India’s healthcare grapples with inherent challenges, particularly for small-to-midsized hospitals situated in non metro areas and in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Despite these areas catering to approximately 86% of medical visits in India, patients often embark on arduous journeys to larger branded hospital chains due to a lack of trust in local or small/medium facilities and the perceived necessity of advanced diagnostic and treatment capabilities.
Many times, patients struggle to cope with hefty bills and out-of-pocket expenses at these large facilities even if they have insurance or PMJAY (the coverage may not be sufficient for them in many cases). In fact, two-third of patients seek treatment in the costlier private sector, observed a 2021 NITI Aayog report.
“The majority of healthcare facilities in India (almost 90%) are small and medium unbranded establishments. The middle class is only aware of large branded facilities,” said Senu Sam, the cofounder of healthtech startup Mykare Health.
He further added that many small and medium facilities have experienced doctors, equipment and trained resources but struggle to build awareness and trust among patients.
Patients often have a few fundamental questions: Who is my doctor, and what is their expertise? How good is the facility? Who will guide me through the treatment process? And what are the costs involved?
A new crop of asset-light aggregators like Mykare Health is helping patients find these answers, while helping smaller hospitals with a steady patient footfall. They aim to build extensive provider networks and offer value-added services to make patient care more affordable and accessible. Essentially, these new-age healthcare startups are partnering with medical facilities (hospitals, clinics, labs/diagnostic centres and more) and networks of surgeons to bring quality and scale to the value chain for a patient-centric approach.
When Sam and other two founders built Mykare Health to help people looking for treatment, they had two clear goals in mind. First, patients, especially those from the middle income class, should have access and be aware of the experience and expertise of their doctors. Second, helping the hospital owners to unlock the chicken and egg scenario (patients want experienced doctors and doctors need footfalls).
However, the interconnected nature of these issues involving healthcare infra, cost and staffing critical components for handling short stay surgeries (or elective surgeries that are planned non-emergency procedures) requires a deeper plug-in rather than a simple fix. So, the healthcare startup zeroed in on a two-pronged strategy to make........