Hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, which reportedly plans to foray into insurance business, today said Indian insurance products need to be realigned according to the market.
Fortis Healthcare Managing Director Shivinder Singh said the current cashless insurance row has been "hyped up", but will not impact the healthcare business.
"Our insurance products are of 1980s and 1990s when the insurance regime was much more regimental. Therefore, they were protected by the regime at that point. Now, with the open-market regime, the products need to be realigned to the market," he said during a press conference on the sidelines of an International Congress for Youth here.
He called for insurance watchdog the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to display complete data on the scheme.
Irda Chairman J Hari Narayan had earlier said there were serious anomalies in billing and charges being levied by hospitals. Charges for cashless facility were too high when compared with the reimbursement policies, he had said.
About the expansion plans of the Fortis Group, Singh said it has been getting offers to put up facilities and greenfield projects.
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"We are looking at Asia to begin with. Opportunities are there in most of the emerging markets. South Africa per se has much better healthcare facilities than any other country in the world. I wouldn't comment on specific geography, but Asia is a focus area for us," he said.
Singh said the group aims is to become a $1 billion entity, but added there was no timeframe to achieve that target.