Madras Medical Mission (MMM) will roll out a programme to provide affordable pacemaker therapy for middle and low income patients suffering from heart rhythm disorders.
MMM will over the next six months launch at least four cardiac screening camps in Chennai and suburbs to detect patients with arrhythmias who require pacemaker therapy.
The Healthy Heart for All programme kicks off with a public awareness rally on the Marina on Sunday, in which pacemaker implantees will join college students to raise awareness about heart disorders and pacemaker therapy.
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Announcing the launch at a press conference, Ajith Mullasari, Director of Cardiology at MMM, said the programme would be driven by an exploratory business model with paying patients cross-subsidising the lower income patients, pacemaker device manufacturers lowering their prices and finance agencies extending monthly payback schemes.
The minimum benchmark cost of quality pacemaker therapy is Rs.1 lakh while the price of the most sophisticated multi-function device can go up to Rs.10 lakh.
Ulhas Pandurangi, senior consultant cardiologist, said affordable pacemaker therapy was the focus of the programme given the high costs of procedures, the magnitude of the disease burden and the poor awareness about the modality among physicians and patients. It is estimated that while over 1 million patients require some form of pacemaker therapy, only a small proportion is able to access treatment due to affordability issues.
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David Green, U.S.-based social entrepreneur who was a key architect of the Aravind Eye Hospital healthcare delivery model, said he was optimistic that what worked for ophthalmology should work for pacemaker therapy.
Sustainable model
“The business model is not one based on charity but one that is sustainable and scalable,” he said.
The programme will seek the “middle way.” It will be neither being entirely free nor obsessed with maximising profit by establishing a tiered fee structure depending on the income of the patient. The rule of thumb is that a family should be able to afford 15-20 per cent of their monthly income as payback towards costs of procedure, he said.
Medical device manufacturers and suppliers will have to realise that lower prices to expand user access will not affect profitability nor will it cannibalise the margins on products and services for the paying patients.
Such a programme also had the potential to restructure the competitive landscape by prompting other healthcare providers to revisit their fees, he said.
Joe Curian, MMM CEO, said the programme aimed at sustainability within the hospital's philosophy of delivering quality care that was affordable.