Working capital management: a major challenge for growth in hospitals!
As per various studies, hospitals on average have a working capital availability of just 19 days. This leads to major complications in cash flow management including payout of salaries, vendor payments and other administrative and statutory compliance expenses.
Most tertiary or quaternary care hospitals have credit business (insurance, TPAs, Ayushman Bharat, ECHS, CGHS, ESI or state government health schemes) to the tune of 30-50% of their topline, sometimes even more. More than a month of their topline is locked in credit business. Add to this the burden of unexpected deductions and rejections.
The love-hate relationship with credit business is a sad reality in the healthcare facilities – most have made peace with it. This reminds me of the famous Hindi movie dialogue: put him in liquid oxygen - the liquid will not let him live and the oxygen will not let him die 🥺😫
The payout from these credit business payers is highly inefficient, leading to accumulation of large accounts receivable (ARs). The aging of these ARs could run as high as three years in many hospitals and some of them become bad debt/ NPA overtime, putting further stress on meagre working capital.
The average bed occupancy across the country is around 56%. Most hospitals therefore have immense spare capacity. Accepting credit business ensures better asset utilization (beds, ICUs, diagnostics, pharmacy & other value-added services). This ensures incremental revenue and better EBITDA margins at marginal costs while your fixed costs remain mostly constant (with some increase in variable costs).
Working capital management therefore becomes a nightmare for most CEOs/ P&L heads, especially hospitals with limited free cash flow or large consistent EBITDA margins. You can hardly think of growth, building capacity or expansion amidst all this. Affordable finance is the only viable solution.
Solving working capital management woes of hospitals therefore can unlock growth opportunities, thus leading to better revenues and EBITDA margins.
#ayushpay #fintech #healthtech #affordablehealthcare #medicalloans
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