in one or more parts of their business.
Growth of modern technologies
On the other side, big data analytics has experienced rapid growth and has begun to play a significant role in advancing medical care procedures and academic research.
Outsourcing service providers now deploy powerful tools for gathering, managing, analysing, and absorbing vast amounts of fragmented, unstructured, and structured data generated by existing healthcare systems.
Specialised resources and skill sets
Some tasks can only be performed by experts, which is why outsourcing comes out as a sensible option. For instance, if a healthcare company needs to construct an app or market a specific product or service, it makes more sense to outsource some activities or projects to individuals with in-depth experience in these domains rather than hiring those specialists in-house.
Today, modern outsourcing firms train and deploy talents who are experts in a given field. This way businesses reduce their time spent on briefing and effectively avoid errors and other industry-specific anomalies.
Benefits of Outsourcing Healthcare (area-wise)
Medical Billing and Claims
Processing medical claims and billing are difficult procedures that call for expertise. Patient satisfaction is greatly impacted by prompt, correct claims processing; thus, assigning this responsibility to the appropriate party is critical. It is simpler to handle pre-authorisation, instantly verify a patient’s insurance eligibility, and boost productivity when you outsource your medical billing to a specialised business. There are outsourcing firms that specialise in medical coding and patient data security, and they take care of end-to-end healthcare billing and claims functionalities.
Here are a few advantages of outsourcing billing claims
- Higher precision
- Assurance of legal compliance
- More rapid processing
- Being able to manage more volume
HR Services
The administration of human resources is a continuous and demanding process. It calls for a combination of the right tools and HR management skills. Outsourcing healthcare-related HR services are becoming a norm, and the benefits are hard to miss. Better benefits and cheaper health insurance are both something that your outsourced HR team can offer. You can either reduce or altogether avoid the costs of creating an internal HR team.
Outsourcing can also assist you with tasks like drafting employee manuals and handbooks, hiring and training personnel, and more. In addition, outsourcing firms can offer software that makes it simple and easy to retrieve essential data just when you want them.
Individualised Patient Care
It is predicted that the healthcare ecosystem will become more patient-focused as it develops and becomes more digital. When you diversify your business model to include healthcare outsourcing, it becomes easy to handle the current problems that patients and healthcare providers have.
Here are a few examples:
- You can deliver faster and frictionless support to patients by automating processes
- Eliminate travel for non-urgent care through remote services
- By centralising patient data, healthcare professionals can now access information in real-time for optimal patient care
- By leveraging data analytics, doctors can evaluate/predict treatment success and improve patient outcomes
Payroll Management
Payroll services play a crucial role in the operation of a successful business. Maintaining employee satisfaction and preventing payroll errors both require making sure your team is paid fairly for their effort and paid on schedule. Modern outsourcing firms deploy advanced technologies and software to help automate and facilitate payroll tasks ensuring accurate records and timely payments.
IT Services
Healthcare facilities have a wide range of sophisticated IT requirements, from managing electronic records and ensuring patient safety to managing food and nutrition services effectively.
It’s quite challenging for the on-site team to keep up with the wide range of technologies required to analyse data, manage records, and maintain ongoing operations in a small to medium facility. With a small staff, upgrading to a new system or changing processes to meet the new compliance rules is not only difficult but expensive and time-consuming.
By outsourcing, you can put the care of your IT systems in the hands of specialised experts in healthcare-related IT services who can spearhead the entire or part of your healthcare IT wing, giving you more time to focus on more pressing issues.
Wrapping up
The healthcare industry is currently dealing with rising regulatory compliance and decreasing bottom lines. Healthcare organisations are increasingly outsourcing as a result of increasing expenses. Additionally, businesses are thinking about outsourcing to experts qualified to fulfill medical industry requirements in order to stay ahead of their competitors and meet the expanding demands of the healthcare industry.
Are you a healthcare professional looking to improve bottom-line profits whilst increasing patient care and customer satisfaction? We at Blue Helion can show you how to create an integrated outsourcing approach to extend the value of your investments whilst removing mundane and often repetitive tasks, and assist your teams to focus more on the truly important driver for your business and patient outcomes.