Introduction

The healthcare industry is one of the most imperative industries in the world. It plays an important role in our day-to-day life. The healthcare industry has always been a top priority in every part. But, in the current scenario, it is facing unprecedented challenges that range from regulatory complexities to workforce shortages. 

In the healthcare industry, all the categories such as preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care come under the spotlight. 

The healthcare industry has transformed due to the incorporation of technology This new trend of technology adoption has also posed certain challenges.

In this blog, we will understand the challenges of the modern healthcare industry and how Employer Of Record (EOR) services can help mitigate them. Let’s start with the new developments and trends.

New Developments and Trends in the Healthcare Sector

The new developments and trends have brought a revolution in the way the healthcare industry operates. Let’s explore how the healthcare industry is benefiting from these trends and developments.

Rise in the Usage of Telemedicine

A process that enables medical practitioners to diagnose, treat, and monitor patients remotely via telecommunications technology is called the development of telemedicine. It became a privilege for the healthcare industry itself to use remote workers for medical advice and consultations without having to visit a physical healthcare center. Telemedicine saves time and avoids needless travel.
These technologies have collectively brought an improvement in patient care, increased healthcare accessibility, and streamlined medical processes. Consequently, the telehealth and telemedicine market is projected to grow from USD 94.44 billion in 2023 to USD 286.22 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 23.2%.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

The healthcare industry has heavily incorporated AI and machine learning into different aspects of it. AI and machine learning have been a great help to drug discovery, diagnostics, personalized medicine, and administrative tasks.  Due to the incorporation of AI into healthcare, clinical decision-making has been enhanced, patient outcomes are improved, the operational efficiency is optimized very well.
As a result, the AI in healthcare market is estimated to reach USD 148.4 billion by 2029, registering a CAGR of 42.4% from 2024-2019.

Personalized Medicine

Thanks to advances in genomics and biotechnology, patients can now receive therapies that are specifically designed for them based on their genetic composition, way of life, and surroundings. Better results, focused medicines, and more accurate diagnoses are made possible by this method, especially when treating rare diseases like cancer.

Healthcare Data Analytics 

Healthcare organizations are increasingly using data analytics to get insights for enhancing patient care, managing population health, and operational efficiency. This is due to the widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs) and other digital health data sources. Among the main uses driving this trend are predictive modeling, continuous tracking, and predictive analytics.

Remote Workforce

Over the past few years, remote work has increasingly become a part of all industries and healthcare is one of them. COVID-19 is the main reason why people adopted remote work and eventually healthcare joined the club. As per the McKinsey report, 46% of the healthcare jobs in the US can be done remotely.

The Main Challenges Faced by the Healthcare Sector

As we have understood the new developments and trends, let’s understand the healthcare industry’s challenges. The healthcare industry faces a lot of challenges in the areas of HR, Technology, and economics of the business. Let’s understand them one by one:

Human Resource in Healthcare

• Regulatory Compliance: HIPAA and other tougher laws governing healthcare demand exacting standards for record-keeping and privacy.
• Staff Shortages: A global shortage of medical professionals, such as nurses, doctors, and support personnel, is causing workloads and burnout rates to rise.
• Problems with Retention: High rates of employee turnover brought on by stress, burnout, and better prospects elsewhere.
• Training & Development: To stay up to date with technical improvements and medical advancements, staff members must constantly retrain and upskill.
• Recruitment challenges: It can be challenging to draw in fresh talent, particularly in underdeveloped or rural areas.

Cost

• Rising Operational Costs: Growing expenditures for staff, space, tools, and supplies.
• Healthcare Financing: The difficulties in maintaining budgets and obtaining long-term support while delivering high-quality care.
• Insurance and Reimbursement Problems: Difficult and frequently insufficient reimbursement procedures from government agencies and insurance providers.
• Cost of Innovation: The high price of implementing novel technologies and medical interventions.
• Pharmaceutical Expenses: Increasing expenses for medications and therapies affect the whole cost of healthcare.

Technology:

• Integration and Interoperability: The challenge of successfully integrating new technologies with current systems and making sure they operate as a unit.
• Cybersecurity Risks: Growing risks of cyberattacks against healthcare systems and patient data 
• Costs associated with implementation: though the benefits of technology adoptions are for the long term in the short term the New technologies require a significant upfront investment to be maintained.
• Data management: Keeping enormous volumes of patient data accurate and private can be difficult.
• Adoption Barriers: Employee resistance from insufficient training, aversion to change, or unfamiliarity with novel technologies.

