Impact of COVID-19 Crisis on the Healthcare Sector in India
Approximately 90 million people across the globe, have been infected with the novel Coronavirus. In India too, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen exponentially from a mere 500 in March 2020 to a whopping 10.5 million in January 2021. Despite lockdown measures and restrictions on travel across the nation and globe, there has been an unprecedented surge in Coronavirus cases. These numbers are continually increasing, as lockdown measures across countries are being relaxed.
Impact on the Healthcare Sector in India
Public policy measures laid down by the government bodies in India, have been aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. These measures have, however, significantly disrupted the operations of a majority of the companies, especially the ones in the healthcare industry. Sudden reductions in consumer demand, supply chain failures, and staff quarantine have raised serious concerns for healthcare organizations. For a majority of the companies, a revenue loss in today’s crisis has represented a permanent loss and put them under abrupt pressure of making provisions for liquidity and working capital.
Despite the current scenario being favorable to the healthcare companies, a majority of them have been left lurching owing to the negative impact of COVID-19 and unpreparedness for such an unprecedented event. There have been significant reductions in the footfall of patients for private hospitals including tertiary care, multispecialty, and specialty hospitals. This even applies to the diagnostics companies in the healthcare sector.
Such a sudden nosedive in business operations has harmed the ability of hospitals to sustain fixed costs. Some of the main factors impacting cash flow for hospitals include increased scheme revenues, decrease in medical tourism, debt repayment obligations, and inability to initiate revenue generation.
Transformation in the Healthcare Industry Due to COVID-19
COVID-19 has forced people to stay in the confinements of their homes. This has also caused a majority of the services including healthcare services to shift on to a digital platform. Owing to such a paradigm shift, doctors and patients both have started adopting telehealth consultations. This has however adversely affected the revenue generation of medical practitioners and hospitals, as compared to the pre-COVID era. That being said, the future of digital platforms for teleconsultations seems to be promising. People across our nation have begun to realize that healthcare services can be availed remotely, and are learning the use of digital mediums for the same.
In the post-COVID era, 50% of the patients are expected to return to conventional face-to-face interactions with doctors and medical practitioners. This is good news for hospitals and companies in the healthcare sector, as a major chunk of the population will continue to utilize the digital platform. Such a transformation in the healthcare industry is expected to compel companies to renovate themselves and their offerings, to better suit the changed consumer behavior.
The Changed View of Corporates
Corporate firms have understood the implications of a comprehensive health benefits plan, and are striving to provide the same to their employees. Companies have also begun to offer programs that assist their employees in maintain optimum health and at the same time perform better at their work. This heightened realization of the importance of health benefits will prove beneficial to both the organizations and employees alike.
The COVID-19 crisis and the accompanying digital transformation, has compelled people and organizations to see beyond touch and feel. The ongoing crisis in may ways has increased the confidence of people in digital healthcare systems and services. This is the very reason the demand for teleconsultations has been on the rise ever since the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. Corporate firms have also started procuring teleconsultation services for their employees, and are concentrating more on the distribution of digital health benefits among their employees.
Owing to work from home policies in organizations across industries and the world, many employees have chosen to go to their hometown and work from the comfort of their homes. In such a scenario, HR professionals are concerned regarding how to provide health benefits to employees irrespective of the cities or towns they are residing in. Providing a unified health benefits plan to employees is the biggest concern of HR professionals across companies.
In the bleak economic scenario of today, consumers and employees are reacting positively to the digital way of life. People are increasingly opting for teleconsultations to avoid going to hospitals to prevent themselves from acquiring the Coronavirus. Thus, the COVID-19 crisis has helped people and organizations break their respective boundaries and barriers, and venture into the digital world to provide and procure services. Consumers today are themselves, thinking of use cases that can assist them in conducting certain tasks or procuring products and services in a digitally able environment.
Strategies for Healthcare Sector
Since the advent of the COVID-19 crisis, there has been a lot of buzz around edutech and healthtech. The ongoing crisis coupled with digital transformation has increased the demand for edutech and healthtech services significantly. The rising importance of social distancing, and the urge to prevent oneself from the Coronavirus, has compelled people to opt for remote services. In many cases, people are taking efforts to learn about such services and avail their benefits.
