CHENNAI: Hospital chains like the Apollo Group, Manipal, Columbia Asia and Fortis were among the first in India to invest heavily in IT. Joining their ilk are speciality clinics like Vasan Eyecare, Davita, Narayana Health, HCG and Agwaral Eye Clinic, which now taking to the IT highway and upgrading to ICD10 code compliance, payment-facilitating web portals, creating mobile apps, maintaining electronic health records and booking doctors’ appointments.Startups like Remedinet, S10 Healthcare, LiveHealth are coming to the rescue of such speciality clinics for cancer, cardiac, dental and eye care. Medi Assist, which recently invested $1 million in Goabased mobile fitness venture MobieFit, has come up with MediBuddy, a mobile app for hospitals and specialty clinics.

The mobile app allows policyholders to raise and track claims, plan an e-cashless hospitalization, search networkedempanelled hospi tals, book wellness services, buy drugs and maintain electronic health records.

“We also have e-cashless, which helps users book cashless admission at a network hospital using their smartphones. You can choose the room type, get an idea as to projected bill, cost of treatment, and cut out waiting time for hospital admission,” said Prashant Jhaveri, head, products and strategy, Medi Assist Healthcare Services, which also has a MediBuddy web portal for access to health benefits. At S10 Healthcare, which has more than 50 plus customers in Chennai including names like Rajan Dental, Uma Eye clinic and GBR Fertility, end-to-end IT solutions are offered. From ICD10 coding to appointment bookings to boosting their social media presence, everything spelt `digital’ is taken care of.

Bengaluru-based Remedinet, deals only with coding and claims settlement for hospitals. Numbering Continental Hospitals, Manipal Group, Ruby Hall Clinic as clients, Remedinet also works with government health schemes to provide transparency and reduce manipulation of data. In India, doctors are not trained on medical coding unlike in the US. “So there is this deficit between knowledge pool hospitals have and what insurance companies expect. Given the IRDAI’s push for ICD10 coding, hospitals have increasingly become professional and seek help of healthtech firms like ours to comply with industry norms” said Munish Daga, CEO, Remedinet.

Source: Times of India