Global Healthcare Analytics Market 2013-2020 - Growth driven by Predictive & Prescriptive Analytics

Healthcare analytics gained prominence since past few years as number of new companies have emerged that offer specific analytical tools that use statistical, contextual, quantitative, predictive, cognitive tools to analyze the huge chunks of data that is generated by healthcare companies. Huge amounts of data are being generated by healthcare companies that need to be analyzed for efficient decision making by the managers. Healthcare analytics uses statistical tools and techniques to analyze healthcare-related data in order to analyze operational performance or clinical outcomes to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical and business processes and performance. The global market is estimated to be $4.43billion in 2013 and is expected to reach $21.35 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 25.2%. Growth is mainly driven by predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics in the U.S. and Asia, according to a report provided by MarketsandMarkets, a global market research and consulting company. Data analytics particularly the big data analytics is a very important strategic advantage for the company as the companies can look at improving the processes and also design products and services that best suits the needs of the consumers. New technologies like wireless technologies, sensors, mobile devices, etc. have even more fuelled the need for data analytics as more and more data is being captured and this must be used by companies for decision making. Some of the big players in this segment are IBM, Oracle, SAS, etc. Many small and start-ups are also coming focusing particularly on the healthcare analytics segment.

Healthcare analytics is being aggressively adopted by both payers (insurance companies) and providers (hospitals) and some of the most important  functions include improving the accuracy of diagnoses, cost reduction, fraud prevention, revenue generation, service improvement to real-time view of the business. The major driver for business analytics is the return on Investments (ROI), with a median of five years, from 10% to 1,000%, according to a report provided by MarketsandMarkets, a global market research and consulting company. The global market is dominated by the U.S., followed by Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World. The U.S. will continue to lead the global market till 2020. Apart from the U.S., the Asian region is also expected to drive the market growth. The European market is the second largest market, growing at a lower rate due to the economic crisis. Governments are also incentivizing the companies that are adopting the data analytics tools and also using such tools in the decision making. Governments across the globe spend trillions of dollars on healthcare and they are looking for ways and means of reducing the cost or looking for significant value from their healthcare investments. Despite the advantages there are certain issues and challenges related to healthcare analytics like as data security issues, patient data confidentiality, doctors and hospitals lack of interest in IT adoption, and lack of skilled professional cross-functional analytical skills in medicine, statistics and IT.

Global Healthcare IT Outsourcing Market growth fuelled by Cloud Computing till 2018

Global Healthcare IT Outsourcing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6%, to reach $50.4 billion by 2018 from $35 billion in 2013 according to a report provided by MarketsandMarkets, a global market research and consulting company. US Healthcare companies accounts for the largest share - 72% - of this market and is expected to reach $36 billion by 2018 from $25 billion in 2013. Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World are expected to register CAGRs of 8.1% and 7.8% (2013 to 2018) respectively, followed by North America (7.6%), and Europe (7.2%). Health insurance companies, healthcare services providing companies, healthcare systems and equipment companies are part of this market segment that have to reduce their operational costs, administrative costs, focus on core processes, implement information technology to run processes and also manage risks and develop new product offerings. Particularly information technology has become a core component for running the companies and offer product and services to customers and in some instances IT has become the competitive advantage. There is a huge demand for Healthcare IT professionals both on the medical and the process front and highly skilled professionals like actuaries, medical coders, medical writers, biostatisticians, physiotherapists, nurses, general physicians, ayurvedic and homeopathic practitioners are needed for healthcare IT industry to offer services like medical coding, medical writing, bio-statics, healthcare and data analytics. Some of the healthcare companies have completely outsourced their IT systems and some have outsourced only key applications like electronic medical records, medical transcription, billing services, claims processing, data analytics.

Availability of low cost highly skilled IT professionals, implementation of new technologies, government regulations like Obama Care, ICD 10 coding and integration of different technologies already being used with the new technologies like cloud computing, mobility and analytics have presented a big opportunity for the Indian IT service vendors like TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, HCL Tech, etc. Cloud Computing is being widely adopted by healthcare companies across the globe as there are significant cost benefits associated with this technology as the companies need not invest heavily on hardware like servers, datacenters, etc. Cloud computing is highly flexible, can be accessed from everywhere, uninterrupted service and also helps to scale up the operations at a faster pace but there are certain disadvantages like data security and reliability issues like downtime. Despite these disadvantages the need for reduction in costs, operation times and efficient back office management is must for the success of healthcare companies. Healthcare IT outsourcing vertical has been dominated by Cognizant Technology Solutions, but other players in the Indian IT Services industry like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech have built up significant capabilities and acquired the much needed technical expertise and skills through mergers and acquisitions and also captured some big deals in this segment. All the Indian vendors both the ITO and BPO vendors have exclusive focus on the healthcare IT outsourcing segment and have even referred to this segment as a key growth driver for the industry in terms of both revenues and profits.  

Global Healthcare BPO Market dominated by India, double digit growth till 2018

The Global Healthcare Business Process Outsourcing market is expected to continue its double digit growth for five more years as the healthcare companies that include payer, provider and pharmaceutical outsourcing companies have to adopt BPO to reduce costs, focus on improving the core offerings rather than focus on business processes that are support functions and by outsourcing these noncore business processes they can take advantage of skills and expertise of low cost professionals and also innovation provided by BPO service providers. According to a report provided by MarketsandMarkets, a global market research and consulting company, the global healthcare BPO market is estimated to be $92.3 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.8% from 2013 to 2018, to reach $188.8 billion by 2018. The payer outsourcing segment is categorized into claims processing, HR services, member services/customer care, and finance and accounts segments. The provider outsourcing segment consists of medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, and finance and accounts segments. The pharmaceutical outsourcing segment consists of clinical research organizations (CROs), contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), and non-clinical services segments. Indian healthcare BPO providers targeting the provider and payer market aggressively.

United States Healthcare industry is the largest player in this segment and US Healthcare companies outsource significant portion of their business processes to countries like India (largest Healthcare BPO services provider), Philippines and Latin American countries. Obamamcare, HIPPA compliance and ICD 10 coding are the major regulatory changes that are driving the huge Healthcare BPO market globally and Healthcare BPO service providers in India are expected to dominate and acquire most of the contracts from US Healthcare companies. Claims processing, transcription services and medical coding are some of the core business processes that are outsourced and demand for these services is expected to increase significantly in the near future. Indian Healthcare BPO service providers are well equipped, low cost providers with all the infrastructure facilities needed and prepared for the rising demand in this segment and are aggressively bidding for these contracts although the Philippines based healthcare BPO providers are also looking to compete with Indian players, they lack the skills and expertise that is mandatorily required for the healthcare sector like doctors, nurses, medical coders, transcriptionists, etc.

Pharmaceutical outsourcing is also expected to continue its growth as the pharmaceutical companies are struggling with raising costs in manufacturing, R&D, intense competition in the industry and government regulations is forcing the companies to cut prices of drugs. Not only the manufacturing of drugs is being outsourced but also R&D is also being outsourced to countries like India. Contract manufacturing, contract research and with patents expiring generic drug manufacturing is a big business in India. Pharmaceutical companies across the globe are being forced to innovate new drugs constantly to survive in the market. Low cost, talent base in terms of specific skills and expertise, available of infrastructure and government support are key to India’s success in global Healthcare BPO market.