The largest company from healthcare domain in the US is creating 100 IT jobs in India. The company based out of Massachusetts has let go of existing 100 employees to move these roles to India.?
Partners Healthcare is the largest not-for-profit hospital and physicians network in the US. The company has a team of 350 to support its IT infrastructure. Partners Healthcare has decided to lay off the staff of 100 from this team and outsource these jobs to India. A number of companies in the healthcare domain are outsourcing its IT roles to India. The lower cost of hiring is the primary reason why these companies are coming to India.
Many of the employees that Partners Healthcare has fired have worked for the company for several years. The job of these coders was to scour patient’s medical records and pinpoint billable services. The company was paying $40 an hour to these employees. Programmers in India earn a fraction of this amount, making India an attractive market for these companies to save the cost.
Dr David Torchiana, the chief executive of Partners’ said, “We need to do things to improve productivity in healthcare. I don’t know of another . . . sector that doesn’t outsource call centers and back-office functions.” The financial pressure is one of the reasons behind outsourcing these jobs to India.
One of the employees asked the reason for layoffs to his manager. He said, “My manager said that it is because of our salaries because overseas people make a lot less money than we do. They are now outsourcing the job I have been doing forever. Where am I going to get my car payment?”
Cost cutting is an important reason why global companies decide to outsource IT functions. Large hospital networks need to slash $500 million to $800 million in cost to save the jobs. Healthcare industry in the US is increasingly moving its IT functions to India to cut costs. Gurpreet Singh, the leader of US healthcare services in an IT consulting firm said, “They have to find ways to be more profitable. If that means offshoring certain capabilities, that is the means to get there.”
Programmers have a significant importance even in the healthcare industry. Their job is to decipher medical records, notes and navigate alphanumeric codes to determine bills. The software has to navigate the codes, doctors’ notes and identify services a healthcare provider can bill for.
Another healthcare firm called Omega Healthcare Management Services has hired 13,000 IT professionals in India and Philippines. The average salary of a programmer in the US is $53,000. An entry-level programmer in India earns one-third of that, making it an attractive choice for the US company.