Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Cardiac Surgeon

Narayana Health is one of India’s largest hospital groups with hospitals and heart centres across the country and an international hospital in the Cayman Islands. The group’s facilities provide advanced healthcare in over 30 medical specialities to both adults and children

Hyderabad:

Narayana Health Insurance Limited(Narayana One Health), set up by Bangalore-based multispecialty hospital chain Narayana Hrudayalaya Ltd or Narayana Health promoted by well known cardiologist Devi Shetty has received a license from insurance regulator IRDAI to set up a health Insurance company.

Narayana One Health is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Narayana Health.

“The IRDAI, in its 124th meeting held on 28 Dec, 2023, has granted Certificate of Registration to a new health insurer Narayana Health Insurance Limited to carry health insurance business in India after a hiatus of five years. With this the number of insurers operating in health insurance segment has gone up to six,’’ said the IRDAI on Friday.

This is the fifth registration granted by IRDAI in around one year in life, non-life and health segment, informed the IRDAI.

Sheela Anand has already been appointed as the CEO of Narayana Health Insurance Limited.

Devi Shetty, founder chairman of Narayana Health said, “In all my 33 years back in India the whole discussion was around affordable healthcare and cost reduction. But today, any further lowering of costs in medical procedures will be at the cost of quality and since we cannot compromise on the quality but do still need to make healthcare affordable, the only option available is affordable health insurance.”

The hope for the country now, “is not universal healthcare but universal health insurance,” he suggested.

Narayana Health is one of India’s largest hospital groups with hospitals and heart centres across the country and an international hospital in the Cayman Islands. The group’s facilities provide advanced healthcare in over 30 medical specialities to both adults and children.

Currently the group has 21 hospitals and four heart centres treating about 25 lakh patients.

The strategic move to set up a health insurance company aims to bridge the gap between healthcare services and insurance, bringing more comprehensive and integrated solutions to patients and healthcare customers.

Earlier, Viren Prasad Shetty, executive vice chairman, Narayana Health, had told media that the group’s health insurance venture will initially focusing on Bengaluru and Mysuru for 1-3 years and the company aims to address the substantial customer demand in the health insurance sector while emphasising its expertise in creating valuable and customer-centric products,

The healthcare company HAD reported a 34.3 per cent y-o-y increase in net profit to Rs 226 crore in Q2 FY24, with a consolidated revenue surge of 14.3 per cent to Rs1,305 crore. The significant growth in its financial performance is attributed to higher patient volumes across units and growth in business across our units, leading to improvements in realisations in India and Cayman Island.

Starting from the Covid period three years back, Health insurance has emerged as the fastest growing segment as well as the largest business in Rs 2.57 trillion general insurance industry. Health portfolio of the  industry grew 23 per cent to Rs 90,667 crore, contributing almost 35 per cent (33 per cent in Fy 22) of the industry’s premium kitty in FY 23.

There are now five health insurance companies including  Star Health & Allied Insurance, Niva bupa health insurance company, Aditya Birla Health Insurance, Care Health Insurance and ,ManipalCigna Health Insurance.