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Understanding the Healthcare Market Marketers and administrators in the healthcare segment are being required to deliver a measurable return on investment (ROI) for their efforts, and (as a result) are turning in record numbers to alternate means of communicating with patients and other stakeholders in lieu of print, while still ensuring compliance with HIPAA and other key regulations. This does not mean that print is dead—it simply means that document outsourcing service providers must adjust their business models to better address the emerging needs of healthcare marketers and administrators as they seek to understand the best way to leverage new media in conjunction with print. For document outsourcing service providers wishing to sell into this market, it is vital that sales and marketing professionals take into consideration these significant issues facing the industry and present innovative solutions that are designed to alleviate them to some extent. Staying informed on the fast-paced changes that are occurring on the national and local level can help maintain credibility with executives in this industry. These changes include the legislative environment, the competitive landscape, the issues and challenges the industry is facing, understanding the types of companies within the industry, and determining segmentation of those companies. The next step is to gather company-specific data. While there will be certain commonalities across the industry, each company has its unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities that must be considered, along with general information about the industry. The Current Status of Outsourcing in Healthcare One way companies can stabilize and improve key business metrics is to outsource areas, such as internal and external print, mail, records management, business communications, and other document-related functions, to service partners who can help control costs and improve operational efficiencies. InfoTrends’ research reflects that 55.8% of healthcare companies are currently outsourcing some document services. Barriers to Outsourcing There is much discussion about why companies outsource documents and other services, but little is written about why they do not. It is important to understand the other side of the coin to be able to adequately anticipate and respond to any objections that may arise. InfoTrends’ research indicates that the top reasons for not outsourcing in the healthcare industry include concerns about security/privacy and a fear that promised cost savings will not be achieved. Other primary concerns include loss of control, a low volume of work, and ROI not measured or adequately reported. Many of these concerns can be addressed by document outsourcing providers who can bring these services back on-site, but still allow the host company to focus its efforts on its core business. During the sales process, these concerns should be addressed head-on, even if they are not specifically mentioned by the client, as they are certainly lurking in their thought process. In doing so, sales representatives should be prepared to demonstrate their company’s ability to alleviate these concerns by presenting information about corporate initiatives already in place, along with testimonials from other customers within the target industry that support the company’s ability to deliver these services on-site or in a secure facility owned and operated by the document outsourcer. The preceding is an excerpt from a report entitled Document Outsourcing Opportunities in the Healthcare Market. For more details on this report, visit our online store or contact Robyn Wuori at +1 ext. 103 or e-mail . |
