Home Country Treatment With eExpedise

As per the reports, Indian Healthcare and Medical Industry were estimated worth the US $3 billion in 2015. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 200 per cent by 2020, hitting $9 billion by 2020. One of the major contributors to this growth is Medical tourism.  

India has moved from 5th place to 3rd place as a preferred medical travel destination. The number of medical travellers has increased in the last four years. People are coming from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Maldives, Yemen and Kenya for their treatment. But it is not restricted only to the major diseases but for dental and cosmetic treatment as well. Ayurveda and Alternative Medicines Industry have also seen growth.
 
BW Businessworld interacted with Amit Sharma, Founder and CEO of eExpedise Healthcare, who is focusing on quality and affordable Health & Medical treatment for international as well as domestic customers. During the interaction, Sharma explained his Business model, current technology, investment, etc. 

Here is the excerpt:
 

Question: Can you elaborate on your business model?
 
Amit Sharma (AS): eExpedise Healthcare started a campaign called “Home Country Treatment” and approached international insurance companies to attract NRI population who is working or studying outside and covered with local / International insurance of the country.  As its name suggests, eExpedise team convinces the ex-pats population who is getting treated aboard to come to its Home Country and get the treatment done in their home country. For this eExpedise has signed a contract with International insurance companies and work on promoting Indian Healthcare Industry amongst the NRI and Indian insured with them. eExpedise has a bargain with Insurance companies and covers all the expenses of the member who agrees to travel to the home country for medical treatment. This is a win-win situation for all the stakeholders, while insurance companies save up to 40 per cent of the Incurred Claim Ratio (ICR), the patient gets to meet the family and get the best care and also save on the sum assured for future.
 
The company has expanded its healthcare network in 40 countries and working on replicating this idea for other nationals as well subject to availability of the treatment in their home country or diverting them to India. The company charges service fee from Insurance companies for all Insurance patients and for medical travellers, administration and marketing fee is charged with Hospitals.
 
Q: Which technology is helping you to build your startup?
 
AS: eExpedise has developed a unique technology CRM to manage the complete life cycle of the patient and ensure complete transparency in the process. The software has been designed to manage all the 4 stages of medical treatment - query stage, pre- hospitalisation stage, hospitalisation stage and post hospitalisation. Each stage is interlinked in the system and eliminates any manual miss. The system has real-time communication inbuilt and also captures all the interactions with clients. The system has multiple interacts as per the users like patient interface, insurance interacts, hospital and user interface and each stakeholder can access the information by login into the system.
 
The customer gets access to the entire range of healthcare service providers and services at just click of a button, he can compare the cost of treatment from multiple hospitals in the same city or from multiple cities or from multiple countries and decide as per budget. The system is such an intelligent system, based on the residence of the patient, it suggested the preferred country for medical travel to him based on the travel distance, climate and geographical conditions and other parameter and algorithms entered in the system. The system uses AI and displays the required information related to his health conditions, dos & don'ts for the particular element (Treatment) and work as a guide and friend. The system is integrated with providers and insurance companies of over 30 countries and is being currently used for medical management, wellness and preventive care.
 
Q: What is your USP?
 
AS: The health & wellness care industry is currently dominated by doctors or agent / medical facilitators, patient today goes to the hospital either recommended by his treating doctor, family & friends or agent. Today patient does not have the convenience to choose or compare the treatment plan or cost other details. He is left with limited choice and end of getting the wrong treatment or paying a higher amount. eExpedise was formed with a view to ensuring transparency, ease and enhance customer experience during the Medical treatment lifecycle including the introduction of technology in service delivery process. The Organisation manages the complete lifecycle of the patient and enables a patient to choose right & quality healthcare provider as per the budget, preference and expertise. The company has designed its product & services in such a way that it works as a one-stop-shop for all medical & healthcare.
 
Q: What has been the challenges and opportunities in the last three years?
 
AS: Healthcare companies in India are going through a difficult phase as the industry is under transaction phase. The industry is un-organised and unregulated at the same completely dominated by individual agents and interpreters. Majority of these agents and interpreters do not have access to wide network thus refer patient to the provider which offers them higher pay-out ignoring the customer's preference and requirement. At the same time, they are unable to manage the complete life cycle of the patient professionally due to lack of resources and capabilities. Government has started focusing on this segment and has taken various initiatives including the introduction of accreditation for medical travel facilitators and companies involved in this business.  
 
Q: If we talk about the investment, how much you have generated till now?
 
AS: This business model needs minimal investment but credibility and relationship in the industry as this directly deals with the Health of the patient. The patient completely relies on your suggestion and any mishap due to unprofessional approach and lack of quality of care can destroy the business. Thus, we have invested in Technology and acquiring subject matter experts and professionals for managing complete patient lifecycle.
 
We have invested over 40L till date and the majority of this is on Human resources and development of Technology platform for managing patient lifecycle including Service Delivery Process. Currently, eExpedise Healthcare has an annual turnover of INR 10 crore and by 2020, we intend to get the turnover to INR 20 Crores.
 
Q: Did you tie up with any company or are you planning to do the same in the near future?
 
AS: Currently, we are working with 25 Insurance companies and by 2020 be present in over 50 countries and work with all Big International companies and Government Agencies. 

Q: What is the need and future of this sector? How do you plan to approach it? 

AS: We plan to become the largest global provider of Technology and Healthcare Service Provider under one umbrella.
In a short span of time, we have established ourselves as one of the leading Healthcare company across the globe. While we continue to focus and expand ourselves in the healthcare vertical our focus will also be to strengthening our wings in wellness care and Ayurveda Industry  
In the next 18 months, we plan to expand our self in an additional 25 countries and establish our Medical centres & Wellness centres in various countries and become a global player.