Rachael Fay, an India-born Australian, returned to her country of birth about four years back to get an accurate diagnosis of her illness after an exasperating experience with five hospitals in Australia. Satisfied with the manner in which her illness was diagnosed and treatment administered, Fay turned her own learning into a business model by floating a second medical opinion service around three months ago. With this service, a prospective medical tourist or a domestic patient can take a second medical opinion online from reputed specialist physicians.
Vipul MedCorp, a leading domestic third party administrator is currently activating a second medical opinion service for BPO firm Convergys, which will be free for its 11,000 employees across the country. ?Most of our employees are in their 20s and hail from cities and towns away from the metros where they work. Medical service for themselves and their families is always an area of concern. With this service, they can scan and upload their medical reports and avail of a second medical opinion from the most reputed doctors in the field,? said Ashish Singh, director, HR, Convergys.
Vipul MedCorp has launched second medical opinion services in the Middle East for patients keen to get a diagnosis from reputed Indian doctors.
Vipul MedCorp has also tied up with Oman Air and Lulu Hypermarket in the Gulf to offer services to their employees.
?We have around 100 doctors on our payroll. In addition, we have created a network of around 60 specialists from leading hospitals like Apollo, Fortis and Max. A Convergys employee uploads all the relevant scans and sends it to a pre-determined database online. Our doctors vet them and send them to a specialist and get a diagnosis report prepared within 72 hours. If need be, a follow-up talk on phone or otherwise is also facilitated by our doctors,? said Rajan Subramaniam, CEO, Vipul MedCorp. The company is planning to roll out the service for retail consumers in the domestic market. Vipul MedCorp is in talks with many large IT, banking, financial and insurance firms and several multinational companies to evolve similar services for them. ?In our capacity as a TPA, we have felt a huge demand for this kind of service among MNCs in the last few years. The service is still at a nascent stage and is getting fine-tuned. We are also in talks with insurance players to roll this out as a value-added service for policy holders,? Subramaniam added.
In a Towers Watson survey released early this week, three out of four MNCs in Asia said promoting health in their workforce will be one of the top priorities in their HR strategy in the next two years. Fay, who has tied up with 500 specialists in Wockhardt Hospitals for her venture MyMedOptions claims that she has catered to over 2,000 patients in three months even though her branding and marketing initiatives are yet to take off.
?My initial target was Australia and I have received maximum response from there. In addition, a few hundred patients from Nigeria and surrounding African countries and about two domestic patients, from Delhi and Jaipur have been serviced,? Fay said. She adds that the grueling wait of weeks for an appointment for a general physician in countries like Australia is a trigger for patients to opt for the service. MyMedoptions charges $200 per consultation and is in the process of devising its fee structure for domestic patients. The doctors in the network get paid $100 per consultation. The same service would cost around $300-500 in the US, Fay adds.
While these services have picked up in the US in last few years, experts are divided on whether this model would take off here or not. ?This is a stream within telemedicine which the large hospitals are exploring to reach out to smaller towns and appeal to potential medical tourists from abroad. This ensures that the advice of best doctors reaches inaccessible places. Renowned doctor Devi Shetty is already experimenting with similar concepts. It is an interesting model and if the service providers can rope in the best professional names in their panel, the service would pick up,? said Monica Sood, head, healthcare practices, Feedback Ventures. However, Vivek Desai, founder of hospital consultancy firm Hosmac feels the concept has limited scope. ?The touch and feel aspect of physical examination is very important. It is a grey area, legally speaking, in certain cases where the doctor must feel the pulse and check the heartbeat before giving advice. Also, it remains to be seen how insurance firms react to this as covering this kind of service may mean they are paying for the inefficiency of the first doctor,? Desai said. However, a few other experts feel that in the long run, the maintenance and management of patients’ electronic medical records, a service that most of these players offer for free could actually aid insurance firms.