India's Leading Healthcare & Pharma Companies 2023

44 | India’s Leading Healthcare & Pharma Companies 2023 [ OVERVIEW OF INDIA DIAGNOSTICS SECTOR ] Consolidation of the sector: While fragmentation poses a challenge in terms of scalability of labs, it also provides an opportunity for consol idation going forward. This will result in scalability and improved quality of diagnostic services. The robust growth of the sector and scalable business through consol idat ion would enable prominent players to scale up in their core markets. The high volumes will provide cost benefits, in turn improving the profit margins. Increased coverage of Ayushamn Bharat scheme to provide impetus to the sector: Ayushman Bharat- PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana introduced in September 2018 aims to provide a health insurance cover of INR 500 thousand per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to over 100 mi l l ion poor and vulnerable families. It is estimated that an average expense of INR 15 thousand per patient has been incurred, with diagnostic spends being on an average ~20% of hospi tal bi l ls. The increased coverage of this scheme wi l l augment penetration of diagnostic services in the country. Adoption of digital technologies for customer satisfaction: There is growing thrust on adoption of digital technologies particularly by Pan-India chain diagnostics to improve the customer experience. There is growing use of artificial intelligence in image processing across radiology and pathology. A robust IT infrastructure is getting bui lt to strengthen col lection scheduling, sample logistics and tracking. Dun & Bradstreet