Imagine this situation: you are rushing through your breakfast to leave for work. You have to drop off your 5-year-old son to school on your way to the office. However, this morning he seems to have developed a cold along with itchy rashes. You worry, is he allergic? Is it serious? Is it contagious? Looks like your child will have to miss school and you will have to take him to a pediatrician. But who knows if you will get the appointment in the morning or you will have to wait until the afternoon? And then, if need be, you would have to repeat this process to consult with a specialist once your son’s general physician examines him. Either way, you or your spouse would have to miss work and wait for hours before your child receives first-aid.
But what if you can change this scenario? What if you could eliminate the waiting time and anxiety by booking an appointment directly with a specialist through a mobile app created by your health insurer, based on proximity and availability of that specialist? Or if you could get a video consultation with your doctor on your smart phone to initiate the first-aid?
If this sounds like a distant dream or a scene in a sci-fi movie, it’s not.
Digital revolution – the force which has transformed retail, travel, banking, and other industries – is quickly drawing towards healthcare. It is not just making back-office activities, like medical coding, billing, and claims processing more efficient, but is also enhancing patient-engagement through technology-enabled care.
Millennial consumers are accustomed to living in the digital world. They listen to music on their handhelds, order food through a self-service kiosk, perform banking services on an app and get deliveries through a drone. They now expect their healthcare providers to deliver a digitally enhanced experience too. According to a recent survey by the Health Research Institute (HRI), a third of the members would be willing to switch their insurance providers if another one offered a better experience even if the copays were to go a little north. Today, healthcare payers face the herculean task of reinventing themselves, from narrow-focused insurance providers to curators of a broad range of services. And this is only possible through digital intervention. The industry is rapidly moving closer to the community to provide affordable and convenient care. There is a formidable vertical integration taking place, which is bringing the healthcare payers and providers together – mergers of CVS and Aetna, Express Scripts and Cigna are possibly only the beginning of a new integrated, affordable and personalized era of healthcare.
Digital transformation for healthcare organizations
From ensuring new ways to engage with all stakeholders and improving customer experience to cutting costs and streamlining processes, these advantages of digitization are now reaped by various healthcare payers. It also enables better collaboration and data sharing with providers, which supports more effective care coordination. While automation does ensure greater efficiency, strong connectivity, and better decision making at low costs, its biggest payoff is advancing people care. Digitization enables healthcare organizations to envision a new approach to care delivery through innovative and inventive techniques. From curating virtual visits to wearables that can monitor the health status of patients with chronic diseases, these organizations now have the power to make your and your family’s life easier. IoT is playing a major role in this space and CGM’s, Connected Inhalers, and Connected Contact Lenses are only few such examples that are proactive digital tools to predict patient needs.
To unlock the full potential of digitization, healthcare organizations are viewing technology as a way of working – a way of running their business. The CEOs are willing to proactively champion this technological revolution. Teleperformance in India continues to partner with top healthcare organizations to digitally re-engineer their business model and guide them through the pitfalls of the age of automation.
Our specialized team of over 21,000 healthcare experts, serving a plethora of healthcare organizations across the globe, remains committed to deliver transformational business process solutions to raise the bar of Patient Experience. Our solutions keep evolving with the ever-expanding healthcare landscape, which is why leaders trust us when it comes to agility and profitability.
We understand that no two customers, problems or markets are alike, so we adapt, integrate and customize using technology and innovation to offer a unique solution. With over 3 decades of cumulative experience in the healthcare industry, managing processes for global clients, including Fortune 500 organizations and delivering services & intelligent automation products across the entire spectrum, we have been able to put the ‘CARE’ back in ‘HEALTHCARE.’
By Puneet Goyal, VP (Healthcare Solutions) at Teleperformance in India