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Survival Of The Fittest: Riding The Ayushman Bharat Wave In 2019

Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection mission, the world’s largest government-funded healthcare scheme was launched on September 23, 2018. Notwithstanding the potential political shakedowns of the election year 2019, the scheme uses the launchpad of earlier pilot schemes in various states to add steroids to the expected growth in healthcare in revenue, employment (jobs), scope of service, universal access and quality. The projected CAGR of 22 percent in Indian healthcare over the next 5 years by ASSOCHAM is a possibility – if the planned implementation of Ayushman stays the course. Any scheme that targets to serve massive volumes of people while setting up effective, efficient universal insurance/reimbursement coverage will disrupt our existing rickety healthcare structure. We already saw this happening in 2015–18 period, with tumultuous mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers in the healthcare sector. The births, deaths and re-incarnations of private healthcare providers are frequent, rapid and brutal. We at Arya Hospital Management Consultancy, continue to believe that any change is an opportunity and a massive, once-in-a-lifetime change like Ayushman Bharat is a massive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

To continue the surfing analogy- we also believe there will be many wash-outs in this manthan. In 2015–18 period, we have all seen the Darwinian evolutionary principle in play as the fittest flourish while the flabbiest go under. All anatomy books will tell you that form follows function, or in another context, your chosen karma must align with your chosen dharma for success. Therefore, any investments in new infrastructure, technology, training, network creation or manpower will be made to align with the correctly redefined delivery format for the individual provider. Arya’s strategy in 2019 is to help our client healthcare providers align their formats and functioning to quickly plug-into the growth of the nation’s healthcare market; mitigate risks due to sudden regulatory changes and shortages of key resources; ensure discernably superior access and quality of healthcare to their patients, as it will be the basis of differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. The charted seas of healthcare in 2018 have indicated to us that the 5 following areas need fresh conquests in 2019:

  • Forming correct, efficient, and mutually rewarding network between primary to tertiary healthcare.
  • All technology use in healthcare has to be a business solution, not a technology solution or vaguely conceptual added costs.
  • Lack of trained manpower and ill-structured medical education remain the most constricting factors in the market.
  • Ignorance of law if not a valid defense. Every healthcare provider will need help in getting compliant with local, state and central regulations, especially those related to safety.
  • Government’s rules and regulations to ensure basic quality and safety standards remain opaque, contradictory, and they are often applied as singular, post-mortem punishment devices rather than blanket (preventive) rules to ensure basic standards for all providers and establishments. This makes it difficult for patients to gauge or compare quality amongst different providers.

Superior medical outcomes and quality (which include ease of access and reasonable costs) are the most significant differentiator between various providers as far as patients are concerned. The providers who actually deliver on maintaining this superior quality can use it to attract and retain patients by projecting it via multiple low-cost conduits. Marketing healthcare is very different from marketing FMCG products or packages and intelligent providers will use these pre-existing, low-cost marketing routes to grow their market in 2019. 2019 promises to be an interesting time for Indian healthcare and we at Arya are excited to have this opportunity to help our clients sail smoothly and capture new worlds.

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