MedoPlus in partnership with Sa-Dhan: A faster way to find and finance healthcare

Of India’s population, some 68% – or 900 million people – live in rural communities. Yet 80% of healthcare infrastructure and manpower is located in urban areas, with residents there living five years longer, on average, than their rural counterparts.

Around 70% of healthcare services in India are delivered by the private sector, with an average expenditure of USD 9-18 for outpatient care and USD 450 for hospitalisation. While the WHO recommends a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:1 000, in India it is 1:1 800 overall and 1:20 000 in rural areas. Rural residents also lack information about which healthcare services are available and appropriate for a given condition. The combined lack of access and awareness leads to ineffective disease management as well as avoidable travel and medical expenses.

Purely digital solutions have limited potential to address these problems because most of the rural population lacks Internet and smartphone access and many conditions cannot be treated via remote consultation.

MedoPlus offers an online platform that connects rural patients with qualified healthcare service providers – including doctors, labs, and hospitals – from primary to tertiary care. Platform users can map symptoms to the appropriate type of practitioner, search nearby providers, book virtual or in-person appointments and tests, pay digitally at discounted rates and securely store their medical records. Given very low digital penetration in rural India, MedoPlus operates through a network of local health agents who assist patients in using the platform and help them navigate the healthcare system. Through this combined digital and physical approach, it helps villagers get treatment from a reliable medical provider, at affordable prices, as quickly and nearby as possible. 

Now MedoPlus is working to expand healthcare financing options, including providing access to health loans to pay for larger medical expenses. Specifically, it wants to partner with financial institutions to offer pre-sanctioned healthcare loans. Depending on financial and non-financial parameters such as family size and annual income, registered MedoPlus patients could be pre-authorised to access credit under more favourable terms. Pre-approval would enable quick disbursement, which is key to enabling timely healthcare access.

To design and launch this product, MedoPlus has established a partnership with Sa-Dhan, the largest association of microfinance institutions that provides capacity-building services and policy advocacy support to its members and is also a Reserve Bank of India (the central Bank) approved Self-Regulation Organisation for the microfinance sector. In collaboration with Sa-Dhan and its member institutions, MedoPlus is starting to co-design the healthcare loan product.

Targeting people living in rural villages with 2 000 to 3 500 residents, MedoPlus had 255 000 registered villagers in the state of Uttar Pradesh as of May 2023. An estimated 70% of these patients are poor, and about 90% are subsistence farmers who supplement their income through informal occupations such as street vending in nearby villages or towns.

The award grant will be used in two main areas:

• Health loan development: Part of the funding will be used to design, pilot, refine and finalise the health loan product for launch. This includes designing and finalising the pre-approval parameters, testing and refining the appraisal mechanisms and product design in a pilot with selected microfinance institutions, engaging more institutions for a broader roll-out, organising training programs for their staff, healthcare providers,  and village based health agents who will educate villagers on availability and usefulness of health loan products, and integrating MedoPlus’s technology platform with those of participating institutions.
• Agent recruitment and training: MedoPlus and Sa-Dhan have plans to establish more partnerships with microfinance institutions to leverage branch network to identify, recruit, train and finance new agents from their client base villages. Sa-Dhan will be involved in the organisation and monitoring of the training of agents selected through its members.

The copyright for all images displayed lies with MedoPlus in partnership with Sa-Dhan.