There are a number of driving forces for the growth of the healthcare contract management market. Among those having the greatest impact are COVID-19, cloud based delivery requirements, operational efficiency (time/budget) and IT staff shortages.
COVID-19 has had a very significant impact on overall operations of hospitals. A new report released by the American Hospital Association confirms the tremendous financial strain that hospitals and health systems on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19 are up against. The AHA report estimates a total financial impact of $202.6 billion in losses resulting from COVID-19 expenses and lost revenue for hospitals and health systems over the four-month period from March 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020 — or an average of over $50 billion in losses a month.
Hospitals and health systems face unprecedented financial pressure. This economic pressure will help to accelerate the adoption of healthcare contract management software and the cost savings/operational efficiency associated. A recent study (prior to COVID-19) of the healthcare contract management software market shows a compound annual growth of 18.5% (775 Billion today and 1.7 Billion by 2024). The growing need to reduce operational costs (while increasing the operational efficiency of healthcare organizations) and the need to maintain compliance with regulatory mandates are key drivers of this trend.
Regardless of deployment approach, healthcare contract management systems can improve your operational efficiencies and improve the bottom line. However, cloud based contract management system deployments like Contract Guardian bring a few additional advantages that on-premise deployment models and other cloud offerings aren't able to provide.
Budgets: The cloud model offers several direct savings benefits including no capital expenditures for the software and no supporting infrastructure costs. Contract Guardian's pricing model is designed to provide the most fair total cost of ownership to our clients. No two organizations are the same and there are several considerations when evaluating contract management. Many systems will price strictly on one criteria: users or contracts. While this may be a simple way to price, it may ultimately be unfair to you. Contract Guardian prices based on the total scope of the contract management environment. We provide customized pricing for you that takes into account several key factors to ensure you receive the most fair price for your needs.
IT Staff Limitations: As technology continues to play a larger role in hospitals and health systems, there is a greater strain on facilities to find enough IT personnel for the task. Typically, hospitals prefer to hire IT staff with knowledge and experience in the healthcare industry, putting an even greater strain on the shortage as they may pass on skilled information technology experts without the required experience in the field. The Contract Guardian deployment process requires very little investment from the IT staff. The hospital IT staff is able to address the projects that require their expertise and not worry about the implementation of a contract management system. The organization also does not need to worry about new features, new modules or new versions of the system as Contract Guardian follows an agile development model. All features and functionality are included under subscription.
Support and Service: Having your internal support and service staff for any software product is a true cost that hospitals can avoid with a cloud-based contract management system. In fact, Contract Guardian’s Professional Services team consists of experts with 15+ years experience in healthcare contract management. These professionals have practical experience working with contract managers of hospitals and health systems of all types and sizes. There is no outsourced support. The personalized attention to clients has allowed Contract Guardian a growth rate that is about three times that of the industry.
Working from home, cost reductions, application scalability, and operational efficiencies continue to be growing trends that have been accelerated by COVID19. Allow us to remind you during these uncertain times, it is critical to ensure all appropriate steps are taken to protect yourself, your business, and your patients.