90% of Indians willing to pay more for certified healthcare, finds a new report

Around 83 per cent of patients in India seek objective, accessible information to guide their healthcare choices, and nearly 90 per cent are willing to pay more for certified quality, as per a report by FICCI and EY-Parthenon.

The report, titled ‘True Accountable Care: Maximizing Healthcare Delivery Impact, Efficiently’, outlines a pragmatic roadmap for making India’s healthcare system qualitative and affordable.

While India's healthcare efficiency outperforms that of its global peers, structural and financial pressures underscore the need for a national framework that establishes clear minimum quality standards, enabling patients to make informed healthcare choices, the survey said.

The report, based on research across 250 hospitals in 40 cities with 75,000 beds, surveys of over 1,000 patients, consultations with more than 100 clinicians, as well as consultations with CXOs and investors, states that bed capacity per capita has doubled since 2000 in India.

The country still has one of the lowest hospital bed densities globally, facing a dual payor-provider fragmentation challenge, with just 25-30 beds per hospital, compared to over 100 internationally.

What guides patient choices?

The survey finds that about 83 per cent of patients increasingly seek objective, accessible information to guide their choices and would benefit from a single, trusted source of hospital ratings or clinical outcomes.

Nearly 90 per cent of patients who sought this information say they would pay more for certified quality.

Additionally, the top five payors are accounting for only 40 per cent of payouts, compared to 80 per cent in other developed markets.

The report introduces a seven-pronged framework – the “7C framework” – to guide India’s healthcare transformation towards accountable care.

It emphasises ‘Cohorting and segmentation- based approach’, ‘Clinical excellence’, ‘Cost consciousness’, ‘Care reimbursement’, ‘Care coordination’, ‘Consumer empowerment’ and ‘Connected ecosystem’. The framework is designed to move the sector from one-size-fits-all solutions to bespoke care pathways, ensuring both efficiency and equitable health outcomes.

“Today, both regulators and organised healthcare providers are demonstrating unprecedented intent to embed best-in-class global standards, while customising them to the unique complexities of India’s healthcare landscape," said Akshay Ravi, Partner, Healthcare Practice, EY-Parthenon India, one of the largest strategy consultancies in the world.

Quality investments as long-term cost optimisers

The report finds that quality investments are viewed as long-term cost optimisers; however, smaller nursing homes would require support to tide over short-term profitability challenges.

Coupled with the lack of a regulatory mandate, it is thus no surprise that fewer than 10% of private hospitals are NABH-accredited, and fewer than 2% of diagnostic labs have NABL accreditation today.

“The path forward must focus on clinical excellence and patient centricity, delivered through a thoughtful cohort-based 'one-size fits all' approach and supported by a tiered reimbursement system that rewards quality and outcome,” Ravi said.

(With agency inputs)