Startups Have Become Conscious Of The Impact Of Comprehensive Health Benefits On Hiring Skilled Employees: Yogesh Agarwal

What if you are working in a company as an employee and the company not just pays you but looks after your health too? It is something that employee would really want. Employee’s health insurance is not only beneficial for the employees but also to the company. If an employee is mentally and physically fit, then he/she can deliver adequate amount of efforts and eventually boost their morale and enhance productivity.

To know more about the variety of benefits that an employee can get under the health insurance programme, BW Healthcareworld spoke to Yogesh Agarwal, founder of Onsurity, that offers insurance plans to different companies and provides employee wellness and healthcare benefits. Excerpts:

What kind of healthcare facilities does Onsurity cover?

Onsurity offers a comprehensive set of end-to-end healthcare benefits to the employers for their team and the employees’ families which can be bought on a monthly payment basis. The benefits range from preventive care like doctor teleconsultations, online medicine delivery, free fitness and wellness webinars, to in-hospitalization support related to claim processing and reimbursements. We have partnered with multiple healthcare providers to facilitate this range of extensiveness and extend it to every employee in a company – permanent and off-role.  

The vision behind every benefit that we offer is to make the health and care space more accessible, affordable and truly useful. 

Who are your strong competitors in this market? 

We are at a stage where we don’t have any competitors in the market. There is no other healthcare brand that focuses on team size as small as 3 people and as diverse as freelancers, interns and blue-collar workers. Nor are there any brands who provide a comprehensive set of benefits at a monthly payable membership. 

We have created a unique business model wherein we merge the services of healthcare, wellness providers like Practo, 1MG, Cult.fit, etc. and group health insurance firms like ICICI, Tata AIA, etc. on a single platform. The approach enables us to provide both preventive and in-hospital care to the employees - all through a single mobile application. We give the startup ecosystem a digital platform in which they can buy group health insurance and a plethora of healthcare benefits like doctor teleconsultation, health check-ups, mental therapy sessions, etc.

What strategies do you plan to stand out from others? 

There are a few strategies or rather focus areas that separate us from other employee healthcare service providers. The primary one of that would be the experience that we offer. It is unmatched. Our claims and hospitalization concierge team helps members understand the process inside out, fill in the complex forms, and get their fair share of claim reimbursements from the insurance providers – around the clock. Irrespective of what time a member contacts us, we are there for them within an hour. 

The next benefit or rather the USP of ours would be partnerships. We have partnered with some insurance partners and healthcare service providers in the nation who have a solid market presence. This helps us in making healthcare accessible for people across every corner of the nation. 

The third and probably one of the key strategies for us is our business model itself. We are India’s first employer-focused healthcare firm that takes employee healthcare beyond group insurance. Our plans that start at Rs 49 per month looks after the employees’ health needs around both preventive and in-hospitalization care. 

Based on your experience so far, do you feel that SMEs and startups and other small organizations are open to avail such healthcare benefits for their employees? 

Yes. SMEs and startups have become conscious of the impact of comprehensive health benefits on hiring skilled employees. They understand that in the light of the current state of healthcare and the growing focus on both mental and physical wellness, it is important to provide an affordable and truly useful healthcare package to the employees.  

In our experience of working with over 1200 employers, we have not come across a single case where we had to convince the employers on the front of benefits of offering comprehensive care. The SMEs and startup ecosystem have in fact become so conscious about being health-first, that they have started seeking plans that cover even the employees’ families. 

During this pandemic period, with most of the organizations shifting to WFH model, do you think the organizations will be willing to get their employees insured? 

The first thing that we have to note here is that it is now mandated by the GOI for every business to insure their employees. But even if we keep that out of the picture for some time, we know that organizations are looking to get their employees’ health insured. 

We have seen the employee health space move from a point when GHI – Group Health insurance – was a mere formality with low coverage low premiums to now when businesses are seeking to insure their employees and their families on both the physical and mental wellness front. So much so, that the coverage demand is now moving towards additions like vision and dental care, which were never included as part of the traditional group health insurance package. 

At this point, the only way the WFH model has impacted the employee health benefits plan is that they have become all the more expansive in terms of geographical reach.

What is your future roadmap and how do you plan to further utilize the investments to strengthen your business model? 

In the future we are looking to expand our brand beyond healthcare to complete employee benefits and risk-based product offerings. With the intent being the same – making our product offers affordable, accessible, and useful. While that is the end goal that we have envisioned for Onsurity, for a few years down the line, we will continue strengthening our stand as India’s trusted employee healthcare partner.  

Our goal is to onboard over 10,000 MSMEs and 1 million users by March 2023 across India. We will expand our presence across a range of industry verticals with a focus on businesses with sister concerns. It is one of our short-term goals to expand the reach of our Onsurity benefits on a wider scale. 

On a holistic level, the role that we are playing in supporting the Indian economy through the way of making employer-sponsored healthcare benefits accessible and more widespread will continue to expand.

What healthcare benefits do you have for your employees?

We offer our employees the same benefits that we offer to our members. This way we know that we care for our partners and their employees in the same way we care for our employees. The healthcare benefits that we offer to our employees' range around:

- Group health insurance 

- Group term life insurance 

- Personal accident coverage 

- Discounted online medicine delivery 

- Discounted teleconsultations 

- Discounted health check-ups

- Discounted mental therapy sessions

- Free webinars on physical and mental wellness, etc.