Health Information Management (HIM) Outsourcing to the Philippines

Outsourcing health information management to the Philippines is playing a vital role in helping organizations not only survive but thrive. Specialist offshore staff and teams are deftly handling tasks such as data entry, compliance, billing and medical coding, allowing their in-country partners to focus on more high-value and life-saving work.

Why is health information management outsourcing to the Philippines a good idea?

Health information management is too important to be left to chance. It requires people with meticulous attention to detail that boast an understanding of medical language and have experience in computer systems and databases - and the Philippines is home to a large talent pool of professionals who fit the bill.

• Outsourcing provides access to hard-working and dedicated employees at a reduced cost. From medical coders, quality assurance supervisors, medical transcriptionists and chart retrieval specialists, BPOs in the Philippines can fill any health information management role.
  
  
• Staffing solutions can be created to match volumes of work. While a small medical practice may need a basic team of a few coders and one quality assurance analyst, a large healthcare provider with several hospitals can access hundreds of coders with appropriate senior management and quality assessment staff.
  
  
• Reducing the cost of back-office tasks such as record retrieval, data requests and even prescribing paperwork or appointment scheduling can free up resources in-country to concentrate on patient care.
  
  
• Many healthcare BPOs in the Philippines employ medical professionals such as registered nurses and pharmacists who can be available on 24-hour hotlines to support patients or practices.
  
  
• Boasting a well-educated population, the Philippines offers a rich talent pool for health insurance companies wanting to outsource roles such as insurance claims analysts or assessors, which require a keen eye for detail, strong skills in literacy and numeracy, and a detailed knowledge of insurance law, medical procedures and company policies.
  
  
• An outsourced health information team in the Philippines can be structured on a 24-hour roster so professionals in different countries can call on their support at any time.
  
  
• With health information management now almost entirely electronic and cloud-based, it is well suited to outsourcing and the Philippines offers equipment and data security of the highest quality.

In many ways, outsourcing health information management to the Philippines is just what the doctor ordered.

Common HIM roles outsourced to the Philippines

• Medical Coder
• Medical Coding Trainer
• Quality Assurance Supervisor
• Quality Assurance Manager
• Medical Transcriptionist
• Medical Claims Processor/ Analyst
• Medical Billing Specialist
• Quality Assurance Specialist
• Chart Retrieval Specialist.

Reference:
1 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The coding workforce shortfall. 23 Nov. 2010