On December 16, 2022, ACCESS Health International Southeast Asia co-hosted the Fintech for Health themed session at the Fintech Festival India during their Bengaluru Micro Experience. The Fintech for Health microexperience series plans to have a variety of events that brings together the concepts of fintech, health-tech, and health financing. The series facilitates knowledge sharing and dissemination of Fintech for Health concepts through innovative solutions from the private and public sector that enables low- to moderate-income people in Asia to pay for and access high-quality care using digital financial services and a financial inclusion approach.

This session entailed a panel discussion on Fintech Revolution for Primary Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges in India. The panel included Prasanth Madavana, Founder at Fedo; Anuj Jindal, Vice President at MediAssist; Dr. Suraj Baliga, Co-Founder of Clinikk Healthcare; Ankur Basu, Country Manager – India and Bangladesh at BIMA Milvik, and the panel was moderated by Sireesha Perabathina, Senior Consultant, ACCESS Health International Southeast Asia.

The discussion at the session provided an insightful picture of various ecosystems which can support health-tech and fintech sectors through collaborative efforts and ideation. The panelists discussed the importance of primary care services and managed care models as an add-on service to make health insurance and coverage more affordable and comprehensive. The panelists discussed the challenge faced by startups and the private sector in finding the right product-market fit for their products.

The discussion concluded with insights on solving the identified challenges which included affordable private sector solutions that can leverage the government and aggregator platforms to reach more people and scale. Furthermore, the right product-market fit would also be followed by certain behaviour change among the lower and lower middle income populations. Finally, the role of development partners and government as a catalyst of the process by trying to better undertake private sector engagement was highlighted.

We look forward to engaging with innovative partners in the government and private sector through these microexperiences in India over the next few months.