Trustworthy hospital networks and insurance incentives can keep quality healthcare affordable in India, said Practo Health Co-Founder Shashank ND at the ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0 in Mumbai today. While putting the health of the nation at the central agenda, he also highlighted the challenges and opportunities in healthcare during the Summit.
“Two things where inflation is high in the UK and the US are healthcare and education. As the country develops, the costs get higher. In India, people go to hospitals which they trust, leading to a monopoly of a few and high costs.
To address this, it is essential for a large network of hospitals to establish and showcase trust. Also, most countries have managed to keep healthcare affordable with the help of insurance. The insurance companies can incentivize hospitals that keep their prices low,” said Shashank ND, Co-Founder, Practo Health.
A college dropout, Shashank earned success early in life with Practo. Inspiring audiences with his journey during a session on “Online Lifeline: Making Healthcare Accessible,” he shared how lack of accessibility and opaqueness in healthcare led to him coming up with idea of Practo Health.
“It was a time when I asked the doctor for an email instead of a printed prescription for my father’s treatment; he told me his software restricted him from sharing an email. So I made software for him, and he was very happy. And today we have 20k doctors using that,” he said.
He further added, “Everyone wants to live longer and healthier, and that’s what they need. I found healthcare to be very complex and opaque. The patients didn’t know about the prices and treatment, and accessibility to quality healthcare was a big challenge. If someone needed a breast cancer specialist, there were people who could do it, but that access or knowledge on treatments was missing. We focused on connecting these dots. And today we have over two lakh doctors, including their specialties and sub-specialties, on Practo Health, enabling a layman to navigate the complex black box.”
On the future of teleconsultation and online healthcare taking over in-person visits, he stressed a hybrid approach with a focus on treatment outcome, making the patient get better in the long-term.
The ABP Network’s ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0, spotlighting ‘The People’s Agenda,’ brought a confluence of ideas and ideators to a common platform, celebrating the country’s people and its plurality. The two-day summit hosted policymakers, cultural ambassadors, industry experts, celebrities, business leaders, economists, and leading luminaries to delve into the fundamental ideas of liberty, justice, equality, and diversity that define India, its society, culture, and politics. The meaningful deliberations on diverse topics had the brightest minds across sectors providing insights about the nation’s trajectory and its journey to become Viksit Bharat.
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