A leading global outsourcing company is recruiting Filipino nursing graduates for its growing care management business in the Philippines, company officials announced Thursday.

“Filipino nurses need not go overseas to earn salaries and enjoy benefits that are globally competitive,” Benedict C. Hernandez, leader of Accenture in the Philippines’ Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Service Delivery Operations, told a news conference.

He said their care management BPO offers an “attractive” compensation package for applicants that have completed a B.S. in Nursing degree; Filipino nurses licensed to practice in the Philippines, with or without actual hospital experience; and nurses who have passed the US licensure examinations for foreign nurses.

However, Hernandez declined to give figures involving salaries, number of personnel needed, and the savings in administrative costs for US companies that use the services of Accenture in the Philippines.

Alvin Cloyd Dakis, national president of the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates International, had earlier told GMA News Online that the number of unemployed and under-employed registered Filipino nurses is anywhere between 160,000 to 200,000.

Accenture provides “upskilling” for licensed nurse personnel and training assistance for non-licensed nurses to acquire professional certification, according to Sanjay Seth, officer-in-charge of the company’s Care Management BPO in the Philippines.

He said their Care Management BPO facilitates the core processes of health insurance companies, from enrollment of members to managing the claims process and their network of hospitals and clinics.

The service is a pioneering venture and “a strategic growth area” for Accenture in the Philippines, Seth said. The company is planning to set up a similar operation in India, he added.

Care management services

Hernandez said the company’s Care Management Services involve three areas of work: utilization management, case and disease management, and health outreach to clients and patients of US hospitals and health insurance companies.

Utilization management involves the “initial screening by Accenture personnel of a patient’s medical records and applying the client’s (health insurance) policies and procedures to help determine if the patient is eligible for proposed medical services,” he said. It is intended to manage a client’s “misuse, underuse, and overuse” of health services available in his or her insurance policy, he added.

Disease management focuses on the prevention of complications and standardization of care for patients who suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes or asthma that require long-term treatment and care, Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, health outreach services involve support for the patients’ wellness and prevention programs by providing them with information on diet and exercise to support healthier lifestyles, he said.

“They also perform certain enrolment functions related to client’s medical insurance plans and client-defined programs and services that help individuals achieve a better state of health before, during, and after they file their (health insurance) claims,” Hernandez said.

Accenture currently employs “several hundreds” of Filipino nurses whose work involves voice and non-voice interactions with clients, he said.

The company has more than 21,000 personnel in two Accenture Delivery Centers in Manila and Cebu. It is part of the global Accenture company that has more than 233,000 personnel serving clients in more than 120 countries, with net revenues of $21.6 billion in 2010.

Source:http://www.gmanews.tv/story/229826/business/accenture-recruiting-filipino-nurses-for-care-services-bpo

UK insurance giant signs up for four more years of outsourcing administrative functions to India
Royal Sun Alliance, the UK insurance giant, has extended its business process outsourcing contract with services and consultancy provider Accenture by four years.

In 2003, RSA outsourced a number of business processes to Accenture’s Indian delivery centres in Bangalore and Mumbai. These include administrative process for sales and service, claims processing and finance operations.

According to an Accenture case study on the deal, the decision to outsource was part of an initiative by RSA to cut £270 million from its annual operating expenses.

Originally set to expire in 2010, the engagement was first extended to 2012, and has now been further extended to 2016.

In a statement, RSA operations director David Pitt said that renewed engagement allows for greater flexibility, “enabling us to refine services in an efficient and timely manner to reflect the changing needs of our customers”.

“In addition, we have developed a level of mutual trust and respect over an eight-year period that gives us comfort knowing Accenture will provide the necessary support to RSA as markets and requirements evolve,” Pitt said.

Having been hit hard by the recession, Accenture now appears to be bouncing back in a big way. The company took bookings worth $7 billion in its latest financial quarter, its highest booking rate since September 2007. The quarter’s consultancy bookings were the second highest in the company’s ten -ear history.

Accenture has announced a number of new deals in recent weeks, including a five-year BPO deal with CEVA Logistics and a cloud-based shared services contract with UK’s Ministry of Justice.

Source:http://www.information-age.com/channels/it-services/news/1616858/royal-sun-alliance-extends-bpo-deal-with-accenture.thtml