Patient access solutions market, global forecast to 2025

The global patient access solutions market is projected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2025 from USD 1.6 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 8.5%. Increasing patient volume and subsequent growth in the demand for health insurance, the growing importance of denials management, declining reimbursement rates, increase in the volume of unstructured data in the healthcare industry, and the rising need to curtail escalating healthcare costs are the major factors driving the growth of this market. However, high deployment costs are expected to restrain the growth of this market to a certain extent.

COVID-19 Impact on the Patient access solutions Market
Coronavirus has spread across 215 countries and territories and affected more than 4.4 million people, with close to 300 thousand deaths. The pandemic has had considerable social and economic ramifications across a variety of industries and sectors. As of 28 October 2020, there have been 44,235,263 reported cases of COVID-19 (Source: Worldometer) from Africa, Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. The virus has resulted in 1,171,288 deaths. The true number of infected people would be much higher than the official total, as a large number of cases are asymptomatic and do not undergo testing.It could be assumed that there is a drastic change in the size of the Patient access solutions market. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, medical practices of all sizes are under immense pressure, and healthcare facilities across the globe have been overwhelmed by the large number of patients visiting them on a daily basis. The rising prevalence of coronavirus disease has driven the demand for accurate diagnosis and treatment devices in several countries across the globe. In this regard, patient access solutions have proven to be very helpful, as they allow healthcare providers to seamlessly connect and transfer data to healthcare payers for claim management, reimbursements, and revenue management. Moreover, the rapid spread of this disease across the globe has resulted in lockdowns and restrictions, increasing the demand for electronic data transfer and claim management. This is expected to increase the adoption of patient access solutions in the coming years.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the need for social distancing among physicians and other healthcare professionals, which has driven the demand for patient access solutions and the need for the accurate and timely exchange of patient health records and claims data for patients suffering from chronic conditions. In this regard, software and solutions are effective tools that provide a framework for the exchange, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information along with claims data with advanced security. These solutions allow a seamless exchange and interpretation of health-related data among healthcare organizations and patients for clinical and financial decision-making.

Patient access solutions Market Dynamics

Drivers: Need to maintain regulatory compliance
In the US, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has led to the restructuring of private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid systems. In line with these changes, the “Meaningful Use” rules of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) have mandated the adoption of electronic medical/health records (EMR/EHR) that will increase data interoperability. This will ease data exchange between different healthcare organizations, including providers and payers. This, in turn, would drive the adoption of patient access solutions such as eligibility verification and medical necessity management.

Restraints: Data breaches and loss of confidentiality
In healthcare, approximately one-third of data breaches result in medical identity theft mainly due to a lack of internal control over patient information, lack of top management support, outdated policies and procedures or non-adherence to existing ones, and inadequate personnel training, all of which contribute to the rise in data breaches and medical identity theft cases in the industry. This makes patient confidentiality a major challenge in the healthcare industry.

In August 2016, the Advocate Health Care Network (US), which operates 12 hospitals and more than 200 other treatment locations in Illinois, US, was fined USD 5.5 million as part of a settlement related to breaches that compromised the electronic data of 4 million patients.

Opportunities: Lucrative growth opportunities in emerging markets
The Asia Pacific region is a highly lucrative market for patient access solutions owing to the implementation of various government initiatives focused on the greater adoption of healthcare IT solutions in China, India, and Australia and the rising government spending on healthcare.

Technological advancements are playing a key role in reforming China’s healthcare system, which is currently facing challenges such as underfunded rural health centers, overburdened city hospitals, and a nationwide shortage of doctors. China is in the midst of reform to provide safe, effective, convenient, and affordable healthcare for both rural and urban residents by 2025. A recent article from China Daily stated that IT investment in the country’s hospital system would reach USD 9.47 billion in 2022, an increase of 53.5% from 2017.

Challenges: Dearth of skilled IT professional
The effective utilization of patient access solutions demands strong IT infrastructure and IT support within the organization as well as at the solution provider’s end. In a healthcare organization, there is a continuous need for technical support for maintaining the server and network, smooth operation of clinical workflow, and optimum interfacing speed of healthcare IT systems. If the maintenance of the server or network is inadequate, it leads to the generation of screen loads, which slows down the denial management procedure.

Services segment to have the largest share in 2019
Based on product and service, the patient access solutions market is segmented into services and software. The services segment accounted for the largest share of the global patient access solutions market in 2019. The introduction of complex software and the need for system integration are expected to boost the services market in the coming years.

The web & cloud-based solution segment accounted for the largest market share in 2019
Based on delivery mode, the patient access solutions market is segmented into web and cloud-based solutions and on-premise solutions. In 2019, the web and cloud-based solutions segment accounted for the largest share of the global patient access solutions market. The flexibility of working from remote areas, affordability, and automated updating features are some of the key advantages associated with web and cloud-based solutions.

Healthcare Providers was the largest end-user for the Patient access solutions market in 2019
Based on end-users, the patient access solutions market is segmented into healthcare providers, HCIT outsourcing companies, and other end users. In 2019, the healthcare providers segment accounted for the largest share of the global patient access solutions market. Growing HCIT adoption, significant growth in healthcare spending, increasing healthcare costs, and declining reimbursement rates are the major factors supporting the adoption of patient access solutions among healthcare providers.

APAC market to witness the highest growth during the forecast period
The Asia Pacific market is comparatively new to patient access solutions; however, this region is expected to register the highest growth in the coming years. Countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore are expected to provide significant growth opportunities for vendors of patient access solutions. – Markets and Markets