HIT Outsourcing To Explode In 2015

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

The trend of outsourcing health IT is expected to grow through this year and beyond into 2019.

Health IT Outcomes reported last month one particular type of health IT - revenue cycle management (RCM) - was being outsourced as a way for providers to relieve pressure on their staff. Experts estimated the market for RCM outsourcing could reach $10 billion by 2016.

Now, a second report affirms the earlier one, noting RCM outsourcing about to become a booming business. Researchers from Reportstack say cost effectiveness is the number one motivator for providers to turn to outsourcing.

“Healthcare providers have begun subscribing to IT outsourcing services to deliver improved patient care services and to maximize staff efficiency,” says the market brief. “IT outsourcing also reduces operational and maintenance costs and enables healthcare providers to focus on core business areas and deal with the complexities of patient care more efficiently. They usually outsource applications such as operational services, financial services, database management services, and infrastructure-related services.”

According to Health IT Analytics, outsourcing of health IT is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.60 percent between 2014 and 2019. Outsourcing is expected to increase as third party vendors (for example Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, and IBM) take interest in this trend.

Fierce Health IT points out this follows the prediction that by 2020, 80 percent of data will pass through the cloud. The adoption of cloud-based services is one of the report’s top predictions for trends in the coming years.