Healthcare Outsourcing to India has now primarily boiled down to quality. Indian companies are fast catching up to match or even, exceed international quality standards by virtue of their steady and consistent quality improvement, thereby, staying a notch above their international competitors. Moreover, the global economic slump has hastened the trend. India lately has become the health care hub for many uninsured and under-insured Americans as well as US corporations, who are bent on slashing their employees’ medical bills. When it comes to educational and technical qualifications, Indians definitely have a head start over others, working in the parent locations.

Most health care professionals in India are thoroughly familiar with the rules and regulations of Medicare, Medicaid, Blue products, Managed Care, Third Party Liability, Workers Compensation, Preferred Provider Organizations and Indemnity Insurers. They are also equipped with a complete understanding of CPT, HCPCS, ICD-9 and coding Level I, II, III. Many Indian service providers have, not only, attained Six Sigma and CMMI certifications but have also upgraded their quality standards to the new ISO 9000:2000 model. Although India’s biggest strength is its highly qualified and English-speaking human-resource pool, the Indian health care industry is embracing internationally recognized quality protocols with a frantic pace. This is born out of the realization that the industry cannot solely thrive on the advantages of cost-cutting and English speaking manpower.

Cost-cutting has definitely got its advantages. In the event of an economic downturn, it has been largely successful in swaying the opinions of American companies, who otherwise used to frown upon the very thought of India being their one-stop destination for business. The global health care industry, swamped by a barrage of regulations, is increasingly pressurized to slash costs, paving the way for Indian IT companies to tap into its market, especially pertaining to imaging, disease management and claims processing. Till date, although India primarily caters to the US market, UK based companies are slowly turning their attention to offshore markets. Speculations say that European players will take a wee while to take the final plunge because of state-governed health regulatory system in most of these countries. Healthcare outsourcing also saves a substantial chunk of the cost of conducting medical billing and coding onshore. Moreover, outsourcing these functions saves a lot of space, which can otherwise be utilized for core functions.
The health care outsourcing space, in relation to India, can be segregated into 4 main blocks: Providers (hospitals and physician groups), Payers (Healthcare insurance companies, third party administration, etc), Drug manufacturers (clinical research and bulk drug outsourcing) and Pharmacy chains. Many Indian companies are already catering to global clients- health care service providers, health insurance companies and medical equipment firms- predominantly in areas pertaining to customer and claims management systems, maintenance of electronic medical record services etc. Although the once much-hyped medical transcription is looking down, outsourcing in imaging, disease management and claim processing are expected to generate millions of revenues in the coming years.

India is also foraying into other areas in relation to clinical research organizations that carry out various pathology tests on patients in the wake of a new drug development. As a result, many Indian companies are getting their facilities accredited by the College of American Pathology (CAP), the global standard for pathological governance. India is also poised to show phenomenal growth in yet another health care sector- the medical BPO. Despite stiff competition from Singapore and Thailand, India is still a hard-to-beat attraction for Westerners because of its superior health as well as customer care, subsidized rates and the analytical thought process of its people that has the power to develop complex applications and manage complex process, critical to any health care BPO.