Bupa weighs foray into private hospitals market in India

British health insurance major Bupa is looking to enter the fast-growing private hospital and healthcare market in India, currently dominated by players like Max Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, Narayana Health, and Medanta, as the company grows its engagement beyond the traditional insurance business (Niva Bupa), global CEO Inaki Ereno told TOI in an interview. Excerpts: How do you assess the Indian health insurance market in India?The Indian health insurance market is the most attractive and best in the world. It’s still under-penetrated, and we believe there will be many more people requiring private medical insurance. We need more beds, more hospitals, more clinics, and more insurance here… In terms of our own growth, it’s been 35% over the last three years. We’re clearly seeing a massive opportunity.In markets like Europe, UK, Australia , Latin America, you have a Bupa Payvider programme where you provide not just insurance and easy claims processing, but also a network of healthcare providers. These include dental and mental health clinics, and hospitals. Any plans to start hospitals and such other services in India?With Payvider, we are not just insurers but also providers. Of the claims that our patients go through, we always want around 25% in a place called Bupa – in a Bupa clinic, in a Bupa hospital, in a Bupa digital place. This helps us to learn the cost of things, and also allows us to personalise the service.It is too soon to talk about India. I cannot commit yet on the dates but, yes, you can expect that Bupa will keep investing here… we do have a plan, a commitment to study the situation and be ambitious and come up with something big. We believe that 25% of the activity that we do should be run in a place like Bupa.Inflation in health costs is a concern for customers, which also sees policy costs go up. Your views?When it comes to the cost of claims, there is inflation across the world. This is why developing a private medical insurance market helps everybody. When you have more people into private medical insurance, that helps lower costs of claims.Normally, premiums go up with inflation. So, they will not reduce. Are we expecting a big increase in premiums? The answer is no. We expect premiums to go in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).Apart from metros and bigger cities, how do you see the opportunity in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and rural India?We are clearly targeting markets beyond the top 50-60 cities. We think there’s a massive opportunity to get people into the fold of insurance. India is at a very nascent stage, and awareness is still low with respect to health insurance.India is a growing country, with lots of construction and other infrastructure activities happening. Do you think that dust, pollution, and long traffic snarls in congested cities create health hazards for people?The answer is yes, though no one can make a direct correlation in elements like these. But we are working with the Norman Foster Foundation to understand what is the impact that living in a particular city has on your health, including in Delhi.

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