A resident of Bengaluru, India who has spent all her lifetime building the future of her kids is suffering from extreme pain in her knees joints for which she requires regular physiotherapy sessions. Due to her aggravating condition and excess weight she is unable to travel to a physiotherapist clinic. This is where home healthcare provider, Medwell Ventures, has proved to be a boon for her and for many others who are in a similar situation. This Bengaluru based healthcare start-up provides home healthcare services to many customers in major cities across India.

Patients apart from quality healthcare are also looking to get some ‘emotional support’ from their care-giver. In that context, start-ups in this space such as Portea and Pianta are trying to capture the eye of the consumers and gain market share.

Home Healthcare Market

According to WHO, the doctor patient ratio in India is 1:1674 which is way below the WHO’s prescribed ratio of 1:1000. India spends about 1.4% of GDP on healthcare which is half than China and nearly one-eighth of the developed nations such as Britain. Globally, home healthcare segment is 3-6% of the total healthcare market. Currently, the home healthcare services market in India around $5-$7 billion and is expected to rise to $10-$15 billion by 2020. Clearly, start-ups catering to this domain want to garb apiece of the growing pie.

Some of other companies providing home healthcare services are listed here.

Business Model of Home Healthcare Services

These start-ups are just not about sending a physiotherapist to your home but to provide levels of care which is speciality oriented. Currently, Portea is on top with the widest footprint in India but others are catching up swiftly. Medwell Ventures have a multidisciplinary team comprising of doctors, nurses, dentists, physiotherapists, and pulmonologists etc. which are trained to delivering quality health services in the comfort of patients home. Medwell has branches across Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai and is targeting a million customers and presence in 15 more cities in next 5 years. There are different payment models catering to a wide variety of consumers ranging from a yearly subscription fees, year-long health engagement plan to plans for specific visits by speciality doctors. The price varies depending on number of visits, speciality, and type of service and so on.

These services can be big boost to the Indian healthcare industry and can provide easy accessibility to quality healthcare not only to people in urban areas but also in rural parts. Government needs to support such initiatives in every possible way to achieve the target of becoming a ‘healthy India’.

Learn more about these home healthcare services through by blog here.