ISG to Publish Report on Healthcare Digital Services as Industry Faces Pandemic, Other Challenges

By AIT News Desk On Jul 28, 2021

Upcoming ISG Provider Lens report will evaluate providers offering services for digital transformation, cloud migration, business processes and streamlined data sharing

Information Services Group a leading global technology research and advisory firm, has launched a research study examining providers of digital services for healthcare companies at a time when the industry is being buffeted by COVID-19 and other challenges.

“Providers of digital services are essential as the healthcare industry adjusts to new realities”

The study results will be published in a comprehensive ISG Provider Lens report, called Healthcare Digital Services, scheduled to be released in January 2022. The report will cover companies offering services to help healthcare payer and provider organizations meet evolving patient demands, competitive pressures and regulatory mandates.

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Enterprise buyers will be able to use information from the report to evaluate their current vendor relationships, potential new engagements and available offerings, while ISG advisors use the information to recommend providers to the firm’s buy-side clients.

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Even as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes in some parts of the world, healthcare companies face significant changes that are leading many to pursue digital transformations. The huge rise in the use of virtual care in 2020 brought a rapid increase in deployment of connected technology for telehealth. Regulatory requirements are greater than ever, and cost pressures are growing. In addition, companies are facing a wave of mergers and acquisitions that require complex consolidation efforts.

“Providers of digital services are essential as the healthcare industry adjusts to new realities,” said Bob Krohn, partner, ISG Healthcare. “Companies need to quickly implement new technologies to meet data-sharing and interoperability standards, and we expect the use of telehealth services to keep growing for the foreseeable future.”

ISG has distributed surveys to more than 80 healthcare digital services providers. Working in collaboration with ISG’s global advisors, the research team will produce five quadrants representing the digital services and products the typical healthcare enterprise is buying, based on ISG’s experience working with its clients. The five quadrants to be covered are:

Payer Digital Transformation Services, evaluating a provider’s ability to deliver digital transformation services to payers, also known as insurance plan companies in the U.S. and statutory health insurance companies and private health insurance companies in Germany. These services help companies develop a digital-first pathway to improve patient care, reaching and serving members via computers, smartphones and other devices. Providers offer consulting on the use of technology, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics, and help to digitize processes while navigating complex regulations. Services should also cover operational processes for payers, such as claims processing, member verification and enrollment. These providers have relationships with trusted partners, including innovative startups, and experience with large transition projects.
Provider Digital Transformation Services, assessing a provider’s ability to plan, develop and implement processes and systems for patient relations and care, including patient intake, physician referral management, ambulatory and chronic care and post-acute care, as well as employee systems for functions such as scheduling and collaboration. These providers can offer guidance on selecting and deploying telehealth solutions and on workforce development to support data protection. They have relationships with trusted partners, including emerging companies with innovative models for delivering care, and experience with large transition projects that include consolidation of merged companies and modernization of systems and applications.
Payer BPaaS, covering providers of outsourced business-processes-as-a-service (BPaaS) for healthcare payer organizations. These providers integrate services, processes, applications and infrastructure into a comprehensive service to control costs and improve business outcomes. BPaaS may also deliver more operational insights and improve member and provider experiences, quality of care and regulatory compliance. These companies can support any application or platform, including legacy systems, and implement automation for back-office, middle-office and front-office business processes. They have partnerships with application providers, platform companies and infrastructure firms and possess established protocols and technologies for integrated security.
Healthcare Cloud Migration Services, a new quadrant that looks at a provider’s ability to deliver services to U.S. healthcare providers and payers centered on hyperscaler cloud platforms such as AWS, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Salesforce. Provides considered for this quadrant have established partnerships with hyperscaler platform providers and contracts with payer and provider clients in the U.S., both planned and in progress. They understand and have experience with healthcare tools offered by the cloud platforms, including AWS for Health, Google Health and others. They are able to provide platform consulting for the use of appropriate emerging healthcare technologies and for development of custom capabilities on cloud platforms.
Healthcare Interoperability Solutions and Services, a new quadrant that analyzes providers of solutions and services for better data sharing across the healthcare continuum. In the U.S., these companies can advise clients on guidelines from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that mandate patient access to their healthcare data and healthcare provider directories via APIs. They have knowledge and experience with the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard for exchanging health data and with tools for sharing data across sources such as Google’s Cloud Healthcare API. They can provide consultation on development of custom interoperability solutions and build, maintain and scale personal and secure experiences across APIs.

The report will cover the global healthcare digital services market and examine products and services available in the U.S. and Germany. ISG analysts Ron Exler, Frank Heuer and Sidhanth Prasad J M will serve as authors of the report.