Health Care At Home Plans To Raise Rs 100 Crore To Expand Footprint

Health Care At Home India, the home-based specialty healthcare company promoted by the Burman family of Dabur Group along with the founders of UK-based Health Care at Home, is in talks with a set of venture capital and private equity companies to raise at least Rs 100 crore for its next phase of expansion. The company, which is planning a pan India presence by setting up its teams in almost all cities in the next 4 to 5 years, would also double its staff strength to some 1,200 by 2020. HCAH may also enter the international markets as well by proposed expansion.  

A home healthcare provider with a multitude of services ranging from routine procedures like injection administration to home chemotherapy, home ICU services and even maternity services pre and post natal, also currently provides drug delivery services maintaining a full-fledged cold chain logistics for the specialised therapies within its services. India as a market that has witnessed lot of traction in the home care segment in the last couple of years due to rise in old age population and the general progress in economic conditions and healthcare awareness, is also currently attracting increased investor interest. The market has seen at least half a dozen new organised players entering this space of late.

"There is an increased investor interest in this space as home care market in India holds tremendous growth potential. We have got very positive response from several VC players already," said Vivek Srivastava, CEO and Board Member, Health Care at Home India Pvt. Ltd, in a recent interview with BW Businessworld.

While there are many home care players currently offer post hospitalisation care, HCAH’s speciality services make it different from others as it sets up ICU at home and provides home cardiac care, home oncology services along with post surgical care, pulmonology and physiotherapy services- over diverse categories.

"At Health Care at Home India, we understand how monotonous hospital visits can be and one of our key aim is to ensure that patients a-z medical needs are resolved sitting right at home," says Srivastava.


"What sets HCAH apart from players in its segment is the fact that it provides a service, complete with equipment, attendants as well as paperless documentation similar to any hospital, as opposed to just a staffing solution," he added.

As a joint venture backed by the founders of the Health Care at Home, UK, HCAH also currently looks to bring significant value to the healthcare industry and the home health service sector by drawing synergies and lending support to existing organizations. The company, according to Srivastava, carries out roughly 5000 home visits in a month and its cost per patient currently ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 20,000 per day.

Apart from the issues like old age population and the comfort of care at home, the home-based healthcare has also proven cheaper than typical hospitalisation costs in the corporate specialty hospitals, which is on the rise in the country due to inadequate public healthcare services.

"Our ICU and oncology based services are typically 50 per cent cheaper than those provided in hospitals. Roughly our services are 60 per cent cheaper than the respective services in hospital. With regard to long term care, readmission rates and hospital acquired infection, home care is roughly 90 per cent cheaper than the hospital care," says Srivastava.

According to a 2014 report by consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), India’s home healthcare industry, which consists of home-based medical devices and home services, was worth $2 billion and it has been growing at 20 per cent a year.