After the discovery of gold mine in the outsourcing business by IT and software companies , its time for Indian doctors and hospitals to mint money by utilising the most talked about outsoursing business model. Welcome to new era of outsourcing or as it is recognized by the name of Medical Tourism.
In case you are not familiar to Medical Tourism!
One can guess from the name, it means medical assistance while on a holiday. Paitents from countries like United States travel to India for medical treatment. As IT outsourcing has been fueled by the low priced - high quality services provided by Indian Software Engineers , this model has similar roots and is driven by Indian Doctors who are rightly exploiting the high cost of healthcare and relatively long waiting time in countries such as United States and Canada.
Size of the Industry
Medical ousourcing has reached 20 billion dollar in 2006 and is expected to grow to 40 billion dollar by 2010 according to Frost and Sullivan. One should not be surprised to know that Americans are more concerned about paying their health care costs than paying rents or mortgages. Recently Americans ranked rising health care and insurance cost above terrorist attack, violent crime and unemployment. The number uninsured Americans have gone up to 47 millions in 2007 and expected to rise further in future. Countries like Canada and United kingdom are also looking towards countries such as India to solve their rising health care costs.
How to do business in Medical Tourism
Don't worry about the market as its hot and growing! You would require few things and the most essential would be : an MBA to develop a business roadmap. A website to act as an interface between you and your customer. Marketing strategy in North America , preferably an employee in North America to find your initial customers. A MoU with JCI accredited hospitals in India. Good relationship with Indian doctors who are practicing medical tourism. Other than these you would need to find tour operators , travel agencies and hotels to take care of your customer while on holiday. Revenue model would include hospitals , travel agencies and hotels. One should expect a minimum earnings of 200 dollars(Rs 8000) per customer.
Risks and Drawbacks on Medical Tourism
Who would like to get into trouble in a country where judicary takes years to solve a case. Moreover the recent kidney scam in India has further malingned the character of Indian doctors to a certain extent internationally. Your customer is supposed to ask an explaination on above facts and I can garuntee you , you wont have any excuses. Taking about the appreciating Rupee , yes , its a matter of concern for this industry too. Dollar conversion rate and appreciating Rupee would definately hit you badly.
©2008 Awaneesh Shatmanyu