One of the solutions to the human resource and cost issues is building teams in countries where the costs are less and the availability of trained resources is high. So it’s important to identify the areas of the healthcare business that could be executed remotely.

Remote Functions of the Healthcare Sector

telemedicine solutions to offer their staff or clients worldwide access to healthcare services.

Remote Patient Monitoring: Healthcare providers may track remotely the vital signs of patients, symptoms, and other health indicators with the use of remote monitoring devices. This makes it possible to identify health problems early, manage chronic disorders proactively, and create personalized treatment strategies. Regardless of location, foreign businesses embrace remote patient monitoring solutions to enhance the health and well-being of their clients or staff.

Remote Human Resources: HR plays an important role in the healthcare industry. HR in the healthcare industry encompasses much more than just payroll, benefits, and recruiting and firing. The healthcare sector is undergoing significant transformation due to new technological approaches to care delivery and monitoring, a rise in government regulations, and high staff churn. Remote HR management is a new strategy that can be adopted.

Case Manager: Case managers assist, plan, and evaluate the care ideal for a patient’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. They frequently look out for the patient’s requirements, looking for affordable treatments and providers. If you can build rapport and empathy over the phone or via video, this is the perfect job for working from home.

These are the healthcare industry’s main functions. One can build a robust team by finding experts in these functions with the help of EOR.

Building Remote Teams for the Healthcare Sector

Remote teams in the healthcare sector, there are substantial cost savings prospects. Healthcare organizations can save a lot of money by doing away with the requirement for actual office space and the administrative costs related to in-person consultations. Furthermore, by engaging people on a flexible basis, remote work enables healthcare providers to maximize their workforce, lowering staffing costs and increasing operational efficiency. The remote teams can be well managed using EOR services

• Streamlining HR Processes: By taking care of administrative duties like compliance, payroll, and benefits administration, EOR services free up healthcare organizations to concentrate on their core operations. Businesses can save money by outsourcing these tasks.
• Cost Containment: EOR services often offer economies of scale, leveraging their resources across multiple clients to negotiate better rates for benefits such as healthcare insurance, retirement plans, and other employee perks. This can result in cost savings for healthcare organizations compared to managing these benefits independently.
• Access to Advanced HR Technology: By managing compliance, payroll, benefits, and personnel data through the use of complex HR technology platforms, Employer of record services provide the best solution.
• Integration with Current Systems: Technology solutions provided by EORs simply interface with the payroll and HR systems. They also guarantee streamlined operations.
• Data Security: To safeguard confidential employee and organizational data, EORs make important investments in cybersecurity solutions. This secures data breaches and assures adherence protection of data laws. 
• Flexibility in Workforce Management: Healthcare companies may experience fluctuations in staffing needs due to seasonal demand, patient volume, or other factors. EOR services offer flexibility by allowing organizations to scale their workforce up or down as needed without the burden of hiring and firing employees directly, thus optimizing staffing costs.
• Risk mitigation: Risk mitigation: EOR services manage a lot of responsibilities and risks regarding employment. EOR also manages unemployment and workers’ compensation claims. EOR is a strong shield for healthcare organizations when it comes to employee conflicts or regulatory infractions. It will look after the unforeseen costs and financial losses.
• Focus on Core Competencies: By outsourcing HR functions to an EOR service, healthcare organizations can allocate more resources and attention to delivering high-quality patient care and improving operational efficiency, ultimately leading to cost savings and better patient outcomes.

Building Remote Teams in India for the Healthcare Industry

India is rich in terms of highly qualified resources. Due to the inexpensive healthcare services, it automatically becomes the leader in healthcare outsourcing. India has a huge population of educated, language-proficient individuals due to which the country presents a plethora of opportunities for remote work in the medical industry. Many international medical companies have established operations abroad or have formed collaborations with Indian enterprises to benefit from the latter’s abundant supply of highly skilled labor at reasonable costs.

Additionally, the development of remote labor in the healthcare sector has been made possible by Indian government rules and the legal environment. Programs like the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) aim to enhance India’s position as a hub for remote healthcare services by advancing telemedicine and digitizing medical records.

Forming a team of experts would divert the focus from the core business functions. Let’s understand how the Employer of record would help a business form a robust team in India.