Hospitals witness spurt in e-payments

A year after demonetization, which especially affected the health industry, various hospitals have confirmed that there has been an exponential rise in E-payments, leading to more transparency. Some private hospitals even said that nearly 95 per cent of the patients were making E-payments.

The impact was mostly felt in hospitals located in Tier 2 and 3 cities, as these areas have low digital penetration and residents largely rely on cash to avail health treatments.

"We witnessed a 20 per cent decline in patients paying in cash. The healthcare industry has been marred by financial, demographic, and regulatory limitations. Therefore, it is highly vulnerable to such policies. Immediately after the move, medical care across the country got affected, with many medical facilities and pharmacies not accepting old currency. It also sensitised people to the fact that bills could be paid online and health insurance was important," said Dr Dharminder Nagar, Medical Director, Paras Healthcare.

Echoing the sentiment, Kamal Solanki, CEO of Venkateshwar Hospital in Dwarka, said: "As many as 80 per cent of Indians do not possess health insurance. So, when demonetization happened, the healthcare industry faced an initial crisis due to cash crunch. But many private and government hospitals did not stop accepting cash."

"Initially, there was a strain on medical tourism as well as hospitals did not want to accept old currency from off-shore clients. But with digitisation, patients would have a better track record of their medical profile," he added.