Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Healthcare BPO Market Drivers:

Growing trend of outsourcing to augment market growth

One of the key factors expected to augment the growth of the global healthcare BPO market over the forecast period is the growing trend of outsourcing. Healthcare business process outsourcing, or Healthcare BPO, means outsourced business activity or process that provides support (admin or otherwise) to medical institutions, staff, and/or organizations. In August 2022, Access Healthcare accelerated healthcare outsourcing with automation, AI, and Big Data. Access's highly advanced, intelligent, and comprehensive technology and analytics help healthcare organizations worldwide improve clinical, administrative, and financial outcomes.

Adoption of healthcare IT solutions to drive market growth

Another factor which is driving the growth of the global healthcare BPO market is the increasing adoption of healthcare IT solutions or BPO services across the world. For instance, in June 2022, healthcare BPO service provider, Access Healthcare, planned to invest INR. 190 crore to scale up its delivery operations and build a new campus in Chennai. The new unit will house the company's BPO and IT operations and serve as the hub for technical infrastructure. A new campus will deliver advanced healthcare BPO and IT services to clients in the healthcare revenue cycle. This in turn is expected to augment the growth of the market.

Global Healthcare BPO Market Opportunities:

Rise in burden of chronic disease and growing geriatric population is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for players in the healthcare BPO market. For instance, geriatric population is prone to various health conditions. Increasing burden of such diseases lead to increased workload for the insurance companies, and to handle high volume claim records, patient records, and ensure quick turnaround time, these companies need to invest resources in infrastructure, technology, and skilled talent pool, leading to very high operational costs, which in turn is expected to augment the growth of the global healthcare BPO market.

The outbreak of COVID-19 (pandemic) is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for players in the global healthcare BPO market. For instance, Healthcare BPO firm, Carelon Global Solutions Philippines, expanded aggressively during the pandemic. Carelon Philippines’s country head Nora Terrado said the company's full-time employees (FTEs) grew from 800 in 2020 to 7,000 in 2022. She said the growth of BPO firms was driven by the demand from health insurance and healthcare companies seeking to improve their administrative efficiency and provide better access to healthcare services to their clients.

Global Healthcare BPO Market Restraints:

Complex regulations to hamper the market growth

Another factor which is hampering the growth of the global healthcare BPO market is the complex rules and regulations. India has emerged as a preferred outsourcing destination for healthcare BPO services in the Asia region, however, several concerns regarding policy framework, in terms of tax laws, data privacy laws, IP protection laws, and clinical trial laws, exists. To provide outsourcing services to overseas vendors, vendors in India need to comply with the international standards of security and privacy, to reduce/avoid business losses. Although the government is gradually taking steps to provide more clarity on these laws.

Hidden costs of outsourcing to hinder market growth

One of the key factors expected to hamper the growth of the global healthcare BPO market is the hidden costs of outsourcing. Although, outsourcing is cost-effective but at times, the hidden costs involved in signing a contract across international boundaries may pose a serious threat to new and existing healthcare BPO companies. There are different components of the total outsourcing costs, such as the cost of selecting a vendor, cost of transition, cost of layoffs, and cultural cost. All these hidden costs create a major problem for healthcare vendors.