U.S. Healthcare Enterprises Speed Up Adoption of Digital Services as COVID-19 Requires Telemedicine, Automation

ISG Provider Lens™ report shows healthcare providers and payers turning to digital transformation and cloud to reduce costs, improve operations and streamline data sharing

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–$III #ISGProviderLens–The U.S. healthcare industry has rapidly adopted digital services to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating an existing trend among providers and payers seeking to enhance operations, cut costs and better engage with stakeholders, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Healthcare Digital Services report for the U.S. finds healthcare enterprises are addressing challenges from COVID-19 by using more telemedicine systems and connected healthcare monitoring devices and further automating processes. Companies increasingly are adopting robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate tasks such as claims processing, medical diagnosis and patient care management.

“Over the next few years, healthcare industry services will change radically,” said Bob Krohn, partner, ISG Healthcare, Americas. “The pandemic is disrupting policies and practices in the U.S., but companies are also carrying out digital transformation to meet ongoing industry challenges.”

COVID-19 is expected to shape the U.S. healthcare ecosystem in 2021 as government and industry respond to the pandemic and take a fresh look at healthcare management, the report says. Government agencies are building new frameworks for disease response and data sharing, and public-private alliances and collaborations are emerging.

One reason U.S. healthcare enterprises are embracing new technologies is that many of them have IT operations contracts that are about to expire, ISG says. According to ISG Research, nearly 400 such contracts in North America are expected to expire between 2021 and 2023. Contracts for application development and maintenance (ADM) and infrastructure services, as well as pure ADM services engagements, will make up about 74 percent of these by contract value.

Companies also have a growing number of choices for technology solutions, the report notes. Major cloud providers Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have products aimed at healthcare companies, including Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, introduced in October 2020. In customer relationship management (CRM), Salesforce Health Cloud is supported by most service providers. Meanwhile, healthcare technology specialists such as Allscripts, Cerner and Optum are expanding their own service offerings.

New U.S. regulations and related technology tools are emerging to solve the ongoing problem of interoperability, which has held back information-sharing, especially between healthcare payers and providers, ISG says. Several new and proposed federal rules call for healthcare enterprises to use common standards for data, including the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) specification, which is supported by all service providers covered in the report. Last year, Google announced general availability of its Cloud Healthcare API, which helps health systems and providers connect data across various sources. Amazon Web Services launched HealthLake for storage and analysis of data, which it automatically structures into the FHIR standard.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Healthcare Digital Services report for the U.S. evaluates the capabilities of 31 providers across three quadrants: Payer Digital Transformation Services, Provider Digital Transformation Services and Payer Business Process as a Service.

The report names Accenture, Cognizant, NTT DATA, and Wipro as Leaders in all three quadrants and HCL, IBM, Optum and UST as Leaders in two quadrants each. It names Atos, Cerner, Genpact, Infosys and TCS as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, Conduent, EXL, Genpact, Persistent Systems and UST are named as Rising Stars—companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

Customized versions of the report are available from NTT DATA, Persistent Systems and UST.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Manufacturing Industry Services report for the U.S. is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG’s global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG’s enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

Contacts

Press:

Will Thoretz, ISG

+1 203 517 3119

will.thoretz@isg-one.com

Cait Buckley, Matter Communications for ISG

+1 617 874 5214

isg@matternow.com