Another growing industry to watch

The business processing outsourcing industry in the country continues to be strong, although we noted a dip in the revenues. Still, it is the country’s sunshine industry and the export of services continues to be strong.

One of the partner associations under the BPAP (Business Processing Association of the Philippines) is the Health Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines or HIMOAP, which I understand is recognized by the government as well as the information technology and business process outsourcing industries as the premier organization in promoting the country as the top destination for health information management services.

HIMOAP used to be known as the Medical Transcription Association of the Philippines back in 2003, but the association members have since expanded their services to more than just medical transcription. I remember that over 10 years ago, this was the new career of choice for many new or undergraduates which did not require much skill.

With the expanded range of services offered by the industry, medical transcription now actually counts as among the lowest value services of HIMOAP. The companies under this umbrella organization do outsourcing work, yes, but many of the companies here also undertake training work for HIM (healthcare information management). By the association’s count, there are about 250 companies in the Philippines doing HIM work, though not all of these companies are in the HIMOAP fold. That is proof indeed that this is a growing industry.

According to Dr. Penny Lauchangco, president of HIMOAP who was our recent guest in our B&L TV show for a one-on-one interview, the global market for healthcare BPO is estimated to reach over $150 billion next year, and the United States is still the no. 1 source of this income, followed closely by Europe.

Here at home, the industry is also slowly but surely growing. In 2013 alone, the industry grossed almost $1 billion (more accurately $988 million). Although some sectors claim that the Philippines has overtaken India in the call center sector, Dr. Lauchangco says that India is still leading the Philippines in HIM services, but we get a bigger share of the higher value or quality services. For the most part, this is due to our vast pool of talents and HIMOAP continues to partner with government agencies to ensure this.

What actually comprise healthcare information services and how does it set itself apart from the call center sector? Although now, more and more call center companies are doing HIM work, Dr. Lauchangco says that for their sector, more high-level work is involved than just the usual call center services. They require their workers, in fact, to have some degree of medical background like nursing for instance, because these workers will be tasked with case management, calling up patients, talking to medical doctors and following up claims with insurance companies.

For the nursing profession, there seems to be a dearth now of jobs, and most of the jobs available locally do not pay well. I heard that in order to be accepted as a trainee in some of the big hospitals in Metro Manila, one has to be prepared to work without pay or worse, pay to get in as a trainee.  I often wonder why this continues to be the profession of choice of many parents for their children when the payback period is unreasonably long, unless one is lucky enough to get a job posting abroad. From first-hand experience, I know that the tuition fees in the country’s nursing schools as well as the other related expenses like medical paraphernalia, etc. are quite steep for many parents and only a handful of them are lucky enough to get a scholarship.

However, working in the healthcare information management services enables one to apply whatever he/she has learned in school for a job that requires more skills than just answering the telephone. As Dr. Lauchangco says, “it is applying one’s medical expertise in establishing a systematic approach in healthcare services.  Jobs in HIMS are medically-oriented and that is exactly what we have in the Philippines that we need to tap.”

Because of the growing demands in the industry, building the necessary talent pool is still a challenge. The HIMOAP president says that they still need to forge partnerships with the private sector while strengthening their partnership with government.  Agencies like TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) are helping out-- TESDA has in place a curriculum for medical transcription, but lately, they have added more: A curriculum for medical coders which is entirely different and a more specialized outsourced service.  The Department of Science and Technology which is supporting the HIMS industry through their Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) is funding this for TESDA and to date, the Philippines now has 30 medical coders with a US certification. These 30 certified medical coders will now form the master training program for trainors and will help train future coders that can find jobs in the HIM service sector.

In addition, TESDA continues to provide a scholarship program for medical transcriptioners, but in the very near future, this agency will also provide a scholarship program for medical coders. In partnership with HIMOAP, TESDA is also in preparing a new curriculum for those who have no medical background but are interested to join the industry.

Part of HIMOAP’s mandate is to fill in the human resource capacity of the country to enable us the Philippine to be the leading global player in the healthcare IT segment.  Right now, the industry employs only about 66,000 but the association’s new target is to increase this employment to 120,000 very soon. With a better understanding of the services rendered in this industry, the very active career advocacy of HIMOAP and with the support of TESDA and the DOTC in providing the curriculum and training for these services, I guess more and more of our new graduates will get to appreciate this new profession.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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