The standardisation of home healthcare industry initiated by the Quality and Accreditation Institute (QAI) will help industry become mainstream and attract insurance players assisting it to cover a wide base of population and subsequently will boost its revenue, say home healthcare experts.

QAI has come up with accreditation standards for home care organisations focusing on an organisation's self assessment which can be done on governance and leadership, human resources management, facility and risk management, information management system, continual quality improvement, patient assessment and care, patient rights and education, medication management and safety, hygiene and infection control. The accreditation certification will be issued to a home healthcare service provider for three years which can be renewed six months before expiry of certification.

So far insurance and hospitals saw home care from distance with assumed risk in the absence of standardisation. Benchmarks set by QAI for home healthcare providers will boost the confidence of insurance players to create home care specific products, said Vipin Pathak, co-founder of Care24.

The home healthcare sector has become an organised sector in US, UK and Japan. In US, it was due to the insurance firms, in Japan it was because of the huge aged population and in the UK it was the NHSS scheme which drove growth for home health care sector.

In India home care is 95 per cent fragmented industry with too many irregularities with hardly any clarity on scope of clinical protocols, technology, labor laws, payments, certifications, partnership models, career etc. This has deterred insurers from coming out with home care centric policies. QAI's measures towards self regulation and standardisation will help the home care industry come more mainstream, said Pathak.

Home healthcare industry struggling to reach out to people in maximum number in absence of insurance facility will now witness outstanding growth in terms of reach and revenue.

Growing incidence of chronic diseases, aging population as well as huge shortage of hospital beds are some of the factors contributing growth of home healthcare industry in India. The country has around 200 million elderly population. Home healthcare can play a crucial role in ensuring long-term medical care, whether it be for the sick/recuperating post-surgery or the aged.

Today home care is not limited to supportive care for bedridden but also includes areas like ICU at home, critical illness management, rehab care, palliative care and chemo care at home. The acceptance of home care by hospitals, insurance, pharma is also playing a good role int this journey. It is becoming a crucial element in the value chain of healthcare services, he added.

The current estimates for the home healthcare industry in India is approximately $4 billion and growing at a CAGR of 20 per cent.

Welcoming benchmark set by QAI for home healthcare providers, Rajiv Mathur, co-founder of Critical Care Unified (CCU), said, “It is much needed to transform an industry from being part of an unorganised sector to a maturing industry with robust processes which will be globally competitive.  The more structured an industry is, the more attractive it gets for allied services providers. Insurance could get attracted; however, the criteria for providing insurance are more over and above accreditation. Insurance coverage for home healthcare will be a game changer. It will provide a tremendous fillip to this industry.”

CCU is growing 150 per cent on a year on year basis. It has an asset light model and capex growth is very limited.

Sharing his view on growth of home healthcare industry in coming years, Mathur said “Growth in home healthcare is unstoppable. This is due to the immense benefit it provides to consumers and an excellent adjunct and support system for the hospitals.”