Guess which jobs are going abroad
These days it's not just a desire to cut costs that's pushing employers to
hire overseas.
January 5, 2004: 11:13 AM EST
By Leslie Haggin Geary
CNN/Money staff writer
New York (CNN/Money) - If a tax preparer gets you an unexpected refund this
year, you may have an accountant in India to thank.
That's because accounting firms are joining the outsourcing trend
established years ago by cost-conscious American manufacturers.
In fact, companies in a number of unexpected industries are now sending work
overseas. From scientific lab analysis to medical billing, the
service-sector workforce has gone global.
CPA firms are just one example. In the 2002 tax year, accounting firms sent
some 25,000 tax returns to be completed by accountants in India. This year,
that number is expected to quadruple.
The reason lies in the numbers; accountants in the United States typically
earn $4,000 a month. In places like India it's closer to $400, says David
Wyle, CEO and founder of SurePrep, a tax-outsourcing firm based in southern
California that's employed more than 200 accountants in Bombay and
Ahmedabad, India.
"We've estimated firms will save between $40,000 to $50,000 for every 100
returns that are outsourced," adds Wyle, whose firm expects to do 35,000
returns in the coming year. That's up from 7,000 last year.
Xiptax, of Braintree, Mass., is another tax firm that's moved much work
overseas for "a whole number of reasons," besides money, says CEO Mark
Albrecht.
"Most CPAs do between 45 to 50 percent of their work in two months out of
the year. It makes for an extremely stressful time," says Albrecht, who adds
that accounting firms must then "strain" to find qualified staffers to help
fill in during the crunch.
By hiring full-time staff in India, CPA firms like SurePrep and Xiptax don't
have to worry about finding staff here.
Instead, they simply send tax information to a permanent team of qualified
accountants in India. American accountants then review the returns before
signing off on them.
"The real important part of returns isn't taking a number off a W-2 form and
putting it in Box No. 1," notes Albrecht. "The real value is what's retained
within the CPA firm -- the tax planning and the review."
Fighting cancer from afar
Cancer patients who seek treatment may soon find that when their tests are
"sent to the lab" their medical work is scrutinized by pathologists who
aren't just down the hall, but who are in a different country.
Since the mid-1980s, pathologists have been using robotic microscopes from
offsite locations to peer at biopsy samples. But now, pathologists are using
the newest generation of technology to enhance "telemedicine" opportunities.
Specifically, pathologists are accessing computer servers to look at digital
images of lab slides, says Ronald Weinstein, director of the Arizona
telemedicine project at University of Arizona College of Medicine.
The benefit isn't cost-cutting or accelerating how fast jobs are done, says
Weinstein, but the power it has to bring the best and brightest medical
minds together.
"Telemedicine will enable international group practices to form," he says.
"You'll have a conference where three world experts can look at the slide at
the same time."
To test potential uses for offshoring medicine, Weinstein's group at
University of Arizona has teamed with the University of Panama School of
Medicine in Panama City to work together on cancer cases.
"We're looking to have pathologists in different time zones to speed up the
rate at which patients pass through clinics," he says. "Currently we're
limited by time zones, not just by access to people but to a full range of
expertise."
Data entry in New Delhi
Pathology isn't the only area in medicine that's looking abroad.
Increasingly, medical billing is being done by clerical staff in India, too.
That's the case at Alpha Thought International, a Chicago-based medical
billing firm that has workers both in the U.S. and opened a billing office
two years ago in New Delhi where staff do data entry work needed to process
insurance and other medical billing claims.
"The reason that came about is because it's difficult to find workers in
different parts of the country who want to do data entry," says Alpha
Thought COO Dave Jakielo. When staffers in the United States quit, the
company replaces them with India-based workers.
Alpha Thought cuts costs by 25 percent, because Indian workers are paid less
than the average $10 an hour an American makes. The company also taps into a
better-educated workforce.
"To work in an office over there you must have a college degree," says
Jakielo. "The office workers we hire here are usually high school
graduates."
Even so, even offshoring has its limits.
Jakielo envisions a day when medical billing will be totally automated. When
that happens, even workers in New Delhi will have to find another gig.
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