Omega Healthcare to put $20 mn in Indian operations

Omega Healthcare Management Services, a healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) company, is planning to increase its staff strength by recruiting 1,000 employees in the current fiscal. It would invest around $18-20 million (around Rs 80-90 crore) in the current fiscal year in India including in its recently launched new facility in Trichy.

"Out of the 1,000 new employees, almost 600 would be placed in our recently set up facility in Trichy. We have so far invested around $2.5 million (around Rs 11.35 crore) in the facility and will put another $2.5 million to complete works in the facility," said Gopi Natarajan, co-founder and CEO, Omega Healthcare Management Services.

It has around 3,300 employees in two facilities, one in Bangalore and the second in Chennai. The Bangalore facility has around 1,600 employees and Chennai facility has around 1,500 employees, working in multiple shifts at present. The new facility currently has around 190 employees and has a capacity to accommodate around 800 people in multiple shifts.

It has been investing around $18 million every year in India and would invest around $18-20 million, this year too, he said.

The healthcare policy change in US in 2010 and the upcoming regulations in healthcare segments will increase more opportunity for the company in near future, said John Fundingsland, chief operating officer of the company. It expects an overall growth of 40 per cent in revenue in the current year.

The total healthcare spending in US has increased from around 13 per cent of the GDP to around 17.3 per cent between 2000 and 2009. The growth in spending is estimated to grow from $2.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion by 2019 in US and we are looking at grabbing the opportunity there, said Fundigsland.

The company had identified tier-II cities as potential location to set up its offices and the facilities in places like Trichy would reduce the operating cost by 35-40 per cent, said Natarajan. It was also planning to tie up with institutions and universities in the region to collaborate for skilled manpower, he added.

Omega Healthcare, which started operations in India since 2003, has so far invested $25-30 million in India. The company is operating in the niche segment of medical coding, billing, accounts receivable management, claims processing and healthcare revenue management services.