Decoding the Cost of Healthcare Software Development For Your Business

As the world moves towards increased digitization, healthcare is becoming more and more costly. In fact, the two-pronged benefits of healthcare software solutions are increased accessibility for customers and increased revenue for hospitals and physicians.

Businesses are looking to invest in any form of healthcare software solution to ensure that they are part of this growing segment and cater to consumers who now prefer using healthcare software for their needs.

If you’re looking to reap the benefits of digitized healthcare, you need to understand the costs and investment involved in developing healthcare software solutions. Equally important is to know healthcare software development costs regardless of choosing to outsource the development or hire an in-house team of software developers.

The healthcare software development cost depends on the following factors:

1. Type of platform [web or mobile]
2. Type of features
3. Regulatory requirements
4. Security and compliance requirements
5. Automation, artificial intelligence, and investments in hybrid or new technologies
6. Number of languages
7. Number of countries in which the app will be launched
8. Translation cost if multilingual [Google Translate services do not work beyond a point]
9. Content creation services
10. Content marketing services
11. Paid ads and digital marketing services
12. Support and maintenance services
13. Server and infrastructure costs
14. Human resource costs
15. Administrative costs

The above 15-pointers consist of all kinds of cost-related factors that are not directly dependent on healthcare app development but are essential to get noticed in the market.

Additionally, instead of building a full-fledged healthcare software solution, you can choose MVP development from an experienced agency.

Features that can be included in a healthcare mobile app development

During healthcare mobile app development, you should have the following essential features included as part of the project: –

1. Customer profile – Patients or members should be able to create their profile using mobile OTP authentication or email and then add mandatory HIPAA information like giving consent, adding caregivers, other contact details, and other things as and when required.
2. User board – Users can view messages from providers and upcoming appointments with doctors
3. Text chat – The user can accept an appointment and chat with a doctor and share records and also receive prescriptions
4. Search and book doctors or providers – Members/customers should be able to search doctors by specialty, area, zip code, and other search factors like ratings, view, and book appointments.
5. Payment and notifications – For every member interaction, the mobile app must show notifications like payment confirmation, appointment confirmation, prescription received notification and other notifications. The app must support the in-app purchase.
6. Doctors or providers – Doctors can create their profiles and add their appointments, join text chat, send prescriptions, join follow-ups, and respond to ratings and reviews.
7. Advanced features – Features like remote patient monitoring by connecting the mobile app with healthcare devices, video chat, chatbots, audio chat, and map features to find the nearest doctor for physical appointments are some of the advanced and good-to-have features. Along with this, online pharmacy search and medicine order is also a good feature to solve all major pain points.

Related : Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring

Healthcare software development cost:

– Roughly, developing the above set of basic features will cost around $20,000-$30,000.
– At an hourly rate, you can hire a healthcare software development company at a $15-$25 per hour rate and build your project using a pure agile method.

It’s important to note that these rates are for IT development and testing costs and do not include post-development maintenance or infrastructure costs. You can reduce budget and costs after discussing with a healthcare software development company.

The healthcare software development cost also depends on the type of mobile device. If you are launching an app for Apple, then you need to factor in devices like iPad, iPhone, and MacBook.

For Android devices, you must also think in the same way [Phone, Tablet, and laptop]. It is not easy to predict the overall cost. However, you can expect that costs will be low if you work with an offshore healthcare app development company that has got experience in working with healthcare apps and can deliver a quality product with the best performance.

This is all to do with a mobile app. However, how much can it cost to develop a web version? To answer this, we will explore different types of healthcare apps below: –

1. Telemedicine healthcare app development – A telemedicine app will provide an option for patients and doctors to connect and improve health outcomes without worrying about geographical conditions. By using the chat medium, it is easy to discuss and share issues, reports, and prescriptions along with follow-ups to ensure that nothing is missed and health outcomes are always taken care of. Other features include ratings, online payments, online appointment bookings, video conferencing, and remote patient monitoring.

