Making OPDs cashless will ensure more people consider preventive healthcare as a priority

Mumbai, January 20, 2023 :

Making Out Patient Departments (OPDs) cashless will ensure more people consider preventive healthcare as a priority, according to HealthTech experts on the pre-Budget expectations on HealthTech sector.

“From an affordability perspective, OPD insurance is an area that needs greater attention. It will encourage people to consult providers earlier to avoid health complications. Provisions towards the same is something we are looking forward to as a part of the pre-budget expectations” explained Sanjay Vinayak, founder, Connect and Heal.

“While Ayushman Bharat could make all of it possible, the execution requires greater/improved private-public partnership (PPP). We look forward to announcements in Budget 2023 towards making this a reality,” Vinayak added.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Connect and Heal founded by Sanjay Vinayak, Elwinder Singh, and Galveender Kaur in 2016, is a healthcare startup providing holistic outcome-focused, patient-centric care. Through virtual and in-person care anywhere, anytime, it strives to provide a care continuum to its users. Its services include 360-degree integrated healthcare, including acute and primary care, emergency response, chronic care management, preventive health checks, investigative diagnostics, health management, hospital assistance, and concierge care.

"It is admirable that the Government of India has operationalized over 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers under Ayushman Bharat Mission (ABM) at the end of 2022. On similar lines, it would be great if the 2023 budget provisions for incentives to expedite the adoption of Ayushman Bharat tech stack. We believe that it will be a transformational move for the Indian healthcare ecosystem, enabling high-quality health outcomes for everyone,” Vinayak explained.

“The budget should focus on making access to healthcare easy and affordable. It can be done by encouraging the digital delivery of healthcare. So, we hope to see specific provisions for building digital infrastructure. It demands investment in improved connectivity, power supply, and other healthcare infrastructure,” he further said.

Commenting on forthcoming Union Budget 2023, Harshit Jain, MD, founder and global CEO of Doceree said, “In the year 2022-23, there has been a significant focus of the government towards strengthening the healthcare systems in India. Positive measures like ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account), National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) under the Prime Minister’s Ayushman Bharat Scheme and NITI Aayog’s report release on “Reimagining Healthcare in India through Blended Finance,” opened doors for improving accessibility and affordability in the healthcare system through digital amalgamation in the healthcare segment and enhanced influx of budgets, respectively. In the 2023-24 budget announcement, we expect the government to continue to build such initiatives and lay special focus on implementing the same on-ground with the support of even private players”.

“As smart healthcare initiatives such as telemedicine and e-health gain popularity in the country, the government can also look at giving financial impetus to the start-ups/service providers in this category, to further aid the adoption and enablement of new age technologies like AI and programmatic. This support can potentially boost the healthcare industry, while making the entire process more stable, efficient, affordable, and accessible”, Harshit Jain emphasized. Pharmabiz