Indian firms hope to cash in on U.S. health-care law

wapo ^ | 3/26/10 | Rama Lakshmi

[Nachum]

NEW DELHI -- While the contentious political battle over the new health-care law continues in the United States, in India the outsourcing industry is seeing it as a boon for business and is salivating over its prospects.

Indian companies are working with U.S. insurers handling back-office operations, including claims processing, supply management and transcription services. The extension of health care to 32 million Americans over the next decade will mean that the need for those services will grow, executives here said.

"The health-care reform bill is a very, very big opportunity for us," said Ananda Mukerji, managing director of Firstsource Solutions. He said about 40 percent of the company's business comes from dozens of U.S. hospitals and insurance companies.

[Nachum]

Did I ever mention I sell international health insurance?

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[FormerACLUmember]

Oh my God... fighting claims denials with Dell Hell Indian back office.

No wonder all the democrats exempted themselves from their bill.

[dalebert]

MORE JOBS FOR OVERSEAS

[rahbert]

Hello, my name is Chad, may I help you?

[bgill]

Americans can’t feed their children but glad to help you out there, India!

[Rashputin]

I guess I’ll move to India and get a job turning down claims before there’s a mad rush to get jobs in India. I’ll be making up a list of names of those to never be denied, though, so look for instructions on how to sign up so that you can avoid the consequences of what we’ve done to ourselves by having a brainwashed population who elected this SOB.

Regards

[bigbob]

MORE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

(or, are they intended?)

How many who voted for the bill thought about this *when they read it* /sarc

[RFEngineer]

“Oh my God... fighting claims denials with Dell Hell Indian back office.”

Don’t worry, soon all the back-office jobs will return to the US - because we’ll have to go to India for top-notch medical care.

It will be nice to have people who “sound American” when they schedule your surgery in Mumbai.

[Drill Thrawl]

Transcription services will be done by people for whom English is a second or third language. What could go wrong?

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

This bill was such a good idea in so many ways. (/s)

[Oceander]

This is the ultimate irony - we will beggar ourselves providing third-rate Soviet-style healthcare to ourselves, and enough cash to India that the Indians will be able to afford to provide themselves with a first-rate healthcare system like the one we used to have here.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I can also see Americans being required to call a phone number ("Dialing for Dollars") every morning in order to speak to a "nurse" to explain your health problem in hopes that you'll be awarded a doctor's appointment during the current year. More than likely, you'll be speaking to someone over in New Delhi. One of the big benefits of this arrangement will be that you'll probably be able to speak to someone about your computer problems or book and DVD orders while you're on hold.

Sarc/

[the long march]

oh lucky us. our computer customer service has gone in the crapper. Just think what this will be like....

[swarthyguy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270586/posts

Health Care in India

Lessons from a Frugal Innovator.

April 2009 Economist.

Informative and to your point, too.

[Oceander]

Wow, thanks for posting the link to that info! That really makes the point.

[okokie]

Oh my gosh have you ever had to deal with these people...half of them I totally can't understand what they are saying...and its obvious they are only reading from a card with pat replies-and this was for customer service about something that was no big deal to have to speak to them about health issues will be worse than HELL....
WE ARE TOAST

[FlingWingFlyer]

I spoke to a guy named Pushcar one time? It wasn’t a very “people friendly” experience. LOL!

[Buckeye McFrog]

I have a family member who works for a very big, well-known health insurer. They have always been 100% against sending jobs offshore, largely because they are always running ads telling us how many jobs they provide in the community.

That all changed last fall when it started looking like Obamacare might pass. They whacked more than half of their IT department, and are now looking to VERY AGRESSIVELY move as many jobs to low-wage offshore sites as possible.

Can’t blame them as the Feds now tell them what % they can spend on administration. Obamacare is going to double unemployment in this state.

[montag813]

This is where I part ways with many of my brethren. I think this should be stopped cold. Let Americans do this stuff. Tea Party folks, blue collar workers, Reagan Demcorats and union members can all unite on this to halt the expansion and bar all Federal funding or Medicare reimbursement for any hospital, health system or ins co. which outsources say 10% or more of its claims, etc.