Apollo-DKV JV to launch health insurance by Aug

The newly formed Apollo DKV Insurance Corporation, a joint venture between Apollo Group of Hospitals and DKV, a European insurance company, will launch its first bouquet of five health insurance products by the end of August 2007, Pratap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Group, said.

Apollo will hold 74% equity in the company while DKV, a subsidiary of Munich Re, a re-insurance company, will hold the remaining 26%, initially. As and when the existing norms are relaxed, Apollo would increase the DKV's equity participation in the company to 49% by reducing its stake to 51%, Reddy said.

Addressing the media on today in connection with the launch of Apollo Health City, a new concept that integrates all the Apollo's seven verticals covering healthcare, education and research among others into one healthcare system, Reddy said, the health insurance products would be tailor-made to suit the needs of the patients. "I have told the directors of DKV that the insurance products to be launched by the new company must be patient-oriented and not just commercial products, for which they readily agreed," he said.

The new company will be headquartered in Gurgaon.

Among other initiatives, the Apollo Group is creating a health super highway in partnership with IBM, which connects all the doctors and other medical experts across the length and breadth of the country.

The group is constructing an 11-storied building to house the Health City operations, including research, at the existing hospital campus in Hyderabad. "The key to the new dimension is a unique cooperation of fundamental biomedical discoveries and medical practice," he said.

The healthcare major is planning to increase the bed strength by another 1,400 this year with an investment of close to Rs 500 crore, he said.

Meanwhile, over 75 scientists would be drafted into the joint research project taken up in partnership with Johns Hopkins Hospital, US, to identify the gene responsible for heart diseases, Reddy said.