Post-Budget Quote on Ayushman Bharat by Kaustav Ganguli – Managing Director (Healthcare), Alvarez & Marsal

New Delhi, February 02, 2018:  “Ayushman Bharat has taken off well since its launch in September with more than 1 crore e-cards issued and 10 lakh beneficiaries availing treatment in the last 4 months. However, it is too early to pass judgment on the success of Ayushman Bharat. We believe, there are primarily two teething issues on the ground that the government needs to address proactively – pricing of services and payment cycles. Leading corporate players are circumspect about empanelling for Ayushman Bharat as pricing for most packages are significantly lower than that of comparable state scheme packages. Our analysis shows that in a vast majority of specialty areas , Ayushman Bharat pricing is amongst the lowest between comparable packages. Unless the government takes a renewed view of pricing, large private players may choose to opt out and this will prevent patients from availing themselves of specialized services that only the larger corporate players can provide. Private healthcare players have also had a mixed experience so far with respect to on-time payment receipt for Ayushman Bharat. The program commits payment resolution within one month; however, on-the-ground experience has been different in many cases with payment cycles stretching to 4 months.”

Kaustav also adds, “While cost of cardiac stents, orthopedic implants and other drugs have been capped, that has had very little impact in lowering overall patient pay-out for procedures. Most private hospitals have adjusted services pricing upwards to mitigate the negative revenue and margin impact of drugs and devices pricing control. Unless the government takes a holistic view of pricing regulation for services and DCI (drugs, consumables and implants) together, impact on overall patient payout would be limited.”

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)