Oversupply of nurses gives PHL the edge to excel in healthcare BPO

The healthcare segment of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines, also called healthcare information management (HIM), saw a revenues surge of 172 percent to $277 million in 2011 from $102 million a year earlier, a country's umbrella HIM organization reported Wednesday.

 

The country’s large pool of graduates from nursing and allied medical professionals “provides great potential for the country as a top location for healthcare BPO,” the Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (HIMOAP) said in a statement.

 

Citing data from the Commission on Higher Education, HIMOAP noted an oversupply of 400,000 nurses in the Philippine and who could venture to healthcare BPO this year.

 

HIMOAP said their BPO healthcare agents grew by 80 percent to 25,000 in 2011 from 14,000,

 

 “The increase in our membership only means that more companies are considering the Philippines as a high-value destination for healthcare outsourcing,” said HIMOAP president JL Botor.

 

More than 150 healthcare management firms operate in the country, providing clinical coding, disease management, revenue cycle management, pharmaceutical benefits management, and medical transcription, said Alejandro Melchor, deputy executive director of the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology. 

 

HIMOAP said the industry holds the potential to grow to 100,000 agents by 2016, and slice a “market share of $1 billion for the HIM industry, a conservative figure compared to the $72 billion offshoring opportunity forecast in the United States.”

 

HIMOAP was formerly known as the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines Inc. — VS, GMA News