The Covid 19 pandemics have exposed the deep vulnerabilities and inherent gaps of India's healthcare system. The outbreak of covid 19 poised both a challenge and an opportunity for Indian healthcare startups. Despite several inherent challenges, startups promptly engage themselves and develop solutions for the COVID-19 applications in the areas of prevention, detection, disruption, management, and operational efficacy, and have provided innovations in medical goods and services. Also, we at Medicircle present to you the Healthcare Startup Series wherein we are interviewing the healthcare startups which have shined through in this pandemic.

Mr Nitin is a CEO and a co-founder of TrueCover in Mumbai. TrueCover provides a unique platform that enables a truly digital experience for the insurance consumer. Their dream is to make digital insurance a new normal. So TrueCover offers unique benefits to insurers, intermediaries, as well as customers to help create a truly digital experience for insurance customers. They endeavour to make the entire health insurance experience seamless for its consumers. 

Explaining their startup TrueCover, he says, "What we have been able to achieve so far is we have automated and digitised the entire policy management and the claims inside that up and an insurance company. Now the part that is missing is the input that comes from the hospital and how do we streamline that? Now because we come from the domain of insurance, we understand that you know, if the hospitals were to give data in a certain way, it will cut down effort at all levels and it can make everybody's life simpler. And that is where we want to collaborate with hospitals. So we are reaching out to other companies. We are talking to a couple of them at this point in time. And we are trying to see how we can sort of you know, integrate better"

We want them to really basically be able to scan, get their claim authorization done, get out as quickly as possible, make it very easy and seamless. That's our endgame. 

New Trends in Healthcare Insurances

Nitin Srivastava recognizes the fertile field of healthcare insurance and tells, "It is one of the most exciting fields right now. And not a lot of people realise but the health insurance premium in India is already at about $8.5 billion. This number is only growing at a very fast pace, expecting to reach three times over the next five years."

He notes, "COVID-19 has made the people look at health insurance a lot more seriously which they were neglecting previously. And this pushes a lot more people to go out and buy health insurance as they have realised that they cannot cover the care cost out of their pocket all the time. Another thing that I think is very interesting is this whole digital with the physical care delivery models combination." One can already see a lot of very exciting startups combining Insurance Policies with Services. So if they just go to a platform and purchase a health insurance plan, they have the entire services system, made of professionals, built around it. People are really looking for much more convenience. And I think that is a very big shift happening across.”

Adding to it, "The third thing that I think is still to happen in India is this whole op-ed coverage under health insurance plans, where bite-sized products are coming up where small ticket premium products are emerging. And I think that as we go forward into the future, the innovation that the startups are bringing will make it very convenient for consumers to have not just access to health care anywhere but also have it easily financed."

TrueCover's True Motives

Mr Nitin highlights, "Coming with an insurance background, we have seen the industry's problems and the pain from very close quarters. It is not just a consumer problem nor a broker problem nor hospital or insurer problem."

"With TrueCover we are trying to make the entire process simple, easy and transparent for all stakeholders. We have taken a platform driven approach where we have an interface for consumers that makes it easy for customers of insurance to understand the policy benefits. The second thing that we have done is we've digitised the policy contracts by using the innovative cutting edge technology solution. We convert every policy into what is called a Smart Contract. What it does is if input comes from the hospital, it automatically processes that input and converts that into a decision, before the insurance company or the TPA take a decision, within a matter of minutes."

He explains more by saying, "Traditionally, this process would take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, maybe even more, depending on how complex or how large the claim transaction would be. TureCover's endeavour is to make that real-time. So that's a start, what we want to eventually achieve is a real PayTM kind of an experience for lack of a better word, where a consumer goes into the hospital, they scan a code, they get their claim triggered, they get a decision very quickly. So they don't have to have the hassle of worrying whether their insurance will take care of them. That's why we got into this business. That's why we are here, we want to create that value proposition."

Covid changed Insurance Landscape

Mr Nitin mentions, "The biggest shift that COVID has brought about is the acceptance to Remote Care. Three years ago or four years ago, when telemedicine would be spoken about there were many people with cynicism surrounding it. But now if you see that is changing, and that is a big positive shift. And I think now there is a big change in consumer behaviour that's going to drive the industry in a very different direction. It is now on us to be able to deliver with these changes."

Moreover, he thinks, "there are going to be some very big shifts happening with respect to how health data gets transacted from one party to another. And we are excited about where we are because we think we'll be able to make connections happen between these transacting parties. And our intent is to make sure that you know, the end consumer games at the end. I think what COVID has really done is sped things up. It's been a catalyst of sorts for the whole digital adoption.”

Words to Young Entrepreneurs

For budding entrepreneurs, he expresses, "I would say the time is just right if you have a great idea and you think you can bring value to stakeholders, then just get in there. Second, you will have to hang in there, as there are no shortcuts, no quick route to success. As an entrepreneur, you need to have a lot of resilience, you need to have a lot of patience to basically stick it out if you have faith in your idea. And if you think you're creating value in the long run, you will eventually gain and you will eventually build up. Many people with experience are jumping in, they are beginning to see that there's an opportunity. And so they are joining hands with new age, young entrepreneurs who have a lot of passion and energy, and with that combination of experience and energy it is going to be great for the Indian startup ecosystem, particularly the insurance and health insurance space."

(Edited by Priyal Shah)

Contributed by: Nitin Srivastava