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Medical inflation increased by almost 5% between 2009 and 2012, as per healthcare industry experts. It stood at somewhere around 15% in 2009 and around 20% in 2012.
Medical inflation refers to an increase in medical costs like doctors fees, medicine cost, hospitalisation, surgery and treatment cost and other related expenses.
For individuals who need to own an insurance cover but donot have one, Ravitej Yadalam, founder and managing director of Pennyful.in, has launched Medicash.in. The website helps avail cashbacks and discounts through partnership with healthcare providers.
This is how it works. If you want to avail discounts, register yourself on the website first, which is free of cost. At the time of registration you will have to provide your mobile number. Once the registration is complete, a confirmation message is sent on the mobile, which will also work as a discount coupon.
“Say an individual buys medicines worth Rs 1,000 from Apollo Pharmacy, he/she can show the text message at the time of billing and avail discount. In some cases, he/she will get a cashback offer. For instance, for treatment at Bangalore's Global Hospitals, he/she will get a 5% cashback (between 10 to 45 days depending on the date of transaction and the partner) to their Medicash account on showing the text message,” explains Yadalam.
The cashback will then be transferred to your bank account may be after reaching a certain amount has been accumulated like Rs 150 or Rs 300.
MediCash.in is jointly run by Pennyful Online (www.pennyful.in) and MDA Healthcare India (www.mydocadvisor.com). It started operations last month.
At present, Medicash has tie-ups with 50 companies in the healthcare field such as Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Fortis Hospital, Anjali Mukherjee's Heath Total, Nova Speciality Surgery (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore), Cloudnine Fertility, Vasan Eye Care, Thyrocare Diagnostics, apart from Apollo Pharmacy and Global Hospitals.
Largely, the discount rates fall in the range of 5 to 10% of the bill amount and cashbacks are between 5 and 7.5%. Discounts and cashback can go up further, in few cases. And like in case of Thyrocare you may get both discount of 30% and cashback.
Medicash earns from its partners for performance marketing engagement or for referring clients to the partners. Yadalam says the website is seeing good traction though he could not give the exact numbers.
“Upon arrival at the healthcare partner or while booking an appointment showcase your proof of membership. If the healthcare partner is not notified in advance prior to your treatment then they have the right to refuse the cashback/discount,” says Medicash's website.
