Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the government to accord 'infrastructure or priority status' to healthcare industry and set up a Rs 50,000-crore health development fund as a stimulus package for its overall growth.

"Healthcare is among the largest sectors that provides the largest employment. To cater to demographic change, the healthcare sector will have to be about $100 billion in size contributing nearly eight to 10 per cent of the then GDP. A stimulus package for healthcare industry will not only give better health for the nation but will also make a significant economic impact on the nation. Any spend on healthcare leads to contribution to GDP from additional employment in manufacturing, pharmaceutical and healthcare," according to the CII National Committee on Healthcare.

The healthcare in India contributes six per cent to the country's GDP as compared to US where it is 15 per cent, the committee said while calling for creating infrastructure on PPP model to reach the district level.

"Health Development Fund to be managed by a central agency or development banks with participation of private promoters must be set up. The fund could be around Rs 50,000 crore with a capacity to absorb FDIs. This fund would help hospitals, healthcare and educational institutions to quickly build and operate their activities to augment the growth of the health sector. The Government must consider extending benefits under the Income Tax Act to companies/key players associated with this industry especially those offering training and educational facilities and allowing private healthcare professionals to provide service in government hospitals in return for tax incentives," the committee said.

The government should facilitate collection of accurate health information using IT. It should lay down standards for usage of IT and EMRs to create the regulatory environment. Incentivising the IT in healthcare through depreciation benefits for increased usage of IT as in EMRs be done. The government should support Indian hospitals' efforts to lobby with foreign insurance firms for reimbursement of medical costs incurred in travelling for treatment, thereby helping the Indian healthcare Industry penetrate the networks of the developed markets' players, the set of recommendations said.

With changing disease pattern, there is a need to create a bigger constituency for more public spending on healthcare and improving delivery mechanisms to ensure greater value for money. There is acute shortage of trained manpower including doctors, nurses and paramedics, the committee felt.

The opportunity to invest in healthcare is unprecedented especially in the areas of medical value travel, health education and training, research and clinical trials, and healthcare technology. Besides, IT companies engaged in healthcare in areas like imaging, disease management and claims processing can turn out to be the recession-buster for the Indian IT industry, the document said.