COLLABORATIVE HEALTHCARE

As we struggle to solve the Indian healthcare puzzle and try to bring to fore the optimal solution which can satisfy all the stakeholders- here is what I thought was one of the ways we could look forward to end this very emotive issue:-

The Problem :- The problem of the Indian healthcare is simple -the public system has a huge patient base but absolutely constraint capacity at facilities/equipment/personnel levels. The Private system has Efficiency/capacity at all levels but struggles at occupancies and low revenues - with many healthcare institutions hardly making money at PAT levels and hence struggle to stay afloat.This imbalance is causing sub-optimal delivery of healthcare solutions to the common man.

Why this situation:- This situation has been caused by issues across both the systems. In the government sector the issues are an abysmally low percentage of GDP allocation towards healthcare- resulting in absolute shortage of latest equipment,comparatively low salaries of doctors, a huge population who are not insured and also have low incomes and hence are driven en-mass towards free healthcare . As far as the corporate healthcare is concerned the issues are huge costs incurred for starting hospitals, buying new equipment, huge personnel cost , low occupancies and huge lag in getting money from panels-causing trouble at the cash flow level.

The Solution :- Unless there is a marriage between available capacity at the government sector with the available efficiencies of the corporate system our healthcare will keep suffering the imbalances which result in the entropy of the entire system to be very high, and hence keeping the system unstable. The collaborative approach that I hypothesise here would entail matching the available capacities of the corporate hospitals with patients at government hospitals at firstly prices which are rational and secondly payments which are made timely and without deductions. Rather then ex-post payments to private hospitals , Aadhar linked ex-ante payments should do the trick. A formulae where the citizens of this country have access to the best equipment and the finest talent in healthcare by the government pitching in to ensure that the working capital needs of the corporate hospitals should be a win -win formulae. On their part the corporate hospitals should ensure that for the poor population and those coming under this scheme- the prices are kept rational and just at the break even levels.The government could also help the corporate hospitals by helping them reduce costs by subsidising electricity , land cost for setting up hospitals and may be looking at other aspects of taxes etc and hence holding hands of the corporate to be successful in the long run. The collaboration need not end at the levels of these two entities-there is required a collaboration at the levels of vendors who would bring the costs lower to help in this cause. The society needs to collaborate by not demonising the private healthcare but by understanding the huge costs involved in setting up healthcare institutions, and also look at innovative ideas like crowd funding to help the poor of the society. There can be many more small small collaborative ideas which would drive efficiencies and reduce costs and hence millions of people across this country would then have access to optimal healthcare

A step towards this model of collaborative healthcare is a win -win model for everyone and can pave way for a long term solution of the healthcare mess that we find ourselves in. Would love to hear your views on the topic.