Social healthcare venture Arogya Finance on Monday announced a tie up with Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for providing medical loans for treatment of Hepatitis C.
The idea is to facilitate the patients to pay for the Hepatitis C drug and a few other therapies provided by Dr. Reddy’s in easy EMIs (equated monthly installments), a release from the Mumbai-based firm said.
Arogya Finance does not require collaterals or formal income proof, something mandatory in other forms of finance. Promising to make available within 24 hours, the company said it offered medical loans to the traditionally un-bankable. It uses a psychometric test “as an innovative risk assessment tool to enable evaluation of the credit risk profile of people outside the formal banking system.
The repayment of the loan can be done in up to 36 EMIs. It is calculated in a way that it does not exceed 25 per cent of the total family income, the release said.
Co-founder and CEO of Arogya Finance Jose Peter cited World Health Organization which estimates that there are over 12 million people in India suffering from chronic hepatitis C leading to unexpected healthcare expense burden.
