PDF version of this report
You must have Adobe Acrobat reader to view, save, or print PDF files. The reader
is available for free
download.

Archived Report
Healthcare IT
System
Market Leaders

by James G. Barr

Copyright 2019, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00021996

Publication Date: 1907

Report Type: MARKET

Preview

Much of the US national debate over healthcare and the ability to extend
health insurance benefits to tens of millions of uninsured and underinsured
Americans revolves around the issue of controlling escalating costs, especially
administrative expenses. Among
the proposed solutions for slowing healthcare
inflation is the application of information technology (IT) to enable
electronic record-keeping, facilitate the production and distribution of
x-rays and other image data, and ensure compliance with HIPAA and other security
and privacy standards. Included in any list of the more prominent providers of healthcare IT
systems and services are Optum, Cerner Corporation, and Cognizant.

Report Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Market Dynamics
• Market Leaders
• References
• Web Links
• Related Reports

Executive Summary

[return to top of this report]

Much of the US national debate over healthcare –
and the ability to extend health insurance benefits to tens of millions of uninsured
(or underinsured) Americans – revolves around the
issue of controlling escalating costs, especially administrative expenses (the so-called
healthcare overhead costs).

 

Among the proposed solutions for slowing, if
not necessarily reversing, healthcare inflation is the application of
information technology (IT) to enable electronic recording-keeping, facilitate
the production and distribution of x-rays and other image data, and ensure
compliance with HIPAA and other security and privacy standards. HIPAA
violations, for example, can result in fines in the millions of dollars.

The Healthcare IT Market

Healthcare IT offerings
improve clinical operations like laboratory analyses and non-clinical, or
administrative, functions like patient management. Figure 1 offers a
broad overview of the healthcare IT market by market segments.

Figure 1. Healthcare IT Market Segments¹

Source: Markets & Markets

The global
healthcare information systems market is expected to reach $169.2 billion by 2025,
up from $85.6 billion in 2016, according to a new
report by Grand View Research, registering a 7.7 percent compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) during the forecast period.²

Each year, Healthcare Informatics ranks the leading 100 vendors by revenues
derived from healthcare IT products and services earned in the US. According to
the 2018 ranking, the leading providers are:

• Optum
• Cerner Corporation:
• Cognizant

According to Grand View Research, other "key players" in the healthcare IT
space include:

• McKesson
• Athenahealth
• Allscripts
• Medidata Solutions
• GE Healthcare
• Siemens Healthineers
• NextGen Healthcare ³

Market Dynamics

[return to top of this report]

The healthcare IT market is
being driven by several forces, principally the desire to transition from paper
to electronic health and medical records. Other factors favoring the adoption of
healthcare IT systems include:

• An aging population that is straining healthcare resources.
• The need to adhere
  to medical privacy regulations like HIPAA.
• The integration of Big Data in healthcare.⁴
• The "Health
  2.0" phenomenon in which social networking meets healthcare.
• Telemedicine, not just the introduction of tablet computers for patient
  charting, but the delivery of x-ray and other technological services to
  patients located outside the traditional hospital or medical center
  environment.

Electronic Medical Records

Although many healthcare providers still rely on
paper-based records to some extent, efforts to implement electronic medical records (EMRs) for
patients are accelerating. EMRs include basic data about patients – such as contact and insurance
information – and medical information,
including a list of symptoms, identification of previous and scheduled treatments, and a description of the patient’s reactions to those
treatments.

HIPAA Compliance

Regulations such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have forced healthcare providers to be
more stringent in how they store and transmit patient medical data. Also, an
increased emphasis on disaster recovery has encouraged the use of electronic
recordkeeping. For instance, some healthcare providers affected by Hurricane
Katrina reported that EMRs would have been beneficial because many
hardcopies of patient charts were destroyed or rendered inaccessible.

Health 2.0

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The social-networking revolution is coming to healthcare, at the same
time that new Internet technologies and software programs are making it
easier than ever for consumers to find timely, personalized health
information online. Patients who once connected mainly through e-mail
discussion groups and chat rooms are building more sophisticated virtual
communities that enable them to share information about treatment and coping,
and build a personal network of friends. At the same time, traditional Web
sites that once offered cumbersome pages of static data are developing
blogs, podcasts, and customized search engines to deliver the most relevant
and timely information on health topics."

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is a broad
term used to denote the remote delivery of patient services, professional
collaboration, education, or administrative support using any sort of telecommunications
technologies.

The compelling attraction of telemedicine is that it allows the healthcare industry
to benefit from economies of scale, "just-in-time" capacity, and
optimized resource utilization that other industries have been
leveraging for a long time. And the benefits are not all on the
institutional side of the ledger, either. Telemedicine can dramatically
increase quality of care, create better medical outcomes, and improve the
patient experience by applying necessary
and appropriate resources in less time and for a lower cost.

The ability to diagnose and treat patients from a
distance means that patients incur less expense, are less likely to be stressed by
being removed from familiar and comfortable surroundings, and are less likely
to be exposed to endemic pathogens in hospital environments.

Telemedicine applications
include:

• Teleradiology, in which x-rays or other diagnostic images are
  electronically transmitted off-site for remote diagnosis.
• Telesurgery and teledentistry,
  in which a doctor remotely controls a robotic arm in order to operate on a
  patient.
• Telerehabilitation and telemental health, where
  specialists conduct sessions using videoconferencing.

Non-Clinical Solutions

Meticulous Research reports that based on product type, "non-clinical
healthcare IT solutions commanded the largest share in the global healthcare IT
market in 2017, mainly due to:

• "Rising patient volume.
• "Growing adoption of health information exchanges (HIEs) and EHR systems.
• "Growing insured population.
• "Rising number
  of frauds related with claims.
• "Improved quality of care and clinical
  outcomes."

