Practo expands into critical care with new assured network

With rising competition in healthtech and a growing demand for reliable care options, the platform is venturing beyond its roots in doctor discovery to tackle the complex decisions patients face during life-altering treatments.

Launched after a year-long pilot, Practo Assured has already partnered with 300 hospitals across eight cities, aiming to scale to 1,000 hospitals in 20 cities by the end of the fiscal year. The service promises transparency and trust, evaluating medical establishments on over 100 parameters, from infrastructure to patient feedback.

Practo Assured focuses on critical and elective treatments, spanning cardiac and neurosurgery, cancer care, and other specialities.

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“The product is designed to make it easier for patients to find and choose providers that we believe they can trust and Practo has done the due diligence to make that promise to our patients," Siddhartha Nihalani, co-founder, Practo, told Mint.

A proprietary ‘hospital excellence rating’ underpins the service, using data insights, patient reviews, and expert audits to assess facilities. Only those scoring 4+ out of 5 are included in the network. Practo also sends biomedical engineers to conduct on-site audits, ensuring quality across its partner hospitals.

A Practo survey revealed that a doctor’s experience and success rates in surgeries are major factors influencing patient choices.

“Trying to compare between all the options you have in a city with hundreds of speciality, super-speciality [establishments]…patients were coming to us seeking this very answer," Nihalani said.

Practo’s expansion into critical care pits it against established healthtech platforms and corporate hospital networks offering similar services. 

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For instance, digital healthcare platform MediBuddy operates a surgery care vertical that provides free online consultations for over 50 surgical conditions, helps patients locate top cashless hospitals, and offers a sponsored second opinion from medical experts, according to its website. MediBuddy claims a customer base of 30 million.

In comparison, Practo serves over 160 million patients annually, the company said. 

Building on strengths

Practo rose to prominence as a doctor discovery platform and gained further traction during the pandemic through teleconsultation services. 

“Teleconsults became a big portion of what consumers started coming to Practo for during the Covid-19 period…we're now trying to go deeper into problem-solving for patients," Nihalani said.

While Practo’s current offerings focus on minor diagnoses, the 15 specialities covered under Practo Assured account for over 50% of its traffic. Nihalani sees this as a key growth area, adding, “We think this category will continue to grow as consumers find more and more value."

The company, however, declined to disclose how much its individual offerings contribute to overall revenue.

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Practo has been profitable for the past two quarters and reported a 90% year-on-year improvement in Ebitda for FY24. “We’ve had the last couple of quarters completely profitable…all our products, initiatives are with that in mind," Nihalani said.

Practo Assured is central to the company’s growth strategy as it deepens its presence in India’s fragmented healthcare market. However, the service’s success will depend on scaling partnerships and navigating the competitive landscape.

Expansion plans

Currently operational in major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, Practo Assured plans to expand into tier-2 cities by the fiscal year-end. 

Nihalani highlighted the potential of mid-tier speciality hospitals, which handle around 60% of critical treatments but often lack branding. “A lot of these hospitals are great speciality care spaces…we’ve been able to find value and showcase the ones that are doing well there," he said.

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Practo aims to bridge the gap for these hospitals by providing visibility and trust through its platform.