Pinoy BPO firm addresses healthcare 'brain drain'

In the wake of a massive brain drain that has plagued the country’s workforce in recent years, a Filipino-owned business process outsourcing (BPO) firm has established a healthcare academy in the hopes of hiring healthcare professionals and keeping them employed in the country, executives announced in a press briefing Tuesday. SPi Global, a subsidiary of the PLDT group, has opened its SPi Healthcare Academy in the Philippines to open up opportunities for local talents in the field of revenue cycle management, traditionally conducted by the firm solely in the United States. Maulik Parekh, CEO of SPi Global, said this is the first time they are bringing the academy in the Philippines, and opening up the service for local talent. “This program will create opportunities for the 45,000 healthcare graduates coming out of schools every year," Parekh suggested. “We would like to tap into that marketplace and see if we can make opportunities for them here." Currently, Parekh said, there are 50 Filipino participants in the program, who will undergo a certified professional coding program, a mentor training program with a partner mentor from the US, and a Web-based continuing education program to learn the intricacies of revenue cycle management for the healthcare industry. Revenue cycle management, Parekh explained, involves helping physicians in the US in maximizing their revenue potential from insurance companies, based on the surgeries and other procedures they conduct. “A lot of times, [doctors] are so busy with their medical appointments that they do not realize they can maximize revenue coming out of such procedures, by simply tweaking the coding used for insurance claims," Parekh related. Medical “coding" is a practice usually performed by healthcare professionals when filling up insurance forms to be submitted to insurance companies. By using appropriate codes, reimbursements for various medical procedures will be delivered more quickly. Parekh said medical coders need special and intricate knowledge of the US healthcare industry, hence the opening of the SPi Healthcare Academy. “We are planning to get up to 200 Filipinos [into the program] in the next 12 to 24 months," he noted. “The numbers in this particular vertical are not big, but what they do is incredible, and it’s not commodity-based, so they really need certification before they are employed," he added. Revenue cycle management is just one area of expertise SPi Global, through its healthcare unit, is focusing on. Parekh shared that they also do medical transcriptions, and hire PhD graduates to assess and appraise highly specialized and scientific materials being outsourced to them. Aside from healthcare, SPi also plays in the content services/publishing outsourcing market, and in the interactive market. Majority of the company’s revenues come from non-voice services, Parekh shared. “67% of our revenue share comes from non-voice services, while 33% comes from voice-based services," he stressed, adding these non-voice services are high-value and high-margin activities, and are largely industry-specific. Parekh said what they are doing today is the future of the BPO industry. “If a [BPO firm] wants to grow, it should not only focus on the voice side of the business, but start looking at what they can do on the voice side, because that’s where majority of the growth is going to come from," he added. The Philippine BPO industry, according to BPAP (Business Process Association of the Philippines) figures, is expected to grow three-fold to reach 124 billion dollars in the next five years, moved largely by non-voice services originating from Asia Pacific and other emerging countries. — TJD, GMA News