To save money, healthcare companies are increasingly shifting clinical services and decision-making on medical care overseas, primarily to India and the Philippines, the Los Angeles Times reported recently.
The newspaper said some of the jobs being sent abroad include pre-service nursing, in which nurses at insurance firms help assess patient needs and decide on treatments.
This outsourcing goes beyond earlier moves by healthcare firms to assign reading of X-rays and other diagnostic tests to health professionals overseas, the Times said.
WellPoint, one of the largest health insurers in the U.S. and the parent firm of Anthem Blue Cross, California’s biggest for-profit medical insurer, is a leader in the trend.
In 2010, WellPoint formed a separate business unit, Radiant Services, to boost outsourcing and other cost-saving measures. WellPoint has cut hundreds of U.S. jobs over the last 18 months and moved jobs overseas, a company spokeswoman admitted.
U.S. nursing groups are worried. “It’s obviously a very disturbing trend,” said Chuck Idelson, a California Nurses Association spokesman. “There are serious questions if you’re talking about utilization reviews…and making recommendations on procedures.”
Nursing experts said there could also be licensing issues. States usually require certification for those providing health data.
Aetna has an arrangement with EXL Service, a U.S.-based firm with operations in Manila, to provide “targeted care-management support,” an Aetna spokesperson told the Times.
Health Net Inc., which is laying off dozens of IT and accounting workers whose jobs are being sent to India, said its outsourcing has generally been confined to administrative and IT functions.
Even sending medical transcription jobs overseas raises questions, Uwe Reinhardt, a healthcare economist at Princeton University, told the Times. The Iowa Health System and hospitals in the state of Utah and Washington over the last year have outsourced transcribing of doctors’ notes and other records.
“Suppose I’m an AIDS patient,” Reinhardt said. “That person in India would know — and (the information) could be valuable to someone…For the U.S., there’s nothing more personal than healthcare.”
Dr. Kaveh Safavi, head of the North American health practice for consulting firm Accenture, which has partnered with WellPoint’s Radiant, said nearly all countries have laws for protecting patient privacy. To safeguard patients’ records, he pointed out, healthcare companies store and maintain their records locally.
via Indiawest: Healthcare Firms Send More Jobs to India: LA Times.