India's Healthcare Sector Faces Overwhelming Compliance Burden

A report published by TeamLease Regtech has brought to light the significant compliance burden faced by hospitals in India, highlighting how what was initially intended to ensure quality and accountability in healthcare has gradually become a liability. The report, titled 'Simplifying Compliance Management for Hospitals,' outlines the complex web of compliance requirements that hospitals must navigate, which has increasingly become a hindrance rather than a safeguard.

Key Findings:

• A typical 50-bed hospital with a diagnostic center, radiology, pathology lab, and pharmacy, all operating under a single corporate office within one state, must manage 623 unique compliance mandates.
  • 421 (67.5%) are at the union level.
  • 192 (31%) are at the state level.
  • 10 (1.5%) are at the municipal level.

Annual Compliance Obligations:

• Once the frequency of these compliance tasks is factored in, the annual obligations for such a hospital rise to 967.
• The hospital must also acquire 100 licenses, permissions, and approvals under 58 different acts. These obligations increase exponentially as the hospital expands its scale of operations and geographic footprint.

Contributing Factors:

• Rishi Agrawal, CEO of TeamLease RegTech, emphasized that the healthcare sector, a critical component of daily life with over a billion consultations conducted annually, must expand to meet the needs of India’s growing population. By 2035, India will have over 158 million people aged 65 or older, representing 15% of the population.
• However, the complexities of compliance have significantly restrained this necessary growth. Even small hospitals are burdened with at least 967 compliance tasks each year.

Current Situation:

• Agrawal stressed that without proper processes in place to ensure smooth compliance operations, senior management is often left dealing with the aftermath of ad-hoc, manual compliance efforts.
• The report strongly advocates for the transformation of compliance operations through the adoption of digital compliance solutions, which is considered essential to streamline these processes and foster growth within the sector.

Conclusion: The report highlights the urgent need for India’s healthcare industry to adopt digital compliance solutions to ease the heavy compliance burden and support the sector's growth, which is essential for addressing the needs of the aging population.