As the BPO industry grows, expands and starts seeing the flat of the growth plateau, it also creates more space for the KPO segment. The workforce has matured, accessibility to higher education, infrastructure, technology and technical awareness has increased; and the industries that earlier outsourced only their call centers or data entry related functions, now have started offshoring their other higher end processes.
The industry has seen the trend in IT, F&A, Travel, Legal Documentation, Banking and what not. And the latest area now being exposed to the KPO leverage is Health Care. The fact why the health care industry has been hesitant about the entire outsourcing mindset is that health is one of those areas where a minor error could cost a life. And so the necessary expertise is far higher than any other business segment.
However, the latest human resource countries where offshore solutions are offered, have a lot of medics and paramedics who are well qualified and capable of additional certifications etc. in order to meet the demand of the expertise the health care industry requires. Add to it the ability to merge this medical expertise with business expertise and six sigma KPO certifications; it is no longer about just medical transcription.
The Possible Clients
The three major types of clients who will outsource their services can be:
- Sellers (drug manufacturers and clinical research companies)
- Payers (third party alliances, health insurance companies)
- Service providers (doctors, hospitals, health groups, lab groups etc.)
Service Leverage
KPOs have a variety of end – to – end services to offer to their clients in the health and fitness segment. Some of these are –
- Medical Billing
- Medical Coding
- Medical Transcription
- E-Learning.
- Legal services.
- Healthcare knowledge management.
- Patient research.
- Healthcare training and consultancy.
- E-Marketing.
- Health insurance verification.
Skillset Leverage
KPOs can benefit the healthcare sector with the help of the following skills that their employees have –
- Data mining and data analysis to generate meaningful understanding
- Research skills
- Data documentation & presentation and report generation. The various kinds of reports that KPOs can handle are – progress notes, operative notes, discharge summaries, telephonic and web chat consultations, consultation history, independent medical evaluation, physical exam note etc.
- Conceptual and theoretical stronghold
- Specialization in applicative usage of theory
- Hardware and software proficiency
- Workflow management
- Deadline regulated efficiency
- Quality control
Cost Arbitrage
One of the major advantages of any offshore service providers whether they are a BPO or a KPO, is that they bring the advantage of reduced costs for you. This means that this money can be utilized in the core business area. The cost arbitrage doesn’t just include the reduction in overhead expenses, but also helps in some shifting from a CAPEX model to an OPEX model. Further, the margins and profits increase drastically as the costs are reduced.
Outsourcing Leverage
It is not just about the kind of services and the skill set that outsourcing has to offer to the health care industry. Nor is it only about the cost arbitrage either. It is about multiple benefits all together. Here are the benefits –
- Trained professionals
- Operational Efficiency
- Cost, time and energy saving
- Recruitment and management ease and comfort
- Standards and quality work
- Strict time lines and service level standards
- Business Continuity
- High accuracy and ensured compliances
- Innovative and experienced approach to business and management
- Regular and smooth feedback, appraisal and response time benefits
- Improved cash flow and collections
- Ability to expand as and when required
- Loss minimization
- Trained professionals
Challenges
- Expectation setting
- Investment in case of setting a captive unit
- Higher stakes
- Relatively lower level of administrative control
- Confidentiality concerns
- Risk management issues
- Head crunch
