NRIs, who are willing to register with Bharatplanet for the service, will see their dependents in the country getting a Bharatplanet card. This card will facilitate entry of the dependent in around 120 best hospitals in the country with no questions asked.

Payment will be made online for the card. The card provides online insurance with no upfront payment required to be made by the dependent. Bharatplanet also ensures that all records of the patient are available which are sent online to the NRI. This would facilitate daily monitoring of the dependent if the latter is hospitalised.

After the NRI opts for the family card, Bharatplanet contacts the relatives here and does counselling on the usefulness of the service. In the event of the dependents not having anybody to take care of them in the hospital, Bharatplanet personnel will drop in from time to time to monitor condition and send back reports to the NRI.

Bharatplanet has tied up with Chaitram Mediclub, a Cochin-based health services company which claims to have devised the most comprehensive medical insurance policy available in the country. Chaitram had partnered with Oriental for the policy which offers maternity benefits, includes preexisting diseases etc. Bharatplanet will be paying the premium to the Chaitram-Oriental Insurance combine. For logistics and network management, it has tied up with Sedgwick Parekh, a health management company which has more than 120 hospitals networked and offers medical solutions to corporate clients (roughly 75,000 people).

Bharatplanet also has four help desks and is trying to get a toll free common number. The help desk and hospital authorities also guide the patient on optimising the policy rather than frittering it away on matters of lesser priority.

The cost of the card varies from $120 per person to $720 for six persons for a cover of Rs 3 lakh. According to Bharatplanet CEO T Chandramohan and director P Sundar, the service was bound to succeed as it was introduced after doing a customer survey among the NRIs as to their specific requirements.

While the current registered user base was 65,000, Bharatplanet projected a conservative figure of 5,000 for the new service and revenues of $1.5 million for the first year.