Ravi Virmani

Ravi Virmani
Founder and Managing Director, Credihealth

With an objective to create ease in availing medical services, Credihealth offers one of the largest hospital networks in India and helps people avail credible and reliable answers to their medical issues promptly, says Ravi Virmani, Founder and Managing Director, Credihealth in conversation with Rajbala of Elets News Network (ENN).

How is Credihealth helping patients to connect with the right hospitals and doctors?

Credihealth helps people deal with all non-clinical pain points during their hospital journey. It is a patient-centric marketplace for healthcare providing end-to-end services and where one can take detailed notes on treatments, access literature, book appointments, avail tele-consult and videoconsult facilities with doctors and calculate expenses.

We provide a priority appointment with the right doctor at no extra cost with the help of our in-house team of doctors. Additionally, each patient is assigned a medical expert who personally understands the medical symptoms and offers the most appropriate options. Also, they can book an appointment with the right medical specialist and also get a second opinion through the platform along with timely updates during the course of the treatment.

With Credihealth, the anxiety related to being overcharged for medical treatments is taken out of the equation. Patients can compare estimated treatment cost online, share reports and get treatment cost from top hospitals.

Patients can also avail video consult with top surgeons for second opinion exclusively on credihealth platform. For video consultation, one does not need to have any app download or fancy tech. Just get a link on SMS and video consult on the browser.

What is the USP of Credihealth?

The USP of Credihealth lies in its contribution to hospitalisation industry while other players in the e-healthcare services market solely focus on the stand-alone clinics, individual doctors and outpatient consults. Credihealth is not just a book appointment site, it provides personalised services to each and every patient at transparent pricing. Credihealth does not charge anything. Patients have to pay only to the hospitals. Credihealth guides patients through their entire hospitalisation journey making sure they go through minimum hassles during their tough times.

As an end-to-end solution provider in healthcare sector, how do you see advances in technology impact the healthcare industry and bringing transparency?

Healthcare platforms support patients through the entire experience of their hospital journey. Advancements in technology are bringing more transparency in this sector. Transparency in pricing and online appointment booking tools allow consumers to identify and use discrete, best-in-breed health services from a range of providers.

Technology has created transparency in the healthcare system which empowered people to make informed healthcare decisions, with the help of verified reviews, price comparisons, multiple treatment options and a belief that now theres a better way!

Tell us about Credihealths medical tourism initiative and its objectives. Have you initiated any partnership in this regard?

In order to tap the market of Medical Tourism and offer overseas patients world-class assistance in compliance with international accreditation standards, Credihealth with its specialised assistance aims to bridge the gap of the unorganised segment of medical tourism and protect international patients from getting cheated.

Through this initiative, Credihealth aims to eliminate the woes of international patients and bring about a positive insight in the Indian healthcare ecosystem. An overseas patient visiting India for the first time need not worry about the hospital formalities. Our assistance is not limited to treatments alone, we ensure that an overseas patient is able to conveniently plan the trip and avail of myriad benefits with the help of our services. We believe that the initiative will give a significant push to Indias medical tourism market and will be our contribution to the governments vision of making India a prime destination for medical and healthcare assistance.

Credihealth has associated with NABH and JCI-accredited hospitals of Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore to offer overseas patients world-class assistance in compliance with International Accreditation Standards.

Credihealth supports international patients by catering to all aspects of patient care management that includes pre-arrival requirements like VISA, scheduling appointments, accommodation, and discharge process. In order to provide stay and travel assistance to families, Credihealth has partnered with online hotel aggregators, Oyo and Treebo.

Credihealth has already tied-up with over 630 hospitals in tier 1 as well as tier II cities, out of which mostly are NABH and JCI-accredited hospitals. These hospitals are capable enough to offer overseas patients worldclass assistance in compliance with International Accreditation Standards.

Can you highlight the factors deserving credit for growth of medical tourism in India?

India is one of the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in the world. The high-skilled specialists in the country, combined with the lowest medical cost and world-class healthcare services are what make India a sought-after destination for healthcare serviceability.

Patients who travel abroad for medical treatment do so for a variety of reasons. Patients from developing countries look for treatment in India not available in their own countries. Thus, the medical tourism in India is seeing the arrival of patients from our neighbouring countries. The cost differential is huge; those who come from the western side of the world look for treatments that cost five to 10 times in their own country and rush to India also to avoid the huge waiting period for many routine procedures.

Quality of service and treatment the hospitals provide: India is famous for its large number of highly-qualified doctors. JCI (Joint Commission International) and NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) are two globally recognised healthcare quality standards and India has more than 30 JCI accredited hospitals and around 425 NABH accredited hospitals.

A visa-on-arrival proposal or E-visa for tourists from chosen nations which permits foreign nationals to visit India for 30 days medical reasons has also spiked up the market of medical tourism in India.

English is one of the official languages in India and almost universally adopted in the medical institutions. Most of the people in the country speak the language or are at least familiar with it. This makes the stay and the whole process much easier when compared to any other country. Also, hospitals and healthcare firms arrange interpreters or translators for patients from abroad to make them feel comfortable and easy while communicating.

What is the potential of medical tourism for future development and progress of the country?

The medical tourism industry in India has been growing at a rate of more than 20 per cent since 2011. At present, the industry stands at $3 billion. It is estimated that by 2020, the net worth of the industry is expected to touch or even cross the $8 billion mark.

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