Icra, HSCC ink MoU for healthcare gradings

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Mumbai, Nov 20: ICRA has signed a memorandum of understandiing (MoU) with Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (India) Ltd (HSCC) for promoting the concept of grading of healthcare entities in the country. The endorsement follows efforts by ICRA and HSCC towards the evolution and fine-tuning of a grading methodology for healthcare entities. Initially, ICRA-HSCC propose to cover primary healthcare providers, secondary healthcare providers and tertiary healthcare providers under the grading framework.

ICRA-HSCC believe that institutionalising an objective grading system will not only benefit users of medical service but also set the pace for a more organised development of medical infrastructure in India. Further, ICRA-HSCC see the grading system eventually serving as an enabling factor for the emergence of an insurance-supported healthcare system in the country.

For healthcare service users, the gradings would serve as a composite indicator of service capability and facilitate making the price-value equation.

For healthcare entities, the gradings would help build patient perception, serve as a differentiation and benchmarking tool, improve access to capital — both institutional capital and alternative — funding and serve as an enabling factor for the emergence of an insurance-supported health system.

For lenders and investors, the gradings would serve as an objective indicator of the techno-financial risks involved in lending/investing, facilitate appraisal and risk management and enable credit monitoring.