Healthcare across developing and developed nations continues to pose challenges of reach, affordability, complexity and accessibility despite the advancements in medicine, science and technology globally. Many governments have increased their per capita expenditure on healthcare and are also, continuously grappling with the challenge of providing affordable and quality healthcare to their citizens, despite the progress and advancements.
For India, while the urban areas face problems of rising costs and lack of quality customer service among other problems, for the rural pockets, accessibility to affordable and good quality healthcare has not been made possible yet.
The urban-rural divide
While India is still mulling over a universal health insurance scheme, providing affordable healthcare to both; the urban and rural millions population is a riddle yet to be solved. World Health Organization’s 2000 World Health Report listed India’s health care system at 112 out of 190 countries. Yet 15 years later, 72 per cent of the population live in 6,36,000 villages where access to basic healthcare facilities is a luxury for many, as per gramvaani.org. India’s development over the last 15 years has been an example for many developing countries but there is a lot that needs to be achieved.
Challenges faced by rural India
Size of the population: India is home to the world’s second largest population thus; the most complex problem is the size of the population itself. While developed markets are primarily challenged with escalating healthcare costs, for steadily progressing countries such as India, the challenge is to deliver quality healthcare to its scattered majority according to PwC report on ‘Touching lives through mobile health’.
Low accessibility
Rural pockets face the challenge of limited accessibility to healthcare and poor quality of what is delivered to or available for them. Justifiably, the 72 per cent rural population has access to only 34 per cent of the available hospital beds as per a data from Economic Times. Added by the lack of appropriate transport facilities to healthcare centres, patients often postpone treatment.
Lack of information
Rural and remote areas are often cut off from urban towns and cities, timely and necessary information regarding healthcare is often never delivered to them. Underdeveloped transport and communication facilities combined with low literacy levels contribute to the lack of knowledge regarding healthcare information in these areas as well.
In view of these challenges, there is certainly a need for appropriate health insurance schemes for the healthcare needs of the rural consumers that can be delivered to them through a medium that is simple to use, affordable, portable, and thus, easy to adopt and use.
Mobile to the rescue
There is a popular statement in India that ‘access to a mobile phone is much higher than access to a toilet in India’. The mobile phone penetration even in rural India is rising at a steady pace. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as of 2014, registered mobile connections in India stands at 944 million. In rural India, in June 2015, 53 millions population had access to internet on their mobile phones and the reach of internet on mobile phones is expected to grow at a steady pace in the future as well as per IAMAI & IMRB.
Certainly, mobile devices can be the catalyst and the much-needed disruption for delivering quality, affordable and accessible healthcare services. Here’s how:
Educate and inform: The first step is to bring information to the fingertips of the rural people. To counter the problems of reach and literacy, SMS’ or Flash! Alerts sent through a mobile device that incorporate information regarding health insurance schemes in a few words and in the language known by the consumer can be implemented to counter this limitation.
Subscription: Upon receiving information, by responding to the message with his/her information, the consumer should be able to register for the scheme. Alternatively, sending yes/no messages to toll free numbers can also be used to make communication easy for the consumer. Mobile devices can also be used to enable the consumer to pay the nominal fee for availing the scheme, instead of going to a centre and making payments.
For example, by linking bank accounts of the beneficiary with the insurance scheme under Pradhan Mantri’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), payments can be made using a mobile device to make delivery easier compared to the process of subscribing using the conventional methods. Such measures will help to take the benefits straight to the beneficiary.
Track: The consumer should be able to track the status of the health scheme and check how much of the funds made available by the scheme for him/her have already been used. By sending an SMS, the consumer should be able to get the history of the scheme used by him/her on his/her handheld device. The consumer will benefit tremendously as he/she will not have to travel to a distant centre or office for information and he/she will have the information with him/her anytime and anywhere.
Utilization: Finally, the beneficiary should be able to make use of the health scheme at the healthcare centre using the mobile device. When the consumer arrives at the centre, the staff can note his/her subscription ID or mobile number and verify the eligibility. Using a mobile device will enable both the patient and the hospital to get information in real-time, making the entire process simple and efficient for everyone involved.
In this manner, in the entire process; from receiving information of the health scheme to utilizing it using handheld devices, the rural consumer benefits tremendously. Undoubtedly, operating such schemes on mobile devices requires a strong technology support that allows a smooth exchange of information and also, allows payments efficiently.
The need is to deliver healthcare services efficiently to the deepest, most scattered pockets of the country, to make affordable and accessible healthcare for all possible in the truest sense. Additionally, the advantage of such technology and the mobile phone can be extended for information, alerts and tips related to farming and agriculture.
Introducing affordable and appropriate schemes keeping in mind the needs and problems of the rural consumers on simple but strong technology that is scalable and accessible will bring the much-needed innovation to the rural healthcare sector of India.
(Author is CEO, Remedinet Technologies)