Market Trends of Medical Coding Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Medical Coding Market according to our research experts:
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Segment is Expected to Show Healthy Growth Over the Forecast Period
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) segment is expected to hold a significant share during the forecast period. ICD provides a common language that allows health professionals to share standardized information across the world. It is the foundation for identifying health trends and statistics worldwide, containing around 17,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases, and causes of death, underpinned by more than 120,000 codable terms. Using code combinations, more than 1.6 million clinical situations can now be coded. The ICD is referred to as a diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management, and clinical purposes, and it is maintained by the WHO. Thus, the increased prevalence of chronic diseases and the advances in ICD are expected to boost the growth of this segment.
According to the January 2022 update of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), around 4 million males and 3.6 million females live with heart and circulatory diseases in the United Kingdom. As the ICD provides a method of diagnostic codes for classifying diseases, the high prevalence of CVDs creates the need for such codes, which is expected to drive the growth of the market segment.
Moreover, with the improving versions of ICD, its usage is expected to rise as the newer versions provide more information than the previous ones. For instance, as per a February 2022 update by the WHO, the new version of ICD, ICD-11, was effective from February 2022. ICD-11 is entirely digital with a new user-friendly format and multilingual capabilities that reduce the chance of error. It has been compiled and updated with input from over 90 countries and unprecedented involvement of health-care providers, enabling evolution from a system imposed on clinicians into a truly enabling clinical classification and terminology database that serves a broad range of uses for recording and reporting statistics on health.
Also, as per an October 2021 update by the CMS, in response to the national emergency that was declared during the COVID-19 outbreak, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics implemented six new diagnosis codes into the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). Hence, this segment is expected to record growth in the future.
North America is Expected to Show Large Share in the Market Over the Forecast Period
The medical coding market in North America is estimated to hold a large share during the forecast period, owing to technological advancements and improved healthcare infrastructure in various countries in this region. Escalating demand for coding services and the high demand for streamlining hospital billing procedures due to the growing number of chronic diseases, coupled with strategic initiatives taken by the market players in the region, boost the growth of the market in the region.
The growing burden of chronic diseases in the different countries of the region is also contributing to the growth of the market. For instance, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 1,918,030 new cases of cancer in the United States in 2022, which would create demand for streamlining hospital billing procedures and thereby drive the growth of the market.
The strategic initiatives taken by the market players are also propelling the growth of the market. For instance, in October 2022, WELL Health Technologies Corp., a Canadian organization, entered into an agreement to acquire Cloud Practice Inc. and three clinics from CloudMD Software & Services Inc. In October 2022, RBC acquired MDBilling.ca., which is a cloud-based platform that automates and simplifies medical billing for Canadian physicians.
Thus, owing to the abovementioned factors, the market studied in the North American region is expected to project significant growth over the forecast period.
