Healthcare outsourcing: a growing market

Business process outsourcing (BPO) has become extremely popular with companies, ranging from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups, over the past two decades. Regardless of their field of activity, companies may decide to outsource non-core processes and at the same time allocate more resources to core, high-value business operations. The global outsourcing market had reached $92.5 billion before the pandemic. Among the sectors where BPO is successful is healthcare. According to US federal government reports, the USA, which has the largest BPO market, spent nearly $3.65 trillion in the healthcare sector in 2018. This equates to a cost of approximately $11,212 per person, with 59% of the sum dedicated to hospitals, clinical services and physicians. In the coming years, healthcare business process outsourcing will become increasingly important.

The benefits of outsourcing healthcare services

Healthcare costs are constantly rising and the costs are justified: staff shortages and the post-covid economic consequences are forcing the medical sector to set higher prices to remain profitable. As a result, more and more people seem to be skipping doctor’s visits, postponing or even foregoing certain medical care. Considering this crisis, healthcare outsourcing is becoming an alternative increasingly used by the medical sector to cope with the problem. Healthcare BPO is divided into three functions: the payer department (claims management, product development and business acquisition, account management, etc.), the provider department (patient enrolment, strategic planning, revenue cycle management, etc.) and the pharmaceutical department (manufacturing, research and development unit, etc.). Overall, healthcare BPO helps to reduce costs by outsourcing professionals on behalf of the healthcare company. Money can be saved on, one, acquiring additional staff and, two, on their training. BPO also allows direct contact with specialists. This increases the availability of healthcare professionals and improves patient care. Outsourcing in the medical sector has even more advantages such as the reinforcement of data protection, protection of confidential patient information (detection and management of fraud), a more qualitative work output (reduction of the risk of futile errors) or time-saving opportunities for hospitals and health professionals who can devote more of their energy to patient care.

A promising future for healthcare outsourcing

Healthcare institutions are faced with the challenge of improving efficiency and providing patients with quality care. This is primordial in this post health crisis era. The current context and the forecasts for the coming years point to a more or less promising future for BPO in the healthcare sector. Indeed, according to a study by Data Bridge Market Research, this market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 11.75% during the forecast period 2022-2029. There are various reasons for this:

• Rising cost of healthcare ;
• Increasingly stringent regulations in the medical sector ;
• An increase in the number of people seeking health insurance ;
• The risk of hospital overcrowding and overworked medical staff ;
• Increased demand for niche services ;
• Embracing innovation and access to advanced skills ;

(Source: https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-healthcare-bpo-marke )

What is ProContact’s stance?

“Currently, we do not do much outsourcing in the healthcare sector. We have a few missions on Doctolib incoming calls, but nothing more. For the moment, ProContact is not concerned by this healthcare BPO craze. On the other hand, we must prepare for it. If I had to make an observation about this booming healthcare market, I would say that a trend is emerging in France with more and more people making their medical appointments online instead of making a call. In my opinion, this is what it’s all going to come down to. This is the future of healthcare outsourcing. We need to be prepared to handle this kind of BPO assignment.” says Bénédicte Bathurst, ProContact’s Managing Director. Other sectors such as lead management, remote sales and customer support are also gaining ground in the outsourcing market. For more details on the subject, please refer to the full interview with Bénédicte Bathurst, which is available on the site.

Contact us now!

How can we at ProContact help you prepare your company for the Great Resignation? Outsourcing is our business! Even in the middle of recession: count on us to help you plan, set your objectives and targets! At ProContact, we work closely with you to include this solution in your commercial strategy. We can offer an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without losing time, money or quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, hand-picked and multilingual agents, we enable companies that choose us to gain credibility and, above all, to satisfy their customers, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 84 76 24 03.