Rural India to Reap Benefits of E-health Services

HealthSprint, a healthcare IT company, in collaboration with various microinsurance service providers, is poised to offer e-health services to rural India. The company, through its e-health services offers transfer of healthcare data, appointments with specialists, health insurance coverage, Web-based searches for physicians, and online prescriptions and medical reports. In addition, the company offers customers' connectivity with neighborhood laboratories and pharmacies through technology-based systems. The company is planning to implement the rural Micro Health Insurance Project Network in a couple of months. Initially, it will cover rural areas in the states of AP, North Karnataka, and Gujarat. Through its e-health service, HealthSprint connects rural hospitals to those in metropolitan cities and rural customers with microinsurance companies. The platform is already operational in Bangalore, Mangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Vellore, and Delhi through major hospitals and nearly 10 health insurance companies. "We wish to touch 1 billion lives in the next 5 years and become one of the most credible Indian healthcare data exchange platforms in India to solve people's problems in a convenient and secure manner," said P. Rammohan, co-founder and MD, HealthSprint. The company has initiated an upgraded Web service platform that provides medical and financial information to payers and providers in the healthcare arena. It also offers state-of-the-art content management systems which plug in as a middleware in the portal. "This system enables the transformation of present paper-based claims management into electronic submission system in India", informs Brahmesh D. Jain, co-founder of HealthSprint.
"The idea is to provide a laptop, scanner and printer to rural hospitals that ensures effective communication of healthcare data to insurance companies and tertiary hospitals. We are expected to connect with nearly 1,000 hospitals, 2,000 pharmacies, and 2,500 diagnostic centers", added Jain. The company is setting up a venture with the SKS Microfinance, Hyderabad and Sewa Women's Co-operative Federation in Gujarat for e-health services. HealthSprint operates through a network of nearly 160 hospitals and has a partnership with Yos Technologies for the creation and maintenance of personal health records. The company operates health insurance information exchange system for patients, whose hospitalization expenses are settled directly by the healthcare insurance companies. In addition, it provides a corporate platform that allows firms to manage pre-employment and annual health checkups for employees online. "The company, through its portal, provides pre-policy health services and underwriting support to insurance companies. These platforms are communication-oriented and designed to enable transparency, speed, traceability and accountability across healthcare players," explains Rahul Shukla, co-founder and CEO, HealthSprint.

Source: CXOtoday.com