As government reimbursement shrinks, and hospital and practice margins grow tighter, the demand for better revenue capture grows stronger as well. That's according to a new report from Future Market Insights, which has predicted that the global market for healthcare revenue cycle management software will reach $ 43.3 billion by the end of 2022. During the forecast period, 2017-2022, the global healthcare revenue cycle management software market is projected to soar at a compound annual growth rate of 6.9 percent.

The largest end-user of healthcare revenue cycle management software is expected to be in hospitals, but its use is projected to rise in clinics and laboratories as well. In fact, labs are estimated to have contributed a nearly one-fifth share of global revenues in 2017 and the end-use of healthcare revenue cycle management software in clinics is expected to net nearly $6.5 billion.

[Also: HIMSS18 Revenue Cycle Solutions Summit: Driving a patient-centered experience]

The report showed growing demand in several supporting areas, including services facilitating revenue cycle management for healthcare settings, saying that in 2017, more than half of revenues taken in the global healthcare revenue cycle management software market will be for services. Moreover, healthcare-RCM services are pegged to gain traction in terms of adoption and inadequate numbers of trained staff and a rise in downcoding an RCM service are expected to fuel a boost in the buying of healthcare revenue cycle management as a service.  

Cloud-based products are proven to enhance resource acquisition, boost infrastructure reliability, and help consolidate operations. In terms of revenue cycle management software, cloud models increase flexibility and also enable transferability between two or more end-users. The data showed that these attributes parlayed into major dollars, with nearly $ 27 billion in revenue expected to come through cloud-based healthcare revenue cycle management software on a global basis. 

"Taking the complex structure of revenue cycle management into account, cloud-deployment is also expected to save costs by offering proper alignment of actual usage and resource expenditure," the report said.

Billing and payment management applications of healthcare revenue cycle management software are also expected to spike with a CAGR of 8.2 percent during the forecast period. Specifically for the accounts receivable sector of revenue cycle management, demand is expected to increase and revenue from it is forecasted to net over one-fourth share of global revenues. However, claim management applications are slated to show slow revenue growth, racking up a little more than$ 5.84 billion in revenue by the end of 2022.

Leading developers of healthcare revenue cycle management software through 2022 include Cerner, McKesson, Quest Diagnostics, athenahealth, Epic Systems, EMC, CareCloud, Greenway Health, Allscripts and Qsi Management. 

"The majority of these companies are expected to focus on removing conventional flaws and increasing security measures to protect valuable data managed by their offerings. Moreover, new market entrants are likely to face barriers in penetrating this highly-competitive market," the report said.

Learn more at the HIMSS18 Revenue Cycle Solutions Summit on March 5 in Las Vegas. Register here.

Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sanborn@himssmedia.com