Medical health insurer, MedHealth, has partnered with a reputable Indian medical institution, to enhance the rapid evacuation (medevac) of patients in emergency situations as well as cashless foreign referrals for patients who require specialised medical treatment to that country.
The Indian Institution, the Yashoda Group of Hospitals in the city of Hyderabad, runs independent hospitals, heart institutes, advanced neurology centres, advanced orthopaedic centres, and many other such health institutions that provide specialized medical services using state of the art equipment and technologies.
Speaking on Friday evening in Blantyre during a briefing session for Malawian medical doctors and specialists, MedHealth’s Chief Executive Officer Bright Kamanga said that his organisation decided to partner with Yashoda considering the Indian health institution’s reputation in treating patients referred and evacuated to it from many countries around the world.
“We want to collaborate with them so that our members go to Yashoda because of the effective managing of benefits and sustainability; as you are aware that we are the only medical insurance body that does evacuation in the country.
We needed to build reserves – so that we have a good destination to evacuate referred patients apart from South Africa and other countries we evacuate them to. After doing our research we found that costs of sending patients to India are cheaper than other countries, including those in Africa. If we can add the costs of air tickets, consultations and others, it is cheaper to evacuate to India, hence our deciding to partner with Yashoda,” he said.
Kamanga however said that only those patients that have got referrals from local [Malawian] specialist doctors and not general practitioners will get approval for further medical attention at this hospital.
“At MedHealth, we only take referrals from specialist. We talk with specialists available locally, who recommend that a patient be referred outside the country because there are specialists that could handle that specific case,” he said, adding that MedHealth was the only medical insurance institution in the country that handles medevacs.
He said their partnering with Yashoda would not only avail such services to members of MedHealth, but also those who belong to other medical schemes.
“We are not only going to do this to patients that are members of our scheme, but we can also facilitate even for those that are not members of our scheme,” he said.
According to Dr. Rohan Birader, Yashoda’s Manager for International Services, their institution enjoys an undented reputation of quality patient-centric care, has the best team of doctors and specialist; and its hospitals has the latest procedures and advanced technology.
“Over the past two decades, Yashoda Group of Hospitals has provided quality healthcare for the people in their diverse medical needs. Our work has always been guided by the needs of the patients and delivered by our perfectly combined revolutionary technology, best medical expertise and advanced procedures,” he said.
Dr. Rohan said the institution’s hospitals are also leaders in such procedures as liver transplants, bone marrow transplants, heart, lung and kidney transplants; as well as advanced neurology procedures, just to mention a few.
He said that, now that they have teamed up with MedHealth, he is optimistic that Malawi will join the list of many countries globally, whose citizenry are benefiting from the best treatment accorded to patients in Yashoda’s facilities.
By Francis Tayanjah-Phiri - The Daily Times
