Medi Assist seeks a pan India presence

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani-controlled Medi Assist, a third party administrator (TPA) for health insurance, is eyeing a pan India presence. Currently strong in the south, the company plans to open offices in 22 state capitals to serve clients locally.

A majority of the 26 TPAs now active in the country operate zonally with central offices. “Except for three TPAs, the others are regionally strong,” said Madhavan B, chief operations officer, Medi Assist. The company will spend 35% of its revenues to fund the expansion.

TPA accounts for 80% of the 3,500 crore health insurance market and is growing at an annual rate of 35%.

Other major TPAs with pan-India presence include Paramount and TTK.

Medi Assist has also signed an Rs 8 crore deal with Hewlett-Packard to bring its processes in line with global standards and standardise procedures.

“Standardising procedures is important as administrative costs go up as the industry grows,” said Vikram Chharwal, director, Medi Assist. Currently in India, the administrative costs are an estimated 10% of expenses, according to Chhatwal. This is as high as 26% in developed countries like the US. “The business would be unsustainable at that levels in India,” Chhatwal says. A major part of this cost goes to move the case papers.

Medi Assist, a part of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Health, was acquired from N S Raghavan, former managing director and co-founder of Infosys Technologies.