As of 2019, the global medical billing outsourcing market size was valued at USD 9.3 billion. The market is projected to record a significant CAGR of more than 12 per cent during the forecast period [2019-2026]. Typically, the medical billing process involves the revenue cycle management (RCM) which engages the most complex and important elements of the healthcare IT business. Due to the lack of expertise in tackling new payment models and revenue management tools, the current systems in practice for managing revenue are gradually becoming obsolete. With the evolution of new technological solutions, growing and evolving government requirements, and bad debt and uncollectible accounts have sparked a new trend leading to an increased preference for medical billing outsourcing by several healthcare providers.
Medical billing outsourcing increases cash flow, helps save on the cost of equipment and software, and reduces staff size and employee expenses. Increasing geographical reach of the key companies through mergers and acquisitions is expected to boost the market for medical billing outsourcing in the coming years. For instance, in December 2016, Allscripts acquired an Australian healthcare IT software provider, Core Medical Solutions, to significantly increase Allscripts offerings in the country.
As per regional analysis, North America is expected to be the largest regional market for the global medical billing outsourcing market over the forecast years. This is due to the high awareness levels about outsourcing healthcare IT services and also because of the strong presence of prominent market players in this region. North America is followed by Europe in the global medical billing outsourcing market. The European market is majorly driven by the demand for minimizing the overall healthcare delivery costs. The region has high growth potential owing to factors, such as consolidation of large healthcare providers, change in pricing and reimbursement policies, and increasing pressure on European healthcare providers to build more sustainable healthcare systems.
In the category of front-end services, processes, like scheduling, preregistration, registration, eligibility, insurance verification, and pre-authorization are considered. The front-end service constitutes to be the major function of medical billing outsourcing and is thereby accounted for the highest share in the market for medical billing outsourcing as of 2019. Unfortunately, the front-end services are gradually declining in terms of revenue growth due to market saturation and increased competition. Middle-end services are expected to observe the fastest growth rate in the coming years due to the entry of new market players and growing awareness among healthcare practitioners.
In the global medical billing outsourcing market, the hospital segment recorded the highest revenue share in the market for medical billing outsourcing in 2019. This is because hospitals were prime users of such services due to high claim volume. Consolidations of hospitals lead to an increase the complexity within billing and reimbursement procedures. Hence, the demand is high for hospitals.
A market research report on the global medical billing outsourcing market was published by Global Market Estimates Research and Consultants (GME) recently. The report classifies the global medical billing outsourcing market on the basis of several factors. On the basis of product, the market is segmented into In-house and Outsourced. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into front end, middle end and backend. On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, physician office and others. On the basis of region, the global medical billing outsourcing market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa. The countries covered include: U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and South Africa among others.
The key end-users of the market are The Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Singapore General Hospital among others. Some of the key players operating in the medical billing outsourcing market are Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc, Experian Information Solutions, Inc, R1 RCM Inc, Cerner Corporation, eClinicalWorks, HCL Technologies Limited, GE Healthcare, Genpact, Kareo, Inc, and McKesson Corporation among others.