Unlike most information technology companies that set up their premises far away from the urban sprawl, Omega Healthcare operates in a multi-storey facility right opposite the Central Bus Stand in Tiruchi.
“Accessibility is an important factor for our employees,” says V. Narayanan, location head of Omega Healthcare. Some 500 staff commute daily by train from Thanjavur, while several hundred women employees use the bus services regularly, he adds.
The new office buildings that are getting ready elsewhere in Tiruchi also fulfil this accessibility criterion.
Considered the city’s top white-collar employer (3,000 and counting), Omega offers knowledge- and business process outsourcing services to healthcare companies in the United States. Employees are drawn not just from the city, but also from places like Pudukottai, Aruppukottai, Karaikudi, Thanjavur and Madurai.
Applicants who have studied Microbiology, Biotechnology and Nursing, or any subject that gives them knowledge of human anatomy (such as physiotherapy) are given priority, especially for medical coding.
There are three types of employment open here: basic data entry, high-skilled medical coding (where the life science background helps), and voice processing. The average age profile of the workforce is 25-30 years.
Relying on insurance
Founded in 2004 by Gopi Natarajan and Anurag Mehta, Omega Healthcare has benefited from the U.S. healthcare system that is largely linked to medical insurance.
The rapidly-expanding company, with offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Tiruchi and Manila (Philippines) has a turnover of $72 million. It also has a co-location facility in New Jersey, U.S.
“The low level of competition in Tiruchi was one of the reasons we opened a branch here (in 2011),” says Mr. Narayanan. “Plus, the city and the Cauvery delta region are home to many educational institutions, that can help to keep our staff numbers high.”
He adds that Tiruchi is one of the best markets as far as Omega is concerned, because 70 per cent of the new hires are employee referrals. “At least 60 per cent of our coders are women, and of this, some 80 per cent are post-graduates,” he says. The company also employs 40-50 differently-abled people.
Training
Medical coding requires a high level of precision, which is why training is so vital. Data-entry candidates are trained for 10 days, while medical coders are given 60 days to learn how to assess health data and charts, with an internal audit on every process.
Acing the evaluation exams is a must, because only the best will be considered for coding, says Mr. Narayanan. “We have to evaluate our employees constantly because medical billing is a high risk process. The insurance company in U.S. will be making payments based on our reports. If we make a small mistake, either the insurer will make more money or lose a lot. Similarly, the patient will also be affected,” he says. “Nobody will accept a company that isn’t sure of its methods – from Day 1 we have to give error-free service.”
The internal staff evaluation and training is done with the help of 400 experienced employees who have previously worked in Omega’s Chennai and Bangalore offices.
Staying competitive
While the costs are going up and revenues are coming down in other call centre operations, medical billing is still an emerging business that has been helped by some initiatives in the U.S. as well.
The implementation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (popularly known as ObamaCare) in 2010, has led to a surge in the number of medical insurance claimants, which in turn has helped offshore service providers like Omega. “Our success in the U.S. market may encourage other Indian IT companies to aim for the same sector, because this is one of the best business models in the BPO industry,” says Mr. Narayanan. “That is why I always tell my people to be ready for competition from the big players.”
The transition of the International Classification of Diseases (medical code) from ICD-9 to ICD-10 since October 2015 has also created a new demand for skilled workers in this sector.
“Every disease and sub-disease has a code [in U.S. medical billing],” explains Mr. Narayanan. “The advantage for the Indian market is that most of this work is memory-based. For Indians, perhaps due to our education system that promotes rote learning, coding has been easy.”
As to whether this system will ever filter down to India, Mr. Narayanan says it will not happen for at least 10-15 years more. “Except for a few instances, medical insurance has still not caught on among the public,” he says.
Raw material
Retaining staff in this competitive market has not been without its challenges. “Though we have an attrition rate of only 2-2.5 per cent, we realise that the company has to be constantly engaged with its young employees,” says Mr. Narayanan. “We know that working in an IT company means a big change in lifestyle for many of our staffers, who are mostly from a rural background.”
To help employees cope with stress, the company offers 24-hour counselling helpline, besides an in-house mentor for every 100 staffers.
“Nowadays, companies, especially in the IT sector, have realised that if they don’t take care of their employees properly, they will lose them,” says Mr. Narayanan. “Your raw material is manpower. You have to respect your employees and colleagues whether they are junior or senior to you.”
With that in mind, Omega Healthcare has set a target of employing up to 5,000 people in the next two years. “I’m supported by my CEO Mr. Gopi Natarajan, because his roots are in Tiruchi,” says Mr. Narayanan.
With 25 years of experience in the financial and customer relations sectors behind him, Mr. Narayanan hopes one day to reach out to senior school students in the villages and Tier II cities to offer them career advice. “I notice these children need guidance on where to study and how to carry over their education to employment,” he says. “So I’ve started reading a lot of books to prepare myself.”
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Fact file
** The American healthcare system is linked to medical insurance. Most patients visiting hospitals pay for treatment with insurance cards rather than cash. After the formalities are completed, hospitals and clinics collect patient information and send it to medical insurance companies for reimbursement.
** The intermediary companies between hospitals and insurers are called aggregators. Besides fee collection, these companies also do back-end fact-gathering such as collating the information from hospitals, downloading patient data, preparing charts and getting facts on diseases.
** As the number of insurance claimants has gone up tremendously in the United States, approximately 75 per cent of aggregator companies there have been outsourcing the back-end data collation work to external locations, particularly to Asian countries.
** To keep medical fees uniform, the U.S. follows a World Health Organisation-approved system called International Classification of Diseases (ICD) where every disease, diagnosis and procedure is linked with an alphanumeric code.
** Besides implementing Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) in 2010, the U.S. switched over to the latest ICD-10 code in October 2015, which has created a new growth opportunity for offshore medical billers like Omega Healthcare.
