A large population of India is vulnerable to high medical expenses given the jump in inflation and significantly low healthcare insurance penetration. In certain cases, even an insurance holder ends up paying out of his pocket (OOP) on some medical expenses. To specifically help such cases, the recently-propped up healthcare fintechs provide services such as no-cost EMI loans, embedded insurance, etc.
Unlike health insurance which provides coverage of a certain amount in return for regular premiums (with conditions linked to waiting periods, diseases covered, etc), healthcare fintechs provide interest-free credit regardless of the type of treatment.
“We cover what insurance does not. A customer can avail of over 300 healthcare treatments and services across our network, including preventive and elective treatments as well,” said Jitin Bhasin, founder of SaveIn healthcare fintech.
“Ironically, people can buy a no-cost EMI washing machine, but they can’t buy a no-cost EMI for knee replacement operation. That is the problem that we wanted to solve by simplifying healthcare expenses,” said Chris George, founder of QubeHealth, a healthcare fintech.
The B2B startup provides two key products to the employees or members of its corporate clients. First is Qube Pay, a UPI-based payment feature and second is Qube Cash, which provides credit up to ₹10 lakh on zero interest for 12 months.
Credit line for medical treatments that are not covered by insurance
Easily available credit can be used for treatments that are not covered in health insurance plans like cosmetic surgery, hair transplant, etc.
When basic health insurance plans fail to cover certain treatments like the ones that don’t require hospitalisation, it is easier to unlock a customised credit line with the help of healthcare fintech services, according to Jatin Bhasin, SaveIn founder.
Underlining the vast coverage of healthcare treatment services by SaveIn, Bhasin said, “Several credit-card holders with SaveIn’s no-cost EMI plans can pay for their healthcare within 10 seconds and avail a loan for 3,6,9, and even 12 months on zero-cost EMIs.”
Customers can visit SaveIN partners near them and can avail of healthcare products and treatments at zero or low-cost EMIs.
Embedded insurance
Embedded insurance refers to insurance coverage which is integrated or included as a part of another product or service. QubeHealth is working to build a system where users can avail the benefit of customised embedded insurance while making a medical transaction, noted Chris George.
“When expecting parents will pay for maternity expenses with Qube Pay, they will get an embedded insurance product that essentially pays for all of paediatric care after the child is born,” said George while explaining the service which will be included in the Qube Pay app in future.
AI and development of digital health record
QubeHealth is in the process of utilising artificial intelligence for building predictive spending and pattern analysis. The AI-driven feature of the QubePay application would provide suggestions related to hospitalisation and healthcare based on the kind of health insurance plan that has been taken by its customer.
The company has rolled out this AI-led feature on a trial basis and will expand this service to a larger user base in future. The application will also provide suggestions based on medical history, which will be stored digitally in the form of e-reports.
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Published: 30 Apr 2024, 05:58 PM IST