Swasth India is a social business working towards improving the health of low-income segments in urban and rural India.

Our Mission is “To ensure access to affordable and quality health services to 10 million low-income people by 2018.

Our mission is driven by the motto "Health for all". India's healthcare scenario has seen significant improvements, enhancements and innovations in the past few years along various dimensions - expanding network of private healthcare providers, a competitive pharmaceutical industry and dynamic health insurance products. We aim to extend these benefits (which, till now, have been accessible and affordable only to the high-income segments) to the low-income segments.

Problem

According to WHO, 32 million people above the poverty line go below the poverty line every year in India because of a health event. Preventing people from going into such poverty is a dire need of Indian society. <br><br> Swasth India has spent 3 years conducted extensive field research, healthcare delivery operations and healthcare financing to understand the health management needs of the low-income group segment. These operations and research have covered ~250 villages across 7 states, and urban slums inhabited a population of ~1 million people. Swasth India concluded that the primary causes of healthcare related destitution are: <br> <ul> <li>The overall system in financially inefficient, for example most commonly used drugs cost 25-30% to manufacture and another 10-15% to deliver to the retailer level.</li> <li>Unavailability of "fitting" financing options for healthcare results in very high out-of-pocket expenditures </li> <li> Unavailability of good quality low-cost primary health-care results in very high expenditure of secondary and tertiary healthcare.</li> </ul> <br>More detailed insights and learning for our experience can be found at: http://www.swasthindia.in/insights.php and http://www.swasthindia.in/learnings.php <br> Therefore, there is a need for a sustainable, scalable, high-quality and low-cost model for delivering healthcare to low-income group population in India.

Solution

Swasth India has come up with a sustainable, scalable, high-quality and low-cost model for delivering healthcare to low-income group population. We operate healthcare centers as a one-stop shop for all health needs of a low-income group family. <br> In our model, families in the community are given free membership cards, which avails them: <ul> <li>consultation by a qualified doctor at Rs 30 </li> <li>drugs at a discount of 30-40% on the market price </li> <li>tests at a discount of 30-40% on the market price </li> <li>referral to our empanelled secondary or tertiary hospital, offering a 30-40% discount to our members.</li> <br>We have successfully operated this model at 7 centers operating in slum communities of western Mumbai, having covered ~12,000 people, without any compromise on quality. Also, we have accommodated all the necessarily equipment, inventory and staff for a center in a 150 sq-foot self-designed layout, resulting in lower rents. <br>The above services operate on a for-profit basis, giving the model sustainability. Services not having a business model operate on a not-for-profit model. For example, we conducts health camps funded by donations, for school-children, detecting frequent problems like haemoglobin deficiency and week eyesight. Free preventive remedies, such as iron supplements, are provided and results are followed up.

Example

There can be numerous examples of how the Swasth India model makes a difference to the community. For example, as our centers are a one-stop shop, our member families don't have to spend on pharmacies or pathology labs. Further, in cases like malaria, which are typically referred for hospitalization by other general physicians, are managed at our centers by giving necessary day-care such IV at the bedding facility at the center itself. Thus the annual costs of health-care for the entire family comes down by 30-50%. We have demonstrable cases in which the healthcare costs of our member families have come down by 30%. <br><br> Live statistics related to savings are available at http://www.swasthindia.in/status.php

Marketplace

The healthcare marketplace has many kinds of players: healthcare providers, insurance companies, drug manufacturers and suppliers, community aggregators like NGOs, government agencies, technical and medical educators etc. We see none of them as competition. We position ourselves as someone who implement models that can bring benefits of the services offered by these players to the low-income group segment in sustainable, scalable, high-quality, and affordable way. We have arrived at a model which involves operating the one-stop last mile delivery center, and therefore can be thought of as a healthcare provider. However, we do not perceive other providers as competition, and are always open partnering with anyone as long as the benefit reaches the end customer.