New age healthcare gets going

The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) has now changed the draft regulations for third party administrators to permit sale of healthcare products. This has come as a welcome relief for the local as also overseas managed healthcare companies to go ahead with their almost -worked- out strategies and investment decisions.

Overseas companies:

Also considering the fact that the healthcare industry is only beginning to exploit the vast potential and also since there exists no cap on foreign direct investments, a number of companies for instance Aetna, Blue Shield, Cigna, Sloan Lake, Care Inc, Blue Cross etc are planning joint ventures with Indian outfits to set up shop.

Economical covers:

The 7000 crore healthcare industry has only begun to see activity. So far thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the government run hospitals, the unorganised system of administering medicare quality of service left much to be desired. Henceforth policyholders will be provided with better service and economical covers that will take care of the whole aspect of healthcare inclusive of primary, secondary and tertiary care, to be hopefully provided under one roof saving the policyholder the trouble of running from pillar to post for treatments.

Several services:

Policyholders can in the near future, look forward to a cashless hospitalisation system; a 24-hours hotline service in case of an emergency, claims, critical care services including admission in ICU; doctor on call for visiting corporates and institutions to provide consultancy; managed care programmes in preventive care, child care and old-age etc among others.

Expanding existing network:

Another advantage of such a changed scenario will be the low cost, coupled with quality covers that will encompass even the lower sections of society. Ican Medicare, Paramount Healthcare, Sedgwick Parekh etc among others will now work on expanding their network. Already Ican has drawn up plans to set up six more offices and a few others will soon join the fray to ensure a better treat for the policyholder.