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Worries grow as healthcare firms send jobs overseas (outsourcer-in-chief alert!)
Los Angeles Times ^ | 7/25/2012 | Don Lee

Posted on 07/25/2012 3:21:08 PM PDT by markomalley

After years of shipping data-processing, accounting and other back-office work abroad, some healthcare companies are starting to shift clinical services and decision-making on medical care overseas, primarily to India and the Philippines.

Some of the jobs being sent abroad include so-called pre-service nursing, where nurses at insurance firms, for example, help assess patient needs and determine treatment methods.

Outsourcing such tasks goes beyond earlier steps by healthcare firms to farm out reading of X-rays and other diagnostic tests to health professionals overseas. Those previous efforts were often done out of necessity, to meet overnight demands, for instance.

But the latest outsourcing, which have contributed to the loss of hundreds of domestic health jobs, is done for financial reasons. And the outsourcing of nursing functions, in particular, may be the most novel — and possibly the most risky — of the jobs being shifted.

At the forefront of the trend is WellPoint Inc., one of the nation's largest health insurers and owner of Anthem Blue Cross, California's biggest for-profit medical insurer.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: 2012; bhohealthcare; healthcare; obama
This is yet another benefit of Obamacare.

Obamacare has added 900+ pages of law and, already, over 20,000 pages of regulations on healthcare, principally insurance. That results in a significantly higher adminsitrative workload for anybody involved in the billing process.

That additional workload means they need more skilled people (such as nurses) to process the paperwork.

At the same time, there are significant limitations placed on insurers limiting the amount of overhead they can tack onto medical charges.

As most people realize, if there is a greater demand placed on a limited resource, the price of that resource goes up.

Bottom line is that these firms are left with little choice in the matter.

Thanks, Mr. Obama. A truly inspirational outsourcer-in-chief.

1 posted on 07/25/2012 3:21:13 PM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley
"Some of the jobs being sent abroad include so-called pre-service nursing, where nurses at insurance firms, for example, help assess patient needs and determine treatment methods."

Some nurse in Pakistan gets to decide if you live or die: particularly easy choice if she's never as much as even seen a photgraph of anything but your colon, nevermind any kind of face time.

The Kenyan must go.

2 posted on 07/25/2012 3:34:04 PM PDT by ex91B10 (We've tried the Soap Box,the Ballot Box and the Jury Box; ONE BOX LEFT!)
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To: markomalley

From the article:

Moreover, the healthcare reform law could prod insurers to move more jobs to cheaper-wage countries. The new law requires companies to spend 80% to 85% of premiums on medical care, limiting the amount available for administrative expenses.

Few have been as aggressive as WellPoint, which made a profit of $2.65 billion last year on revenue of $60.7 billion. WellPoint’s total employment at the end of last year was 37,700, down from 40,500 two years earlier.


3 posted on 07/25/2012 3:44:53 PM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: markomalley

Doing jobs...in “healthcare” that real Americans won’t do to fellow Americans


4 posted on 07/25/2012 4:00:18 PM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: markomalley

know for a fact this is true...yesterday i called UHC nursing hotline...couldn’t understand a word the nurse said...asked to be connected to a nurse in USA and was promptly disconnected...


5 posted on 07/25/2012 4:01:43 PM PDT by ldish (Give me Freedom and Liberty or let's kick some a**!)
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To: markomalley

If Obamacare ever gets implemented, I’m going to buy an old hospital ship and park it in international waters. I’ll hire the best doctors, and charge people an arm and a leg to get treated there. They will pay, because they won’t be able to get their own care in the United Soviet States.


6 posted on 07/25/2012 4:51:16 PM PDT by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
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To: Defiant

“If Obamacare ever gets implemented, I’m going to buy an old hospital ship and park it in international waters. I’ll hire the best doctors, and charge people an arm and a leg to get treated there. They will pay, because they won’t be able to get their own care in the United Soviet States.”

I like the hospital ship idea, but I’ve envisioned sprawling new Caribbean medical campuses providing high quality medical care by the best and brightest in the world at a tiny fraction of the costs in the U.S. These complexes will also offer high quality inexpensive private insurance policies that you can buy in the Caribbean, even though they will be illegal to sell in the U.S. Just a click of the button on a web browser, and you’ve got world-class, inexpensive medical insurance and medical care, just not in the U.S. Would be tough for the Feds to stop such purchases. They could always be couched as vacation timeshares with incidental medical care thrown in for free.

Instead of months-long waits at the DMV to obtain MRIs, joint replacement, cancer surgery, heart surgery and all the rest, simply jet to the Caribbean for a world class experience. Finally, I see great investment opportunities for U.S. citizens and others who wish to invest in building and operating such complexes.


7 posted on 07/25/2012 5:28:43 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: catnipman

There will be a place for both types of hospitals. The nie thing about the ship is it’s only 22 miles or so away. You could have a plan that gets you there by helicopter in an emergency. Question: will Obama shoot down the helicopter, or torpedo the ship?


8 posted on 07/25/2012 5:49:41 PM PDT by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
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