The non-clinical solutions segment includes, but is not limited to:

• Revenue cycle
  management solutions
• Healthcare analytics
• Supply chain management solutions
• Workforce management systems
• Electronic data interchange
• Medication management
  solutions
• Provider network management solutions
• HIE and interoperability
  solutions
• Customer relationship management solutions
• Fraud management
  solutions⁵

Of these, healthcare analytics is especially significant, since the goal
is to:

1. Improve medical outcomes for patients, particularly in the realm
   of patient safety and coordination of care.

2. Render healthcare administration more efficient,
   particularly as
   providers struggle to deliver services with diminishing staffs and budgets.

Healthcare Cloud Computing

Like all industries, the healthcare sector is investing in the cloud.
Meticulous Research reports that based on deployment mode, "web and cloud based
solutions accounted for the largest share in the global healthcare IT market in
2017," a [phenomenon] "mainly attributed to:

• "The flexibility of working from remote areas.
• "Affordability.
• "Automated updating features of web and cloud-based solutions"⁶

Mobile Health Applications

According to analyst Gopiram Ramachandran: "Adoption of healthcare apps … doubled between 2013
and 2015. This includes both
healthcare apps on mobile devices and wearable devices that transmit data
regarding the wearer’s vitals. With the rise in healthcare costs, the consumer
is now expected to be an equal partner in his or her care. Hence, we are now
witnessing a plethora of devices and apps which enable real-time tracking of
vitals by the patients and near real-time intervention by physicians as needed."⁷

Wearables

Analyst Sanjay Govil predicts "the dramatic
growth and adoption of wearables." In addition to watch-like fitness
trackers, expect "a few new additions. For instance, ‘tech fabrics’ in pants or sweaters, when worn, will record body movements and
vital function measurements. Another innovation is technology-enabled footwear,
which measures heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels when users are
in motion or sedentary.^"8

Biggest Spenders

As might be expected, owing to their size and operational range, hospitals
dominate healthcare IT spending, now and in the foreseeable future, as
illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Healthcare IS Market Size By Application⁹

Source: Grand View Research

Market Leaders

[return to top of this report]

Each year Healthcare Informatics ranks the 100 vendors with the highest revenues
derived from healthcare IT products and services earned in the U.S. based on
revenue information from the previous year.

According to
the 2018 ranking, the leading healthcare IT system
providers are:

• Optum, $8,087,000,000
• Cerner Corporation, $5,140,000,000
• Cognizant, $4,263,405,000

Optum

Optum helps healthcare organizations improve their
performance and address common operational challenges, such as:

• Lowering costs by reducing unnecessary work and
  re-work
• Adjusting to new value-based payment models
• Positively influencing quality-focused metrics such
  CMS star ratings, HEDIS measures, and NPS
• Improving the healthcare experience for all –
  patients, physicians, employees, business partners, and clients

Cerner Corporation

Cerner’s
technologies connect people and systems at more than 27,000 contracted
provider facilities worldwide, offering services that support clinical,
financial, and operational needs.

Cerner’s solutions assist clinicians in making patient care decisions,
and enable organizations to manage

day-to-day revenue functions with integrated clinical and financial systems.

Cognizant

Leveraging
cloud technologies and platforms, Cognizant strives to provide a broad range
of healthcare services aimed at addressing emerging industry trends such as:

• Regulatory
  compliance
• Integrated
  health management
• Enterprise
  information management
• Claims
  investigative services
• Operational improvement in areas like advanced data analytics

References

[return to top of this report]

• ¹ "Global Healthcare Information Technology Market."
  Markets &
  Markets.
• ² "Healthcare
  Information Systems Market Analysis Report by Application, by Deployment
  (Web-based, Cloud-based), by Component, by End Use (Hospitals, Diagnostic
  Centers), and Segment Forecasts, 2018 – 2025." Grand View Research. August 2018.
• ³ Ibid.
• ⁴
  "Healthcare IT Market by Product (EMR, EHR,
  MHealth, PHM, LIS, RIS, VNA, PACS, RCM, Analytics, EDI, SCM, HIE), Component
  (Software, Service), Delivery (Web, Cloud) & End User (Hospital, Payor,
  Pharmacy, Ambulatory, Homecare) – Global Forecast to 2023." Meticulous Research.
  March 1, 2018.
• ⁵ Ibid.
• ⁶ Ibid.
• ⁷ Gopiram
  Ramachandran. "Top Healthcare Trends for 2016." HCL Technologies Limited. April
  21, 2016.
• ⁸ Sanjay Govil.
  "Healthcare Industry Trends to Watch." 24×7 Magazine. November
  18, 2016.
• ⁹ "Healthcare
  Information Systems Market Analysis Report by Application, by Deployment
  (Web-based, Cloud-based), by Component, by End Use (Hospitals, Diagnostic
  Centers), and Segment Forecasts, 2018 – 2025." Grand View Research. August 2018.

Web Links

[return to top of this report]

• Cerner: http://www.cerner.com/
• Cognizant: http://www.cognizant.com/
• Optum: http://www.optum.com/

About the Author

[return to top of this report]

James G. Barr is a leading business continuity analyst and business
writer with more than 30 years’ IT experience. A member of "Who’s
Who in Finance and Industry," Mr. Barr has designed, developed, and
deployed business continuity plans for a number of Fortune 500 firms. He
is the author of several books, including How to Succeed in Business BY
Really Trying, a member of Faulkner’s Advisory Panel, and a senior editor
for Faulkner’s Security Management Practices. Mr. Barr can be
reached via email at jgbarr@faulkner.com.

[return to top of this report]