The gestation period for both edutech and healthtech has been high, owing to the complexity of service offerings and the checks for compliance. Digital platforms, teleconsultations, healthtech, and utility management have one underlying principle in common: high gestation period. It is much higher for medical devices because it takes 2–3 years depending on the complexity of the device, regulatory passes, and market entry. Many companies have, however, strived to bring this period down as much as possible, to provide consumers with the best possible services in less time. This has transformed the way healthcare companies deliver services to consumers and patients.
The reduced gestation period has also caused a paradigm shift in the way we utilize data and has further simplified the consumer experience. Consumers today are already stressed with the current health crisis, and demand for a seamless hassle-free experience. This has made one thing very clear, that people today are willing to pay a premium for personalized services, technology, and data. Companies should formulate strategies to utilize this factor, to offer better products and services to customers via online mediums. Organizations can elevate this experience, and create a new revenue stream in the long-term.
Emerging Trends
The health care industry today has novel things to offer to society. The healthcare industry is witnessing a transition in different spaces such as digital platforms, devices, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Large corporations such as Google and Microsoft, among others, are participating and contributing to these fields. AI is expected to assist the healthcare sector with consumer interaction, data gathering, drug discoveries, and clinical trials.
Setting up digital consultations and utilizing AI appropriately requires a lot of investment in time and money. Another major barrier for such coming of age technologies is the regulations laid down by the government bodies. These regulations have to be strictly adhered to as healthcare companies are serving people with ailments, and are striving for their betterment. Many players in the market have understood the complexities of such a scenario, and are working to create a niche. They have begun to acquire an in-depth understanding of their chosen niche, and are framing up possible offerings. This has led to a significant rise in the scope of digital platforms and AI.
The initiatives undertaken by the Government of India (GoI) such as the Make in India campaign and Self-Reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat) campaign, have propelled innovation among companies in India. Owing to such initiatives by the government, many new companies and large corporations have ventured out to come up with cheap medical devices to treat patients. This is because the devices such as ventilators, PET/CT scanner, MRI machine, particle accelerators, and robot surgical machines, among others, are extremely expensive. And a majority of these machineries in India are imported from other nations.
Designing and testing such equipment takes a lot of time. Companies in India are however working tirelessly to come up with a cheap alternative of such expensive machinery. The time required for the development of this lifesaving equipment has also been significantly reduced due to the assistance received from governmental bodies.
Future of Healthcare Sector
The healthcare industry has to focus on alleviating the cost required for digital healthcare consultations. And at the same time, the industry has to provide a compelling customer experience. If these factors are taken into consideration and worked upon, the consumers will continue procuring digital healthcare consultation services even after the COVID-19 crisis has withered off. Doctors and medical practitioners can also adapt to digital platforms to reduce their infrastructure cost, and ensure social distancing.
The COVID-19 crisis has changed consumer behavior drastically. The crisis has shown the world that healthcare services can be provided and consumed digitally. Companies have to get accustomed to this changed behavior, and carry out necessary changes to survive in this crisis and thrive tomorrow. This is a once in a lifetime thing wherein the consumer behavior is changed forcibly. If companies better their offerings, consumers will continue to use these services for a longer span, and even after the COVID-19 crisis goes away. The COVID-19 crisis has presented companies with an opportunity to tap into a new market; how they go about it is their call. Companies can elevate the consumer experience and convince them of the effectiveness of online consultations. Face-to-face consultations will also carry on in the post-COVID era, similar to restaurants and hotels. However, the perception of consumers towards online services and their use of these services will change drastically.
Intermediaries will also come up slowly and gradually throughout the COVID-19 crisis. These intermediaries are expected to cater to building home devices to enable online consultations. Emerging companies and start-ups should tap this intermediary market, and strive to provide better services to consumers to elevate their experience. Critical points addressed in face-to-face consultations should be taken into account, and worked upon to replicate them on the online platform. Such steps will ensure that consumers get the full benefit of online services and that they continue for online services even after the current crisis passes away.
Approximately 60% of the healthcare cases can be addressed over a call or an online consultation. And this statistic is bearing in mind the pre-COVID era. Moreover, in India, the doctor to patient ratios is very low, and hence, to fill in this gap doctors can opt for digital consultations to treat or advise patients even in the most remote locations.
