By Tony Mira

From rapidly emerging technologies to radically expanding services, new trends are constantly impacting the way healthcare is delivered today. Healthcare regulatory reforms, emergence of new technologies, consumerization, growing spotlight on analytics and infrastructure has accelerated the need for outsourcing in the healthcare market.

Constant upgradation of processes and practices in healthcare has largely impacted the healthcare delivery system offering affordable and quality healthcare to citizens. Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management is part of the rapidly evolving Healthcare Information and Management Systems (HIMS) sector contributes to a large chunk to the overall healthcare industry growth.

Today, ‘Outsourcing’ has become the buzz word in the healthcare industry especially in United States. India has emerged as the most preferred destination for offering quality services to healthcare organizations abroad. The potential of healthcare BPO today in India is huge. According to recent reports, the sector is currently growing at 30-35 percent CAGR and will only go up from here. Though Philippines competes, India is firmly in the driver’s seat when it comes to healthcare outsourcing. Here are the top five emerging trends that I see: Innovation driving better processing

Innovation and technology with healthcare reforms, has helped transform many processes that were manual into paperless electronic processes. The concept of electronic medical recording (EMR) has entered the Indian market with hospitals and physicians using technology as part of HIMS.

• Technology to suit flexibility Sometimes it’s not all about technology but flexibility in technology. The technology should adapt to the evolving systems especially when it comes to electronic medical processing. Each electronic medical data needs to have a system to be able to connect with them. Therefore more than innovation in technology the future will be flexibility and adaptability. The trend has already been witnessed with healthcare companies on the lookout for flexibility and a strong interface to adapt to the change in technology.
• Information – Key to Decision Making Access to information has evolved to become the core for quality healthcare delivery. Physicians require information to make appropriate decisions and this information is offered by healthcare service providers. This information helps them determine what actions and decisions they will make in the future. This trend is opposite in the case of the physician and provider relationship. Service organizations gather information from healthcare organizations and analyze the trends in the data in order to offer valuable information to enable smart decisions. Data as outcomes will be used to develop standard protocols for treating many diseases which will become the norm for the immediate future.
• Consolidation – for global servicing Consolidation is indeed going to be the future in outsourcing. The global outsourcing industry today is highly fragmented with small players offering specialized services. Considering the growth, evolution and constant transformation in the healthcare information management system, process and cost efficiency will be key to drive business outputs and a consolidated single service provider would be most sought after.
• Ageing population overwhelm the system The growing elderly populations in the US and the increased diagnosis of chronic diseases have contributed to the need for better management of patient information thereby impacting the outsourcing industry. This trend is set to grow further and India will soon be a potential market for outsourcing services to healthcare organizations to the growing elderly population in India as well.

The author is President and CEO at Anesthesia Business Consultants, President and CEO at MiraMed Global Services, Inc, CEO at Ajuba International LLC