As a leading company in HealthTech and InsurTech, Medi Assist provides health benefits to various stakeholders, including employers, retail members, and public health schemes. The company aims to lower healthcare costs by driving innovation and participating in relevant initiatives.
As a benefits administrator and provides claims processing services to 27 out of the 28 large insurance companies in India, Medi Assist upholds its uniqueness in the market by building a reliable network of hospitals where they have managed to negotiate services & tariffs which helps them control the medical inflation significantly and cover approximately 50% of the market. They also ensure that the services provided are of a very high quality and hence the retention is approximately 95- 97% of the revenue.
As the Group Chief Financial Officer for Medi Assist, Mathew George has been with the company since March of 2021. During his tenure, he and his team have introduced significant changes across the company not only in the finance function but have helped with the transformation of the organization from an emotional to a process-driven company.
Driving Transformation
Medi Assist has a Health Benefits Administration model that offers the tools for a successful health plan, such as its modular claims management system, data-driven technology, and customer-centric service solutions. They use a combination of talent and technology to help their members beat national claim cost trends. They enhance internal processing with advanced surveillance software, and when they find a claim with potential savings, certified medical specialists work on the claim to find cost-saving solutions.
Under Mathew’s leadership, some of the most notable changes implemented during the past 3 years include –
- The “Digital Transformation of the Finance function”. This included the implementation of S4HANA to replace the legacy system, and completely automate all functions which were manual and based on spreadsheets.
- Automation of revenue recognition through a custom-made application, migration of the fixed assets accounting to S4HANA, and implementation of the host-to-host payments functionality and connectivity with all major banks to ensure timely payment to Medi Assist vendors in a secure environment.
- They have also implemented Robotics which has helped them automate and significantly drive both accuracy & efficiency across the processes.
“At Medi Assist, benefits management is more than just cutting service fees. Some benefits managers may rely on their provider network discounts or their lower administration fee to prove their value, but we have a comprehensive approach to benefits management that ensures our members’ satisfaction and helps businesses and members reduce healthcare costs,” says Mathew.
An Experienced Leader
Mathew has had an expansive career spanning 29+ years of progressive experience in diverse global markets, including the USA, Europe, India, Dubai, and Nigeria, as CFO and Controller. He has always been known as a problem solver. His expertise lies in providing Strategic Advisory Services and implementing tailored solutions to catalyze Growth, optimize Tax strategies, and facilitate seamless Succession planning. His track record includes a profound ability to collaborate with promoters and private equity investors to craft robust Corporate Structures that enhance profitability, ensure tax efficiency, and strategically prepare companies for successful exits.
Mathew is a Chartered Accountant from India and, a CPA & CIA from the US by qualification. Additionally, he possesses a comprehensive grasp of cutting-edge Technology, in-depth knowledge of international financial reporting standards, including US GAAP, IFRS, and Ind AS, and a profound understanding of the intricate compliance requirements inherent to diverse global jurisdictions. He has been a top performer throughout his career thanks to all the awesome organizations and people that he had the opportunity to be a part of during his career.
Having worked across multiple sectors, Mathew found that the healthcare sector presented an opportunity. It presented the potential to build a large organization that could be scaled up and, in the process, create significant wealth for the shareholders.
Breaking Down his Working style
Mathew’s working style is a mix of hands-on work, delegating tasks, and making the team accountable for the results. He does believe that the most successful CFOs are problem solvers with an ability to listen, understand, and execute seamlessly. He has a very simple strategy that works for him in all environments and situations:
- Work on not more than 4-5 major ideas every year and drive each one of them relentlessly to closure. The projects that he does generally pursue are driving sustainable and predictable growth, and leveraging technology to automate processes that will increase accuracy reduce cost, and improve the cash conversion cycle.
- Ensure that the controllership function is independent and is not responsible for the results and commitments made by the company.
- Be generous in praising and giving credit to those who deserve the same. Don’t ever take the credit for someone else’s work.
- Be prepared to take the fall if you fail, as only a strong leader who can stand up for his team when the going gets difficult will able to deliver significant value.
- Make decisions on time based on data and don’t be afraid to accept if you have made a mistake and make course corrections.
- Listen and talk to your employees every time you have an opportunity you will learn a lot more about the organization, culture, and the risks from the floor.
Learning from Challenges
One of the biggest challenges he professionally faced, shares Mathew, is the accounting challenges in FY-21, post the filing of the DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) where the company was issued with a disclaimer of opinion by the then statutory auditor. Medi Assist has since then worked through the same and completed the listing within 2.5 years. They took a step back, evaluated their processes, built in the required controls, and automated the processes. Further, they also hired skilled and experienced resources who could function independently in the finance and corporate law functions. They continued to work with the various teams to not only enhance the control environment but also improve their Corporate Governance.
Technology for Improvement
Mathew’s take on technology is that if you want to drive your organization forward and stay relevant, then technology is a necessity. The cost incurred on digital transformation for an organization is an investment the company makes in itself to continue to survive and thrive in the future. “In our industry for example we don’t deal with customers, we only deal with patients and their relatives at their most vulnerable moments. They are looking up to us to provide them with an experience where they can trust us and leave the hospital within minutes of discharge. We can only provide this if we have the right technology,” explains Mathew.
Medi Assist is leveraging the power of technology for instant discharge, driving up the customer experience and ensuring that its agents are equipped with the level of information required to respond to each call accurately and empathetically. It has also been to use cognitive AI for fraud detection and automate most of its manual processes. Therefore, technology forms the core of the business.
Reading the Industry Trends
The biggest trend in the industry, suggests Mathew, is that there will be increased awareness and rapid growth in the health insurance sector which will have a positive impact on the economy and the productivity of the people in India. However, rapid growth in any sector brings associated challenges like increased loss ratios which need to be addressed if the growth momentum and the industry has to survive.
“There will also be an increase in fraud and abuse which will impact the confidence in the industry. There will also be a rapid expansion of cashless facilities which will put pressure on the insurance companies and TPA to ensure that the claim processing is done in a timely manner and the discharge process is smooth,” he predicts.
As a company, Medi Assist has invested in a home-grown state-of-the-art tech stack that includes a claim processing engine, AI-led fraud analytics engine, and robotics to take care of all the manual repetitive jobs. Mathew believes these investments have been instrumental in driving Medi Assist’s processing capability, providing insightful dashboards that help its customers in their decision-making process and also save cash both for the company and the customer by highlighting potential fraudulent claims based on in-built logic and the system continues to learn and become more effective as more and more data is being analyzed.
Quote: “The one quote that I live by is “Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn.”
Quote: “We ensure that the services are of a gold standard, providing cutting-edge technology solutions for the industry and the ecosystem.”
Quote: “Our goal in the next five years is to double our revenues every 3 years and grow EBITDA and PAT by 20% Y.O.Y.”
