The Indian healthcare industry aims to achieve universal health coverage where all individuals and communities receive quality health services without suffering financial hardship as per a 2020 KPMG report titled ‘Healthcare 3.0 – Reimagining healthcare in the next decade’. Healthcare entities like MediBuddy — a comprehensive digital healthcare platform — are pushing the Indian healthcare sector one step closer towards quality healthcare for all, particularly in the time of the pandemic.
MediBuddy was founded by IIT-Madras alumni Satish Kannan and Enbasker D. The duo had realised that 70 percent of health concerns could be consulted, diagnosed and treated by remote, online medical assistance. And that access to quality and skilled medical professionals was a serious issue.
Through its intricate network of healthcare providers across India, the MediBuddy platform allows users to book hospital stays, preventative care services, insurance services, COVID-19 tests, vaccinations and more. Today MediBuddy’s omni channel platform allows patients to book both online and offline consultations. It also boasts of a partner network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals, 3,000 diagnostic centres, 2,500 pharmacies, as well as a 1,200-member team located across 22 Indian cities. The platform handles 35 lakh patients daily!
Payment solution in pieces
MediBuddy gives patients real-time access to consultations with doctors who specialise in 21 different departments of medicine, and allows them to order medicines and book lab tests from home. Customers have access to 24/7 high quality healthcare through the app and website.
With such a widespread network, and high traffic on the platform, coordinating with multiple payment websites and handling e-commerce integration was starting to become a problem. Furthemore, in case of a system bug or virus, MediBuddy also had to assess multiple aspects before resolving the issue. Catering to a pan-India customer base, the startup wanted to ensure the smoothest payment experience. They began to actively look for seamless and secure payment solutions. By doing their due diligence of the biggest brands in the payment space, and after a careful analysis of market information, MediBuddy chose Razorpay.
One-stop payment platform
When Satish and Enbasker set out to build the platform, their greatest challenge was to overcome the hesitancy and ambivalence that many Indians felt towards online consultations. Building seamless and secure customer experiences was of the utmost importance and a key component in the partnership with Razorpay.
Two fundamental benefits drew MediBuddy to Razorpay — simple integration and quick deployment. Web and mobile app developers could integrate Razorpay checkout by including a single code line or a custom button on their websites. Satish added, “The integration process is quick and includes many features that require no upgrade from your end. It seemed a perfect one-stop solution for us.”
Razorpay offered a quick and smooth onboarding process to the MediBuddy team, and it was only a matter of time before the two organisations were able to set up the entire process. It provided user-friendly dashboards and reporting mechanisms that allowed MediBuddy to adapt to the new processes in less than a month.
As the partnership progressed, MediBuddy was able to build trust in their online offerings through Razorpay’s offerings, including an automated billing mechanism, easy and efficient payment tracking, exciting reward programs, complete web and mobile app support (with an easy chargeback) and the comfort of quick refunds for users.
Razorpay is also compliant with PCI-DSS and ISO: 27001. It uses the 128bit SSL/TLS certification for data encryption and tokenisation to ensure that sensitive data is protected from fraudulent activities.
Opening new frontiers
MediBuddy founders believe that Razorpay has helped them target their efforts towards new, and untouched areas of the business thanks to the data, insights and analysis it offers. “Since partnering with Razorpay, we have witnessed substantial growth on a monthly basis. In the initial six months itself, MediBuddy witnessed a 16 percent growth on the platform, predominantly due to the wide range of rewards and offers that are now available,” they added. Additionally, Razorpay’s instant refund process and its 24 hour TAT (Turn Around Time) for all queries has also resulted in greater customer satisfaction. It also supports a dedicated team for specific campaigns to manage escalations. These services and processes have ensured that MediBuddy stays abreast with any payment-related issues. Emboldened by these developments, MediBuddy is now looking to offer its services to a wider audience.
Dedicated to offering customers a 360-degree solution for their healthcare needs, MediBuddy hopes to help over 1 lakh patients daily. In its roadmap for the future, Razorpay will play a key role as the healthcare platform is looking forward to launching a new payment mechanism for their offline channels such as medical camps. “Razorpay truly is a customer-centric organisation. They have ensured extremely easy-to-use, hassle-free dashboards, instant refunds, and payment methods,” added Satish.
As the pandemic continues to drive changes in healthcare and as more healthtech companies step up to bridge the largest gaps in the sector, the MediBuddy and Razorpay partnership is a testament to how technology can be leveraged to provide quality healthcare to millions of Indians without any geographical constraints.
