When I sit down with my healthcare clients, I often hear the same concerns: they’re being asked to do more with less. Not only that, they’re asked to do it faster, more efficiently and more securely. Healthcare clients that manage in-house print operations (inplants) are concerned that existing systems are stretched thin. These go beyond operational headaches and include risks that can impact compliance, cost, and most importantly, the member experience.
I have spent many years helping healthcare payers manage their print and digital communications in this very complex and high stakes environment. Juggling regulations, tight deadlines and the pressure to do more with fewer resources means that these healthcare payers are now looking beyond their implant for strategic support, which includes offloading overflow work and putting a solid disaster recovery plan in place.
In this blog, I want to share what I’ve seen work well, why outsourcing is gaining momentum among healthcare payers and how it can support operational resilience, compliance, as well as member experience.
- Reduce Risk and Ensure Continuity with DRaaS
When your operations depend on delivering time-sensitive communications, like Explanation of Benefits (EOBs), ID cards, or enrollment packets, a disruption can have serious implications. Natural disasters, facility outages, or even localized system failures can bring your print operations to a halt.DRaaS isn’t just about checking a compliance box. It’s about ensuring your members continue to receive critical information without delay or error, even when the unexpected happens. At OSG, our DRaaS capabilities are designed to mirror your output seamlessly. We regularly test, validate, and update your workflows, so if a switchover is needed, we’re ready to act fast and maintain SLAs.
Having a trusted DRaaS partner also helps reduce the burden on your internal teams. They can focus on their day-to-day operations without worrying about maintaining a secondary location, redundant systems, or backup infrastructure.
- Handle Peak Volume Without Straining Your Inplant
Healthcare payers have seasonal and situational spikes in member communications. Think open enrollment, annual notices, and regulatory mailings. If your inplant is already running close to capacity, absorbing that additional volume can put your operations at risk.That’s where overflow support comes in. With a flexible partner, you gain immediate access to scalable print and mail resources that can pick up the slack when you need it most. As an overflow partner, we are here to complement your implant rather than replace it.
By outsourcing select jobs or high-volume periods, you can avoid expensive equipment upgrades, reduce overtime labor costs and meet deadlines without sacrificing quality or compliance. And as a trusted partner, we operate with HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST-certified processes, so you can trust that your data and member information are always secure. - Improve Speed, Accuracy, and Tracking
During many conversations, the biggest aversion to outsourcing is being able to track and monitor mail status, delivery dates and job approvals. As a print service provider that focuses on being able to take on this work seamlessly, we’ve invested heavily in modern infrastructure and intelligent workflows so you don’t have to. That means faster turnaround times, real-time tracking, and advanced error detection systems that catch issues before they become problems.
For healthcare payers, this translates to more accurate communications and a dashboard with all the tracking information you need at your fingertips, along with the ability to import that information into your own systems. - Free Up Your Teams for More Strategic Work
Maintaining an inplant is labor-intensive. Between managing supplies, troubleshooting machines, training staff, and handling audits, your internal resources are often tied up in the day-to-day, which is why being able to offload some of that work for overflow or disaster recovery, can keep your teams running as they should.Plus, as a partner, we work as an extension of your team. with access to a dedicated team that understands your business and your regulatory obligations.
Partnering for Peace of Mind
Outsourcing overflow or DRaaS doesn’t mean giving up control. It means being smart about how you manage risk, cost, and capacity. It means having a reliable partner who understands the complexities of healthcare communications and can deliver on time, every time.
If you’re a healthcare payer looking to extend the capabilities of your inplant without overextending your team, or if you simply want a solid backup plan you can trust, I’d love to connect. Let’s build a solution that works for your operations, your compliance needs, and most importantly, your members.