Related : Telemedicine App Development Services

The healthcare software development cost of telemedicine healthcare apps ranges from $12000-$20000 or $15-$20 as an hourly rate.

2. Telehealth healthcare app development – The app contains the same features as telemedicine. However, businesses can integrate the lab portal, lab tests search and booking, and report generation in this app. Other features include smart report generation, medicine booking, and the option to find a pharmacy nearby.

The healthcare software development cost of these apps ranges from $12000-$20000 or $15-$20 as an hourly rate.

3. Remote patient monitoring solutions – With additional options like a chronic care management system to ensure that patients enter their data in real-time and doctors can approve or give timely advice or care, remote patient monitoring adds an extra layer of real-time care. The care management can be automated by integrating devices with normal vital ranges and sending alarms to doctors if the vitals extend the normal limit.

The healthcare software development cost of these apps ranges from $20000-$25000 or $15-$20 as an hourly rate.

4. Patient engagement solutions – With all the features concentrated on ensuring that patients receive their medicines, and lab reports on time with an option to book them, the patient engagement solution is one of the popular healthcare app development options.

It will cost around $15000 or $15-$20 as an hourly rate.

5. EHR or EMR solutions – Integrating patient records, payers, providers, and administration in one system with RESTFUL API solution is the new norm as all the stakeholders in the healthcare segment use different systems and it’s difficult to build a new system and copy all the data in one system.

It’s advisable to create one central system that can provide a feed of patients’ claims, prescriptions, medical records, provider bills, admin tasks, doctors’ pending appointments, payer responses, claim settlements, reimbursements, and more in one interface. Everything is controlled by permission and designed based on HL7 and HIPAA standards.

The healthcare software development cost of these apps ranges from $20000-$25000 or $15-$20 as an hourly rate.

Also Read : Benefits of Buy Hospital Automated Prior Authorization Solution

Other factors affecting the cost of healthcare app development are:

#1. In-house vs outsourced projects – Healthcare organizations looking for healthcare app development have two options: Either hire an in-house team of software developers or outsource to a healthcare software development company.

While hiring an in-house team gives you greater control over the development process, it requires technical expertise to pull the development process.

On the other hand, outsourcing to a custom healthcare development company is a great option if you’re looking to keep your development costs under control. It saves you the hassle of hiring and vetting an in-house team. Healthcare IT solutions company like Knovator Technologies is well-versed in regulatory compliance that the development entails along with full-cycle software development.

#2. Development time – A basic healthcare software solution with a simple design and without third-party integration can be developed in a couple of months. Naturally, in this case, the cost of development would be low compared to a feature-rich complex software.
Healthcare software with patient data needs encryption, third-party integrations and more features to process data can take upwards of 6 months. This entails planning, development and deployment, adding to the development costs.

#3. Team size – One aspect that will have a huge impact on the healthcare software development cost is the experience and skillset of the development team. A large team with experienced software developers will reduce the development timeline.
Outsourcing healthcare software development to a specialized agency like Knovator Technologies has the benefit since it gives you the flexibility on team size as per project needs. We have a preexisting team of dedicated developers who have already collaborated on projects to deliver better results effectively.

#4. Scope of the project – The project scope can be variable, depending on the feedback from stakeholders.
Alternatively, you can decide that the software needs additional features later on, and which may increase the related software development cost.

Hire a healthcare software development company that uses agile methodology and develops smaller iterations in sprints that last from 2-4 weeks. It is ideal where the scope is variable and keeps healthcare software development costs in check.

#5. The complexity of the software – There are three categories: tech complexity, design complexity and feature set complexity.

In addition to the features you choose in healthcare app development, the development costs should take into consideration health APIs.

These APIs perform an array of functions including facilitating healthcare data, interoperability and maintaining and storing health records along with processing payments.

Furthermore, if you want your software to be connected with medical devices or need to use AI and ML to conduct data analysis, the software healthcare development cost would be higher compared to a simple patient-appointment booking app.

If you are looking to discuss and finalize a solution with the best costs and timeline, you can contact Knovator Technologies – a seasoned and experienced health solutions development company.