The global home healthcare market is expected to reach $349.8 billion by 2020, from $227.5 billion in 2015, as per a report by MarketsandMarkets, a leading market research firm.
While North America leads the market with converging trends of aging population and favourable reimbursement policies, with rising levels of awareness and technology adoption, Asia is set to be the fastest growing market in the sector.
“Across the globe, humans are the same, medical conditions are the same... awareness is just a matter of time,” says Mark Baiada, founder of BAYADA Home Health Care. “India is still at the base of the adoption curve, and just like anything else, maybe like a smartphone adoption, it is going to pick up. I have seen it happen in the US, it will happen here,” he said.
Bayada Home Health Care, a 40-year-old home healthcare provider, entered India in 2013, after acquiring a 26 per cent stake in India Home Heath Care. “When we started operations in 2009, India Home Health Care was one of the first organised providers of home healthcare in India. We struggled with issues relating to awareness, protocol, standardisation. While it did take us time, we eventually put our basics in place, and right around the time entered Bayada,” said Dr Anitha Arockiasamy, President, India Home Health Care (IHHC).
IHHC has operations in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad and provides services ranging from elderly care, specialised services for patients with special conditions to care for new borns and new mothers.
“Currently, we offer services in a 12-hour and a 24-hour format. We also offer weekly visits to monitor patients. The latter is popular with the NRI population that has elderly parents back home and wants to keep track of their health,” she said. Both Baiada and Arockiasamy have found that elderly care takes up the largest portion of the clientele for home healthcare services. While the share is as big as 70 per cent in India, in the US it would be around 85 per cent, they added.
Arockiasamy said, “Home healthcare services range from Rs 1,400-2,400 per day, which is almost a tenth of the cost incurred on hospital care.” With some 20 clients in Bengaluru and double of that in Chennai, IHHC is looking at expanding into Coimbatore, Mysuru and Vishakapatnam in the next year.
Published 12 January 2016, 19:03 IST