Healthcare Payers Turn to Robotic Process Automation to Control Costs
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can yield incremental cost reduction in healthcare payer business process outsourcing (BPO) ranging from a low of 15 percent for offshore operations to a high of 47 percent for onshore operations, according to new research from Everest Group.
The cost reduction achieved through RPA depends on the existing state of healthcare payer BPO operations and can be 10 to 19 percent for balanced shoring operations. These are savings beyond labor arbitrage.
This boost in cost efficiency is one of the primary reasons healthcare payer BPO buyers are increasingly seeking automation solutions. Processes particularly ripe for the cost-saving potential of RPA include policy servicing and management, network management and claims management.
Driven by this demand, service providers are building capabilities in RPA, and adoption of RPA is rising, as an increasing proportion of new contracts signed have RPA in their scope. Specifically, the percentage of new, signed contracts that include RPA in their scope has increased from 7 percent in 2012-2013 to 14 percent in 2014-2015.
“The global healthcare payer BPO market is growing at a healthy pace of 15 percent and reached US$5.5 billion in 2015,” said Anupam Jain, practice director at Everest Group. “However, payers’ margins are getting squeezed, and they are looking for newer ways to boost profitability. Robotic Process Automation is making a notable impact on the industry in this regard, because it is a new lever to further reduce the cost of operations. We expect RPA to play an significant role in the future.”
Two new Market Insights™ published by Everest Group graphically depict these findings:
• Impact of RPA on healthcare payer BPO cost
• Inclusion of RPA in new contract scope is rising
These high-resolution graphics are available for complimentary download and may be included in news coverage, with attribution to Everest Group.
A more detailed discussion about the healthcare payer BPO market is available in “Healthcare Payer BPO—Annual Report: From Cost Reduction to Value-driven Outsourcing—Moving on Up.” This report provides a detailed analysis of the market size and growth, key drivers and challenges, solution characteristics, and the service provider landscape.
Additional complimentary Market Insight graphics stemming from this report are available for download here and include:
• Global healthcare spend
• Analytics on the rise in healthcare BPO in an effort to combat fraud
• Healthcare payer BPO market growth: past and future
